Article published In: The Historical Sociolinguistics of Spelling
Edited by Laura Villa and Rik Vosters
[Written Language & Literacy 18:2] 2015
► pp. 287–308
Macedonian orthographic controversies
Published online: 31 August 2015
https://doi.org/10.1075/wll.18.2.07kra
https://doi.org/10.1075/wll.18.2.07kra
The standardization of the Macedonian language and controversies surrounding it have been described in detail by many scholars. This paper seeks to contribute to this discussion in several ways. First, I will provide a brief summary of debates concerning selection of an orthography in the period 1944–1945. Significantly, I will expand that discussion through inclusion of important archival materials from the Koneski archive at the Macedonian Academy of Sciences. Second, I will briefly discuss debates that have arisen with suggestions for orthographic reform since the 1940s. In the final section of the paper I will examine the use of Cyrillic and new debates surrounding the use of different systems of transliteration in the Latin alphabet that compete in the linguistic landscape as well as in on-line fora leading to new proposals for orthographic reform.
Keywords: codification, orthography, transliteration, Macedonian language, standardization
References (50)
Androutsopoulos, Jannis (2009). ‘Greeklish’: Transliteration practice and discourse in a setting of computer-mediated digraphia. In Alexandra Georgakopoulou & Michael Silk (eds.), Standard languages and language standards: Greek, past and present, 221–249. Farnam: Ashgate.
Bernal, Josep M. (2007). Spelling and script debates in interwar Greece. Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies 31.2: 170–190
Bliznakovski, Jovan (2011). Normativnata ramka za jazičnite prava na malcinstvata vo Makedonija vo soglasnost so Ohridskiot ramkoven dogovor. Evrodijalog 141: 133–154.
Cvetkovski, Victor (1990). Meg´u Makedoncite vo Pirin. Series in Nova Makedonija
.
Dauti, Daut (2013). Makedonskata Latinica i uličnata politika. Dnevnik Online 4 August 2013. [URL] accessed 20 February 2014.
Dučevska, Anita (2005). Za transcripcijata. In Snežana Velkovska (ed.), Aktuelnite sostojbi vo Makedonskiot Jazik: Zbornik na trudovi od trkaleznata masa održan na 16 mart 2004, 21–29. Skopje: Institut za makedonski jazik.
Eira, Christina (1998). Authority and discourse: Towards a model for orthography selection. Written Language & Literacy 1.2: 171–224
Friedman, Victor A. (1985). The Sociolinguistics of Literary Macedonian. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 521: 31–57.
. (1993). The first philological conference for the establishment of the Macedonian alphabet and the macedonian literary language: Its precedents and consequences. In Joshua Fishman (ed.), The earliest stage of language planning: The “First Congress” phenomenon, 159–180. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter
. (1998). The implementation of standard Macedonian: Problems and results. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 1311: 31–57
. (2000). The modern Macedonian standard language and its relation to modern Macedonian identity. In Victor Roudometof (ed.), The modern Macedonian question: Culture, historiography, politics, 173–201. Boulder, CO: East European Monographs.
. (2004). Language planning and status in the republic of Macedonia and in Kosovo. In Ranko Bugarski & Celia Hawkesworth (eds.), Language in the former Yugoslav lands, 197–231. Bloomington, IN: Slavica.
Guentcheva, Rozita (1999). Symbolic Geography of language: Orthographic Debates in Bulgaria (1880s -Today). Language and Communication 191: 355–371.
ICAO 9303 [URL] accessed July 18, 2014
Ilievski, Petar (2006). Makedonskiot pravopis od 1945. XXXII Naučna konferencija na XXXVIII meg´unaroden seminar za makedonski jazik, literatura i kultura. Skopje: University of Sts. Kiril i Metodij.
Ivković, Dejan & Christina E. Kramer (2012). Top-down policies and bottom-up practices: Decoding internet Serbian and Macedonian from A to З. Paper presented at Canadian Association of Slavists, 2012. Waterloo, CA: University of Waterloo.
Jačeva-Ulčar, Elka, Simona Gruevska-Madžoska & Simon Sazdov (2013). Elaborat: Pravopis na makedonskiot standarden jazik. Institut za makedonski jazik: Skopje.
