Dialects of Macedonian


The dialects of Macedonian comprise the Slavic dialects spoken in the Republic of North Macedonia as well as some varieties spoken in the wider geographic region of Macedonia. They are part of the dialect continuum of South Slavic languages that joins the Macedonian language with Bulgarian to the east and Torlakian to the north. The precise delimitation between these languages is fleeting and controversial.
Macedonian authors tend to treat all dialects spoken in the geographical region of Macedonia as Macedonian, including those spoken in the westernmost part of Bulgaria, whereas Bulgarian authors treat all Macedonian dialects as part of the Bulgarian language. Prior to the codification of standard Macedonian in 1945, the dialects of Macedonia were for the most part classified as Bulgarian. In Greece, the identification of the dialects spoken by the local Slavophone minority with either Bulgarian or Macedonian is often avoided, and these dialects are instead described simply as "Slavic", Dopia, Stariski or Našinski.
Linguistically, the dialects of Macedonia in the wider sense can be divided into Eastern and Western groups based on a large group of features. In addition, a more detailed classification can be based on the modern reflexes of the Proto-Slavic reduced vowels, vocalic sonorants and the back nasal. That classification distinguishes between the following 3 major groups:

Dialects

Northern dialects
  1. Tetovo dialect
  2. Skopska Crna Gora dialect
  3. Gora dialect
  1. Kumanovo dialect
  2. Kratovo dialect
  3. Kriva Palanka dialect
  4. Ovče Pole dialect
Western Dialects:
  1. Prilep-Bitola dialect
  2. Kičevo-Poreče dialect
  3. Skopje-Veles dialect
  1. Gostivar dialect
  2. Reka dialect
  3. Galičnik dialect
  4. Debar dialect
  5. Drimkol-Golo Brdo dialect
  6. Vevčani-Radožda dialect
  7. Struga dialect
  8. Ohrid dialect
  9. Upper Prespa dialect
  10. Lower Prespa dialect
Eastern and Southern dialects
  1. Tikveš-Mariovo dialect
  2. Štip-Kočani dialect
  3. Strumica dialect
  4. Maleševo-Pirin dialect
  1. Nestram-Kostenar dialect
  2. Korča dialect
  3. Kostur dialect
  1. Solun-Voden dialect
  2. Ser-Drama-Lagadin-Nevrokop dialect
Most linguists classify the dialects in the Pirin region of Bulgaria and in the far east of Greek Macedonia as Bulgarian and the dialects in the rest of Greece and in Republic of North Macedonia as Macedonian.

Variation in consonants

As far as consonantal features are concerned, the entire Western region is distinguished from the East by loss of and the loss of in the intervocalic position : =, =. The Eastern region preserves and intervocalic. The East is also characterised by the development of epenthetic before original where the West has epenthetic : Eastern but Western. The diphonemic reflexes are most characteristic of the dialects of Greek Macedonia and Blagoevgrad Province, Kostur-Korča and Ohrid-Prespa. The Serres – Nevrokop dialects have a series of phonemically palatalised consonants.

Variation in word stress and its effects on vowels

The Western dialects generally have fixed stress, antepenultimate in the Republic of North Macedonia, and penultimate in Greece and Albania. The Eastern region, along with the neighbouring Bulgarian dialects, has various non-fixed stress systems. In Lower Vardar and Serres-Nevrokop unstressed are reduced to. The reduction of unstressed vowels is characteristic of East Bulgarian as opposed to West Bulgarian dialects, so these dialects are regarded by Bulgarian linguists as transitional between East and West Bulgarian.