The
grammar
In linguistics, the grammar of a natural language is its set of structure, structural constraints on speakers' or writers' composition of clause (linguistics), clauses, phrases, and words. The term can also refer to the study of such constraint ...
of
Macedonian is, in many respects, similar to that of some other
Balkan
The Balkans ( ), also known as the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throughout the who ...
languages (constituent languages of the ''
Balkan sprachbund''), especially
Bulgarian
Bulgarian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to the country of Bulgaria
* Bulgarians, a South Slavic ethnic group
* Bulgarian language, a Slavic language
* Bulgarian alphabet
* A citizen of Bulgaria, see Demographics of Bulgaria
* Bul ...
. Macedonian exhibits a number of grammatical features that distinguish it from most other
Slavic languages
The Slavic languages, also known as the Slavonic languages, are Indo-European languages spoken primarily by the Slavic peoples and their descendants. They are thought to descend from a proto-language called Proto-Slavic, spoken during the Ear ...
, such as the elimination of
case declension, the development of a suffixed
definite
In linguistics, definiteness is a semantic feature of noun phrases, distinguishing between referents or senses that are identifiable in a given context (definite noun phrases) and those which are not (indefinite noun phrases). The prototypical d ...
article
Article often refers to:
* Article (grammar), a grammatical element used to indicate definiteness or indefiniteness
* Article (publishing), a piece of nonfictional prose that is an independent part of a publication
Article may also refer to:
G ...
, the lack of an
infinitival
Infinitive ( abbreviated ) is a linguistics term for certain verb forms existing in many languages, most often used as non-finite verbs. As with many linguistic concepts, there is not a single definition applicable to all languages. The word is der ...
verb, and the constructions with ima/nema formed with the auxiliary "''to have''", among others.
The first printed Macedonian grammar was published by
Gjorgjija Pulevski
Georgi Pulevski, sometimes also Gjorgji, Gjorgjija Pulevski or Đorđe Puljevski ( mk, Ѓорѓи Пулевски or Ѓорѓија Пулевски, bg, Георги Пулевски, sr, Ђорђе Пуљевски; 1817–1895) was a Mijak ...
in 1880.
Gjorgjija Pulevski
on the site of MANU.
Orthography
The Macedonian orthography (правопис, ''pravopis'') encompasses the spelling
Spelling is a set of conventions that regulate the way of using graphemes (writing system) to represent a language in its written form. In other words, spelling is the rendering of speech sound (phoneme) into writing (grapheme). Spelling is one ...
and punctuation
Punctuation (or sometimes interpunction) is the use of spacing, conventional signs (called punctuation marks), and certain typographical devices as aids to the understanding and correct reading of written text, whether read silently or aloud. An ...
of the Macedonian language.
Alphabet
The modern Macedonian alphabet was developed by linguists in the period after the Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, who based their alphabet on the phonetic alphabet of Vuk Stefanović Karadžić, though a similar writing system was used by Krste Misirkov
Krste Petkov Misirkov ( bg, Кръсте (Кръстьо) Петков Мисирков; mk, Крсте Петков Мисирков, ; 18 November 1874 – 26 July 1926) was a philologist, journalist, historian and ethnographer from the regio ...
in the late 19th century. The Macedonian language had previously been written using the Early Cyrillic alphabet
The Early Cyrillic alphabet, also called classical Cyrillic or paleo-Cyrillic, is a writing system that was developed in the First Bulgarian Empire during the late 9th century on the basis of the Greek alphabet for the Slavic people living ...
and later using Cyrillic
, bg, кирилица , mk, кирилица , russian: кириллица , sr, ћирилица, uk, кирилиця
, fam1 = Egyptian hieroglyphs
, fam2 = Proto-Sinaitic
, fam3 = Phoenician
, fam4 = G ...
with local adaptations from either the Serbian or Bulgarian
Bulgarian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to the country of Bulgaria
* Bulgarians, a South Slavic ethnic group
* Bulgarian language, a Slavic language
* Bulgarian alphabet
* A citizen of Bulgaria, see Demographics of Bulgaria
* Bul ...
alphabets.
The following table provides the upper and lower case forms of the Macedonian alphabet, along with the IPA
IPA commonly refers to:
* India pale ale, a style of beer
* International Phonetic Alphabet, a system of phonetic notation
* Isopropyl alcohol, a chemical compound
IPA may also refer to:
Organizations International
* Insolvency Practitioners ...
value for each letter:
The cursive version of the alphabet is slightly different:
Punctuation
Punctuation
Punctuation (or sometimes interpunction) is the use of spacing, conventional signs (called punctuation marks), and certain typographical devices as aids to the understanding and correct reading of written text, whether read silently or aloud. An ...
(интерпункција, ''interpunkcija'') marks are one or two part graphical marks used in writing, denoting tonal progress, pauses, sentence type (syntactic
In linguistics, syntax () is the study of how words and morphemes combine to form larger units such as phrases and sentences. Central concerns of syntax include word order, grammatical relations, hierarchical sentence structure (constituency), ...
use), abbreviation
An abbreviation (from Latin ''brevis'', meaning ''short'') is a shortened form of a word or phrase, by any method. It may consist of a group of letters or words taken from the full version of the word or phrase; for example, the word ''abbrevia ...
s, et cetera.
