collection from linguists and intellectuals about the language of FYROM

[Ptolemy]

apart from the word Bugari which is the true national name of the Slavic Macedonians, which shows that they adopted the form of the name "Bulgarians" given to them by the Serbs

A. Vaillant, "Le probleme du Slave Macedonien", in "Bulletin de la Societe de Linguistique de Paris" 39 (1938), p.205.

Indeed, the macedonian language is a product essentialy of political origin

V. Pisani, "Il Macedonico", in, "Paideia" 12 (1957), p.250.

Macedonian national conscience and from that conscientious promotion of Macedonian as a written language, first appears just in the beginning of our century and is strengthened particularly during in the years between the two world wars

Fr. Scholz, "Slavische Etymologie", 1966, p.61.

"From a strictly linguistic point of view Macedonian can be called a Bulgarian dialect, as structurally it is most similar to Bulgarian.

--- Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics (1994)

It [Macedonian language] has not created by natural means, as all other languages in the world, but was created by political circumstances. It is an absurd, that it was created on a certain date - namely August 2nd, 1944, and at certain place - the monastery "Prohor Pchinski", with a decree. Such an event has not happened to any other language in the world.

With other words, the very soul of the so-called Macedonian language is of no linguistical but of political nature, which is the source of todays political problems between the Republic of Macedonia and Bulgaria

Prof. Dr Ivan Kochev - Sofia University, newspaper "Kontinent" - 17.10.1997

[Ptolemy]

Whoever is familiar with the basic structural principles of the two neighboring languages must, even though he may not be a philologist, arrive, on the basis of the examples cited here, at the same conclusion to which also the French slavicist, Louis Leger, came, and I repeat his words: The Macedonian Slavs are Bulgarians and speak a Bulgarian dialect.

Czech Balkanologist Vladimir Sis in his book about Macedonia

In the language of the Serbians around Prizren it is clearly noticeable how much it tends to resemble the Bulgarian dialects. It would be interesting to investigate how this blend of the Serbian language with the Macedo-Bulgarian has come about.

Russian scholar Hilferding in his book An Excursion Into Hersegovina And Old Serbia

Whatever segment of this language we analyze, again and again it becomes evident that we deal here not with the Serbian, but the Bulgarian language. All attempts of Serbian chauvinists to design the Bulgarian language as spoken in Macedonia as a Serbian dialect or as a mixed language of indefinite character will therefore end in failure. One could pose the question whether, perhaps, the Macedonian Slavs haven't their own language, something in between Serbian and Bulgarian. Such an assumption, however, would be absolutely unjustified, for, as we have seen, in phonology, morphology and syntax Macedonian Bulgarian and Bulgarian proper harmonize in every respect. Certain exclusively Macedonian peculiarities cannot essentially change this picture. In the lexicon there occurs a number of words of Greek or Turkish origin which do not exist in the Serbian or Bulgarian vocabulary. In proportion to the overall lexicon, however, their number is quite insignificant, as can be seen from the linguistic samples adduced here, which clearly demonstrate that Macedonian can only be considered a Bulgarian Dialect

German Balkanologist and linguist, Professor Guslav Wcigand, Ethnographic von Macedonien, 1924

[Ptolemy]

Macedonian [language] is similar to Bulgarian and is sometimes been regarded as a variety of that language

'Encyclopedia of Bilingualism and Bilingual Education' P. 415, by Colin Baker, Sylvia Prys Jones

[Ptolemy]

'Macedonian' [language] was not distinguished from Bulgarian for most of its history. Constantine and Methodius themselves came from Macedonian Thessalonika; Their old Bulgarian is therefore at the same time "Old Macedonian." No Macedonian literature dates from earlier than the nineteenth century, when a nationalist movement came to the fore and a literary language was established, first written with Greek letters, then in Cyricllic. From the point of view of Bulgaria, Macedonian is simply a Bulgarian dialect.

"Indo-European Language and Culture: An introduction" P. 378, By Fortson

[Ptolemy]

The Macedonia of the ancient kingom of northern Greece is probably nothing other than a northern Greek dialect of Doric: C. Brixhe/A Panayotou Le Macedonien in Langues indo-europeennes 1994 p 205-220; SEG 43 1993 Nr 434; C Briche in Kata Dialekton 1996 [1999] p.41ff.

In contrast in the present Macedonia, of which the capital is SKopje, a Southern Slavic language, similar to Bulgarian is spoken.

"Indo-European Lingiustics", By Michael Meier-Brugger, Matthias (CON) Fritz, Manfred (CON) Mayrhofer, Charles (TRN) Gertmenian, Page 28