Macedonian language naming dispute

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The name of the Macedonian language (Macedonian: македонски јазик, makedonski jazik), as used by the people and defined in the constitution of the Republic of Macedonia, is "Macedonian" (Macedonian: македонски - makedonski).^[1] This is also the name used by international bodies, such as the United Nations ^[2] and the World Health Organisation.^[3] The name is also used by convention in the field of Slavic Studies.^[4]

However, for historical reasons, as well as due to an objection by Greece , several other terms of reference are used when describing or referring to the language. Some of the names use the family to which the language belongs to disambiguate it from the undoubtedly non-Slavic Ancient Macedonian language, an entirely different language, characterized as Indoeuropean Greek branch (IEGB, ISO CODE XMK); sometimes the autonym "Makedonski" is used in English for the modern Slavic language, with "Macedonian" being reserved for the ancient language.^[5] There is also a close variation of modern Greek called Macedonian and spoken by the Greek Macedonians, that has no relation to the Slavic languages of the area, with the exception of belonging to the Balkan sprachbund.^[6][7][8]

Contents 1 Macedonian Greek 2 Macedonian Slavic 3 Slavomacedonian 4 Skopian 5 Bulgaro-Macedonian 6 FYRO Macedonian/Macedonian (FYROM) 7 Slavic dialect of the State of Skopje 8 Macedonian literary language 9 See also 10 References 11 Notes

[edit] Macedonian Greek

A Greek dialect spoken mainly in Western Macedonia, Northern Chalkidiki perfecture and some central areas of the Greek district of Macedonia. It is fully understandable by other Greek speakers, but has many local words and sometimes distortions, compared to standard Greek. The language is usually referred as Makedonika (Μακεδονικά) or Makedonitika (Μακεδονίτικα).

[edit] Macedonian Slavic

This sub heading also includes variants such as "Macedonian Slav", "Slavic Macedonian", "(Slavic) Macedonian", "Macedonian (Slavonic)" etc. The term "Macedonian Slavic" (македонски словенски) is listed by Ethnologue as an alternative name for the Macedonian language ^[9], along with simply "Slavic" (see section on Slavomacedonian below). As of 2004, Eurominority reports that the Council of Europe uses the term "Macedonian (Slavic)" to refer to the Macedonian language.^[10]

In Australia, the state government of Victoria decided in 1994 that the Macedonian language should be referred to as "Macedonian (Slavonic)". The decision was made after pressure from the Greek community and Greek diplomats. The ethnic Macedonian community was outraged, and appealed to the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission. The appeal was unsuccessful, but the Supreme Court of Australia finally reversed the decision of the state government in 1998.^[11]

[edit] Slavomacedonian

See also: Slavomacedonian

The term Slavomacedonian (Cyrillic script: славомакедонски, Greek: Σλαβομακεδονικά) was introduced in Greece in the 1940s. A native of Greek Macedonia, a pioneer of ethnic Macedonian schools in the region and local historian, Pavlos Koufis, says:^[12]

[During its Panhellenic Meeting in September 1942, the KKE mentioned that it recognises the equality of the ethnic minorities in Greece] the KKE recognised that the Slavophone population was ethnic minority of Slavomacedonians]. This was a term, which the inhabitants of the region accepted with relief. [Because] Slavomacedonians = Slavs+Macedonians. The first section of the term determined their origin and classified them in the great family of the Slav peoples.

Although acceptable in the past, current use of this name in reference to both the ethnic group and the language can be considered pejorative and offensive by ethnic Macedonians. The Greek Helsinki Monitor reports,

... the term Slavomacedonian was introduced and was accepted by the community itself, which at the time had a much more widespread non-Greek Macedonian ethnic consciousness. Unfortunately, according to members of the community, this term was later used by the Greek authorities in a pejorative, discriminatory way; hence the reluctance if not hostility of modern-day Macedonians of Greece (i.e. people with a Macedonian national identity) to accept it. ^[13]

The term was initially used by the EBLUL to refer to both the Slavophone minority of the Greek region of Macedonia, and the majority ethnic group of the Republic of Macedonia, the term was dropped by the after complaints by ethnic Macedonian organisations of the diaspora, but references to the Slavic people and Slavic minority were retained on the EBLUL website. Commenting on the name change, the Greek Helsinki Monitor said it hoped the decision would be shared by EBLUL with the Greek media and authorities:

...in the hope that, at long last, they respect the use of the name of the language (and the corresponding people) chosen by its users and unanimously accepted by the international scholarly and NGO community, as well as by many intergovernmental fora.^[14]

[edit] Skopian

The term Skopian, along with Skopianika, derived from the name of the capital city of the Republic of Macedonia is used by the Greek people to refer to the language. An alternative term is Bulgaroskopian.^[15] Patrick Seriot writes that, "In Greece, the Macedonians in the Republic of Macedonia are thus called «Skopians»" as the Greeks assert that they have a "...kind of «copyright» on the name Macedonian". Many ethnic Macedonians do find these terms offensive. ^[16] Other alternatives based on the name of the capital city include "Slav idiom of the State of Skopje" ^[17]

[edit] Bulgaro-Macedonian

Bulgaro-Macedonian is a term used to refer to the East South Slavic dialect continuum. In most sources before WWII, the dialects covered by the modern Macedonian language were referred to as Bulgarian dialects.

[edit] FYRO Macedonian/Macedonian (FYROM)

The terms "FYRO Macedonian"^[18] and "Macedonian (FYROM)"^[19] are used by the Microsoft corporation in its Windows software. In 2003, Metamorphosis, an NGO registered in the Republic of Macedonia reported that Microsoft would "correct the 'mistake' regarding its attitude towards the Macedonian identity, such as using constructs such as 'FYRO Macedonian' instead of the proper name of the Macedonian language in its publications",^[20] and that this came about as a result of a deal between Microsoft and the government of the Republic of Macedonia. However, as of 2007, Microsoft continues to use "Macedonian (FYROM)" as the name of the language in its latest operating system, Windows Vista.^[21]

[edit] Slavic dialect of the State of Skopje

This is reported to be the least offensive term to Greeks,^[22] and highlights the Greek objection to the usage of the term "Macedonian" for the language (referring to it as a Slavic dialect), as well as for the state itself (State of Skopje).^[1]

[edit] Macedonian literary language

This term is used to refer to the standardised language developed after 1944. The term has notably been used in the title of Horace Lunt's A Grammar of the Macedonian Literary Language, the first English-language grammar of the Macedonian language.

[edit] See also

• Macedonian language
• Political views on the Macedonian language
• Macedonia naming dispute
• Slavic language (Greece)

[edit] References

1. ^ Floudas, Demetrius Andreas; "Pardon? A Name for a Conflict? FYROM's Dispute with Greece Revisited”. in: Kourvetaris et al (eds.), The New Balkans, East European Monographs: Columbia University Press, 2002, p. 85.

[edit] Notes