Macedonian MAKEDONSKI JAZIK, South Slavic language that is most closely
related to Bulgarian and is written in the Cyrillic alphabet. Macedonian is
the official language of the Republic of Macedonia, where it is spoken by
more than 1.3 million people. The Macedonian language is also spoken in
adjacent areas of Greek and Bulgarian Macedonia and in Australia,
Yugoslavia, and Albania.
Macedonian, like Bulgarian, no longer declines nouns for case. There are
three main dialect groups: (1) the northern dialects, similar to the
neighbouring Serbian dialects, (2) the eastern dialects, similar to and
gradually shading into Bulgarian, and (3) the western dialects, most
distinct from Bulgarian and Serbo-Croatian and therefore chosen by the
Yugoslav authorities in 1944 as the basis for the standard language.

Another isolated Romanian dialect that may be nearing extinction is
Megleno-Romanian (Meglenitic), from a mountainous region of Macedonia, just
west of the Vardar River, on the border between the Republic of Macedonia
and Greece. In 1914 there were 13,000 speakers, but many have emigrated to
Asia Minor, other parts of what was once Yugoslavia, and Romania, where
small pockets survive (they numbered about 5,000 in the late 1990s). The
only texts are those transcribed from oral traditions.
Possible links between Macedonians and Bulgars during the seminomadic period
of the arrival of the Slav peoples in the Balkans are unclear and probably
impossible to determine. Modern Bulgarians have based their claims to the
historical unity of the two peoples principally on two considerations.
First, they emphasize the lack of clear distinctions between early variants
of the old Slavonic languages, explaining later developments that were
peculiar to the Macedonian tongue as reflecting subsequent Serbianization.
Consequently, Macedonian is interpreted as a dialect of Bulgarian.
Bulgarians also point out that, throughout the rise and fall of the early
Bulgarian empires, control over a great part of Macedonia was a common
factor. A supplementary but important point is the continuing role of Ohrid
as a symbolic centre of ecclesiastical life for both peoples.

Although the autonomy of the republic was perhaps more cosmetic than real,
great efforts were made to boost a sense of cultural identity among
Macedonians. A Macedonian language was codified and disseminated through
education (including the first Macedonian university), the media of
communication, and the arts.

literature written in the South Slavic Macedonian language.
The earliest Macedonian literature, in the medieval period, was religious
and Orthodox Christian. Under Ottoman Turkish rule, Macedonian literature
suffered an eclipse, but in the 19th century there appeared original lyric
poetry written by Konstantin Miladinov, who, with his brother Dimitrije,
compiled a notable collection of legends and folk songs that contributed to
the development of a nascent Macedonian literature.
When Turkish rule was supplanted by Serbian rule in 1913, the Serbs
officially denied Macedonian distinctiveness, considering the Macedonian
language merely a dialect of Serbo-Croatian. The Macedonian language was not
officially recognized until the establishment of Macedonia as a constituent
republic of communist Yugoslavia in 1946. Despite these drawbacks, some
progress was made toward the foundation of a national language and
literature, in particular by Kosta P. Misirkov in his Za Makedonskite raboti
(1903; "In Favour of Macedonian Literary Works") and in the literary
periodical Vardar (established 1905). These efforts were continued after
World War I by Kosta Racin, who wrote mainly poetry in Macedonian and
propagated its use through the literary journals of the 1930s. Some writers,
such as Kole Nedelkovski, worked and published abroad because of political
pressure.
After World War II, under the new republic of Macedonia, the scholar Blaze
Koneski and others were charged with the task of standardizing Macedonian as
the official literary language. With this new freedom to write and publish
in their own language, Macedonia produced many literary figures in the
postwar period. Poetry was represented in the work of Aco Sopov, Slavko
Janevski, Blaze Koneski, and Gane Todorovski. Prewar playwrights, such as V.
Iljoski, continued to write, and the theatre was invigorated by new
dramatists, such as Kole Casule and Tome Arsovski. Zivko Cingo became one of
Macedonia's best-known writers of prose.

Copyright 1994-1998 Encyclopaedia Britannica

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Mark

Dr G Mark Trowell
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