Macedonian
Македонски јазик Makedonski jazik
Pronunciation	[maˈkɛdɔnski]
Spoken in	Macedonia, Albania, Bulgaria,[1][2] Greece, Serbia, Macedonian diaspora
Region	Balkans
Ethnicity	Macedonians
Native speakers	1.6[3] – 3.0 million.[4][5]  (1985–1998)
Language family	Indo-European Balto-Slavic Slavic South Slavic Eastern South Slavic Macedonian
Writing system	Cyrillic (Macedonian alphabet)
Official status
Official language in	Republic of Macedonia
Recognised minority language in	Albania  Romania[6]  Serbia[7][8]
Regulated by	Macedonian Language Institute "Krste Misirkov" at the Ss. Cyril and Methodius University of Skopje
Language codes
ISO 639-1	mk
ISO 639-2	mac (B) mkd (T)
ISO 639-3	mkd
Linguasphere	53-AAA-ha (part of 53-AAA-h)
Countries with significant Macedonian-speaking populations (Click on image for the legend)
This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters.

Macedonian (македонски јазик, makedonski jazik, pronounced [maˈkɛdɔnski ˈjazik] ( listen)) is a South Slavic language spoken as a first language by approximately 2–3 million people principally in the region of Macedonia but also in the Macedonian diaspora. It is the official language of the Republic of Macedonia and holds the status of official minority language in parts of Albania, Romania and Serbia.

Standard Macedonian was implemented as the official language of the Socialist Republic of Macedonia in 1945^[9] and has since developed a thriving literary tradition. Most of the codification was formalized during the same period.^[10][11][11]

Macedonian dialects form a continuum with Bulgarian dialects; together in turn they form a broader continuum with Serbo-Croatian through the transitional Torlakian dialects. The name of the Macedonian language is a matter of political controversy in Greece^[12] as is its distinctiveness in Bulgaria.^[13][14]

Classification and related languages[link]

The Macedonian language belongs to the eastern sub-branch of the South Slavic branch of the Slavic languages of the Indo-European family of languages, and hence is not descended from Ancient Macedonian. Its closest relative is Bulgarian,^[15] with which it has a high degree of mutual intelligibility.^[14] Prior to their codification in 1945, Macedonian dialects were for the most part classified as Bulgarian^[16][17][18] and some linguists consider them still as such, but this view is politically controversial.^[14][19][20] The next-closest language is Serbo-Croatian (often known by the names of its standard languages, Serbian, Montenegrin, Bosnian, and Croatian). All South Slavic languages, including Macedonian, form a dialect continuum.^[14] The Torlakian dialect group is intermediate between Bulgarian, Macedonian and Serbo-Croatian.

Together with its immediate Slavic neighbours, Macedonian also forms a constituent language of the Balkan Sprachbund, a group of languages which share typological, grammatical and lexical features based on geographical convergence, rather than genetic proximity. Its other principal members are Romanian, Greek and Albanian, all of which belong to different genetic branches of the Indo-European family of languages (Romanian is a Romance language, while Greek and Albanian each comprise their own separate branches). Macedonian and Bulgarian are sharply divergent from the remaining South Slavic languages, Serbo-Croatian and Slovene,^[21] and indeed all other Slavic languages, in that they don't use noun cases (except for the vocative, and apart from some traces of once productive inflections still found scattered throughout the languages). They are also the only Slavic languages with any definite articles, but only Macedonian has got three: unspecified, proximate and distal article. This last feature is shared with Romanian, Greek, and Albanian.