Kirjanovski, Risto (1986). The struggle of the Macedonians from Aegean Macedonia for use of the Macedonian literary language. Glasnik XXX (1) 3.1: 161–181.
Kiselinovski, Stojan (1987). Statusot na makedonskiot jazik vo Makedonija (1913–1987) Skopje: Misla.
Koneski, Blaže (1945). Za Azbukata. Koneski archive, 1.15. Skopje: Macedonian Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Kramer, Christina E. (1999). Official language, minority language, no language at all: Macedonian in primary education in the Balkans. Language Problems and Language Planning 23.3: 233–250
. (2008). Writing standard: Processes of Macedonian language standardisation. Canadian Slavonic Papers 50.1–2: 37–5
. (2015a). Partitioning language policy and status planning in Macedonia. In Victor Friedman & Jim Hlavac (eds.), On Macedonian matters: From the partition and annexation of Macedonia in 1913 to the present, 227–254. Munich: Kubon & Sagner.
. (2015c, in press). Macedonian in Prague: The Frinta lectures. Makedonsko-Severnoamerikanska Konferencija VIII zbornik. Skopje.
Kramer, Christina E. & Joseph Schallert (2002). Distinctive features of the dialect of Vrbnik.
Papers from the Fourth North American-Macedonian Conference on Macedonian Language, Literature and Folklore
. Univerzitet Kiril i Metodij.
Kramer, Christina E., Victor Friedman & Dejan Ivković (2014). Seeing double: Latin and Cyrillic in linguistic landscapes proceedings of international conference.
Practice in Language, Language in Practice, Zbornik PLLP
, 14–20. Skopje: FON. [URL]
Lunt, Horace G. (1959). The creation of standard Macedonian: Some facts and attitudes. Anthropological Linguistics 1.51: 19–26.
. (1984). Some sociolinguistic aspects of Macedonian and Bulgarian. In Benjamin A. Stolz, I. R. Titunik & Lubomír Doležel (eds.), Language and literary theory: In honor of Ladislav Matejka (Papers in Slavic Philology 5.), 83–132. Ann Arbor, Michigan: Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures
Risteski, Stojan (1988). Sozdavanjeto na sovremeniot makedonski literaturen jazik. Skopje: Studentski zbor.
Ristovski, Blaže (2006). Istorijata i principite na kodifikacijata na sovremeniot makedonski literaturen jazik (1903–1905–1945–1948), 19–32. XXXII Naučna konferencija na XXXVIII meg’unaroden seminar za makedonski jazik, literature i kultura. Skopje: University of Sts. Kiril i Metodij.
Rossos, Andrew (1991). The Macedonians of Aegean Macedonia: A British Officer’s Report, 1944. The Slavonic and East European Review 69.2: 282–309.
(1995). Macedonianism and Macedonian nationalism on the left. In Ivo Banac & Katherine Verdery (eds.), National character and national ideology in Interwar Eastern Europe (Yale Russian and East European Publications, No. 13.), 219–254. New Haven: Yale Center for International and Area Studies.
Sebba, Mark (2006). Ideology and alphabets in the former USSR. Language Problems & Language Planning 30.2: 99–125
Stefanovski, Ljupčo (2002). Jazičnata politika vo Republika Makedonija. In Makedonski sociolingvistički i filološki temi, 219–226. Skopje: Sovet za makedonski jazik na Republika Makedonija.
Steinke, Klaus & Xhelal Ylli (2007). Die slavischen Minderheiten in Albanien (SMA). 1. Teil: Prespa – Vërnik – Boboshtica. (Slavistiche Beiträge 458). Munich: Otto Sagner.
(2008). Die slavischen Minderheiten in Albanien (SMA). 2. Teil: Gollobrda – Herbel – Krëchisti i Epërm. (Slavistiche Beiträge 462). Munich: Otto Sagner.
(2010). Die slavischen Minderheiten in Albanien (SMA). 3. Teil: Gora. (Slavistiche Beiträge 474). Munich: Otto Sagner.
Velkovska, Biserka & Maja Katarova (2010). Lektor 18.10.2010 [URL]. accessed 15 February 2015.
