When speaking about Macedonia, one should bear in mind the fact that the language of the Macedonians gave the first literary language. The old language was for a long period of time the common language of all the Southern, the Eastern and part of the Western people.
From the ninth up to the nineteenth century hundreds of written works (most of them preserved) were created on Macedonian soil. They give proof of the culture and literacy which existed for almost a millennium, representing the Macedonian people as a nation with a high degree of culture, was marked both in Macedonian literature and world civilization.
The most brilliant traces of this rich cultural tradition, born on Macedonian soil are the alphabets - Glagolitic and Cyrillic. When speaking about Macedonia we should not judge it as a country that has only just started on the path to a civilized society, but must consider it as an old civilization and culture, which was pushed back and now has the possibility of developing once again.
However, when one says that the beginning of literacy and its activity amongst the Macedonian's means the beginning of the Macedonian people in general, it is not a phrase, because the first text, (composed by the brothers from Solun - Thessaloniki, Kiril and Metodija) were written in a dialect of the Macedonian from the district of Thessaloniki.
Kiril and Metodija (826-869 and 815-885) founded Macedonian literacy and literature. They were born in Thessoloniki, defending the positions of Christianity among pagan people. Their best known mission dates from 826-863 in Moravia, when they were asked by the Moravian Prince Rastislav from Moravia, to organise the church defending it against the Germanisation, which was being perpetrated by the German and Latin population. In that sense Kiril created Glagolica alphabet, which was used in necessary or writing church books, translated from the Greek. In Moravia and Panonia they increased the number of the books. In that period of Christian culture Kiril and Metodija fought a difficult struggle due to the fact that Hebrew, Greek and Latin were considered the only suitable languages for God's word. Kiril refused such a supposition affirming the right of every nation to be educated in its own language.
With their pioneer activity Kiril and Metodija had become the founders of Macedonian literature, the general literary language in the first place with their literary activity and establishing of the alphabet and with the translations of the most important church books.
The best proof of their activity are the preserved written words in glagolitic. The zoographer's gospel, the Marijinsko translated into the Macedonian language as well as other numerous books dedicated for the church. They are both mentioned as the authors of a series of original works (prayers, sermons and hagiographies).
The work of Kiril and Metodija began and reached its climax in Macedonia (then under the rule of the Bulgarian Emperor Boris) from where it was later spread to all other Slav country's.
The direct successors of Kiril and Metodija in Macedonia were their collaborators, Kliment and Naum. Kliment of Ohrid (Kliment Ohridski 840-916) was the founder of the Ohrid literary school. As the best pupil of the brothers from Thessaloniki after the pursuit from Moravia he settled in the region of Kutnjicevica (present day Western Macedonia) and after 887 he started his brilliant career as an educator. He started to open schools all over Macedonia both for children and older people and established his University with then 3,500 students. Due to such extensive activity he became one of the most famous educators. In 893 he was appointed as the first bishop in the region Velica (Ohrid). He introduced the language into the official sermons and prayers in Macedonia and Southern Albania, erected several monastery's and churches, delivered sermons among the people in their own language, becoming one of the first creators of Slav and Macedonian literature, as well as the author of numerous church hymns. He wrote a work of prays about Kiril. He is considered to be the founder of Cyrillic which is even today, apart from some new and modernised details the official alphabet of the Russian's, Ukranians, White Russian's, Bulgarian's, Serbian's, Montenegrians and Macedonian's.
The close collaborator and the successor to Kliment's work in Macedonia is Naum of Ohrid, who between 893 and 910 also worked in the region of Kutmicevica.
The oldest preserved monument was found in Macedonia. It is a tombstone plaque of Emperor Samuel from 993 and the Varoski epitaph from 996.
Several well known monuments written in Cyrillic, with some elements of Macedonia editorial remarks come from Macedonia "The Ohrid Apostle" and the "Shepherd from Bologna", "Bitolski Trod", "Stanisavljeg Prolog", Leskovski Psalter". We shall mention other preserved manuscripts: "Pop Jovanov Gospel" (XII c.), "Vranesnicki Apostle" (XIII c.), " Dobromirov Gospel", " Radomirovo Gospel" and others. All these works date from the twelfth to the fifteenth century. From the later period (the sixteenth to the eighteenth century) we have some manuscripts with some elements of the contemporary speech. These are anthologies of sermons and prayers and different texts from the apocrypha, called "Damascene".
The Macedonian language was introduced into literature mostly in an unofficial form, during the Turkish rule in Macedonia, particularly in the nineteenth century. Starting with Danilo's "cetijezicnik" (1802), through the works of Kiril Pejcinovic, Joakim Krcovski, and Teodosije Sinaetski (from the first decade of the nineteenth century) until the first generation of the Macedonian writers from the middle of the last century (Dimitrija and Konstantin Miladinov, Rajko Zinzifov, Grigor Prlicev, Georgi Dinkov, Andrea and Konstanti Petkovski, Marko Cepenkov, Kuzman Sapkarev and others), the national language gradually rose to the level of literary forms.
Krste Misirkov has scientifically and precisely explained the ideas for the creation of the Macedonian literary language, in his book "Za Makedonskite Raboti" (1903). These ideas were accepted by the generations after the First and Second World War's so that after the National Liberation War was officially codified by an Act of National Assembly of Macedonia.
The Macedonian literary language, the official language of the Republic of Macedonia has already been in the use for three decades (1945-1972), for the rich and developed literature of the Macedonian's. It was created on the basis of the Central and Western Macedonia dialects and written traditionally from the nineteenth century, as well as from the first quarter of the twentieth century (Miladinovci, Cepenkov, Misirkov and Racin). The vocal system of the Macedonian language consists of five sounds (a, e, i, o, u). There are 26 consonants of which two are "milde" lj, nj hard palate, k and g, dental fricative: s (dz) and trilled: r. The accent is expiratory and immobile - over the third sylable, from the end of the world. Grammar is analytical, while the case system does not exist, except Dative and Accusative, concerning only proper names. There is a definite article in three forms ov, ot, on (covek-ov, dete-to, and dete-no). All the tenses exist, and the Macedonian writing is phonetic. The alphabet is Cyrillic consisting of 31 letters (a, b, v, g, d, dj, e, z, z, s, i, j, k, l, lj, m, n, nj, o, p, r, s, t, k, u, f, h, c, c, dz, s).
Besides its use in administration, public communications, schools, newspapers, radio, and television and theatres, the Macedonian language is used in literary works, translations as well as in foreign universities which hold permanent language courses in Macedonian language.
In conclusion after eleven century's the Macedonian language has gained its reaffirmation.
HELLO ( ZDRAVO )
HOW ARE YOU? ( KAKO SI? )
GOOD ( DOBRO )
WHAT'S YOUR NAME? ( KAKO SE VIKAS? )
FINE, THANK YOU ( DOBRO BLAGODARAM )
GOOD MORNING ( DOBRO UTRO )
GOOD AFTERNOON ( DOBAR DEN )
GOOD EVENING ( DOBRO VECER )
THANK YOU ( BLAGODARAM )