Marks used in Macedonian include periods (.), question mark
The question mark (also known as interrogation point, query, or eroteme in journalism) is a punctuation mark that indicates an interrogative clause or phrase in many languages.
History
In the fifth century, Syriac Bible manuscripts used ques ...
s (?), exclamation mark
The exclamation mark, , or exclamation point (American English), is a punctuation mark usually used after an interjection or exclamation to indicate strong feelings or to show emphasis. The exclamation mark often marks the end of a sentence, f ...
s (!), commas (,), semicolon
The semicolon or semi-colon is a symbol commonly used as orthographic punctuation. In the English language, a semicolon is most commonly used to link (in a single sentence) two independent clauses that are closely related in thought. When a ...
s (;), colons (:), dash
The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...
es (–), hyphen
The hyphen is a punctuation mark used to join words and to separate syllables of a single word. The use of hyphens is called hyphenation. ''Son-in-law'' is an example of a hyphenated word. The hyphen is sometimes confused with dashes (figure d ...
s (-), ellipses (...), different types of inverted commas and quotation mark
Quotation marks (also known as quotes, quote marks, speech marks, inverted commas, or talking marks) are punctuation marks used in pairs in various writing systems to set off direct speech, a quotation, or a phrase. The pair consists of an ...
s ( ‚‘, „“), bracket
A bracket is either of two tall fore- or back-facing punctuation marks commonly used to isolate a segment of text or data from its surroundings. Typically deployed in symmetric pairs, an individual bracket may be identified as a 'left' or 'r ...
s ((), [], ) (which are for syntactical uses), as well as apostrophe (mark), apostrophes (',’), slash (punctuation), solidi (/), equal signs (=), and so forth.
Syntax
The canonical word order
In linguistics, word order (also known as linear order) is the order of the syntactic constituents of a language. Word order typology studies it from a cross-linguistic perspective, and examines how different languages employ different orders. C ...
of Macedonian is SVO (subject–verb–object), but word order is variable. Word order may be changed for poetic effect (inversion
Inversion or inversions may refer to:
Arts
* , a French gay magazine (1924/1925)
* ''Inversion'' (artwork), a 2005 temporary sculpture in Houston, Texas
* Inversion (music), a term with various meanings in music theory and musical set theory
* ...
is common in poetry
Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings i ...
).
Generally speaking, the syntactic constituents of the language are::
:''sentence'' or ''clause'' - the sentence can be simple and more complex.
:''noun phrase'' or ''phrase'' - one or more words that function as single unit.
:''complex sentence'' - a combination of two sentences and clauses.
:''text'' - a set of sentences that are syntactically and semantically linked.
Morphology
Words, even though they represent separate linguistic units, are linked together according to the characteristics they possess. Therefore, the words in Macedonian can be grouped into various groups depending on the criteria that is taken into consideration. Macedonian words can be grouped according to the meaning they express, their form and their function in the sentence. As a result of that, there are three types of classification of the Macedonian words: ''semantic'', ''morphological'' and ''syntactic classification''.
According to the semantic classification of the words, in the language there are eleven word classes: ''nouns, adjectives, numbers, pronouns, verbs, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, particles, interjections and modal words''.
Nouns, adjectives, numbers, pronouns and verbs belong to the '' open word class'', whereas the prepositions, adverbs, conjunctions, particles, interjections and modal words belong to the '' closed word class''. This is the morphological classification of the words. Finally, there are two large groups according to the syntactic classification. The larger part of the words belong to group of ''lexical word
In grammar, a part of speech or part-of-speech (abbreviated as POS or PoS, also known as word class or grammatical category) is a category of words (or, more generally, of lexical items) that have similar grammatical properties. Words that are ass ...
s'', and such words are: nouns, adjectives, numbers, pronouns, verbs, adverbs and modal words. The prepositions, conjunctions, particles and interjections belong to the group of ''function word
In linguistics, function words (also called functors) are words that have little lexical meaning or have ambiguous meaning and express grammatical relationships among other words within a sentence, or specify the attitude or mood of the speaker. ...
s''.
Nouns
Macedonian noun
A noun () is a word that generally functions as the name of a specific object or set of objects, such as living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, or ideas.Example nouns for:
* Living creatures (including people, alive, d ...
s (именки, ''imenki'') belong to one of three genders (''masculine'', ''feminine'' and ''neuter'') and are inflected
In linguistic morphology, inflection (or inflexion) is a process of word formation in which a word is modified to express different grammatical categories such as tense, case, voice, aspect, person, number, gender, mood, animacy, and defini ...
for number
A number is a mathematical object used to count, measure, and label. The original examples are the natural numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and so forth. Numbers can be represented in language with number words. More universally, individual numbers c ...
(''singular'' and ''plural''), and marginally for case. The gender opposition is not distinctively marked in the plural.
The Macedonian nominal system distinguishes two numbers
A number is a mathematical object used to count, measure, and label. The original examples are the natural numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and so forth. Numbers can be represented in language with number words. More universally, individual numbers can ...
(''singular'' and ''plural''), three genders (''masculine'', ''feminine'' and ''neuter''), case and definiteness
In linguistics, definiteness is a semantic feature of noun phrases, distinguishing between referents or senses that are identifiable in a given context (definite noun phrases) and those which are not (indefinite noun phrases). The prototypical d ...
. Definiteness is expressed by three definite article
An article is any member of a class of dedicated words that are used with noun phrases to mark the identifiability of the referents of the noun phrases. The category of articles constitutes a part of speech.