Geographical distribution[link]

Macedonian language
Slognica rečovska by Gjorgjija Pulevski.
Macedonian language Macedonistics Sign language Standard Macedonian Spoken Macedonian Naming dispute Political views Geographical distribution In Greece Regulatory body History Literature Macedonian writers Dialects Northern Southeastern Western Grammar Pronouns Numerals Phonology Macedonian lexicon Onomastics Month names Orthography Transliteration
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The population of the Republic of Macedonia was 2,022,547 in 2002, with 1,644,815 speaking Macedonian as the native language.^[22] Outside of the Republic, there are Macedonians living in other parts of the geographical area of Macedonia. There are ethnic Macedonian minorities in neighbouring Albania, in Bulgaria, in Greece, and in Serbia. According to the official Albanian census of 1989, 4,697 ethnic Macedonians reside in Albania.^[23]

A large number of Macedonians live outside the traditional Balkan Macedonian region, with Australia, Canada and the United States having the largest emigrant communities. According to a 1964 estimate, approximately 580,000 Macedonians live outside of the Macedonian Republic,^[24] nearly 30% of the total population. The Macedonian spoken by communities outside the republic dates back to before the standardisation of the language^{[citation needed]} and retains many dialectic though, overall, mutually intelligible variations.^{[citation needed]} The Macedonian language has the status of official language only in the Republic of Macedonia, and is a recognised minority and official language in parts of Albania (Municipality of Pustec), Romania, and Serbia (Municipalities of Jabuka and Plandište). There are provisions for learning the Macedonian language in Romania as Macedonians are an officially recognised minority group. The language is taught in some universities in Australia, Canada, Croatia, Italy, Russia, Serbia, the United States, and the United Kingdom among other countries.

Macedonian language in Greece[link]

The varieties spoken by the Slavophone minority in parts of northern Greece, especially those in the Greek provinces of West and Central Macedonia, are today usually classified as part of the Macedonian language, with those in East Macedonia being transitional towards Bulgarian.^[25] Bulgarian linguistics traditionally regards them all as part of the Bulgarian diasystem together with the rest of Macedonian.^[26][27] However, the codification of standard Macedonian has been in effect only in the Republic of Macedonia, and the Slavonic dialects spoken in Greece are thus practically "roofless",^[28] with their speakers having little access to standard or written Macedonian.

Most of the language speakers in Greece do not identify ethnically as "Macedonians", but as ethnic Greeks (Slavophone Greeks) or dopii (locals). Therefore, the simple term "Macedonian" as a name for the Slavic language is often avoided in the Greek context, and vehemently rejected by most Greeks, for whom Macedonian has very different connotations. Instead, the language is often called simply "Slavic" or "Slavomacedonian", with "Macedonian Slavic" often being used in English. Speakers themselves variously refer to their language as makedonski, makedoniski ("Macedonian"), slaviká (Greek: σλαβικά, "Slavic"), dópia or entópia (Greek: εντόπια, "local/indigenous [language]"),^[29] balgàrtzki, bolgàrtski or bulgàrtski in the region of Kostur, bògartski ("Bulgarian") in Dolna Prespa ^[30] along with naši ("our own") and stariski ("old").^[31]

The exact number of speakers in Greece is difficult to ascertain, with estimates ranging between 20,000 and 250,000.^[2][32][33] Jacques Bacid estimates in his 1983 book that "over 200,000 Macedonian speakers remained in Greece".^[34] Other sources put the numbers of speakers at 180,000^{[35][unreliable source?]},^[36] 220,000^[37] and 250,000, while Yugoslav sources vary, some putting the estimated number of "Macedonians in Greek Macedonia" at 150,000–200,000 and others at 300,000.^[38] The Encyclopædia Britannica^{[39][dead link]} and the Reader's Digest World Guide both put the figure of ethnic Macedonians in Greece at 1.8% or c.200,000 people, with the native language roughly corresponding with the figures. The UCLA also states that there are 200,000 Macedonian speakers in Greece.^[40][41] A 2008 article in the Greek newspaper Eleftherotipia put the estimate at 20,000.^[42]

The largest group of speakers are concentrated in the Florina, Kastoria, Edessa, Giannitsa, Ptolemaida and Naousa regions. During the Greek Civil War, the codified Macedonian language was taught in 87 schools with 10,000 students in areas of northern Greece under the control of Communist-led forces, until their defeat by the National Army in 1949.^[43] In recent years, there have been attempts to have the language recognised as a minority language.^[44]

Usage[link]

The total number of Macedonian speakers is highly disputed. Although the precise number of speakers is unknown, figures of between 1.6 million (from Ethnologue) and 2–2.5 million have been cited; see Topolinjska (1998) and Friedman (1985). The general academic consensus^{[citation needed]} is that there are approximately 2 million speakers of the Macedonian language, accepting that "it is difficult to determine the total number of speakers of Macedonian due to the official policies of the neighbouring Balkan states and the fluid nature of emigration" Friedman (1985:?). According to the latest censuses and figures, the number of speakers of Macedonian is:

A welcoming sign for the EXIT Festival 2010 in Bulevar, Novi Sad, Serbia. The left sign is written in Macedonian Latinic.

