Ser-Drama-Lagadin-Nevrokop dialect

The Ser-Drama-Lagadin-Nevrokop dialect is a transitional South Slavic dialect which belongs to both the southeastern group of Bulgarian language [cite book
last =Sussex
first =Roland
coauthors =Paul Cubberley
title =The Slavic Languages
publisher =Cambridge University Press
date =2006
url =http://books.google.com/books?id=G2bsJdYrwD4C&dq=Bulgarian+dialects+Pirin&source=gbs_summary_s&cad=0
pages =p.510
isbn =0521223156 ] , and the south-eastern subgroup of dialects of the Macedonian language.The dialect is dynamic and is well known for the shortening of the words [Белешки за говорот на селото Балевец (Лагадинско). Зборник на трудови посветени на академик Блаже Конески. Скопје: МАНУ, 1995, стр. 9-27.] , and also characterised by the excessive use of /IPA|ʲa/ for the Proto-Slavic yat even in cases where Standard Bulgarian has /IPA|ɛ/, a feature which is typical for a number of dialects spoken in southern and southwestern Bulgaria (e.g. the Thracian dialect) [cite book
last =Стойков
first =Стойко
title =Българска диалектология
publisher =Акад. изд. "Проф. Марин Дринов"
date =2006
url =http://www.promacedonia.org/jchorb/st/st_2_b_izt_3.htm ] . The Ser-Drama-Lagadin-Nevrokop dialect is closely related with the neighbouring dialects, including with other eastern Bulgarian dialects and also with the Maleševo-Pirin, Strumica and Solun-Voden dialects of Macedonian. [str. 249- 252 Makedonski jazik za srednoto obrazovanie- S.Bojkovska, D.Pandev, L.Minova-Ǵurkova, Ž.Cvetkovski- Prosvetno delo AD- Skopje 2001 ] [The sociolinguistics of literary Macedonian, VICTOR A. FRIEDMAN, THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO LIBRARY] /Bulgarian [ [http://www.promacedonia.org/jchorb/st/st_2_b_maked.htm Стойков, Стойко. Българска диалектология, София 2002, с. 170-186] ] .

The Serres-Nevrokop dialect is treated both in the contexts of Macedonian and Bulgarian dialectology. [Victor Friedman, "Macedonian", in: Comrie, Bernard and Corbett, Greville G. (1993) "The Slavonic Languages", London and New York: Routledge ISBN 0-415-04755-2 and [http://www.seelrc.org:8080/grammar/mainframe.jsp?nLanguageID=3 ] ] [Trudgill P., 2000, "Greece and European Turkey: From Religious to Linguistic Identity". In: Stephen Barbour and Cathie Carmichael (eds.), Language and Nationalism in Europe, Oxford : Oxford University Press, p.259.] [Schmieger, R. 1998. "The situation of the Macedonian language in Greece: sociolinguistic analysis", International Journal of the Sociology of Language 131, 125-55.] [cite book
last =Стойков
first =Стойко
title =Българска диалектология
publisher =Акад. изд. "Проф. Марин Дринов"
date =2006] In the context of Bulgarian dialectology, the dialect is situated East of the Yat boundary and thus is considered to belong to the Eastern Bulgarian dialects [Mladenov, St. Geschichte der bulgarischen Sprache. Berlin und Leipzig, 1929, 13, 92—96, 317—318;] [VanWijk, N. Zur Grenze zwischen dem Ost- und Westbulgarischen. — Archiv für slav. philologie, 39, 1925, 3—4, 212—216;]

The previous range of the dialect included vast areas of northeastern Greece [cite book
last =Стойков
first =Стойко
title =Българска диалектология
publisher =Акад. изд. "Проф. Марин Дринов"
date =2006
url =http://www.promacedonia.org/jchorb/st/st_2_b_maked.htm#zapadnorupski ] [Božidar Vidoeski, Фонолошки опис на говорог на селошо Плевна (Серско). ГЗбФ-лФ, 1978, 4, стр. 37-46.] [Божидар Видоески, Секавец (ОЛА 113). Fonološki opisi, 1981, стр. 811-816.] [Говорот на селото Секавец (диј. С'áкавиц), Серско. ПрилОЛЛН, МАНУ, 1990, ХV, 1, стр. 41-82. ] , in what is today known as Eastern Macedonia and Thrace. However, considering the mass migration towards Bulgaria in the period from 1912 to 1926, it is unclear to what extent, and if at all, the dialect is preserved in Greece. The only certain region where it is currently spoken is the southeastern quarter of Pirin Macedonia, i.e. in the town of Gotse Delchev and the surrounding municipalities.

