- History of the Macedonian language
The standard
Macedonian language can be said to have been codified in August 1944, when a provisional government run by theAnti-Fascist Assembly for the National Liberation of Macedonia (ASNOM) declared the formation of theSocialist Republic of Macedonia , a constituent state within theSocialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia .It should be noted however that at least some work has been recorded as being done on standardising the Macedonian language prior to 1944. This date is not precise, however as Friedman states it is a symbolic act which shows the beginning of the period in which the standard was able to be implemented.
Byzantine era
The
region of Macedonia (which includes theRepublic of Macedonia , the Greek region of Macedonia andBlagoevgrad province in Bulgaria) is located on theBalkan peninsula . TheSlavs first began arriving to the Balkan peninsula in the sixth and seventh centuries. In theninth century , the monksCyril andMethodius developed the first writing system for the Slavonic languages. At this time, the Slavic dialects were so close as to make it practical to develop the written language on the dialect of a single region. There is dispute as to the precise region, but it is likely that they were developed on the dialect of the region ofThessaloniki (Solun). This written standard came to be known asOld Church Slavonic , and some linguists refer to this as the "first standardization of a Macedonian Slavic dialect".The earliest texts showing specifically Macedonian phonetic features are
Old Church Slavonic classical texts written inGlagolitic which date from tenth to eleventh centuries (Codex Zographensis , Codex Assemanianus, Psalterium Sinaiticum). By thetwelfth century the Church Slavonic Cyrillic become the main alphabet. Texts reflecting vernacular Macedonian features appear in the second half of thesixteenth century (translations of the sermons of the Greek writer Damascene Studite).Ottoman era
In the
fourteenth century , the Ottoman Turks invaded and conquered most of the Balkans, incorporating theByzantine theme of Macedonia into theOttoman Empire . While the written language remained static as a result of Turkish domination, the spoken dialects moved further apart. Only very slight traces of written Macedonian survive from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.The first printed work that included Macedonian texts was a multilingual "conversational manual", printed during the Ottoman era. It was published in 1793 and contained texts written by a priest in the dialect of the Ohrid region of Macedonia. In the
Ottoman Empire , religion was the primary means of social differentiation, with Muslims forming the ruling class and non-Muslims the subordinate class.The
Orthodox Church , to which the majority of Christian Slavs were members, was controlled byGreek Patriarchate . The Patriarchate embarked on a policy ofHellenisation . In the view of the Orthodox Church, the Orthodox Christian Slavs were Greek, and so should speak Greek. During the renaissance of South Slavic nationalism in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the Slavs of Macedonia and Bulgaria fought against this policy. This fight culminated in the formation of theBulgarian Exarchate , an autonomous religious authority for Bulgarians and Macedonians, in 1870.The Bulgarians intended for the standard language of the Orthodox Slavs to be Bulgarian based on the eastern variety spoken in Thraco-Moesian, the Macedonians rejected this in favour of a standard Bulgarian language, but significantly influenced by the more western dialects of Macedonia.
Balkan nationalism
:"See also: National awakening in the Balkans"During the increase of national consciousness in the Balkans, standards for the languages of Slovenian,
Serbo-Croatian and Bulgarian were created. As Turkish influence in Macedonia waned, schools were opened up that taught the Bulgarian standard language.Although literature had, as mentioned, been written in the dialects of Macedonia before, arguably the most important book published in relation to the Macedonian language was "On Macedonian Matters" by
Krste Misirkov , a native of Thessaloníki in what is nowGreek Macedonia . In his book, published in 1903, Misirkov argued for the creation of a standard literary Macedonian language from the central dialects of Macedonia which would use a phonetic orthography. Krste Misirkov outlined the principles of the Macedonian language based on theVeles -Prilep -Bitola dialect group of the west central region. This dialect group featured the dialects which were the most distant from both Bulgarian and Serbian standards.After the first two
Balkan wars , the region of Macedonia was split betweenGreece ,Bulgaria and theKingdom of Yugoslavia [Known as theKingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes prior to the then King Alexander proclaiming a personaldictator ship on6 January ,1929 .] . The Kingdom of Yugoslavia occupied the area that is currently the Republic of Macedonia incorporating it into the Kingdom as "Southern Serbia". During this time, the language of public life, education and the church was Serbo-Croatian, the dialects spoken by the local population were described as dialects of Serbo-Croatian, although limited literature, mostly of a folkloric character was permitted to be published. Friedman writes that the Serbianization policies of the Kingdom may have had the inadvertent effect of increasing Macedonian national consciousness.:"Forcing Macedonians to attend Serbian schools had the effect of increasing Macedonian self-awareness and unity by bringing together Macedonians from different parts of the country and compelling them to learn a language which was obviously different from their native one."
In the other two states, Greece and Bulgaria, and in the regions they held, the respective national languages were imposed, in Bulgaria, the local dialects were described as dialects of Bulgarian.
There was a limited literary activity between the two World wars as attested in the dramas by
Vasil Iljoski ,Anton Panov andRisto Krle and the poetry ofKoco Racin andKole Nedelkovski .econd World War
During the
second World War , Macedonia was occupied by the Bulgarians, who were allied with the Axis. The Bulgarian language was introduced into schools and the church. The Bulgarians were initially welcomed as "liberators" from Serbian domination, although as a result of excessive assimilation policies, reminiscent of both the Serbs and the Greeks before them, they were quickly seen as "conquerors".There were a number of groups fighting the Bulgarian occupying force, some advocating independence and others union with Bulgaria, but the eventual outcome was that Macedonia was incorporated into the
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia as a constituent Socialist Republic with the Macedonian language holding official status within both the Federation and Republic. The present orthography was established in 1945 and in the next ten years the literary language was standardised. The codifiers took Misirkov’s choice of a west-central dialectal base.ee also
*
Macedonian alphabet
*History of the Republic of Macedonia References
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