Macedonian

Macedonian is a member of the South Slavic group of the Slavic Branch of the Indo-European family. It is the first or second language of the approximately 2 million people in the Republic of Macedonia and is also spoken in neighboring Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia as well as by significant émigré communities in Eastern and Western Europe, North America and Australia.

This monogrpah describes modern standard Macedonian as codified in the Republic of Macedonia, although a brief treatment of the dialectal situation is also provided. Due to the endangered and disputed status of Macedonian in neighboring countries, the sociolinguistic/ geolingusitic section begins with a linguistic history of Macedonian. This is followed by sections on phonology, morphology, syntax, and a text. Standard Macedonian is characterized by antepenultimate stress that can cross word boundaries, a relatively simple nominal system, a complex verbal system, and fairly free word order. Situated at the heart of the Balkan linguistic league, Macedonian shows the effect of centuries of multilingual contact at all levels.

The Author/Editor: Victor A. Friedman, University of Chicago