In English, both "the" and "a(n)" ar ...
s pertaining to the position of the object (''unspecified'', ''proximal'', and ''distal'') which are suffixed to the noun.
Definiteness
The article
Article often refers to:
* Article (grammar), a grammatical element used to indicate definiteness or indefiniteness
* Article (publishing), a piece of nonfictional prose that is an independent part of a publication
Article may also refer to:
G ...
(член, ''člen'') is postfixed, as in Bulgarian
Bulgarian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to the country of Bulgaria
* Bulgarians, a South Slavic ethnic group
* Bulgarian language, a Slavic language
* Bulgarian alphabet
* A citizen of Bulgaria, see Demographics of Bulgaria
* Bul ...
, Albanian
Albanian may refer to:
*Pertaining to Albania in Southeast Europe; in particular:
**Albanians, an ethnic group native to the Balkans
**Albanian language
**Albanian culture
**Demographics of Albania, includes other ethnic groups within the country ...
and Romanian
Romanian may refer to:
*anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania
**Romanians, an ethnic group
**Romanian language, a Romance language
***Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language
**Romanian cuisine, traditional ...
. In Macedonian there is only the definite article
An article is any member of a class of dedicated words that are used with noun phrases to mark the identifiability of the referents of the noun phrases. The category of articles constitutes a part of speech.
In English, both "the" and "a(n)" ar ...
. One feature that has no parallel in any other standard Balkan language[Standard Bulgarian has only the unspecified form, although three definite article forms exist in certain Bulgarian dialects, notably the vernaculars of Tran and parts of the ]Rhodopes
The Rhodopes (; bg, Родопи, ; el, Ροδόπη, ''Rodopi''; tr, Rodoplar) are a mountain range in Southeastern Europe, and the largest by area in Bulgaria, with over 83% of its area in the southern part of the country and the remainder in ...
. is the existence of three definite articles pertaining to position of the object: ''medial and/or unspecified'', ''proximal'' (or ''close'') and ''distal'' (or ''distant'').
Examples:
* Јас го видов човекот (''Jas go vidov čovekot'', 'I saw the man', medial): the subject, 'man', is either close to the interlocutor or its position is unspecified;
* Јас го видов човеков (''Jas go vidov čovekov'', 'I saw the man', proximal): the subject, 'man', is close to the speaker (and possibly the interlocutor(s) as well);
* Јас го видов човекон (''Jas go vidov čovekon'', 'I saw the man', distal): the subject, 'man', is far from both the speaker and the interlocutor(s).
In the masculine singular, −от/−ов/−он is used after a consonant, −та/−ва/−на after −а (e.g. судијата 'the judge'), and −то/−во/−но after a vowel other than −а (e.g. таткото 'the father').
Vocative case
Macedonian lost the traditional (Slavic) grammatical cases during its development and became an analytic language
In linguistic typology, an analytic language is a language that conveys relationships between words in sentences primarily by way of ''helper'' words (particles, prepositions, etc.) and word order, as opposed to using inflections (changing the ...
. The case endings were replaced with a complex system of prepositions; however, there are still some traces left of the vocative case in contemporary Macedonian. The vocative case
In grammar, the vocative case (abbreviated ) is a grammatical case which is used for a noun that identifies a person (animal, object, etc.) being addressed, or occasionally for the noun modifiers ( determiners, adjectives, participles, and num ...
is formed by adding the endings '–o' or '–e' (for feminine nouns), '–u' (for masculine monosyllabic nouns), and '–e' (for masculine polysyllabic nouns). For example, пријател ('friend') takes the form of пријателе ('friend!').[Compare with other languages in the Balkan sprachbund; Bulgarian: ''приятел'' and ''приятелю''; Serbo-Croatian: ''prijatelj'' and ''prijatelju''; Greek: ''φίλος'' and ''φίλε''; Romanian: ''prieten'' and ''prietene''.] The vocative is used almost exclusively for singular masculine and feminine nouns.
Pronouns
Macedonian pronouns decline for case ('падеж'), i.e., their function in a phrase as subject (ex. јас 'I'), direct object (него 'him'), or object of a preposition (од неа 'from her').
Based on their meaning and their function in a sentence, pronouns fall into one of the following categories:
Verbs
Macedonian has a complex system of verbs (глаголи, ''glagoli''). Generally speaking Macedonian verbs have the following characteristics, or categories as they are called in the Macedonian studies
Macedonian studies ( mk, Македонистика ''Makedonistika'') is a science that studies the Macedonian language. A person who studies Macedonian is called a Macedonian specialist (Macedonian: ''Македонист / Makedonist'').
Prom ...
: tense, mood, person, type, transitiveness, voice, gender, and number.
According to the categorization, all Macedonian verbs are divided into three major subgroups: ''a-subgroup, e-subgroup'' and ''i-subgroup''. Furthermore, the e-subgroup is divided into three more subgroups: a-, e- and i-subgroups. This division is done according to the ending (or the last vowel) of the verb in the simple present, singular, third person.
The Macedonian simple verb forms are:
* Present tense
The present tense (abbreviated or ) is a grammatical tense whose principal function is to locate a situation or event in the present time. The present tense is used for actions which are happening now. In order to explain and understand present ...
