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[[Category:Language histories]] |
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Revision as of 02:39, 29 November 2010
The standard Macedonian language was officially codified in August 1944, when a provisional government run by the Anti-Fascist Assembly for the National Liberation of Macedonia (ASNOM) declared the formation of the Socialist Republic of Macedonia, a constituent state within the Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia.
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.[1]
Byzantine era
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".[2]
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).[3]
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.[4]
The first printed work that included written specimens of the Macedonian language was a multilingual "conversational manual", that was printed during the Ottoman era.[5] 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.[6]
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[weasel words] on a policy of Hellenisation.[citation needed] In the view of[weasel words] the Orthodox Church, the Orthodox Christian Slavs were Greek, and so should speak Greek.[citation needed] 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 and Macedonians, in 1870.[citation needed]
The Bulgarians intended[weasel words] for the standard language of the Orthodox Slavs to be Bulgarian based on the eastern variety spoken in Thraco-Moesian, the Macedonians[who?] rejected this in favour of a standard Bulgarian language,[verification needed] but significantly influenced by the more western dialects of Macedonia.[dubious ][7]
Balkan nationalism
During the increase of national consciousness in the Balkans, standards for the languages of Slovenian, Serbo-Croatian and Bulgarian were created.[8] 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[by whom?] book published in relation to the Macedonian language was On Macedonian Matters by Krste Misirkov, a native of Thessaloníki.[citation needed] 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.[2] Krste Misirkov outlined the principles of the Macedonian language based on the Veles-Prilep-Bitola dialect group of the west central region.[failed verification] This dialect group featured the dialects which were the most distant from both Bulgarian and Serbian standards.[3][failed verification]
After the first two Balkan wars, the region of Macedonia was split between Greece, Bulgaria and the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.[9] The Kingdom of Yugoslavia occupied the area that is currently the Republic of Macedonia incorporating it into the Kingdom as "Southern Serbia".[10] During this time, the language used publicly, in education and the church was Serbo-Croatian,[4] the dialects spoken by the local population were described as dialects of Serbo-Croatian, although limited literature, mostly of a folkloric character was permitted[by whom?] to be published.[7] 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."[7]
In the other two states, Greece and Bulgaria, and in the regions they held, the respective national languages were imposed[by whom?], in Bulgaria, the local dialects were described as dialects of Bulgarian.[2]
There was a limited literary activity between the two World wars as attested in the dramas[original research?] by Vasil Iljoski, Anton Panov and Risto Krle and the poetry of Koco Racin and Kole Nedelkovski.[3]
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[by whom?] as "liberators" from Serbian domination,[weasel words] although as a result of excessive[specify] assimilation policies, reminiscent of both the Serbs and the Greeks[citation needed] before them, they were quickly seen[by whom?] as "conquerors".[10]
There were a number[specify] 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[chronology citation needed] within both the Federation and Republic. The present orthography was established in 1945 and in the next ten years the literary language was standardised.[by whom?] The codifiers took Misirkov’s choice of a west-central dialectal base.[citation needed]
See also
References
- ^ a b Friedman, V. (1998) "The implementation of standard Macedonian: problems and results" in International Journal of the Sociology of Language, Vol. 131, pp. 31-57
- ^ a b c d Topolinjska, Z. (1998) "In place of a foreword: facts about the Republic of Macedonia and the Macedonian language" in International Journal of the Sociology of Language, Vol. 131, pp. 1-11
- ^ a b c d Price, G. (2000) Encyclopedia of the Languages of Europe. (Oxford : Blackwell) ISBN 0-631-22039-9
- ^ a b c Lunt, H. (1953) "A Survey of Macedonian Literature" in Harvard Slavic Studies, Vol. 1, pp. 363-396
- ^ a b Lunt, H. (1952) Grammar of the Macedonian Literary Language (Skopje)
- ^ a b Lunt, H. (1986) "On Macedonian Nationality" in Slavic Review, Vol. 45, pp. 729-734
- ^ a b c d Friedman, V. (1985) "The sociolinguistics of literary Macedonian" in International Journal of the Sociology of Language, Vol. 52, pp. 31-57
- ^ a b Tomić, O. (1991) "Macedonian as an Ausbau language" in Pluricentric Languages: Differing Norms in Different Nations, pp. 437-454
- ^ Known as the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes prior to the then King Alexander proclaiming a personal dictatorship on 6 January 1929.[clarification needed]
- ^ a b c Mahon, M. (1998) "The Macedonian question in Bulgaria" in Nations and Nationalism, Vol. 4, pp. 389-407