Relationship to Standard Bulgarian and Standard Macedonian

The Serres-Nevrokop dialect has all main features (cf. table) typical for the Eastern Bulgarian dialects, including а/я (IPA|ʲa/IPA|ɛ) reflexes of Old Church Slavonic Unicode|ѣ [cite book
last =Стойков
first =Стойко
title =Българска диалектология
publisher =Акад. изд. "Проф. Марин Дринов"
date =2006
url =http://www.promacedonia.org/jchorb/st/st_2_b_maked.htm#zapadnorupski ] [VanWijk, N. Zur Grenze zwischen dem Ost- und Westbulgarischen. — Archiv für slav. philologie, 39, 1925, 3—4, 212—216;] , щ/жд (IPA|ʃt/IPA|ʒd) reflexes of Proto-Slavic IPA|*tʲ/IPA|*dʲ [cite book
last =Стойков
first =Стойко
title =Българска диалектология
publisher =Акад. изд. "Проф. Марин Дринов"
date =2006
url =http://www.promacedonia.org/jchorb/st/st_2_b_maked.htm#zapadnorupski ] , ъ (IPA|ə) reflex of Old Church Slavonic Unicode |ѫ (yus) and ъ [Friedman, Victor A., "Macedonian," in Comrie, Bernard and Corbett, Greville G. (1993) The Slavonic Languages, London and New York: Routledge ISBN 0-415-04755-2] [cite book
last =Стойков
first =Стойко
title =Българска диалектология
publisher =Акад. изд. "Проф. Марин Дринов"
date =2006
url =http://www.promacedonia.org/jchorb/st/st_2_b_maked.htm#zapadnorupski ] , ръ (IPA|rə)/лъ (IPA|lə) reflexes of Old Church Slavonic ръ/рь and лъ/ль [Friedman, Victor A., "Macedonian," in Comrie, Bernard and Corbett, Greville G. (1993) The Slavonic Languages, London and New York: Routledge ISBN 0-415-04755-2] [cite book
last =Стойков
first =Стойко
title =Българска диалектология
publisher =Акад. изд. "Проф. Марин Дринов"
date =2006
url =http://www.promacedonia.org/jchorb/st/st_2_b_maked.htm#zapadnorupski ] , retention of h in the stem [ str. 249- 252 Makedonski jazik za srednoto obrazovanie- S.Bojkovska, D.Pandev, L.Minova-Ǵurkova, Ž.Cvetkovski- Prosvetno delo AD- Skopje 2001] [ The sociolinguistics of literary Macedonian, VICTOR A. FRIEDMAN, THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO LIBRARY] [Friedman, Victor A., "Macedonian," in Comrie, Bernard and Corbett, Greville G. (1993) The Slavonic Languages, London and New York: Routledge ISBN 0-415-04755-2] , strong vowel reduction, etc. The following is a table of the main phonological and grammatical features which differentiate Standard Bulgarian and Standard Macedonian, compared with the corresponding features of the Serres-Nevrokop dialect, as well as two Western Bulgarian dialects.

Past and Present Range, Emigration and Expulsion to Bulgaria

Before the Balkan wars, the range of the Serres-Nevrokop dialect was estimated to include the regions of Serres, Drama, Nevrokop and a small part of the Thessaloniki region [ Kanchov, V. Makedonia. Ethnography and statistics. Sofia, 1900, p. 37] . This range included approx. 170,000 speakers on the territory of modern Greece (150,000 Christian and 20,000 Muslim Bulgarians or Pomaks) and 25,000 speakers on the territory of modern Bulgaria (10,000 Christians and 15,000 Muslims) [ Kanchov, V. Makedonia. Ethnography and statistics. Sofia, 1900, p. 282] . However, Kanchov indicates that at least some of these were bilingual and subject to strong Hellenization, including the Slavic population of the towns of Drama, Serres, Lagadina, as well as of several villages around Lagadina [ Kanchov, V. Makedonia. Ethnography and statistics. Sofia, 1900, p. 75] . There was substantial emigration towards Bulgaria even before the Balkan wars, approx. 50,000 [ Kanchov, V. Makedonia. Ethnography and statistics. Sofia, 1900, p. 24] Bulgarians from Macedonia lived in Bulgaria in 1900; however, there is no data as to how many of these came from the regions identified above.

