Skopje-Veles dialect

The Skopje-Veles dialect ( _mk. Скопско-велешки дијалект, "Skopsko-veleški dijalekt") is a member of the central subgroup of the Western group of dialects of the Macedonian language. The dialect is spoken by a larger group of people in the cities Skopje and Veles and in the surrounding villages: Volkovo, Katlanovo, Petrovec and Čaška among others. This dialect is of historical importance of the Macedonian language as is considered by many to be a prestige dialect.Fact|Date-July 2008|date=August 2008 On August, 2, 1945, the Skopje-Veles dialect, together with the other dialects of the central group was officially regulated as a basis of the standard Macedonian language. Many Macedonian writers and linguists were writing on this dialect and considered it to be the standard Macedonian language.Fact|Date-July 2008} One of them was Krste Petkov Misirkov and in his book "For Macedonian affairs" wrote that this dialect should be the standard Macedonian language. He has been writing on Skopje-Veles dialect and on Prilep-Bitola dialect [p.68-69, Gramatika na makedonskiot literaturen jazik, Blaže Koneski, Kultura, Skopje, 1967]

Phonological characteristics

*use of IPA|/v/ instead of the archaic IPA|/h/: страх / strah > 'страв / strav (fear);
*emphasis on the antepenultimate syllable;
*use of the hard L ;
*use of intervocalic IPA|/v/: човек / čovek (man);
*use of the hard sound Њ/ nj (in the other dialects of the central group this sound is soft);
*use of the letter Ќ and Ѓ (in the others dialects of the central group the cluster јќ and јѓ is found): куќа / kuḱa - кујќа / kujḱa (house).

Morphological characteristics

*use of the preposition VO or V;
*use of the suffix -ule: дете / dete - детуле / detule (child);
*use of the grammatical construction have + past participle: имам работено/ imam raboteno (I have worked);
*use of three articles.

Examples of the Skopje-Veles dialect

The poem "A voice from Macedonia" by Kole Nedelkovski is probably one of the most famous texts written in the Skopje-Veles dialect.

:O, trajte, trajte, tirani nedni!:Dosta se tija lagi i zloba -:pakosten glas od ustite gadni:nad mojot narod u sekoja doba.

:Ta ete veḱe vekovi celi:piska i stenka od volci gosti -:za brata vijat koj da go deri,:za da mu gloda suvite koski.

:Pa neka sega sam da si reši:so svoja volja, sudba i seva,:v životot ednaš sam da se teši,:d' izdigne slavno svoj rod bez vreva.

:Ta Šar i Pirin družno da viknat:rodnata pesna v nebesa temni:i burniot Egej — navek da pliska:teškiot glas na novite himni.

References