Thedialects of Macedonian comprise theSlavic dialects spoken in theRepublic of North Macedonia as well as somevarieties spoken in the wider geographic region ofMacedonia.[1] They are part of thedialect continuum ofSouth Slavic languages that joinsMacedonian withBulgarian to the east andTorlakian to the north into the group of theEastern South Slavic languages. The precise delimitation between these languages is fleeting and controversial.
Macedonian authors tend to treat all dialects spoken in the geographical region of Macedonia as Macedonian, including those spoken in the westernmost part of Bulgaria (so-calledPirin Macedonia), whereasBulgarian authors treat all Macedonian dialects as part of the Bulgarian language.[2][3] Prior to thecodification ofstandard Macedonian in 1945, the dialects of Macedonia were for the most part classified as Bulgarian.[4][5][6] InGreece, the identification ofthe dialects spoken by the localSlavophone minority with either Bulgarian or Macedonian is often avoided, and these dialects are instead described simply as "Slavic",[7]Dopia ('Local'), Stariski (old) or Našinski (ours).[citation needed]
Most Western linguists classify the dialects in thePirin (Blagoevgrad) region ofBulgaria and in the far east ofGreek Macedonia asBulgarian and the dialects in the rest ofGreece and inNorth Macedonia as Macedonian.[8][9] According to Chambers andTrudgill, the question whether Bulgarian and Macedonian are distinct languages or dialects of a single language as well as where the exact boundary between the two languages is cannot be resolved on a purely linguistic basis, but should rather take into account sociolinguistic criteria, i.e., ethnic and linguistic identity.[10] As for theSlavic dialects of Greece, Trudgill classifies the dialects in the east Greek Macedonia as part of theBulgarian language area and the rest asMacedonian dialects.[8]
According to Riki van Boeschoten, the dialects in eastern Greek Macedonia (aroundSerres andDrama) are closest to Bulgarian, those in western Greek Macedonia (aroundFlorina andKastoria) are closest to Macedonian, while those in the centre (Edessa andSalonica) are intermediate between the two.[11][12]Jouko Lindstedt also opines that the dividing line between Macedonian and Bulgarian should be defined by the linguistic identity of the speakers, i.e., by the state border:
Macedonian dialectology... considers the dialects of south-western Bulgaria to be Macedonian, despite the lack of any widespread Macedonian national consciousness in that area. The standard map is provided by Vidoeski. It would be futile to tell an ordinary citizen of the Macedonian capital, Skopje, that they do not realise that they are actually speaking Bulgarian. It would be equally pointless to tell citizens of the southwestern Bulgarian town of Blagoevgrad that they (or at least their compatriots in the surrounding countryside) do not ‘really’ speak Bulgarian, but Macedonian. In other words, regardless of the structural and linguistic arguments put forth by a majority of Bulgarian dialectologists, as well as by their Macedonian counterparts, they are ignoring one, essential fact – that the present linguistic identities of the speakers themselves in various regions do not always correspond to the prevailing nationalist discourses.[13][14]
Linguistically, the dialects of Macedonia in the wider sense can be divided into Eastern and Western groups (the boundary runs approximately fromSkopje andSkopska Crna Gora along the riversVardar andCrna) based on a large group of features. In addition, a more detailed classification can be based on the modern reflexes of theProto-Slavic reduced vowels ("yers"), vocalic sonorants and the back nasal (o). That classification distinguishes between the following 3 major groups:[15][16]
1 TheSer-Drama-Lagadin-Nevrokop dialect and the Bulgarian part of theMaleševo-Pirin dialect are classified as Bulgarian by modern Western linguists.[8][24] The classification of the dialects of central Greek Macedonia is more unclear, with some linguists classifying them as Macedonian and others as transitional between Macedonian and Bulgarian.[11][8]
As far as consonantal features are concerned, the entire Western region is distinguished from the East by loss of/x/ (exceptTetovo,Gora andKorča) and the loss of/v/ in the intervocalic position (except Mala Reka and parts ofKostur-Korča):/ɡlava/ (head) =/ɡla/,/ɡlavi/ (heads) =/ɡlaj/. The Eastern region preserves/x/ (exceptTikveš-Mariovo andKumanovo-Kriva Palanka) and intervocalic/v/. The East is also characterised by the development of epenthetic/v/ before original/o/ where the West has epenthetic/j/: Eastern/vaɡlɛn/ (coal) but Western/jaɡlɛn/. The diphonemic reflexes are most characteristic of the dialects ofGreek Macedonia andBlagoevgrad Province, Kostur-Korča andOhrid-Prespa. TheSerres – Nevrokop dialects have a series of phonemically palatalised consonants.
The Western dialects generally have fixed stress, antepenultimate in theRepublic of North Macedonia, and penultimate inGreece andAlbania. The Eastern region, along with the neighbouringBulgarian dialects, has various non-fixed stress systems. In LowerVardar andSerres-Nevrokop unstressed/a,ɛ,ɔ/ are reduced (raised) to[ə,i,u]. The reduction of unstressed vowels (as well as the aforementioned allophonic palatalisation of consonants) is characteristic of East Bulgarian as opposed to West Bulgarian dialects, so these dialects are regarded by Bulgarian linguists as transitional between East and West Bulgarian.
Similarly, Bulgarian politicians often argue that Macedonian is simply a dialect of Bulgarian – which is really a way of saying, of course, that they feel Macedonia ought to be part of Bulgaria. From a purely linguistic point of view, however, such arguments are not resolvable, since dialect continua admit of more-or-less but not either-or judgements.
The Western dialect is used in Florina and Kastoria and is closest to the language used north of the border, the Eastern dialect is used in the areas of Serres and Drama and is closest to Bulgarian, the Central dialect is used in the area between Edessa and Salonica and forms an intermediate dialect
{{cite book}}:|journal= ignored (help)Macedonian language (македонски јазик) | ||
|---|---|---|
| Features |  | |
| Dialects | ||
| Other topics | ||
| Western |
| | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Northern |
| |||||
| Southeastern |
| |||||
1 Also considered a dialect ofBulgarian.2 Considered to be a part of the transitionalTorlak dialect and as a subdialect of Bulgarian, Macedonian, andSerbo-Croatian. | ||||||