(сегашно време)
* Imperfect
The imperfect (abbreviated ) is a verb form that combines past tense (reference to a past time) and imperfective aspect (reference to a continuing or repeated event or state). It can have meanings similar to the English "was walking" or "used to w ...
(минато определено несвршено времe, 'past definite incomplete tense')
* Aorist
Aorist (; abbreviated ) verb forms usually express perfective aspect and refer to past events, similar to a preterite. Ancient Greek grammar had the aorist form, and the grammars of other Indo-European languages and languages influenced by the I ...
(минато определено свршено време, 'past definite complete tense')
* Imperative (заповеден начин)
* Verbal l-form (глаголска л-форма)
* Verbal adjective (глаголска придавка)
* Verbal noun
A verbal noun or gerundial noun is a verb form that functions as a noun. An example of a verbal noun in English grammar, English is 'sacking' as in the sentence "The sacking of the city was an epochal event" (''sacking'' is a noun formed from the ...
(глаголска именка)
* Verbal adverb (глаголски прилог)
The Macedonian complex verb forms are:
* Perfect of imperfective verbs (минато неопределено несвршено време, 'past indefinite incomplete tense')
* Perfect of perfective verbs (минато неопределено свршено време, 'past indefinite complete tense')
* Past perfect
The pluperfect (shortening of plusquamperfect), usually called past perfect in English, is a type of verb form, generally treated as a grammatical tense in certain languages, relating to an action that occurred prior to an aforementioned time i ...
tense (предминато време)
* Future tense
In grammar, a future tense (abbreviated ) is a verb form that generally marks the event described by the verb as not having happened yet, but expected to happen in the future. An example of a future tense form is the French ''aimera'', meaning ...
(идно време)
* Future-in-the-past (минато-идно време)
* Future perfect tense (идно прекажано)
* Potential mood (можен начин)
* Have-construction (има-конструкција)
* Be-construction (сум-конструкција)
* To-construction (да-конструкција)
Simple verb forms
= Present tense
=
The Present tense (сегашно време, ''segašno vreme'') is used to express present actions and actions that overlap with the moment of speaking and this meaning is expressed with the use of imperfective verbs. Besides that, the Present tense can be formed with the perfective verbs as well, but then it is not true present action, but more likely future in the past. Besides the present action, with the forms of present tense there is possibility to express:
* ''past events'' - the forms are the same, but the meaning refers to certain past event. This usually occurs when telling stories or retelling events.
* ''future events'' - the forms are the same, but the meaning refers to the future. Usually, these types of events are time-table or schedule of tasks that are planned.
* ''general facts'' - expressing common knowledge that is always same.
* ''routines and habits''
* ''expressing preparedness and events that occur at same time'' - the speaker expresses that (s)he is ready to do certain tasks and expressing two actions that occur at the same time.
The forms of the Present simple
The simple present, present simple or present indefinite is one of the verb forms associated with the present tense in modern English. It is commonly referred to as a tense, although it also encodes certain information about aspect in addition ...
in Macedonian are made by adding suffixes to the verb stems. In the following tables are shown the suffixes that are used in Macedonian and one example for each verb subgroup.
''Note: ''∅'' indicates a zero ending.''
Here are some examples where the usage of Present tense in Macedonian is applied:
: Јас јадам леб. (''Jas jadam leb.'', 'I eat bread.')
: Додека тој јаде, ти чисти ја собата. (''Dodeka toj jade, ti čisti ja sobata.'', 'While he eats, you clean the room.')
: Автобусот за Скопје тргнува во 5 часот. (''Avtobusot za Skopje trgnuva vo 5 časot.'', 'The bus for Skopje leaves at 5 o'clock.')
: Ако ја грееш водата, таа врие. (''Ako ja greeš vodata, taa vrie.'', 'If you heat the water, it boils.')
: Секој ден јас гледам сериски филм. (''Sekoj den jas gledam seriski film.'', 'Every day I watch a serial film.')
= Imperfect
=
The imperfect
The imperfect (abbreviated ) is a verb form that combines past tense (reference to a past time) and imperfective aspect (reference to a continuing or repeated event or state). It can have meanings similar to the English "was walking" or "used to w ...
, or referred to as 'past definite incomplete tense' (минато определено несвршено време,''minato opredeleno nesvršeno vreme''), is used to express past actions where the speaker is a witness of it or took participation in it. In order to express such an action or state, imperfective verbs are used. Also, there is a possibility to express an action with perfective verbs, but then before the verb there should be some of these prepositions or particles: ако (''ako'', 'if'), да (''da'', 'to') or ќе (''ḱe'', 'will'). It is important to mention that when perfective verbs are used, then there is expression of conditional mood The conditional mood (abbreviated ) is a grammatical mood used in conditional sentences to express a proposition whose validity is dependent on some condition, possibly counterfactual.
It may refer to a distinct verb form that expresses the condit ...
, past-in-the-future or other perfective aspects, but not witnessed past actions. Besides the basic usage of the Imperfect, with this tense in Macedonian can be expressed and:
* ''conditional mood'' - as it is mentioned with perfective verbs,
* ''weak command'' - usually a polite request,
* ''past actions that were repeated for some period''
* ''preparedness'' - the speaker expresses that (s)he is ready to do certain tasks.
The suffixes used to make the Imperfect are:
* - ''The suffix -ja is used for verbs of I- and E-subgroups where the word stem ends on vowel,
for example mie - mieja (wash - were washing), pee - peeja (sing - were singing).''
