The Ohrid dialect ( mk, Охридски дијалект, ''Ohridski dijalekt'') is a member of the western and north western subgroup of the western group of

dialects The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of linguistic phenomena: One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a ...

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 ...

. The dialect is spoken in the region around the city

Ohrid Ohrid ( mk, Охрид ) is a city in North Macedonia and is the seat of the Ohrid Municipality. It is the largest city on Lake Ohrid and the List of cities in North Macedonia, eighth-largest city in the country, with the municipality recording ...

North Macedonia North Macedonia, ; sq, Maqedonia e Veriut, (Macedonia before February 2019), officially the Republic of North Macedonia,, is a country in Southeast Europe. It gained independence in 1991 as one of the successor states of Socialist Feder ...

up to the southern point of the

Ohrid Lake Lake Ohrid ( mk, Охридско Езеро , al, Liqeni i Ohrit , also referred as ''Liqeni i Pogradecit'';) is a lake which straddles the mountainous border between the southwestern part of North Macedonia and eastern Albania. It is one of E ...

. Except in the city of

, the dialect is spoken in the villages

Trpejca Trpejca ( mk, Трпејца ) is a village at the foot of the Galičica Mountain and along the shore of the Lake Ohrid in North Macedonia. Traditionally a fishing village, it has recently become an upscale vacation spot relying heavily on the ...

Peštani Peštani ( mk, Пештани) is a village in the municipality of Ohrid, North Macedonia, located 12 kilometres south of the city of Ohrid. It is a popular beachside town along Lake Ohrid and lies at the foot of Galičica National Park. O ...

, Elešec, Velgoshti and many others smaller villages in that area. This dialect is known among the Macedonians as a dialect of extensive use of the suffix ''-t'' and to some extent shortening of the words. The Ohrid dialect is also part of the Macedonian literature, especially with the works of

Grigor Prličev Grigor Stavrev Parlichev (also spelled Prlichev, Parlitcheff or Prličev; bg, Григор Ставрев Пърличев; gr, Γρηγόριος Σταυρίδης, translit=Grigorios Stavrides, mk, Григор Прличев) was a Bulga ...

with his ''Biography'', ''Skenderbeg'' and ''Serdarot''. The Ohrid dialect is closely related with the nearby city

Struga Struga ( mk, Струга , sq, Strugë) is a town and popular tourist destination situated in the south-western region of North Macedonia, lying on the shore of Lake Ohrid. The town of Struga is the seat of Struga Municipality. Name The n ...

and Upper Prespa dialects.

Phonological characteristics

*shortening of words: братучед / ''bratučed'' → брачед / ''bračed'' ('cousin'); *absence of intervocalic ; *use of the consonant groups št and žd; *use of the ''cu-'' instead of the consonant group ''cv-'': цвет / ''cvet'' → цут / ''cut'' ('flower').

Morphological characteristics

*use of the suffix ''-t'' for third-person singular; *use of the preposition vo, v; *loss of the suffix ''-m'' in first-person singular; *use of dative forms; *the

Old Church Slavonic Old Church Slavonic or Old Slavonic () was the first Slavic literary language. Historians credit the 9th-century Byzantine missionaries Saints Cyril and Methodius with standardizing the language and using it in translating the Bible and othe ...

is replaced by .

Examples of the dialect

"...Da vi kaža i drugo: Opisanata vo ''Armatolos'' Neda ne e druga ocvan majka, i nejzinoto snovidenie - majčino mi snovidenie. Tolku e verno oti majčinata ljubov pomaga i vo spisanijata..." - ''Autobiography by Grigor Prličev'' стр.73 За македонската литература, Блаже Конески, Култура- Скопје 1967

References

{{Macedonian dialects Dialects of the Macedonian language Ohrid Ohrid Municipality