NORTH MACEDONIA
Language

Cities in NORTH MACEDONIA

Skopje

Language

The official languages are Macedonian (70%) and Albanian (21%: in Ohrid Agreement designated as official language in areas where ethnic Albanians make up at least 20% of the population). In addition, Turkish (3%), Serbo-Croatian (3%) and other languages (3%) are spoken in Macedonia.

Macedonian is still mainly spoken in Cyrillic.

In previous centuries, Macedonian, a Slavic language, was strongly related to Bulgarian, which is still noticeable in certain aspects of the grammar and vocabulary. It is therefore not surprising that Macedonians and Bulgarians can understand each other reasonably well even though they do not speak the other's language. During the First and Second World Wars, Bulgaria ruled over Macedonia for a time, and Bulgarian threatened to outstrip Macedonian.

When the former Yugoslavia occupied Macedonia, they tried to impose Serbian on the population. At present, Macedonian is more similar to Serbian, but has 31 letters instead of Serbian 30 and four different letters.

Macedonian words and phrases

Hello - zdravo
Good morning - dobru utro
I don't understand Macedonian - Ne razbiram makedonski
How much does that cost? - Kolku cini?
What time is it? - Kolku e saat
One - eden
Two - dva
Three - tri
One hundred - sto
Thousand - iljada
Monday - podelnik
Wednesday - sreda
Summer - leto
Winter - zima
Next week - slednata nedela

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Sources

Detrez, R. / Macedonië : mensen, politiek, economie, cultuur, milieu
Koninklijk Instituut voor de Tropen

Evans, T. / Macedonia
Bradt Travel Guides

Zuid-Europa
The Reader's Digest

CIA - World Factbook

BBC - Country Profiles

Last updated October 2024
Copyright: Team The World of Info