As an exemplification of the mentioned usages, here are some sentences:
:Јас ловев зајаци. (''Jas lovev zajaci.'', 'I was hunting rabbits.')
:Ако не брзаше, ќе немаше грешки. (''Ako ne brzaše, ḱe nemaše greški.'', 'If you weren't rushing, you would not make mistakes.')
:Да ми помогнеше малку? (''Da mi pomogneše malku?'', 'What about helping me a bit?')
:Секој ден стануваше во 7 часот и готвеше кафе. (''Sekoj den stanuvaše vo 7 časot i gotveše kafe.'', 'He was getting up every day at 7 o'clock and making coffee.')
= Aorist
=
The aorist
Aorist (; abbreviated ) verb forms usually express perfective aspect and refer to past events, similar to a preterite. Ancient Greek grammar had the aorist form, and the grammars of other Indo-European languages and languages influenced by the I ...
, also known as 'past definite complete tense' (минато определено свршено време, ''minato opredeleno svršeno vreme''), is a verb form that is used to express past finished and completed action or event, with or without the speaker's participation in it. The duration of the action that is expressed with the aorist can be long or short. For aorist, in Macedonian are used perfective verbs, but sometimes, though very rarely, in non-standard folk speech there may be usage of imperfective verbs. Besides this basic usage, the aorist also can be used to express:
* ''future event'' - the form is standard aorist, but the meaning refers to the future, usually near future as a consequence of the previous action.
* ''condition'' - past condition
* ''general fact'' - rarely used, usually in popular proverbs.
The formation of the aorist for most verbs is not complex, but there are numerous small subcategories which must be learned. While all verbs in the aorist (except ''сум'') take the same endings, there are complexities in the aorist stem vowel and possible consonant alternations.
''Note: ''∅'' indicates a zero ending.'' The suffix -ja is used for verbs of the I-division of I-subgroup and for the division of E-subgroup without vowel, i.e. ''izmi - izmija (wash - washed)''
The following tables show the paradigm of the aorist for all three major verb subgroups and their divisions:
In the following section are given some examples about the mentioned usage above:
:Ние прочитавме книга. (''Nie pročitavme kniga'', 'We read a book.')
:Го положив ли испитот, те честам пијачка. (''Go položiv li ispitot, te čestam pijačka.'', 'Should I pass the exam, I'll treat you to a drink.')
:Една вечер спав надвор. (''Edna večer spav nadvor.'', 'One night I slept outside.')
Complex verb forms
= Perfect of perfective verbs
=
The Macedonian tense минато неопределено свршено време (''minato neopredeleno svršeno vreme'', 'past indefinite complete tense'), or referred to as 'perfect of perfective verbs', functions similarly as the English Present perfect simple. The forms of the Macedonian present perfect are formed with the forms of 'to be' in present tense plus the L-form of the conjuncted verb, which is always perfective. Important to note is that for third person singular there is no presence of the verb 'to be'. This form of the Macedonian perfect is sometimes called 'sum-perfect'. The conjugation of one perfective verb in Macedonian looks as the following one, which is the verb прочита (''pročita'', 'read'):
As an example of this tense:
Macedonian developed an alternative form of the sum-perfect, which is formed with the auxiliary verb 'to have' and a verbal adjective in neutral, instead of the verb 'to be' and verbal l-form. This is sometimes called 'ima-perfect'.
There is a slight difference in meaning between 'sum-perfect' and 'ima-perfect'.
= Perfect of imperfective verbs
=
The English tense 'Present perfect continuous' functions similarly as the Macedonian tense минато неопределено несвршено време (''minato neopredeleno nesvršeno vreme'', 'past indefinite incomplete tense') or known as 'perfect of imperfective verbs'. This perfect tense is formed similarly as the perfect of perfective verbs i.e. with the present tense forms of 'to be' and the L-form of the conjuncted verb, but this time the verb is imperfective. Important to note is that for third person singular there is no presence of the verb 'to be'. The conjugation of one imperfective verb in Macedonian looks as the following one, which is the verb ''чита'' (read):
As an example of this tense:
Like the perfect of perfective verbs, Macedonian also developed an alternative form of the sum-perfect, which is formed with the auxiliary verb 'to have' and a verbal adjective in neutral, instead of the verb 'to be' and verbal l-form. This is sometimes called 'ima-perfect'.
There is also a slight difference in meaning between 'sum-perfect' and 'ima-perfect' regarding perfect of imperfective verbs. Ima-perfect usually denotes resultative meaning.
= Future tense
=
With the forms of future tense in Macedonian are expressed actions that are planned to happen in future. Usually, when we speak about future, we mean expressing events that should happen soon, however, there is a special form in Macedonian to express future events from past perspective, or event that happened after some other event and this is treated as separate tense called 'Future-in-the-past'.
The simple future tense is formed by adding the clitic ќе (''ḱe'', 'will') to the inflected present tense form of the verb. In this respect, both Macedonian and Bulgarian differ from other South Slavic languages
The South Slavic languages are one of three branches of the Slavic languages. There are approximately 30 million speakers, mainly in the Balkans. These are separated geographically from speakers of the other two Slavic branches (West and East) ...
