History of the Macedonian language
Encyclopedia
Standard Macedonian
was adopted as an official language
in August 1944 by a provisional government run by the Anti-Fascist Assembly for the National Liberation of Macedonia
(ASNOM) when it declared the formation of the Socialist Republic of Macedonia
—a constituent state within the Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia—and formal codification
was finalized in the same period. Efforts at standardizing the Macedonian language
prior to 1944 were unsuccessful on an official level. This date is imprecise; however, Victor Friedman
states it was a symbolic act which signified the beginning of a period in which the standard was able to be implemented.
Since the primary classification presented above is detailed, often, the history of the Macedonian language is divided into four stages:
The Slavs first began arriving to the Balkan peninsula in the sixth and seventh centuries. In the 9th century, the monks Cyril and Methodius
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 of Thessaloniki
. This written standard came to be known as Old Church Slavonic
, and some linguists refer to this as the "first standardization of a Slavic Macedonian dialect".
The earliest texts showing specifically Macedonian phonetic features are Old Church Slavonic
classical texts written in Glagolitic which date from tenth to eleventh centuries (Codex Zographensis
, Codex Assemanianus, Psalterium Sinaiticum). By the 12th century the Church Slavonic Cyrillic become the main alphabet. Texts reflecting vernacular Macedonian language features appear in the second half of the 16th century (translations of the sermons of the Greek writer Damascene Studite).
The first printed work that included written specimens of the Macedonian language was a multilingual "conversational manual", that was printed during the Ottoman era. It was published in 1793 and contained texts written by a priest in the dialect of the Ohrid region. In the Ottoman Empire
, religion was the primary means of social differentiation, with Muslims forming the ruling class and non-Muslims the subordinate classes.
The Eastern Orthodox Church
, to which the majority of Christian Slavs are members, was and is still headed by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople
. The Patriarchate embarked on a policy of Hellenisation. 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 Bulgarians of Macedonia and Bulgaria fought against this policy. This fight culminated in the formation of the Bulgarian Exarchate
, an autonomous religious authority for Bulgarians, in 1870.
The East Bulgarians intended for the standard language of the Orthodox Slavs to be Bulgarian based on the eastern variety spoken in Thraco-Moesian, the Macedonian Bulgarians rejected this in favour of a standard Bulgarian language, but significantly influenced by the more western dialects of Macedonia.
, 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 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 the Veles
-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 between Greece
, Bulgaria
and the Kingdom of Yugoslavia
. 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 used publicly, in 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:
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
and Risto Krle
and the poetry of Koco Racin
and Kole Nedelkovski
.
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 part of Macedonia region 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.
Standard Macedonian
Standard Macedonian or Literary Macedonian is the standard variety of the Macedonian language and official language of the Republic of Macedonia used as a written language, in formal contexts, and for communication between different dialect areas...
was adopted as an official language
Official language
An official language is a language that is given a special legal status in a particular country, state, or other jurisdiction. Typically a nation's official language will be the one used in that nation's courts, parliament and administration. However, official status can also be used to give a...
in August 1944 by a provisional government run by the Anti-Fascist Assembly for the National Liberation of Macedonia
Anti-Fascist Assembly for the National Liberation of Macedonia
The Anti-Fascist Assembly for the People's Liberation of Macedonia The Anti-Fascist Assembly for the People's Liberation of Macedonia The Anti-Fascist Assembly for the People's Liberation of Macedonia (Macedonian: Антифашистичко Собрание на Народното Ослободување на Македонија, Latinic:...
(ASNOM) when it declared the formation of the Socialist Republic of Macedonia
Socialist Republic of Macedonia
The Socialist Republic of Macedonia was a socialist state that was a constituent country of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia...
—a constituent state within the Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia—and formal codification
Codification (linguistics)
In linguistics, codification is the process of standardizing and developing a norm for a language.Codifying a language can vary from case to case and depends on the stage of standardization that already exists...
was finalized in the same period. Efforts at standardizing the Macedonian language
Macedonian language
Macedonian 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...
prior to 1944 were unsuccessful on an official level. This date is imprecise; however, Victor Friedman
Victor Friedman
Victor A. Friedman is an American linguist. He is currently Andrew W. Carnegie Professor in the humanities at the University of Chicago. He holds a joint appointment in linguistics and Slavic languages and literatures with an associated appointment in anthropology...
states it was a symbolic act which signified the beginning of a period in which the standard was able to be implemented.
Periods
The Macedonistics, the history of the Macedonian language classifies into nine developmental stages:- Canonic period - 9 to 11 c.
