Abecedar

Last updated

Abecedar
Abecedar 1925 frontpage.jpg
Front page of the original Abecedar, published in 1925
Country Greece
Language Lerin dialect (1925 edition)
Macedonian, Greek, English (2006 edition)
PublisherBatavia, Thessaloniki
Publication date
1925/2006
Media typePaperback
Pages96 (1925 edition)
ISBN 960-89330-0-5 (2006 edition)
OCLC 317448359
Note: "Abecedar" is also the name of the primer (1st grade school book) in Romanian.

The Abecedar was a school book first published in Athens, Greece, in 1925. The book became the subject of controversy with Bulgaria and Serbia when cited by Greece as proof it had fulfilled its international obligations towards its Slavic-speaking minority, because it had been printed in the Latin alphabet rather than the Cyrillic used by the Slavic languages of the southern Balkans. The book was initially published for the Slavic speakers of Greek Macedonia in the Lerin dialect, [1] and today it is published in Standard Macedonian, Standard Greek and Standard English.

Contents

First printing

Following the Treaty of Bucharest in 1913, the southern part of the so-called historic region of Macedonia was annexed to the Kingdom of Greece, with Bulgarians making up a debated portion of the overall population at the time, with estimates ranging from 10% [2] to a 30% plurality. [3] Under the 1920 Treaty of Sèvres, Greece opened schools for minority-language children, and in September 1924 Greece agreed to a protocol with Bulgaria to place its Slavic-speaking minority under the protection of the League of Nations as Bulgarians. However, the Greek parliament refused to ratify the protocol due to objections from Serbia, considering the Slavic speakers to be Serbs rather than Bulgarians, and from Greeks who considered the Slavic speakers to be Greeks rather than Slavs. [4] Vasilis Dendramis, the Greek representative in the League of the Nations, stated that the Macedonian Slav language was neither Bulgarian, nor Serbian, but an independent language. [1]

The Greek government went ahead with the publication in May 1925 of the Abecedar, described by contemporary Greek writers as a primer for "the children of Slav speakers in Greece ... printed in the Latin script and compiled in the Macedonian dialect." [5] The book was commissioned by the Department for the Education of Foreign-Speakers in the Greek Ministry of Education. It was submitted by the Greek government to the League of Nations to support its assertion that it fulfilled obligations towards the Slavic-speaking minority. [4]

The book's publication sparked controversy in Greek Macedonia, along with Bulgaria and Serbia. The Bulgarians and Serbs objected to the book being printed in Latin alphabet, despite the Bulgarian and Serbian languages being written predominately in the Cyrillic alphabet. The Bulgarian representative to the League of Nations criticized it as "incomprehensible." [6] Although some books reached villages in Greek Macedonia, it was never used in their schools. In one village, threats by local police led to residents throwing their copies into a lake. [4] In January 1926, the region of Florina saw extensive protests by Greek and pro-Greek Slavic speakers campaigning against the primer's publication, demanding the government change their policies on minority education. [7]

Anthropologist Loring Danforth has argued the Abecedar was printed in the Latin alphabet "precisely to ensure [ sic ] that it would be rejected by all parties concerned" so "it would not contribute to the development of ties between the Slavic-speaking people of northern Greece and either Serbia or Bulgaria." The Macedonian historiography has seen it as a demonstration that a separate Macedonian language and people existed in northern Greece in 1925, and the Greek government recognized them as such. [4] [8] Bulgarian researchers indicate that this textbook was printed in order to mislead the international organizations that the educational rights of the Bulgarians in Greece are respected – in the moment when the Council of the League of Nations treated the question about protection of the Bulgarian minority in Greece. [9]

According to sociologist Victor Roudometof, the incident led to significant change in the Greek government's stance toward Slavic-speaking citizens. Henceforth, they were deemed to be neither Serbs nor Bulgarians, and their difference was regarded as solely linguistic, not ethnic or political. [7]

The first scientific review of Abecedar was made in 1925 by Bulgarian linguist Lyubomir Miletich who treated this schoolbook as an attempt to create a new Latin alphabet for Bulgarians in Greek Macedonia. [10]

Second and third editions

The Abecedar has been republished twice. A 1993 edition was published by the Macedonian Information Center in Perth, Western Australia. [6] In 2006, an edition was published in Thessaloníki on the initiative of the ethnic Macedonian political party Rainbow. In conformity with its political platform Rainbow argues that the Abecedar is one of a number of "official Greek documents which long before 1945 defined 'Macedonian' as something different from 'Greek.'" [11]

Main characteristics of the Abecedar

The first edition of Abecedar was based on the Bitola-Florina dialect, and the vocabulary is mainly extracted from that dialect. [6] The main characteristic of the Abecedar is that the text uses the Latin alphabet, differing from the Macedonian alphabet which used the Cyrillic alphabet and was standardized nearly two decades later, with standardization being based on the same dialect. [12]

The alphabet used in the Abecedar consists of 27 individual letters. Two of the letters are unique in that they correspond to phonemes not represented in the modern Macedonian alphabet: Îî (for the schwa - Bulgarian ъ) and Üü (indicating palatalization of the preceding consonant). The alphabet uses the digraphs gj, kj, nj, lj and dz to represent the sounds /ɟ/, /c/, /ɲ/, an /lj/ cluster, and /d͡z/, respectively, corresponding to the Macedonian letters Ѓ, Ќ, Њ, Љ and Ѕ.

The alphabet used in the Abecedar with IPA equivalents:

А
/a/
B
/b/
C
/t͡s/
Č
/t͡ʃ/
D
/d/
E
/ɛ/
F
/f/
G
/ɡ/
H
/x/
I
/i/
Î
/ə/
J
/j/
K
/k/
L
/l/
M
/m/
N
/n/
O
/ɔ/
P
/p/
R
/r/
S
/s/
Š
/ʃ/
T
/t/
U
/u/
Ü
/-ʲu/
V
/v/
Z
/z/
Ž
/ʒ/

The book also includes a section about grammar. All the material is supported by corresponding texts extracted and inspired by the daily life of the people for better understanding and learning. In the second edition of the book, besides the old version, the new version of the book used explanations and texts written in the Macedonian alphabet.

Examples from the second edition of the book

See also

Footnotes

  1. 1 2 "Who are the Macedonians", Hugh Poulton, p. 88
  2. A. Angelopoulos, Population Distribution of Greece Today according to Language, National Consciousness and Religion, Balkan Studies, 20 (1979), pp.123-132, :According to the official figures of the League of Nations' Refugee Settlement Commission, the following ethnic groups inhabited Greek Macedonia in 1912: Greek (513.000 or 42.6%), Moslem (475.000 or 39.4%), Bulgarian (119.000 or 9.9%), and others (98.000 or 8.1%)
  3. "Carnegie Endowment for International peace REPORT OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMMISSION". ENDOWMENT WASHINGTON, D.C. 1914.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Danforth, Loring M. The Macedonian Conflict: Ethnic Nationalism in a Transnational World, p. 70. Princeton University Press, 1995. ISBN   0-691-04356-6
  5. Andonovski, Hristo. "The First Macedonian Primer between the Two World Wars - The Abecedar". Macedonian Review. 6:64-69
  6. 1 2 3 Poulton, Hugh. Who are the Macedonians?, pp. 88-89. C. Hurst & Co, 2000. ISBN   1-85065-534-0
  7. 1 2 Roudometof, Victor. Collective Memory, National Identity, and Ethnic Conflict: Greece, Bulgaria, and the Macedonian Question, p. 102. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2002. ISBN   0-275-97648-3
  8. Roumen Dontchev Daskalov, Tchavdar Marinov, Entangled Histories of the Balkans - Volume One: National Ideologies and Language Policies, BRILL, 2013. ISBN   9-00425-076-X, pp. 294–295.
  9. Даскалов, Георги. Българите в Егейска Македония, София 1996, p. 168-169 - Georgi Daskalov, The Bulgarians in Aegean Macedonia - myth or reality; Historical-Demographic research (1900-1990 г.), Macedonian Scientific Institute, Sofia, 1996, ISBN   954-8187-27-2, pp.168-169, Кочев, Иван. За така наречения "помашки език" в Гърция, Македонски Преглед, г. ХІХ, 1996, кн. 4, с. 54 (Professor Kochev, Ivan. About so-called Pomakian language in Greece, Macedonian review, 1996, vol. 4, p. 54)
  10. Милетич, Любомир. Нова латинска писменост за македонските българи под Гърция. - Македонски преглед, С., 1925, г. I, кн. 5 и 6, с. 229-233. (Miletich, Lyubomir. New latin alphabet for Macedonian Bulgarians under Greece, Macedonian review, 1925, vol. 5-6, pp. 229-233)
  11. "Rainbow Sends Letter to Nimetz: Recognition of a Separate Macedonian Identity". Macedonian Information Agency, Skopje, 27 February 2008.
  12. Makedonska gramatika by Krume Kepeski Language, Vol. 27, No. 2 (Apr–Jun, 1951), pp. 180–187