Dialects[link]

Dialect divisions of Macedonian[63]
Northern   Lower Polog   Crna Gora   Kumanovo / Kratovo Western   Central   Upper Polog   Reka   Mala Reka / Galičnik   Debar   Drimkol / Golo Brdo   Vevčani / Radοžda   Upper Prespa / Ohrid   Lower Prespa	Eastern   Mariovo / Tikveš   Štip / Strumica   Maleševo / Pirin Southern   Korča   Kostur   Nestram   Solun / Voden   Ser / Drama

Based on a large group of features, Macedonian dialects can be divided into Eastern and Western groups (the boundary runs approximately from Skopje and Skopska Crna Gora along the rivers Vardar and Crna). In addition, a more detailed classification can be based on the modern reflexes of the Proto-Slavic reduced vowels (yers), vocalic sonorants, and the back nasal *ǫ. That classification distinguishes between the following 5 groups:^[64]

Western Dialects:

• Ohrid-Prespa Group
  • Ohrid dialect
  • Struga dialect
  • Vevčani-Radοžda dialect
  • Upper Prespa dialect
  • Lower Prespa dialect.
• Debar Group
  • Debar dialect
  • Reka dialect
  • Drimkol-Golo Brdo dialect
  • Galičnik dialect
  • Skopska Crna Gora dialect
  • Gora dialect
• Polog Group
  • Upper Polog dialect
  • Lower Polog dialect
  • Prilep-Bitola dialect
  • Kičevo-Poreče dialect
  • Skopje-Veles dialect
• Kostur-Korča Group
  • Korča dialect
  • Kostur dialect
  • Nestram-Kostenar dialect

Eastern Dialects:

• Northern Group
  • Kumanovo dialect
  • Kratovo dialect
  • Kriva Palanka dialect
  • Ovče Pole dialect
• Eastern Group
  • Štip - Kočani dialect
  • Strumica dialect
  • Tikveš-Mariovo dialect
  • Maleševo-Pirin dialect
  • Solun-Voden dialect
  • Ser-Drama-Lagadin-Nevrokop dialect.

The Ser-Drama-Lagadin-Nevrokop dialect and Maleševo-Pirin dialect are also considered to be Bulgarian dialects.^[65]

Phonology[link]

Macedonian possesses five vowels, one semivowel, three liquid consonants, three nasal stops, three pairs of fricatives, two pairs of affricates, a non-paired voiceless fricative, nine pairs of voiced and unvoiced consonants and four pairs of stops.

In addition, the schwa [ə] appears in certain literary words in which it is always stressed. In orthography it is expressed by an apostrophe, like in к'на ['kəna] (henna). A more common usage of the schwa, however, is found in certain dialects or loanwords.

Macedonian exhibits final obstruent devoicing and syllabic /r/

Other than recent loanwords, word stress in Macedonian is antepenultimate, meaning it falls on the third from last syllable in words with three or more syllables, and on the first or only syllable in other words. By comparison, in standard Bulgarian, the stress can fall anywhere within a word.

Grammar[link]

Macedonian grammar is markedly analytic in comparison with other Slavic languages, having lost the common Slavic case system. The Macedonian language shows some special and, in some cases, unique characteristics due to its central position in the Balkans. Literary Macedonian is the only South Slavic literary language that has three forms of the definite article, based on the degree of proximity to the speaker, and a perfect tense formed by means of an auxiliary verb "to have", followed by a past participle in the neuter, also known as verbal adjective.

