Macedonian studies (Macedonian: Македонистика, romanizedMakedonistika)[1] is an academic discipline within Slavic studies that focuses on the comprehensive study of the Macedonian language, literature, history, and culture.[2] As part of Slavic studies, it falls within the subgroup of South Slavic languages and cultures. Apart from North Macedonia, Macedonian Studies is also taught at universities worldwide, including in Albania,[3][4][5] Canada,[6] Poland,[7] the United States,[6] and post-Yugoslav countries.[8] A linguist who studies Macedonian as part of the field is called a Macedonist (Macedonian: Македонист, romanized: Makedonist).[9]

Macedonian alphabet at the ASNOM Memorial Center.

Historical and institutional development of the discipline

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Late Ottoman era

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One of the first linguistic publications researching the Slavic Macedonian dialects was the book of the Russian linguist of Bulgarian origin Petar Draganov, the compiler of the "Macedonian-Slavic Collection" (1894), with which he founded the Macedonian studies in the Russian Empire.[10] During his stay as a teacher at the Bulgarian Men's High School in Thessaloniki, Draganov had collected folklore material there, which he published in this collection. According to him, the Slavic Macedonian dialects constituted a distinct language.[11] Another early linguistic work dedicated on the Slavic Macedonian dialects was done by the Austro-Hungarian linguist from Slovenian background Vatroslav Oblak [bg] (1864 – 1896).[12] Oblak visited in 1891-1892 the area north of Thessaloniki and studied the Suho village dialect.[13] He found that in the local Slavic, spoken by the "Bulgarian peasants", the broad enunciation of the Yat vowel was preserved.[14] As a result, in 1896 Oblak published his book Macedonische Studien.[15][16] In 1903 Krste Misirkov published in Sofia the pamphlet Za makedonckite raboti which was the first attempt to formalize a separate Macedonian language. Misirkov outlined an overview of the Macedonian grammar and expressed the ultimate goal of codifying this language. The author proposed to use the Prilep-Bitola dialect as a dialectal basis for the formation of the future standard. His ideas however were not adopted until the mid-1940s.

Post-WWII development

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The discipline of Macedonian studies experienced significant development after the codification of the Macedonian language in 1945 in Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, particularly under the umbrella of Yugoslav studies. As part of the Socialist Republic of Macedonia within Yugoslavia, academic institutions in Macedonia contributed to the advancement of Macedonian studies. Macedonian educators such as Nikola Berovski were sent to Albania following the war.[17] The first lecture on the Macedonian language at a foreign university was held in 1946 at Charles University in Prague in Czechoslovakia by Professor Antonín Frýnta. He taught Macedonian language courses from 1946 to 1948. This marked the breakthrough of Macedonian studies at foreign universities. In 1958 and 1959, Macedonian linguist Božidar Vidoeski taught Macedonian language courses in Warsaw and Kraków.[18] In Soviet Union, Russian linguist Rina Usikova [ru] completed her doctoral studies and defended her dissertation in the field of Macedonian studies under the mentorship of Samuil Bernstein and with support of Blaže Koneski in 1965.[19] American linguist Horace Lunt, who was sent to Macedonia by Harvard University for fieldwork and was funded by the Yugoslav authorities for his work, contributed to the development of the field in U.S. universities.[2]

Krste Misirkov Institute for the Macedonian Language marked 25 years of its work in 1977 by establishing a new journal Makedonistika specialized for Macedonian studies.[20] Macedonian language departments beyond SR Macedonia were established in Paris in 1973, Bucharest and Kraków in 1974, Moscow 1975, Istanbul in 1985.[21] The field of Macedonian studies in Hungary developed around the work of Paszkál Gilevszki and Zoltán Csuka with number of lectures and publications appearing in the country from 1980s onwards.[22] The city of Rijeka in former Yugoslavia developed into an important center of Macedonian studies.[23] Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Rijeka introduced Macedonian studies in its Slavic studies curriculum in 1982.[24] With the breakup of Yugoslavia, the department initially limited its activities with transformation of Yugoslav studies department into Croatian studies, yet the activities were continued and developed via subsequent collaboration with Ss. Cyril and Methodius University of Skopje and St. Clement of Ohrid University of Bitola.[25] Among other universities in former Yugoslavia, University of Ljubljana initiated Macedonian studies in 1961/1962 as a part of their Serbo-Croatian studies.[26]

Prominent Macedonian specialists

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ Danforth, Loring M. (1995). The Macedonian Conflict: Ethnic Nationalism in a Transnational World. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. p. 181.
  2. ^ a b Tchavdar Marinov (2013). "In Defense of the Native Tongue: The Standardization of the Macedonian Language and the Bulgarian–Macedonian Linguistic Controversies". Entangled Histories of the Balkans – Volume One: National Ideologies and Language Policies. Leiden: Brill. pp. 461–462.
  3. ^ Martin Arsov (14 September 2022). "Како да им се помогне на Македонците во Албанија наспроти агресивната политика на Софија за бугаризација?". Sitel. Македонскиот јазик ќе се изучува на педагошкиот факултет во Корча.
  4. ^ "Македонскиот јазик и култура ќе се изучуваат на универзитетот во Корча". MKD. 21 April 2023.In 2023, the Macedonian language began to be taught at the pedagogical college of Korçë
  5. ^ "Одобрено е повторно отворање Лекторат по македонски јазик во Тирана". Vecer. 28 August 2023. a lectorate in Macedonian was re-opened at the University of Tirana
  6. ^ a b "The Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition (CARLA)". University of Minnesota.
  7. ^ S.S. (2022). "University of Silesia: Agreed concrete activities for even greater affirmation and development of Macedonian studies in Poland". Sloboden Pečat.Macedonian language studies have been held at the University of Silesia in Katowice since 1987/1988
  8. ^ "Петнаесет години од отворањето на Лекторатот по македонски јазик во Риека". Sloboden Pečat. 9 May 2023.A lectorate in Macedonian language was established at the University of Rijeka in 2008
  9. ^ Friedman, Victor (1992). "Makedonistikata vo Amerika i Amerikancite vo makedonistikata" [Macedonian Studies in America and Americans in Macedonian Studies]. Literturen Zbor. 38 (5–6): 19–27.
  10. ^ Микитенко, О. (2020). Славістична діяльність П. Драганова та його «Македонско-Славянский сборник» (1894). Дриновський збірник, 12, 37-46. https://doi.org/10.7546/DS.2019.12.05
  11. ^ Alexis Heraclides (2020). The Macedonian Question and the Macedonians: A History. Taylor & Francis Group. p. 152. ISBN 9780429266362.
  12. ^ Paul M. Foster, Jr. (1998). "The Legacy of Vatroslav Oblak's Macedonische Studien in Macedonian Studies". Slovene Studies. 17 (1): 113–130. doi:10.7152/ssj.v17i1.3989.
  13. ^ Nikolovski, G.. (2017). Pannonian and macedonian theory on the linguistic basis of the old church slavonic at the turn of the 18th to the 19th century through the prism of genetolinguistics. Studia Historica Slovenica. 17. 359-377.
  14. ^ Ana Kocheva et al, (2020) On the official language of the Republic of North Macedonia, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia, ISBN 6192450811, p. 24.
  15. ^ Nikolovski, Gjoko (2016). Fonološke baze suškega govora - 120 let po izidu Macedonische Studien (1896) Vatroslava Oblaka. Slavia Centralis, letnik 9, številka 2, str. 21-38.
  16. ^ Krisztina Lajosi; Andreas Stynen, eds. (2020). The Matica and Beyond: Cultural Associations and Nationalism in Europe. BRILL. pp. 155–156. ISBN 9789004425385.
  17. ^ Christina Kramer; Eran Franekel (1993). Language Contact Language Conflict. Peter Lang. p. 94. ISBN 9780820416526.
  18. ^ a b c Stammerjohann, Harro (2009). Lexicon Grammaticorum: A Bio-Bibliographical Companion to the History of Linguistics. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag. pp. 824, 1578.
  19. ^ D. Pandev (2023). "Односот на Рина Усикова кон изворите на руската македонистика" [Rina Usikova’s Attitude to the Origins of Russian Macedonian Studies] (PDF). Stephanos. 58 (2): 56–62. doi:10.24249/2309-9917-2023-58-2-56-62.
  20. ^ Kita Bicevska (1977). "Македонистика, 1, 1977". Slovo: časopis Staroslavenskoga instituta u Zagrebu (29): 166–170.
  21. ^ "PMacedonian Language Departments Abroad". Ss. Cyril and Methodius University of Skopje. Retrieved 25 March 2024.
  22. ^ Rita Kuzder (2015). "A magyarországi makedonisztika". Slavia Centralis. 8 (2): 82–93.
  23. ^ Mirjana Grce (7 March 2022). "Najbrojniji makedonski lektorat u svijetu djeluje u Rijeci. Razgovarali smo s lektoricom Biljanom Stojanovskom". Novi list. Retrieved 25 March 2024.
  24. ^ Ingrid Šestan Kučić (16 January 2018). "Priznanje riječkom Sveučilištu: Povelja za afirmaciju makedonskog jezika, književnosti i kulture". Novi list. Retrieved 25 March 2024.
  25. ^ Dejan Durić (2010). "PRILOZI PROUČAVANJU MAKEDONSKE POVIJESTI KNJIŽEVNOSTI". FLUMINENSIA: časopis za filološka istraživanja. 22 (1): 188–191.
  26. ^ "60 let makedonistike na Filozofski fakulteti Univerze v Ljubljani". University of Ljubljana. 2022. Retrieved 25 March 2024.
  27. ^ Rossos, Andrew (2013). Macedonia and the Macedonians: A History. Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press, Stanford University. p. 80.
  28. ^ Maxwell, Alexander Mark (1998). Sundry Macedonias. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin–Madison. p. 27.
  29. ^ Cowan, Jane C. (2000). Macedonia: The Politics of Identity and Difference. London: Pluto Press. p. 7.