Languages of North Macedonia
The official language of North Macedonia is Macedonian, while Albanian has co-official status. Macedonian is spoken by roughly two-thirds of the population natively, and as a second language by much of the rest of the population. Albanian is the largest minority language. There are a further five national minority languages: Turkish, Romani, Serbian, Bosnian, and Aromanian. The Macedonian Sign Language is the country's official sign language. Statistics. According to the 2002 census, North Macedonia had a population of 2,022,547. A total of 1,344,815 Macedonian citizens declared they speak Macedonian, 507,989 speak Albanian, 71,757  speak Turkish, 38,528 speak Roma, 6,884 speak Aromanian, 24,773 speak Serbian, 8.560 speak Bosnian and 19,241 speak other languages. Language policy. Macedonian (official and national). The language policy in North Macedonia is regulated by the 7 Article of the Constitution of North Macedonia and the Law of languages. According to the national constitution: Albanian Language. The Albanian language is used as co-official along with Macedonian in the municipalities where speakers of Albanian consist at least 20% of the population or more. These include places such as Tetovo, Brvenica, Vrapčište and other municipalities. Minority languages. Some minority languages are co -official, along with Macedonian, in the municipalities ("opštini") where they are spoken by at least 20% of the municipal population. Turkish is co-official in Centar Župa and Plasnica. Romani in Šuto Orizari and Aromanian in Kruševo, even though it is spoken by ~10% of the municipal population. Serbian is also co-official in Čučer-Sandevo. Bosnian is the only recognized minority language that is not official on municipal level. List of languages. Macedonian. Macedonian (, "makedonski jazik") is a South Slavic language, spoken as a first language by approximately 1.4–2.5 million people, principally in North Macedonia and the Macedonian diaspora . It is the official language in North Macedonia and a recognized minority language in parts of Albania, Romania and Serbia. Standard Macedonian was implemented as the official language of the Socialist Republic of Macedonia in 1945 and has since developed a thriving literary tradition. Most of the codification was formalized during the same period. Albanian. Albanian () is an Indo-European language spoken by over 7.3 million people world-wide, primarily in Albania and Kosovo but also in other areas of the Balkans in which there is an Albanian population, including western North Macedonia, southern Montenegro, southern Serbia and Greece. Albanian  is also spoken in centuries-old Albanian-based dialect speaking communities scattered in southern Greece, southern Italy, Sicily, Ukraine and the Albanian diaspora. Within North Macedonia, Albanian is spoken in western and northern parts of the Republic. As of January 2019 it has become the co-official language in North Macedonia. Turkish. Turkish ("Türkçe") is the most populous of the Turkic languages, with over 70 million native speakers. Speakers are located predominantly in Turkey, with smaller groups in Germany, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Cyprus (mostly in the occupied North of the island), Greece (mostly in Western Thrace), and other parts of  Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia. Small Turkish-speaking communities can be found in several places in North Macedonia, such as Vrapčište, Skopje and Gostivar. Turkish language is currently official in Centar Zupa and Plasnica Municipality Romani. Balkan Romani () is one of several related languages of the Romani people, belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European language family. Many varieties of Romani are divergent and sometimes considered languages of their own. The largest of these are Vlax Romani (about 900,000 speakers), Balkan Romani (700,000), Carpathian Romani (500,000) and Sinti Romani (300,000). In North Macedonia, Balkan Romani is  spoken. Šuto Orizari is the largest Romani-speaking settlement in the country. Serbian language. Serbian (српски, "srpski") is a standardized register of the Serbo-Croatian language spoken by Serbs, mainly in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia and North Macedonia. It is official in Serbia and one of the official languages of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and is the principal language of the Serbs. Serbian is mainly spoken in the municipalities of Čučer Sandevo (~20% of the population) and Staro Nagoričane (19%). Bosnian language. Bosnian ("bosanski", босански) is another standardized register of Serbo-Croatian, spoken by Bosniaks. As a standardized form  of the Shtokavian dialect, it is one of the three official languages of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Most of the Bosnian-speaking Macedonian citizens live in Skopje and the Municipality of Veles. Aromanian. Aromanian ("Limba Armãneascã") or "Vlach" is a Balkan Romance language spoken in several pockets across Southeastern Europe. Its speakers are called Aromanians or "Vlachs" (which is an exonym in widespread use to define the communities in the Balkans). It shares many features with modern Romanian, having similar morphology and syntax, as well as a large common vocabulary inherited from Latin. An important source of dissimilarity between Romanian and  Aromanian is the adstratum languages: while Romanian has been influenced to a greater extent by the Slavic languages, Aromanian has been more influenced by the Greek language, with which it has been in close contact throughout its history. The largest Aromanian-speaking community in North Macedonia can be found in the town of Kruševo (~10% of the municipal population). In North Macedonia, the language is known as 'Vlach' (влашки јазик, "vlaški jazik"). Sign language. The Macedonian sign language ( or / ) is a sign language of the deaf community in North Macedonia. As all sign languages, the Macedonian sign language is also  based on gestures and body movements, particularly movements with the hands. The precise number of signers in North Macedonia is not known, but 6,000 people in 2012 requested signed news on Macedonian television. The learning and the usage of the language, as well as the rights of the deaf community in North Macedonia are regulated by a national law. Foreign languages. Many people speak a foreign language. A rapidly declining share of the population, consisting almost entirely of elderly people, has knowledge of Serbo-Croatian, French or German. Russian is also well-known. Among the younger population, English is extremely  common, along with knowledge of Serbo-Croatian and some German.