Nouns[link]

Macedonian nouns (именки, imenki) belong to one of three genders (masculine, feminine and neuter) and are inflected for number (singular and plural), and marginally for case. The gender opposition is not distinctively marked in the plural ^[67]. The Macedonian nominal system distinguishes two numbers (singular and plural), three genders (masculine, feminine and neuter), case and definiteness. Definiteness is expressed by three definite articles pertaining to the position of the object (unspecified, proximate and distal) which are suffixed to the noun.

Verbs[link]

Macedonian has a complex system of verbs. Generally speaking Macedonian verbs have the following characteristics, or categories as they are called in the Macedonistics: tense, mood, person, type, transitiveness, voice, gender and number.

According to the categorization, all Macedonian verbs are divided into three major groups: a-group, e-group and i-group. Furthermore, the e-subgroup is divided into three more subgroups: a-, e- and i-subgroups. This division is done according to the ending (or the last vowel) of the verb in the simple present, singular, third person.^[68] Regarding the form, the verb forms can be either simple or complex.

Prepositions[link]

Prepositions (предлози, predlozi) are part of the closed word class that are used to express the relationship between the words in a sentence. Since Macedonian lost the case system, the prepositions are very important for creation and expression of various grammatical categories. The most important Macedonian preposition is 'na' ('of', 'on', 'to'). Regarding the form, the prepositions can either be simple or complex. Based on the meaning the preposition express, they can be divided into prepositions of time, place, manner and quantity^{[68] [69]}.

Vocabulary[link]

As a result of the close relatedness with Bulgarian and Serbo-Croatian, Macedonian shares a considerable amount of its lexicon with these languages. Other languages which have been in positions of power, such as Ottoman Turkish and increasingly English also provide a significant proportion of the loan words. Prestige languages, such as Old Church Slavonic, which occupies a relationship to modern Macedonian comparable to the relationship of medieval Latin to modern Romance languages, and Russian also provided a source for lexical borrowings.

During the standardization process, there was deliberate care taken to try and purify the lexicon of the language. Serbisms and Bulgarisms, which had become common due to the influence of these languages in the region were rejected in favor of words from native dialects and archaisms. One example was the word for "event", настан [ˈnastan], which was found in certain examples of folk poetry collected by the Miladinov Brothers in the 19th century, while the Macedonian writer Krste Misirkov had previously used the word собитие [sɔˈbitiɛ].^[70] This is not to say that there are no Serbisms, Bulgarisms or even Russianisms in the language, but rather that they were discouraged on a principle of "seeking native material first".^[71]

The language of the writers at the turn of 19th century abounded with Russian and, more specifically, Old Church Slavonic lexical and morphological elements which in the contemporary norm are substituted with more current models.^[72] Thus, the now slightly archaized forms with suffixes –ние and –тел, adjectives with the suffixes –телен and others, are now constructed following patterns more typical of Macedonian morphology. For example, дејствие corresponds to дејство, лицемерие → лицемерство, развитие → развиток, определение → определба, движение → движење, продолжител → продолжувач, победител → победник, убедителен → убедлив, etc.^[72] Many of these words are now synonymous or have taken on a slightly different nuance in meaning.

New words were coined according to internal logic and others calqued from related languages (especially Serbo-Croatian) to replace those taken from Russian, which include известие → извештај, количество → количина, согласие → слога, etc.^[72] This change was aimed at bringing written Macedonian closer to spoken language, effectively distancing it from the Bulgarian language which has kept its numerous Russian loans, and represents a successful puristic attempt at abolishing a lexicogenic tradition once common in written literature.^[72]

Writing system[link]

Alphabet[link]

The modern Macedonian alphabet was developed by linguists in the period after the Second World War, who based their alphabet on the phonetic alphabet of Vuk Stefanović Karadžić, though a similar writing system was used by Krste Misirkov in the early 20th century. The Macedonian language had previously been written using the Early Cyrillic alphabet, or later using the Cyrillic script with local adaptations from either the Serbian or Bulgarian alphabets.

The following table provides the upper and lower case forms of the Macedonian alphabet, along with the IPA value for each letter: