It has proven most suitable to divide the history of Macedonian into two periods: the old and the modern. The dividing line is conventionally placed around the 15th century. We must also recognize, of course, the existence of a transitional stage between the two periods. The proposed scheme takes into account the most important phenomena in the development of Macedonian After the loss of Common Slavic unity, the Macedonian dialects still belonged to the inherited linguistic type for several centuries. However, the process of Balkanization transformed the old structure in such a way that the Balkan linguistic model was gradually obtruded. It is thought that around the 15th century the elements of the new structure had gained the ascendency to such an extent that we can then speak of a new type of Macedonian Radical results of this transformation are especially evident in the declensional system. The appearance of the article and the reduplication of direct and indirect objects are also significant, and of course there are a large number of other features which characterize the structure of the languages belonging to the Balkan linguistic league. We do not think there are any reasons for rejecting the above mentioned periodization for a presentation of Macedonian historical phonology as well. Not only are we convinced that phonetic processes cannot be separated from the development of the grammatical structure of a given language, but also that their real meaning cannot be understood outside of this general frame of reference. The study of historical phonology is really more the study of historical morphophonology than is generally thought.

If we take the Balkanization of the structure of Macedonian as the primary phenomenon, then it is clear that this transformation finds its fullest expression in the change of the structure of the sentence. It follows from this that a sentence of the new, Balkan type cannot be realized without the intonational contours and prosodic elements characteristic of the structure of the sentence in the Balkan languages. Thus we are at once confronted with the connection between changes in grammatical structure and their phonic realization. We cannot, unfortunately, follow the manner and extent to which the intonational contours of the sentence influenced the phonological development of Macedonian in the course of the above mentioned process of transformation. The characteristics of sentence intonation have been inadequately studied not only in Macedonia, but also in the other languages of the Balkan linguistic league. Nevertheless, we can examine the role of another prosodic factor in the development of some phonetic processes, viz. the place of accent. As we will see, certain general Balkan tendencies are manifested with regard to this feature. The division of Macedonian into two dialectal groups is especially important in this respect: 1) dialects where the accent performs no morphological function (Western region) and 2) dialects where the accent is morphologically distinctive (Eastern region). We are emphasizing this distinction ahead of time, so to speak, because it is important in many phenomena connected with the phonological development of Macedonian

We are also assured of the suitability of the proposed periodization for the historical phonology of Macedonian by the rests of contact with the Balkan languages on the lexical plane. The large number of lexical loans from Greek and Turkish, as we have already pointed out, added new phonemes to the Macedonian phonological system and influenced the distribution of phonemes and the development of some phonetic processes. Moreover, it is an historical fact that significant Turkish influence coincides temporally with the modern period.

Sources

The fact that the oldest written Slavic language, Old Church Slavic, was based on the dialect of the Slavs of the Salonica region is of great significance. When Constantine-Cyril created the Glagolitic alphabet in the sixth decade of the 9th century, he actually subjected the above mentioned dialect, which he knew as a child, to a phonological analysis. The composition of Glagolitic reflects the phonological structure of at least one group of Macedonian dialects of that period, to the extent to which that structure was realized by the creator of the first Slavic alphabet. The oldest preserved Slavic texts, written in Macedonia, come from the late 10th and from the 11th centuries. These include the following well known Glagolitic manuscripts: Codex Assemianus (Ass), Psalter of Sinai (PS), Euchologium of Sinai (ES), Codex Zographensis (Zo), Bojana Palimpsest (BojPal), and perhaps the Codex Marianus (Mar), which may have been copied from a Macedonian original on Serbo-Croatian territory. Some later Cyrillic manuscripts can be added to this list of texts: Dobromir's Gospel (Dobr, early 12th century), Ohrid Acts and Epistles (Ohr, late 12th century), Psalter of Bologna (Bol, early 13th century), Dobrejsha's Gospel (Dobrej, 13th century), the Gospel of Pop Jovan (Jov, 13th century), Vraneshnica Apostol (late 13th or early 14th century), Lesnovo Paraenesis of 1353 (Lesn), etc. In all of these texts, as in numerous other Church Slavonic texts from the Middle Ages, many phonetic innovations which are associated with Macedonian territory are reflected. Due to the traditional writing system and the influence of prestigious centers on the written language, however, we cannot see the Macedonian dialectal situation in the Middle Ages reflected in these texts with complete clarity. Thus the picture must often be filled in by reconstruction. In the modern period, texts which reflect phonetic characteristics and processes of contemporary Macedonian dialects occur more frequently from the 16th century onward. The most important work in the field of religious-didactic literature is the Macedonian translation of the sermons of Damascene Studite made by the Pelagonian bishop Grigorij during the second half of the 16th century. Although the language is basically Church Slavonic, we nevertheless find colloquial Macedonian elements on all levels due to the fact the translation was made with the intention of giving the people an understandable text. A short dictionary of the Kostur dialect from the 16th century (about 300 words with a Greek translation, published in 1958 by C. Giannelli and A. Vaillant) also gives us significant data. The oldest more extensive text in a Macedonian dialect (Ohrid) is the tetraglosson of Danul, first published at the end of the 18th century (this edition has not survived), and republished in Venice in 1802. It is also the first printed Macedonian text. The phonetics of the text, as in the above mentioned Kostur dictionary, are complicated by the fact that it uses a Greek alphabet inadequately adapted to the precise representation of Macedonian pronunciation. We have sufficient material for the detailed description of the phonological systems of individual Macedonian dialects only from the last two centuries. Toponymy supplies us with useful material for the investigation of certain phonetic processes. Slavic toponyms on Greek and Albanian territory are of special significance with regard to the presentation of certain archaic peculiarities of Slavic pronunciation, and the onomastic material as recorded in medieval Greek sources can be added to this. Of course, the adaptation of Macedonian lexical elements in neighboring languages is also important for Macedonian historical phonology. The material which can be drawn from Turkish Records (beginning with the second half of the 15th century), in which the names of population centers, of their wards, and of tax payers are noted, is also significant for the modern period and its study is an important task for linguistic investigation; so far the transcription of this rich material has been donemainly by Turcologists and historians. Finally, for the purposes of internal reconstruction and for a more precise location of some phenomena occurring in the old texts, the modern Macedonian dialectal situation gives us some help and a basic orientation (See a survey of the Macedonian dialects in the appendix to this book).

This text was taken from Blazhe Koneski's A Historical Phonology Of the Macedonian Language, Carl Winter Universitaetsverlag Heidelberg, 1983, for fair use only.

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Last Modified: September 23, 1996

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