, since in both the clitic is fixed, whereas in Serbo-Croatian
Serbo-Croatian () – also called Serbo-Croat (), Serbo-Croat-Bosnian (SCB), Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian (BCS), and Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian (BCMS) – is a South Slavic language and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and ...
it inflects for person and number . The negative form of the future tense in Macedonian is made by adding the particles нема да (''nema'' + ''da'') or just не (''ne'') before the verb pattern, whereas the interrogative form is made by adding the question word дали (''dali''), also before the verb pattern. When we use the negative form ''nema da'', there is not presence of the clitic ''ḱe''. Usually, ''ḱe'' in English is translated with the modal verb
A modal verb is a type of verb that contextually indicates a modality such as a ''likelihood'', ''ability'', ''permission'', ''request'', ''capacity'', ''suggestion'', ''order'', ''obligation'', or ''advice''. Modal verbs generally accompany the b ...
'will', and vice versa. When an event is expressed with the use of ''ḱe'', then it is considered normal future, but there is a stronger future event as well which is made with the construction: има (''ima'', 'have') + да ('da', 'to') + present simple form of the verb.
Besides the main usage, the future tense is used to express:
* ''past events'' - expressing events that somehow refer to the future,
* ''orders'' - giving orders or commands to someone,
* ''prediction'' - predicting something,
* ''general facts'' - usually for proverbs or things that are considered as facts,
* ''events that repeat after some period'',
* ''possibility'' - possible future events.
Some of these mentioned rules, can be recognized in the following examples:
:Јас ќе одам во Скопје. (''Jas ḱe odam vo Skopje'') – I will go to Skopje.
:Јас отидов во визбата и што ќе видам, сето вино истекло на подот. (''Jas otidov vo vizbata i što ḱe vidam, seto vino isteklo na podot.'', 'I went to the basement and, lo and behold, all of the wine was spilled on the floor.')
:Ќе ме слушаш и ќе траеш. (''Ḱe me slušaš i ḱe traeš.'', 'You will listen to me and you will say no words.')
:Колку е стар твојот дедо? Ќе да има 70 години. (''Kolku e star tvojot dedo? Ḱe da ima 70 godini.'', 'How old is your granddad? He'd have to be t least
T, or t, is the twentieth Letter (alphabet), letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the English alphabet, modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is English alphabe ...
70 years old.')
:Ќе направам сѐ само да се венчам со Сара. (''Ḱe napravam sè samo da se venčam so Sara.'', 'I'd do anything just to marry Sara.')
:Ќе одиш на училиште и крај! (''Ḱe odiš na učilište i kraj!'', 'You will go to school, and that’s it!')
= Future-in-the-past
=
Future-in-the-past is expressed by means of the same clitic ќе (ḱe, 'will') and past tense forms of the verb:
An interesting fact of vernacular usage of a past tense form of the verb which can be used in a future sense as well, although this construction is mostly limited to older speakers, and is used to describe the degree of certainty that some event will take place in the future or under some condition. This characteristic is shared with Croatian, Bosnian, Montenegrin and Serbian languages.
Examples:
* Те отепав, штом те фатам. (''Te otepav, štom te fatam.'', 'I have killed you, when I get you')
* Те фатам ли, те казнив. (''Te fatam li, te kazniv.'', 'As soon as I grab you, I have punished you')
In this respect, Macedonian is different from Bulgarian: Macedonian is consistent in the use of ''ќе'' as a clitic, whereas the equivalent Bulgarian construction involves the inflection of the clitic for tense, person and number as a regular verb (щях да дойда, 'I would ave
''Alta Velocidad Española'' (''AVE'') is a service of high-speed rail in Spain operated by Renfe, the Spanish national railway company, at speeds of up to . As of December 2021, the Spanish high-speed rail network, on part of which the AVE s ...
come'; щеше да дойде, 'he would ave
''Alta Velocidad Española'' (''AVE'') is a service of high-speed rail in Spain operated by Renfe, the Spanish national railway company, at speeds of up to . As of December 2021, the Spanish high-speed rail network, on part of which the AVE s ...
come').
Adjectives
Adjective
In linguistics, an adjective (list of glossing abbreviations, abbreviated ) is a word that generally grammatical modifier, modifies a noun or noun phrase or describes its referent. Its semantic role is to change information given by the noun.
Tra ...
s (придавки, ''pridavki'') agree with nouns in gender
Gender is the range of characteristics pertaining to femininity and masculinity and differentiating between them. Depending on the context, this may include sex-based social structures (i.e. gender roles) and gender identity. Most cultures u ...
, number
A number is a mathematical object used to count, measure, and label. The original examples are the natural numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and so forth. Numbers can be represented in language with number words. More universally, individual numbers c ...
and definiteness
In linguistics, definiteness is a semantic feature of noun phrases, distinguishing between referents or senses that are identifiable in a given context (definite noun phrases) and those which are not (indefinite noun phrases). The prototypical d ...
with their noun and usually appear before it.
Comparison
Adjectives have three degrees of comparison
Comparison is a feature in the morphology or syntax of some languages whereby adjectives and adverbs are inflected to indicate the relative degree of the property they define exhibited by the word or phrase they modify or describe. In languages ...
(степенување на придавки, ''stepenuvanje na pridavki'') – positive
Positive is a property of positivity and may refer to:
Mathematics and science
* Positive formula, a logical formula not containing negation
* Positive number, a number that is greater than 0
* Plus sign, the sign "+" used to indicate a posit ...
