Editing Macedonian language (section)

==Classification and related languages==
[[File:Slavic languages tree.svg|thumb|left|upright=1.25|alt=Language-tree graph|Classification of Macedonian within the [[Balto-Slavic languages|Balto-Slavic]] branch of the Indo-European language family]]
Macedonian belongs to the [[East South Slavic languages|eastern group]] of the [[South Slavic languages|South Slavic]] branch of [[Slavic languages]] in the [[Indo-European languages|Indo-European]] language family, together with [[Bulgarian language|Bulgarian]] and the extinct [[Old Church Slavonic]]. Some authors also classify the [[Torlakian dialects]] in this group. Macedonian's closest relative is Bulgarian followed by [[Serbo-Croatian]] and [[Slovene language|Slovene]], although the last is more distantly related.{{sfn|Friedman|Garry|Rubino|2001|page=435}}{{sfn|Levinson|O'Leary|1992|p=239}} Together, South Slavic languages form a [[dialect continuum]].{{sfn|Dedaić|Mišković-Luković|2010|p={{page needed|date=August 2021}}}}{{sfn|Kortmann|van der Auwera|2011|page=420}}

Macedonian, like the other Eastern South Slavic idioms has characteristics that make it part of the [[Balkan sprachbund]], a group of languages that share [[linguistic typology|typological]], grammatical and lexical features based on areal convergence, rather than genetic proximity.{{sfn|Topolinjska|1998|p=6}} In that sense, Macedonian has experienced convergent evolution with other languages that belong to this group such as Greek, [[Aromanian language|Aromanian]], [[Albanian language|Albanian]] and [[Romani language|Romani]] due to cultural and linguistic exchanges that occurred primarily through oral communication.{{sfn|Topolinjska|1998|p=6}}

Macedonian and Bulgarian are divergent from the remaining South Slavic languages in that they do not use [[noun case]]s (except for the [[vocative]], and apart from some traces of once productive inflections still found scattered throughout these two) and have lost the [[infinitive]].{{sfn|Fortson|2009|page=431}} They are also the only Slavic languages with any definite articles (unlike standard Bulgarian, which uses only one article, standard Macedonian as well as some south-eastern Bulgarian dialects{{sfn|Comrie|Corbett|2002|p=245}} have a set of three [[Deixis|deictic]] articles: unspecified, proximal and distal definite article). Macedonian, Bulgarian and Albanian are the only Indo-European languages that make use of the [[Inferential mood|narrative mood]].{{sfn|Campbell|2000|pp=274, 1031}}

According to Chambers and [[Peter Trudgill|Trudgill]], the question whether Bulgarian and Macedonian are distinct languages or dialects of a single language cannot be resolved on a purely linguistic basis, but should rather take into account sociolinguistic criteria, i.e., ethnic and linguistic identity.<ref>{{citation|first1=J.K.|last1=Chambers|first2=Peter|last2=Trudgill|year=1998| title=Dialectology (2nd ed., Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics)|location=Cambridge|publisher=Cambridge University Press|doi=10.1017/CBO9780511805103|pages=169–170|isbn=9780521593786 }}</ref> This view is supported by [[Jouko Lindstedt]], who has suggested the reflex of the back [[yer]] as a potential boundary if the application of purely linguistic criteria were possible.<ref>Tomasz Kamusella, Motoki Nomachi, Catherine Gibson as ed., The Palgrave Handbook of Slavic Languages, Identities and Borders, Springer, 2016; {{ISBN|1137348399}}, p. 436.</ref><ref name="Lindstedt 2016">{{cite book |last=Lindstedt |first=Jouko |title=The Palgrave Handbook of Slavic Languages, Identities and Borders |chapter=Conflicting Nationalist Discourses in the Balkan Slavic Language Area |year=2016 |chapter-url=https://www.academia.edu/10646592 |quote=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.(1998: 32) 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. |pages=429–447|doi=10.1007/978-1-137-34839-5_21 |isbn=978-1-349-57703-3 }}</ref>

As for the [[Slavic dialects of Greece]], Trudgill classifies the dialects in the east Greek Macedonia as part of the [[Bulgarian language]] area and the rest as [[Macedonian dialects]].<ref name="Trudgill">Trudgill P., 2000, "Greece and European Turkey: From Religious to Linguistic Identity". In: Stephen Barbour and Cathie Carmichael (eds.), Language and Nationalism in Europe, Oxford : Oxford University Press, p.259.</ref> According to [[Riki van Boeschoten]],<ref>Riki van Boeschoten is a retired professor of the [[University of Thessaly]] and director of the Laboratory of Social Anthropology and the Oral History Archive dialects in [[eastern Greek Macedonia]].

[http://users.ha.uth.gr/boeschoten/index.php?page=cv Riki van Boeschoten - My CV.] '','' [http://users.ha.uth.gr/boeschoten/index.php?page=publications Her work] (2013)</ref> dialects in eastern Greek Macedonia (around [[Serres]] and [[Drama]]) are closest to Bulgarian, those in western Greek Macedonia (around [[Florina]] and [[Kastoria]]) are closest to Macedonian, while those in the centre ([[Edessa]] and [[Salonica]]) are intermediate between the two.<ref>Boeschoten, Riki van (1993): Minority Languages in Northern Greece. Study Visit to Florina, Aridea, (Report to the European Commission, Brussels) "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"</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Ioannidou |first1=Alexandra |title=Questions on the Slavic Dialects of Greek Macedonia |journal=Ars Philologica: Festschrift für Baldur Panzer zum 65. Geburstag. Karsten Grünberg, Wilfried Potthoff |date=1999 |pages=59, 63 |url=https://www.academia.edu/784444 |publisher=Peterlang |location=Athens |isbn=9783631350652|quote=In September 1993 ... the European Commission financed and published an interesting report by Riki van Boeschoten on the "Minority Languages in Northern Greece", in which the existence of a "Macedonian language" in Greece is mentioned. The description of this language is simplistic and by no means reflective of any kind of linguistic reality; instead it reflects the wish to divide up the dialects comprehensibly into geographical (i.e. political) areas. According to this report, Greek Slavophones speak the "Macedonian" language, which belongs to the "Bulgaro-Macedonian" group and is divided into three main dialects (Western, Central and Eastern) - a theory which lacks a factual basis.}}</ref>