Macedonian language

Macedonian language
Македонски јазик Makedonski jazik
Pronunciation	[maˈkɛdɔnski]
Native to	Republic of North Macedonia, Australia, Serbia, Albania, Germany, France, Greece, Italy, United States, Canada, Turkey
Region	The Balkans
Native speakers	1.6[1] - 3 million[2]
Language family	Indo-European Balto-Slavic Slavic South Slavic Eastern South Slavic Macedonian language
Writing system	Cyrillic (Macedonian variant)
Official status
Official language in	North Macedonia recognised as minority language in parts of:  Albania[3]  Kosovo[4]  Serbia[5]  Romania[6]  Bosnia and Herzegovina[7]
Regulated by	Macedonian Language Institute "Krste Misirkov" at the Ss. Cyril and Methodius University of Skopje
Language codes
ISO 639-1	mk
ISO 639-2	mac (B) mkd (T)
ISO 639-3	mkd
Countries with significant Macedonian-speaking populations

Macedonian language (Macedonian: Македонски јазик, romanized: Makedonski jazik) is a Eastern South Slavic language spoken mainly in North Macedonia and other parts of the Balkans, including South-West Bulgaria, Eastern Albania and Gora region in Kosovo. The Macedonian language has many similarities with Bulgarian and Serbian. Most Bulgarian historians do not recognize the language and label Macedonian as a dialect of Bulgarian, as do some linguists. Some estimate that there are around 3 million speakers in the world.

1. ↑ Although the precise number of speakers is unknown, figures of between 1.6 million (from ethnologue) and 2-2.5 million have been cited, see Topolinjska (1998) harvcoltxt error: no target: CITEREFTopolinjska1998 (help) and Friedman (1985) harvcoltxt error: no target: CITEREFFriedman1985 (help). The general academic consensus is that there are approximately 2 million speakers of the Macedonian language, accepting that "it is difficult to determine the total number of speakers of Macedonian due to the official policies of the neighbouring Balkan states and the fluid nature of emigration" Friedman (1985:?) harvcoltxt error: no target: CITEREFFriedman1985 (help).
2. ↑ http://www.seelrc.org:8080/grammar/mainframe.jsp?nLanguageID=3
3. ↑ Hill (1999:?) harvcoltxt error: no target: CITEREFHill1999 (help)
4. ↑ Focus News (4 јули 2003) Kosovo Government Acquires Macedonian language and grammar books for Gorani Minority Schools
5. ↑ Macedonian language, official in Dužine and Jabuka
6. ↑ „European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages“ Archived 2012-05-22 at the Wayback Machine. Архивирано од изворникот на 2018-12-26. Посетено на 2009-09-06.
7. ↑ "Reservations and Declarations for Treaty No.148 – European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages". Council of Europe. Archived from the original on 8 December 2015. Retrieved 25 April 2017.