The region suffered heavy devastation during the Second Balkan War. A total of 26 Bulgarian villages in the regions of Drama and Serres were set on fire by the advancing Greek troops, with their inhabitants either slaughtered or expelled to Bulgaria [cite book
last =Carnegie Endowment for International peace
title =Report of the International Commission to Inquire into the Causes And Conduct of the Balkan Wars
publisher =Carnegie Endowment for International peace
date =1914
url =http://www.promacedonia.org/karnegi/prilozhenie_C.htm ] . By the end of 1913, Bulgaria had received approx. 50,000 refugees from Greek Macedonia [cite book
last =Carnegie Endowment for International peace
title =Report of the International Commission to Inquire into the Causes And Conduct of the Balkan Wars
publisher =Carnegie Endowment for International peace
date =1914
url =http://www.promacedonia.org/karnegi/glava4_1.html ] , the vast majority of them from the most affected regions of Kukush, Serres and Drama. Emigration continued in 1914 and during and after World War I. Additional 60,000 to 90,000 Bulgarians from Greek Macedonia (out of 90,000 to 120,000 people, 32,000 of which were from Western Thrace) emigrated to Bulgaria at the beginning of the 1920s according to the Mollov-Kafandaris Agreement [Poulton, Hugh (2000). Who are the Macedonians? C. Hurst and co. Publishers] . Thus, refugees from Greek Macedonia comprised at least 110,000 to 140,000 of the 250,000 [cite journal |url=http://www.ceeol.com/aspx/getdocument.aspx?logid=5&id=473FBAEF-623D-4ADA-903A-17241B78BDDB |title=External Migration... in Bulgaria |last=Mintchev |first=Vesselin |journal=South-East Europe Review |issue=3/99 |accessdate=2007-02-18 |date=October 1999 |pages=p. 124 ] officially registered Bulgarian refugees between 1912 and 1916, or slightly more than a third to slightly less than half of the pre-war Christian Bulgarian (referred to as ethnic Macedonian in the Republic of Macedonia) population of Greek Macedonia identified at approx. 320,000 by Kanchov [ Kanchov, V. Makedonia. Ethnography and statistics. Sofia, 1900, p. 281-283] . Considering that the number of refugees from Eastern Thrace and Western Thrace was approx. 50,000 [cite web |last=Özgür-Baklacioglu |first=Nurcan |title=Dual Citizenship, Extraterritorial Elections and National Policies: Turkish Dual Citizens in the Bulgarian-Turkish Political Sphere|url=http://src-h.slav.hokudai.ac.jp/coe21/publish/no9_ses/18_nurcan.pdf |accessdate=2008-07-15|pages=p. 338 ] and slightly more than 30,000, respectively, and that there were no mass expulsions from Serbian Macedonia and Southern Dobruja, the number of refugees from Greek Macedonia was probably higher. Furthermore, the data from the Bulgarian refugee agency includes only "officially registered" refugees and omits people who did not register as such.

According to Hugh Poulton, the patterns of migration to Bulgaria differed across the different parts of Greek Macedonia. The majority of the Slavs roughly East of the Vardar (including the region where the Serres-Nevrokop dialect was spoken) either fled or, later, immigrated to Bulgaria, whereas the majority of the Slavs West of Vardar remained in Greece and only a minority resettled to Bulgaria [Poulton, Hugh (2000). Who are the Macedonians? C. Hurst and co. Publishers] . The large-scale migration is corroborated by the data collected during the Bulgarian occupation of northeastern Greece during World War II. The Bulgarian authorities counted only 37,000 Bulgarians [cite web |title=Bulgaria and the Aegean Coast |last=Yonchev |first=Dimitar |url=http://www.kroraina.com/knigi/dj/dj_3a.htm |accessdate=2008-07-15 ] during the 1941 census in the Bulgarian-occupied zone (which practically coincided with the range of the Serres-Nevrokop dialect), even including bilingual persons and returnees from Bulgaria, down from more than 170,000 before the Balkan Wars. According to the Bulgarian statistics, of approx. 698,000 [cite journal |url=http://www.ceeol.com/aspx/getdocument.aspx?logid=5&id=473FBAEF-623D-4ADA-903A-17241B78BDDB |title=External Migration... in Bulgaria |last=Mintchev |first=Vesselin |journal=South-East Europe Review |issue=3/99 |accessdate=2007-02-18 |date=October 1999 |pages=p. 124 ] Bulgarians who immigrated to Bulgaria from 1878 to 1945, 200,000 [Д. Дончев, Хр. Каракашев (2007).Теми по физическа и социално-икономическа география на България. Сборник материали за средношколци и кандидатстуденти 2007/2008 г. Сиела, С., 2007.] came from Greek Macedonia, which is equal to between half and two-thirds of the Slavic population of Greek Macedonia before the Balkan Wars. As evidenced above, the vast majority of the refugees and migrants came from the eastern part of Greek Macedonia.

Considering the above, as well as the strong Greek assimilation pressure, evident also before the Balkan Wars, it is generally unlikely for the Serres-Nevrokop dialect to be preserved in any significant numbers in its former territory in Greece. Thus, the only certain present range is in the southeastern part of Pirin Macedonia, as well as among descendants of refugees from the region in other parts of Bulgaria. The overwhelming majority of the speakers of the dialect in Pirin Macedonia identify as Bulgarianscite web | year = 2001 | url = http://www.nsi.bg/Census/Ethnos.htm | title = Population as of 1 March 2001 divided by provinces and ethnic group | publisher = National Statistical Institute | language = Bulgarian | accessdate = 2006-07-10 ] , while less than 1.0% of the population of the region (only region-wide data available) identify as ethnic Macedonians.

References