From: sachz@montebello.ecom.unimelb.EDU.AU (SAS)
Subject: Macedonian Language and its History
Followup-To:  soc.culture.yugoslavia,soc.culture.greek
Summary: An explanation on the different Macedonian Dialects ...
Originator: sachz@montebello.ecom.unimelb.EDU.AU
Keywords: linguistic, accent, dialect, language, macedonia, history
Organization: Dept. Engineering Computer Resources, Melbourne Uni.
Date: Sun, 13 Sep 1992 05:03:08 GMT

MACEDONIAN LANGUAGE AND ITS HISTORY
 
   It is 1992 and I can still hear Greek politicians exclaiming that
there is no Macedonian language. Not far behind are the Bulgarian 
nationalists who state that Macedonians is a Bulgarian dialect.
The Serbians once upon a time claimed it was merely "South Serbian",
and the rest of the world from London to Toyko are just as confused
as ever! - which is just the way the Greeks want it.
 
   Let us examine the facts and draw our own conclusion. It was in
1950 that the then professor of London University, Reginald de Bray
stated unequivocally in his book "Guide to the Slavonic Languages",
that - "By an irony of history the people who ancestors gave to the
Slavs their first literary language, were the last to have their
modern language recognised as a separate Slavonic language, distinct
from the neighbouring Serbian and Bulgarian." Mr de Bray also put
forward in his chapter on "Old Slavonic" that - "The first writings
in Old Slavonic are now generally considered by philosophers to have 
been in the language of the Slavs of Macedonia of the second half of
the ninth century".
 
   It is universally accepted that the credit for providing a written
script for Slavic languages goes to Cyril and Methodius and was further
refined by Clement and Naum. Cyril, whose real name was Constantine
until he became a monk, was born in Salonica, of Macedonian parentage.
His father Lev was a Macedonian Slav in the Byzantine service,
occupying the post of assistant to the Salonica military commander.
 
   In 855 A.D. Cyril and his brother Methodius (who was a provincial
governor) were chosen as missionaries by the Emperor Michael III at
the request of the Moravian Prince Ratislav, who wished to counteract
Frankish influence in Moravia. It is reported that Emperor Michael said
to Cyril and Methodius that - "You are Salonicans, and all Salonicans
speak pure Slavic". The brothers worked together to compose a Slavonic
alphabet, which has become known as the "Glagolitic" alphabet. This
used Greek lettering, combined with the phonetic sounds of the Slavonic
language of the peasants of Southern Macedonia.
 
   The monks Clement and Naum (who were disciples of Cyril and
Methodius) further simplified the Glagolitic script and refined
it into the "Cyrillic" alphabet that we use today. They used the
alphabet to translate Christian scripture into the local dialect
of the Slavs of Southern Macedonia. The Macedonian archibishopric
of Ohrid became the ecclesiastic centre from which the Cyrillic
script and the eastern Orthodox faith were spread throughout
Serbia, Bulgaria, and Kievan Russia. The net effect of this is
that the Macedonian people influenced the language and the
culture of their neighbours and not vice-versa as they would have
you believe.
 
   One of the earliest records of Macedonian is to be found in
the "Lexicon-tetraglosson" of Hadzi Daniil, first published in
1764 at Voskopje (Moschopolis) in Albania. Hadzi Daniil was a
Vlack (Aromun) scholar whose object in this work was to teach
Greek to, and attempt to hellenize the non-greek inhabitants of
the southern Balkans. His Lexicons in four languages contains
passages in Greek translated into Albanian, Vlach, and what he
calls "Bulgarian". But as Mazon and Vaillant pointed out their
book "L' Evangeliaire de Kulakia", p.8 the language recorded is
in fact actually a fairly exact picture of the language spoken in
the region of "Bitolj" (Monastir - in Macedonian Bitola) in the
middle of the eighteenth century.
 
   Bulgarian nationalists have persistently claimed that
Macedonian is nothing but a Bulgarian dialect. In the past,
Serbian nationalists have also claimed the Macedonian dialect as
one of their own. However, in 1890 a German scientist Karl Hron
writing in his book "The Nationalist of the Macedonian Slavs",
discounted Bulgarian and Serbian claims to the language by
explaining the relationship of the Macedonian language in
relation to the neighbouring languages and concludes that it was
a distinct language. That very same year the French Slavist Louis
Leger in the great French encyclopedia, speaking of Macedonia,
characterised Macedonian as a separate south-Slav tongue.
Croatian scholar Vatroslav Jagic (one of the most famous Slavists
of his time) - recommended on several occasions that we consider
the Macedonian language as a separate south-Slav tongue since
even medieval manuscripts showed the same tendencies. Many
important Slavists have come to the same conclusions, especially,
in the period between the two world wars were such Slavists as
Antoin Meyer, Andre Vajan and Mjeveslav Malecki all found that
Macedonian was distinct and separate language differing from
both Bulgarian and Serbian.
 
   In 1950 professor de Bray established that there were six
different Macedonian dialects which he divided according to their
accent and certain other linguistic features into:
 
 1. The Western dialects. - These are further subdivided into:
 (a) the central group of the Veles, Prilep, Kicevo, and Bitola
    regions.
 (b) the dialect of the Debar-Galicnik region.
 
 2. The south-western dialect, of the Kostur (in Greek: Kastoria)
   - Lerin (Greek: Florina) region, spoken mainly in Northern
   Greece. The dialects of Tikves and Mariovo are also closely
   related.
 
 3. The south-eastern dialect, spoken in the region of Gevgelija,
   Strumica and Lake Dorjan.
 
 4. The dialect of the Kukush and Voden (in Greek: Kilkis and
   Edessa) regions in Northern Greece.
 
 5. The Eastern Dialect of the Stip and Pirin (Bulgaria) region.
   The dialect of Malesevo and Gorna Dzumaja (Blagoevgrad,
   Bulgarian) are closely related.
 
 6. The Eastern dialect of the Kumanovo-Kratovo region.
 
   In scattered areas of Southern Macedonia we have traces
The The most solid area is in the region Kostur (Kastoria). There
are six villages north-east of Salonica and four villages near Ser
(Seres) with this pronunciation.
 
   We now live in a day and age where the Macedonian language is
a fact that cannot be ignored, even by those who formerly, for
political reasons, attempted to prevent it from flourishing.
There can be no doubting the individuality of the Macedonian
language and time is on our side to witness its re-emergence on
the world stage in all its glory.
 
[AMN 8/9/92]

SAS.