, comparative
In general linguistics, the comparative is a syntactic construction that serves to express a comparison between two (or more) entities or groups of entities in quality or degree - see also comparison (grammar) for an overview of comparison, as wel ...
and superlative
Comparison is a feature in the morphology or syntax of some languages whereby adjectives and adverbs are inflected to indicate the relative degree of the property they define exhibited by the word or phrase they modify or describe. In languages t ...
. The positive form is identical to all the aforementioned forms. The other two are formed regularly, by prepending the particle
In the Outline of physical science, physical sciences, a particle (or corpuscule in older texts) is a small wikt:local, localized physical body, object which can be described by several physical property, physical or chemical property, chemical ...
''по'' and the word ''нај'' directly before the positive to form the comparative and superlative, respectively, regardless of its comprising one or two words.
Macedonian only has one adjective that has an irregular comparative – ''многу''.
A subtype of the superlative – the absolute superlative – also present in some other South Slavic languages
The South Slavic languages are one of three branches of the Slavic languages. There are approximately 30 million speakers, mainly in the Balkans. These are separated geographically from speakers of the other two Slavic branches (West and East) ...
and Romance languages
The Romance languages, sometimes referred to as Latin languages or Neo-Latin languages, are the various modern languages that evolved from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages in the Indo-European language fam ...
(such as Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
and Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...
), expresses the highest quality without comparison. It is formed by prefix
A prefix is an affix which is placed before the Word stem, stem of a word. Adding it to the beginning of one word changes it into another word. For example, when the prefix ''un-'' is added to the word ''happy'', it creates the word ''unhappy'' ...
ing the particle пре (''pre'') to an adjective, roughly corresponding to the English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
'very + adjective' or 'too + adjective' combinations.
Prepositions
Prepositions
Prepositions and postpositions, together called adpositions (or broadly, in traditional grammar, simply prepositions), are a class of words used to express spatial or temporal relations (''in'', ''under'', ''towards'', ''before'') or mark various ...
(предлози, ''predlozi'') are part of the closed word class that are used to express the relationship between the words in a sentence. Since Macedonian lost the case system, the prepositions are very important for creation and expression of various grammatical categories. The most important Macedonian preposition is на (''na'', 'of', 'on' or 'to'). Regarding the form, the prepositions can be: simple (''vo, na, za, do, so, niz, pred, zad,'' etc.) and complex (''zaradi, otkaj, nasproti, pomeǵu,'' etc.). Based on the meaning the preposition express, they can be divided into:
Having in mind the fact that the preposition "на" is the most frequently used in the language, it may be used to express different meaning:
* time, e.g. Штрковите на зима се преселуваат на југ. (''Štrkovite na zima se preseluvaat na jug.'', 'The storks move to south in winter.')
* manner, e.g. Тој на шега го удри пријателот. (''Toj na šega go udri prijatelot.'', 'He hit the friend for fun.')
* purpose, e.g. Ние ќе одиме на скијање. (''Nie ḱe odime na skijanje.'', 'We will go skiing.')
* possession, e.g. Таа е сестрата на Марко. (''Taa e sestrata na Marko.'', 'She is the sister of Marko.')
* comparison, e.g. Детено многу личи на брат му. (''Deteno mnogu liči na brat mu.'', 'That child looks like his brother, a lot.')
Particles
The particles
In the physical sciences, a particle (or corpuscule in older texts) is a small localized object which can be described by several physical or chemical properties, such as volume, density, or mass.
They vary greatly in size or quantity, from su ...
(честички, ''čestički'') are closed word class that have grammatical function. The particles are used to determine other words, form some grammatical categories and emphasize some words or phrases. Regarding the function of the particles, they can be divided into the following groups:
* particles used to emphasize something
:e.g. ''барем'' ('at least'), ''само'' ('just'), ''сѐ'' ('all'), etc.
* particles used to separate a person or an object from a larger group
: e.g. ''само'' ('only'), ''единствено'' ('solely'), ''исклучиво'' ('only'), etc.
* particles for joining things
: e.g. ''исто'' ('same'), ''исто така'' ('also'), ''притоа'' ('besides that'), etc.
* particles for quantity
: e.g. ''речиси'' ('almost'), ''скоро'' ('almost', 'nearly'), ''точно'' ('right'), ''рамно'' ('equal'), etc.
* particles for exact determination of something
: e.g. ''имено'' ('namely'), ''токму'' ('precisely'), etc.
* particles for approximate determination of something
: e.g. ''−годе'' , ''−било'' , ''− да е'' . These particles should be combined with other words, they do not stand on their own.
* particles for indication of something
:e.g. ''еве'' ('here'), ''ене'' ('there), ете ('there'), etc.
* particles for negative sentences
:e.g. ''не'' ('no', 'not'), ''ниту'' ('neither'), ''нити'' ('neither') and ''ни'' ('nor').
* particles for interrogative sentences
:e.g. ''ли'' , ''дали'' , ''зар'' , ''али'' and ''нели'' (question tag)
* particles for imperative sentences
:e.g. ''да'' ('to') and ''нека'' ('let')
Numerals
The Macedonian numbers (броеви, ''broevi'') have gender and definiteness. The first ten cardinal and ordinal numerals in the Macedonian are:
Phraseology
The group of words that are used in the language as one unit, word construction, are called phraseological units or in Macedonian ''фразеологизми'' (''frazeologizmi''). The phraseological units have special linguistic characteristics and meaning. Within one sentence, the words may be joined in order to create units of various types. For instance, the word ''nut'' can be combined with many adjectives, such as ''big nut'', ''small nut'' etc. Moreover, the word ''nut'' can be combined with other parts of speech as well, such as with verbs as in the sentence ''I ate a nut''.