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Old Church Slavonic</span> Medieval Slavic literary language

Old Church Slavonic or Old Slavonic is the first Slavic literary language.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Florina (regional unit)</span> Regional unit in Western Macedonia, Greece

Florina is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the region of Western Macedonia, in the geographic region of Macedonia, Greece. Its capital is the town of Florina with a population of around 49.500 (2019)

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Macedonians (ethnic group)</span> South Slavic ethnic group

Macedonians are a nation and a South Slavic ethnic group native to the region of Macedonia in Southeast Europe. They speak Macedonian, a South Slavic language. The large majority of Macedonians identify as Eastern Orthodox Christians, who share a cultural and historical "Orthodox Byzantine–Slavic heritage" with their neighbours. About two-thirds of all ethnic Macedonians live in North Macedonia and there are also communities in a number of other countries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Demographic history of Macedonia</span> Historical overview of Macedonias demographics

The region of Macedonia is known to have been inhabited since Paleolithic times.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Krste Misirkov</span> Philologist, journalist, historian and ethnographer

Krste Petkov Misirkov was a philologist, journalist, historian and ethnographer from the region of Macedonia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dze</span> Cyrillic letter

Dze is a letter of the Cyrillic script, used in the Macedonian alphabet to represent the voiced alveolar affricate, similar to the pronunciation of ⟨ds⟩ in "needs" or "kids" in English. It is derived from the letter dzelo or zelo of the Early Cyrillic alphabet, and it was used historically for all Slavic languages that use Cyrillic.

The orthography of the Macedonian language includes an alphabet consisting of 31 letters, which is an adaptation of the Cyrillic script, as well as language-specific conventions of spelling and punctuation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Torlakian dialects</span> Group of South Slavic dialects

Torlakian, or Torlak, is a group of transitional South Slavic dialects of southeastern Serbia, Kosovo, northeastern North Macedonia, and northwestern Bulgaria. Torlakian, together with Bulgarian and Macedonian, falls into the Balkan Slavic linguistic area, which is part of the broader Balkan sprachbund. According to UNESCO's list of endangered languages, Torlakian is vulnerable.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Political views on the Macedonian language</span>

The existence and distinctiveness of the Macedonian language is disputed in Bulgaria and the name of the language was disputed by Greece. By signing the Prespa Agreement, Greece accepted the name "Macedonian language" in reference to the official language of North Macedonia.

The romanization of Macedonian is the transliteration of text in Macedonian from the Macedonian Cyrillic alphabet into the Latin alphabet. Romanization can be used for various purposes, such as rendering of proper names in foreign contexts, or for informal writing of Macedonian in environments where Cyrillic is not easily available. Official use of romanization by North Macedonia's authorities is found, for instance, on road signage and in passports. Several different codified standards of transliteration currently exist and there is widespread variability in practice.

The history of the Macedonian language refers to the developmental periods of current-day Macedonian, an Eastern South Slavic language spoken on the territory of North Macedonia. The Macedonian language developed during the Middle Ages from the Old Church Slavonic, the common language spoken by Slavic people.

