Standard Macedonian

Standard Macedonianorliterary Macedonian(Macedonian:книжевен македонски јазикor македонски литературен јазик)is thestandardvarietyof theMacedonian languageand theofficial languageofNorth Macedoniaused inwriting,in formal contexts, and for communication between differentdialect areas.Severalprestige dialectshave developed around the major urban centers ofSkopje,Bitola,VelesandPrilep.

It was only in the 1940s, however, that the Macedonian language was able to be implemented, after being formally declared the official language of theSocialist Republic of Macedonia.The rapid pace at which the standardization process took place was in part owing to an already existing interdialect (seespoken Macedonian). The Yugoslav government initially set up a literary Macedonian language based on a spoken dialect of the northern of the Socialist Republic of Macedonia, but it was felt that this dialect was too close to Serbian and finally the dialects spoken in Bitola and Veles were adopted. These dialects, in turn, were closer to the literary Bulgarian, but as the latter was based on theEastern Bulgarian dialects,it allowed enough differentiation for the Yugoslavs to claim a distinct Macedonian language. Since then, Bulgaria has been contesting the existence of distinct Macedonian language.Thus, the standard variety of Macedonian isphonologicallyandmorphologicallybased on the centralWestern Macedonian dialects(in particular, thePrilep-BitolaandSkopje-Veles dialect) with itslexiconinfluenced by allMacedonian dialects.

Educated speakers will usually use, or aim to use, the sanctioned standard in public settings and in most forms ofwritten language.Probably the best exemplars of this type of speech, though not always the case, areactors,teachersand writers. A high degree ofsocial prestigeandrespectis assigned to those who can use the standard language in the appropriate situations. In extremely rare examples, some speakers will use the standardized code exclusively in everyday conversational speech.

While acquisition of the formal code constitutes a significant part of elementary education, during which children are taught the relationship between their local dialect and the target code, the formalliterary language.Most educated speakersswitchto the colloquial register of the standard language, spoken Macedonian, when communicating in less formal circumstances, but tend to aim for more formal usage in circumstances where educated speakers are present or as a sort of "interdialect"in the case where the company is not exclusively local.