Aegean Macedonians - Education and Language

Education and Language

Various dialects linguistically considered to be dialects of Macedonian are spoken across Northern Greece. These dialects include the Upper and Lower Prespa dialects, the Kostur, Nestram-Kostenar, and Solun-Voden dialects. The Prilep-Bitola dialect is widely spoken in the Florina region, and forms the basis of the Standard Macedonian language. The Ser-Drama-Lagadin-Nevrokop dialect dialect is considered to be transitional between Macedonian and Bulgarian. The majority of the speakers also speak Greek, this trend is more prounounced amongst younger persons.

Speakers employ various terms to refer to the language which they speak. These terms include Makedonski (Macedonian: Македонски), Slavomakedonika (Greek: Σλαβομακεδονικά, "Slavomacedonian"), Entopia (Greek: Εντόπια, "local" language), Naše (Macedonian: Наше, "our own" language), Starski (Macedonian: Старски, "the old" language), Slavika (Greek: Σλαβικά, "Slavic"), Balgàrtzki, Bolgàrtski or Bulgàrtski in the region of Kostur, Bògartski ("Bulgarian") in Dolna Prespa.

According to Peter Trudgill,

There is, of course, the very interesting Ausbau sociolinguistic question as to whether the language they speak is Bulgarian or Macedonian, given that both these languages have developed out of the South Slavonic dialect continuum...In former Yugoslav Macedonia and Bulgaria there is no problem, of course. Bulgarians are considered to speak Bulgarian and Macedonians Macedonian. The Slavonic dialects of Greece, however, are "roofless" dialects whose speakers have no access to education in the standard languages. Greek non-linguists, when they acknowledge the existence of these dialects at all, frequently refer to them by the label Slavika, which has the implication of denying that they have any connection with the languages of the neighboring countries. It seems most sensible, in fact, to refer to the language of the Christian Slavonic-speakers in Greek Macedonia as Macedonian.

During the late 19th and early 20th century Bulgarian was taught in the Bulgarian Exarchate's schools. The Abecedar language primer originally printed in 1925 was designed for speakers in using the Prilep-Bitola dialect in the Florina area. Although the book used a Latin script, it was printed in the locally Prilep-Bitola dialect. In the 1930s the Metaxas regime banned the use of the Slavomacedonian language in public and private use. Laws were enacted banning the language, and speakers faced harsh penalties including being arrested, fined, beaten and forced to drink castor oil.

During the Axis occupation of Greece during World War II however these penalties were lifted. The Macedonian language was employed in widespread use, with Macedonian-language newspapers appearing from 1942. During the period 1941-1944 within the The Bulgarian occupation zone the Bulgarian language was taught.

During the Greek Civil War, the codified Macedonian language was taught in 87 schools with 10,000 students in areas of northern Greece under the control of Communist-led forces, until their defeat by the National Army in 1949. After the war, all of these Macedonian-language schools were closed down.

More recently there have been attempts to once again begin education in Macedonian. In 2009 the Educational and Cultural Movement of Edessa began to run Macedonian-language courses, teaching the Macedonian Cyrillic alphabet. Macedonian-language courses have also begun in Salonika, as a way of further encouraging use of the Macedonian language. These courses have since been extended to include Macedonian speakers in Florina and Edessa.

In 2006 the Macedonian-language primer Abecedar was reprinted in an informal attempt to reintroduce Macedonian-language education The Abecedar primer was reprinted in 2006 by the Rainbow, Political Party, it was printed in Macedonian, Greek and English. In the absence of greater Macedonian-language books printed in Greece, young ethnic Macedonians living in Greece use books originating from the Republic of Macedonia

Today Macedonian dialects are freely spoken in Greece however there are serious fears for the loss the language among the younger generations due to the lack of exposure to their native language. It appears however that reports of the demise of the use of the Macedonian language in Greece have been premature, with linguists such as Christian Voss asserting that the language has a "stable future" in Greece, and that the language is undergoing a "revival" amongst younger speakers. The Rainbow Party has called for the introduction of the language in schools and for official purposes. They have been joined by others such as Pande Ašlakov, mayor of Meliti, in calling for the language to be officially introduced into the education system.

Certain characteristics of the these dialects, along with most varieties of Spoken Macedonian, include the changing of the suffix ovi to oj creating the words лебови> лебој (lebovi> leboj/ bread). Often the intervocalic consonants of /v/, /g/ and /d/ are lost, changing words from polovina > polojna (a half) and sega > sea (now), which also features strongly in dialects spoken in the neighbouring Republic of Macedonia. In other phonological and morphological characteristics, they remain similar to the other South-Eastern dialects spoken in the Republic of Macedonia and Albania.