Minorities in Greece are small in size compared to Balkan regional standards, and the country is largely ethnically homogeneous. This is mainly due to the population exchanges between Greece and neighboring Turkey and Bulgaria, which removed most Muslims and those Christian Slavs who did not identify as Greeks from Greek territory. The treaty also provided for the resettlement of ethnic Greeks from those countries, later to be followed by refugees. There is no official information for the size of the ethnic, linguistic and religious minorities because asking the population questions pertaining to the topic have been abolished since 1951.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Slavic dialects of Greece</span> Dialects of Macedonian and Bulgarian

The Slavic dialects of Greece are the Eastern South Slavic dialects of Macedonian and Bulgarian spoken by minority groups in the regions of Macedonia and Thrace in northern Greece. Usually, dialects in Thrace are classified as Bulgarian, while the dialects in Macedonia are classified as Macedonian, with the exception of some eastern dialects which can also be classified as Bulgarian. Before World War II, most linguists considered all of these dialects to be Bulgarian dialects. However, other linguists opposed this view and considered Macedonian dialects as comprising an independent language distinct from both Bulgarian and Serbo-Croatian.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cyrillic alphabets</span> Related alphabets based on Cyrillic scripts

Numerous Cyrillic alphabets are based on the Cyrillic script. The early Cyrillic alphabet was developed in the 9th century AD and replaced the earlier Glagolitic script developed by the Bulgarian theologians Cyril and Methodius. It is the basis of alphabets used in various languages, past and present, Slavic origin, and non-Slavic languages influenced by Russian. As of 2011, around 252 million people in Eurasia use it as the official alphabet for their national languages. About half of them are in Russia. Cyrillic is one of the most-used writing systems in the world. The creator is Saint Clement of Ohrid from the Preslav literary school in the First Bulgarian Empire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of the Macedonians (ethnic group)</span>

The history of Macedonians has been shaped by population shifts and political developments in the southern Balkans, especially within the region of Macedonia. The ideas of separate Macedonian identity grew in significance after the First World War, both in Vardar and among the left-leaning diaspora in Bulgaria, and were endorsed by the Comintern. During the Second World War, these ideas were supported by the Communist Partisans, but the decisive point in the ethnogenesis of these South Slavic people was the creation of the Socialist Republic of Macedonia after World War II, as a new state in the framework of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

Slavic microlanguages are literary linguistic varieties that exist alongside the better-known Slavic languages of historically prominent nations. The term "literary microlanguages" was coined by Aleksandr Dulichenko in late 1970s; it subsequently became a standard term in Slavistics.

Slavic speakers are a minority population in the northern Greek region of Macedonia, who are mostly concentrated in certain parts of the peripheries of West and Central Macedonia, adjacent to the territory of the state of North Macedonia. Their dialects are called today "Slavic" in Greece, while generally they are considered Macedonian. Some members have formed their own emigrant communities in neighbouring countries, as well as further abroad.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Macedonian Bulgarians</span> Bulgarians from the geographic region of Macedonia

Macedonians or Macedonian Bulgarians, sometimes also referred to as Macedono-Bulgarians, Macedo-Bulgarians, or Bulgaro-Macedonians are a regional, ethnographic group of ethnic Bulgarians, inhabiting or originating from the region of Macedonia. Today, the larger part of this population is concentrated in Blagoevgrad Province but much is spread across the whole of Bulgaria and the diaspora.

The Eastern South Slavic dialects form the eastern subgroup of the South Slavic languages. They are spoken mostly in Bulgaria and North Macedonia, and adjacent areas in the neighbouring countries. They form the so-called Balkan Slavic linguistic area, which encompasses the southeastern part of the dialect continuum of South Slavic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Slavic speakers in Ottoman Macedonia</span>

Slavic-speakers inhabiting the Ottoman-ruled region of Macedonia had settled in the area since the Slavic migrations during the Middle Ages and formed a distinct ethnolinguistic group. While Greek was spoken in the urban centers and in a coastal zone in the south of the region, Slav-speakers were abundant in its rural hinterland and were predominantly occupied in agriculture. Habitually known and identifying as "Bulgarian" on account of their language, they also considered themselves as "Rum", members of the community of Orthodox Christians.

References