- Macedonian recension of the Old Church Slavonic language - 12 to 13 c.
- Macedonian recension of mixed type with the Serbian recension - 14 t0 18 c.
- Damascene period - 16 c.
- period of Russian influence - 18 c.
- period of two styles i.e. folks speech and literary Church Slavonic - first half of 19 c.
- discussion about the shape of the standard Macedonian language - second half of the 19 c.
- first steps of the standardization of the Macedonian language and its final standardization - 1944 - today
- standardization of the Macedonian language
Since the primary classification presented above is detailed, often, the history of the Macedonian language is divided into four stages:
- Early Slavic literature on the territory of Macedonia - 9 - 11 c.
- Macedonian recension of the Old Church Slavonic - 14 - 18 c.
- Damascene period - 16 - 18 c.
- early modern and standardized Macedonian language - 1944 c. - today
Byzantine era
Saints Cyril and Methodius
Saints Cyril and Methodius were two Byzantine Greek brothers born in Thessaloniki in the 9th century. They became missionaries of Christianity among the Slavic peoples of Bulgaria, Great Moravia and Pannonia. Through their work they influenced the cultural development of all Slavs, for which they...
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 of Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki , historically also known as Thessalonica, Salonika or Salonica, is the second-largest city in Greece and the capital of the region of Central Macedonia as well as the capital of the Decentralized Administration of Macedonia and Thrace...
. This written standard came to be known as Old Church Slavonic
Old Church Slavonic
Old Church Slavonic or Old Church Slavic was the first literary Slavic language, first developed by the 9th century Byzantine Greek missionaries Saints Cyril and Methodius who were credited with standardizing the language and using it for translating the Bible and other Ancient Greek...
, and some linguists refer to this as the "first standardization of a Slavic Macedonian dialect".
The earliest texts showing specifically Macedonian phonetic features are Old Church Slavonic
Old Church Slavonic
Old Church Slavonic or Old Church Slavic was the first literary Slavic language, first developed by the 9th century Byzantine Greek missionaries Saints Cyril and Methodius who were credited with standardizing the language and using it for translating the Bible and other Ancient Greek...
classical texts written in Glagolitic which date from tenth to eleventh centuries (Codex Zographensis
Codex Zographensis
The Codex Zographensis ) is an illuminated manuscript Gospel Book that was found in the Bulgarian Zograf Monastery on Mount Athos in 1843 by Croatian writer and diplomat Antun Mihanović, and which dates from the late 10th or early 11th century....
, Codex Assemanianus, Psalterium Sinaiticum). By the 12th century the Church Slavonic Cyrillic become the main alphabet. Texts reflecting vernacular Macedonian language features appear in the second half of the 16th century (translations of the sermons of the Greek writer Damascene Studite).
Ottoman era
In the 14th century, the Ottoman Turks conquered most of the Balkans. While the written language remained static as a result of Turkish domination, the spoken dialects moved further apart. Only very slight traces of texts written in the Macedonian language survive from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.The first printed work that included written specimens of the Macedonian language was a multilingual "conversational manual", that was printed during the Ottoman era. It was published in 1793 and contained texts written by a priest in the dialect of the Ohrid region. In the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
, religion was the primary means of social differentiation, with Muslims forming the ruling class and non-Muslims the subordinate classes.
The Eastern Orthodox Church
Eastern Orthodox Church
The Orthodox Church, officially called the Orthodox Catholic Church and commonly referred to as the Eastern Orthodox Church, is the second largest Christian denomination in the world, with an estimated 300 million adherents mainly in the countries of Belarus, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Georgia, Greece,...
, to which the majority of Christian Slavs are members, was and is still headed by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople
Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople
The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople , part of the wider Orthodox Church, is one of the fourteen autocephalous churches within the communion of Orthodox Christianity...
. The Patriarchate embarked on a policy of Hellenisation. 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 Bulgarians of Macedonia and Bulgaria fought against this policy. This fight culminated in the formation of the Bulgarian Exarchate
Bulgarian Exarchate
The Bulgarian Exarchate was the official name of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church before its autocephaly was recognized by the Ecumenical See in 1945 and the Bulgarian Patriarchate was restored in 1953....
, an autonomous religious authority for Bulgarians, in 1870.
The East Bulgarians intended for the standard language of the Orthodox Slavs to be Bulgarian based on the eastern variety spoken in Thraco-Moesian, the Macedonian Bulgarians rejected this in favour of a standard Bulgarian language, but significantly influenced by the more western dialects of Macedonia.