These types of combinations are led by the general principles of the phraseology
In linguistics, phraseology is the study of set or fixed expressions, such as idioms, phrasal verbs, and other types of multi-word lexical units (often collectively referred to as ''phrasemes''), in which the component parts of the expression tak ...
, which states that the words in the sentences can be freely combined. Within these combinations or collocations, each word keeps its original meaning, so the meaning of the whole construction is equal to the meaning of its constituents.
Besides the word construction with loose connections, in Macedonian there are word constructions that are not freely combined, which means they are permanently combined. As an illustration of these two types of connections are the following sentences, where the noun phrase "hard nut" is used:
* ''It is a hard nut and it cannot be cracked easily.''
* ''We will be hard nut for our opponent.''
In the first sentence, "hard nut" is a common collocation, where the words are connected freely and can be changed with other words in different contexts. On the other hand, in the second sentence the noun phrase "hard nut" (i.e. ''a hard nut to crack'') is an expression that means "strong, unbreakable" and the words are in strong connection and they are not changed with other words. If these words are changed, the meaning of the phrase will be lost.
Onomastics
Macedonian onomastics ( mk, Македонска ономастика, translit=makedonska onomastika) is a part of Macedonian studies
Macedonian studies ( mk, Македонистика ''Makedonistika'') is a science that studies the Macedonian language. A person who studies Macedonian is called a Macedonian specialist (Macedonian: ''Македонист / Makedonist'').
Prom ...
, which studies the names, surnames and nicknames of the Macedonian language
Macedonian (; , , ) is an Eastern South Slavic language. It is part of the Indo-European language family, and is one of the Slavic languages, which are part of a larger Balto-Slavic branch. Spoken as a first language by around two million ...
and people. This is relatively new linguistic discipline. In Macedonia, and in Macedonian studies in general, it developed during the 19th century, where the first few research results have been provided. The Onomastics for a long period of time has been considered as part of various different scientific disciplines, such as Geography
Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth description") is a field of science devoted to the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and ...
, History
History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...
or Ethnography
Ethnography (from Greek ''ethnos'' "folk, people, nation" and ''grapho'' "I write") is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. Ethnography explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject o ...
, until it became a discipline on its own in the 20th century. The Macedonian Onomastics, generally speaking, is divided into ''toponomastics'' and ''anthroponomastics''.
See also
* Macedonian language
Macedonian (; , , ) is an Eastern South Slavic language. It is part of the Indo-European language family, and is one of the Slavic languages, which are part of a larger Balto-Slavic branch. Spoken as a first language by around two million ...
* Macedonian studies
Macedonian studies ( mk, Македонистика ''Makedonistika'') is a science that studies the Macedonian language. A person who studies Macedonian is called a Macedonian specialist (Macedonian: ''Македонист / Makedonist'').
Prom ...
* South Slavic languages
The South Slavic languages are one of three branches of the Slavic languages. There are approximately 30 million speakers, mainly in the Balkans. These are separated geographically from speakers of the other two Slavic branches (West and East) ...
Notes
References
# Christina E. Kramer (1999), ''Makedonski Jazik'' (The University of Wisconsin Press).
#
Friedman, V. (2001) ''Macedonian'' (SEELRC), p. 17
#
Friedman, V. (2001) ''Macedonian'' (SEELRC), p. 40.
#
Lunt, H. (1952) Grammar of the Macedonian Literary Language, Skopje.
# Tomić, O. (2003) "Genesis of the Balkan Slavic Future Tenses" in '' Formal Approaches to Slavic Linguistics: The Ottawa Meeting 2003'' (Michigan : Michigan Slavic Publications).
#
#
# Кепески, К. (1946), Македонска граматика, Скопје, Државно книгоиздавателство на Македонија.
#
# Стойков, С. (2002) ''Българска диалектология'', 4-то издание. стр. 127. Als
available online
External links
the first printed Macedonian grammar by Gjorgjija Pulevski
Georgi Pulevski, sometimes also Gjorgji, Gjorgjija Pulevski or Đorđe Puljevski ( mk, Ѓорѓи Пулевски or Ѓорѓија Пулевски, bg, Георги Пулевски, sr, Ђорђе Пуљевски; 1817–1895) was a Mijak ...
in 1880.
Macedonian grammar
by Victor Friedman
Victor A. Friedman (born October 18, 1949) is an American linguist, Slavist. He is the Andrew W. Mellon Distinguished Service Professor in Humanities at the University of Chicago. He holds an appointment in the Department of Linguistics and an ...
.
Grammar of the Literary Macedonian language
by Horace Lunt
Horace Gray Lunt (September 12, 1918 – August 11, 2010) was a linguist in the field of Slavic Studies. He was Professor Emeritus at the Slavic Language and Literature Department and the Ukrainian Institute at Harvard University.
Born in Colora ...
.
Macedonian grammar
by Krume Kepeski.
{{Language grammars
Grammar
In linguistics, the grammar of a natural language is its set of structure, structural constraints on speakers' or writers' composition of clause (linguistics), clauses, phrases, and words. The term can also refer to the study of such constraint ...