Balkan nationalism
During the increase of national consciousness in the Balkans, standards for the languages of SlovenianSlovenian language
Slovene or Slovenian is a South Slavic language spoken by approximately 2.5 million speakers worldwide, the majority of whom live in Slovenia. It is the first language of about 1.85 million people and is one of the 23 official and working languages of the European Union...
, Serbo-Croatian
Serbo-Croatian
Serbo-Croatian or Serbo-Croat, less commonly Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian , is a South Slavic language with multiple standards and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro...
and Bulgarian
Bulgarian language
Bulgarian is an Indo-European language, a member of the Slavic linguistic group.Bulgarian, along with the closely related Macedonian language, demonstrates several linguistic characteristics that set it apart from all other Slavic languages such as the elimination of case declension, the...
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
Krste Misirkov
Krste Petkov Misirkov was a philologist, slavist, historian, ethnographer, publicist author of the first book and scientific magazine in Macedonian, where he for the first time outlined the principles of the literary Macedonian language...
, a native of Thessaloníki. 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 the Veles
Veles (city)
Veles is a city in the center of the Republic of Macedonia on the Vardar river. The city of Veles is the seat of Veles Municipality.-Name:The city's name was Vylosa in Ancient Greek and before the Balkan Wars, it was a township with the name Köprülü in the Üsküp sandjak, Ottoman empire for 600...
-Prilep
Prilep
Prilep is the fourth largest city in the Republic of Macedonia. It has a population of 66,246 citizens. Prilep is known as "the city under Marko's Towers" because of its proximity to the towers of Prince Marko.-Name:...
-Bitola
Bitola
Bitola is a city in the southwestern part of the Republic of Macedonia. The city is an administrative, cultural, industrial, commercial, and educational centre. It is located in the southern part of the Pelagonia valley, surrounded by the Baba and Nidže mountains, 14 km north of the...
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
Balkan Wars
The Balkan Wars were two conflicts that took place in the Balkans in south-eastern Europe in 1912 and 1913.By the early 20th century, Montenegro, Bulgaria, Greece and Serbia, the countries of the Balkan League, had achieved their independence from the Ottoman Empire, but large parts of their ethnic...
, the region of Macedonia was split between Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
, Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
and the Kingdom of Yugoslavia
Kingdom of Yugoslavia
The Kingdom of Yugoslavia was a state stretching from the Western Balkans to Central Europe which existed during the often-tumultuous interwar era of 1918–1941...
. 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 used publicly, in 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
Folklore
Folklore consists of legends, music, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, fairy tales and customs that are the traditions of a culture, subculture, or group. It is also the set of practices through which those expressive genres are shared. The study of folklore is sometimes called...
character was permitted to be published. Friedman writes that:
- "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
Vasil Iljoski
Vasil Iljoski was a Macedonian writer, dramatist, professor and an important figure in the Macedonian literature, especially in Macedonian drama between the two World Wars. He was born in Kruševo in 1902. His play Begalka, or known as "Lenče Kumanovče", performed in 1928 in the Skopje theatre is...
, Anton Panov
Anton Panov
Anton Panov was a Macedonian writer. He wrote several plays in Macedonian language in the period between the two World wars. The most important play is Pecalbari, played in the theatres in Skopje and Belgrade....
and Risto Krle
Risto Krle
Risto Krle was a Macedonian playwright and the son of a shoe maker. Many interruptions made his schooling difficult. As a teenager he enrolled in the army where he served until he inherited his father's profession and succeeded as a shoe maker...
and the poetry of Koco Racin
Koco Racin
Kosta Apostolov Solev primarily known as Kočo Racin was a Macedonian revolutionary and poet who is considered a founder of modern Macedonian literature. His poem collection White Dawns is one of the most important masterpieces in the Macedonian modern literature...
and Kole Nedelkovski
Kole Nedelkovski
Kole Nedelkovski was a Bulgarian communist and Macedonian revolutionary and poet. He was born in Vojnica, near Veles, Ottoman Empire in 1912 and died in 1941 in Sofia, Bulgaria. Hunted from the Serbian police he emigrated to Bulgaria in 1933...
.
Second World War
During the second World War, part of the Macedonia region was liberated by the Bulgarians, who were allied with the Axis, at the time. 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 part of Macedonia region was incorporated into the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was the Yugoslav state that existed from the abolition of the Yugoslav monarchy until it was dissolved in 1992 amid the Yugoslav Wars. It was a socialist state and a federation made up of six socialist republics: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia,...
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.