The grammar of Macedonian is, in many respects, similar to that of some other Balkan languages (constituent languages of the Balkan sprachbund), especially Bulgarian. Macedonian exhibits a number of grammatical features that distinguish it from most other Slavic languages, such as the elimination of case declension, the development of a suffixed definite article, the lack of an infinitival verb, and the constructions with ima/nema formed with the auxiliary "to have", among others.
The Macedonian orthography (ÿÃÂðòþÿøÃÂ, pravopis) encompasses the spelling and punctuation of the Macedonian language.
In 1880, self-taught grammarian Georgi Pulevski made the first attempt at a Macedonian grammar. The modern Macedonian alphabet was developed by linguists in the period after the Second World War, who based their alphabet on the phonetic alphabet of Vuk StefanoviàKaradà ¾iÃÂ, though a similar writing system was used by Krste Misirkov in the late 19th century. The Macedonian language had previously been written using the Cyrillic with local adaptations from either the Serbian or Bulgarian alphabets. The first grammar of the Macedonian language was written by linguist Krume Kepeski in 1946, while linguist Horace Lunt has been credited with writing the first scholarly grammar of the language.
The following table provides the upper and lower case forms of the Macedonian alphabet, along with the IPA value for each letter:
The cursive version of the alphabet is slightly different:
Punctuation (øýÃÂõÃÂÿÃÂýúÃÂøÃÂð, interpunkcija) marks are one or two part graphical marks used in writing, denoting tonal progress, pauses, sentence type (syntactic use), abbreviations, et cetera.
Marks used in Macedonian include periods (.), question marks (?), exclamation marks (!), commas (,), semicolons (;), colons (:), dashes (âÂÂ), hyphens (-), ellipses (...), different types of inverted commas and quotation marks ( âÂÂâÂÂ, âÂÂâÂÂ), brackets ((), [], {}) (which are for syntactical uses), as well as apostrophes (',âÂÂ), solidi (/), equal signs (=), and so forth.
The canonical word order of Macedonian is SVO (subjectâÂÂverbâÂÂobject), but word order is variable. Word order may be changed for poetic effect (inversion is common in poetry).
Generally speaking, the syntactic constituents of the language are:
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 words, 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 words.
Macedonian nouns (øüõýúø, imenki) belong to one of three genders (masculine, feminine and neuter) and are inflected for number (singular and plural), definiteness, and marginally for case.
Noun gender is easily predicted from a word's final letter in its singular form:
As in English, plural nouns are formed using a suffix; whereas English simply adds -s to each noun, in Macedonian suffixes vary by gender:
The article (ÃÂûõý, ÃÂlen) is , as in Bulgarian, Albanian and Romanian. In Macedonian there is only the definite article. One feature that has no parallel in any other standard Balkan language 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:
In the masculine singular, âÂÂþÃÂ/âÂÂþò/âÂÂþý is used after a consonant, âÂÂÃÂð/âÂÂòð/âÂÂýð after âÂÂð (e.g. ÃÂÃÂôøÃÂðÃÂð 'the judge'), and âÂÂÃÂþ/âÂÂòþ/âÂÂýþ after a vowel other than âÂÂð (e.g. ÃÂðÃÂúþÃÂþ 'the father').
Macedonian lost the traditional (Slavic) grammatical cases during its development and became an analytic language. 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 is formed by adding the endings 'âÂÂo' or 'âÂÂe' (for feminine nouns), 'âÂÂu' (for masculine monosyllabic nouns), and 'âÂÂe' (for masculine polysyllabic nouns). For example, ÿÃÂøÃÂðÃÂõû ('friend') takes the form of ÿÃÂøÃÂðÃÂõûõ ('friend!'). The vocative is used almost exclusively for singular masculine and feminine nouns.
Macedonian pronouns decline for case ('ÿðôõö'), i.e., their function in a phrase as subject (ex. ÃÂðà'I'), direct object (ýõóþ 'him'), or object of a preposition (þô ýõð 'from her').
Based on their meaning and their function in a sentence, pronouns fall into one of the following categories:
Macedonian has a complex system of verbs (óûðóþûø, glagoli). Generally speaking Macedonian verbs]] have the following characteristics, or categories as they are called in the Macedonian studies: 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:
The Macedonian complex verb forms are:
Verbal aspect, which expresses how a given action extends over time, is a fundamental feature of Macedonian grammar. Almost every verb is categorized as either imperfective, suggesting an action which is figuratively ongoing, or perfective, suggesting an action which is bounded (with a clear beginning and end). A verb's aspect can be marked in many different, somewhat regular ways. Together, imperfective and perfective verbs with corresponding meanings form aspect pairs.
The distinction is roughly analogous to the difference in English between continuous verb forms ("Yesterday, I was reading") and simple verb forms ("Yesterday, I read"), although imperfective forms in Macedonian are used much more often than continuous forms in English, with a much broader meaning. The aspect system is pervasive in Macedonian; verbs can be used in either the imperfective or perfective aspects across most tenses and moods.
The present tense (ÃÂõóðÃÂýþ òÃÂõüõ, segaà ¡no vreme) describes actions occurring at the moment of speaking and is generally expressed with imperfective aspect verbs. These can express:
Present forms of perfective aspect verbs cannot be used independently in the present indicative mood, but are strictly limited to structures such as the subjunctive mood and the future-in-the-past tense. For example:
The forms of the present tense are made by adding suffixes to the verb stems, as shown in the following tables with one example for each verb subgroup. The Macedonian present tense is extremely regular; the single exception is the verb ÃÂÃÂü (sum, 'to be'), which does not use some of these suffixes.
<small>Note: â indicates a zero ending.</small>
The imperfect, or referred to as 'past definite incomplete tense' (üøýðÃÂþ þÿÃÂõôõûõýþ ýõÃÂòÃÂÃÂõýþ òÃÂõüõ,minato opredeleno nesvrà ¡eno 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: ðúþ (ako, 'if'), ôð (da, 'to') or ÃÂõ (ḱe, 'will'). It is important to mention that when perfective verbs are used, then there is expression of conditional mood, 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:
The suffixes used to make the Imperfect are:
<nowiki>*</nowiki> - <small>The suffix -ja is used for verbs of I- and E-subgroups where the word stem ends on vowel, <br>for example mie - mieja (wash - were washing), pee - peeja (sing - were singing).</small>
As an exemplification of the mentioned usages, here are some sentences:
The aorist, also known as 'past definite complete tense' (üøýðÃÂþ þÿÃÂõôõûõýþ ÃÂòÃÂÃÂõýþ òÃÂõüõ, minato opredeleno svrà ¡eno 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:
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 ÃÂÃÂü) take the same endings, there are complexities in the aorist stem vowel and possible consonant alternations.
<small>Note: â 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)</small>
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:
The Macedonian tense üøýðÃÂþ ýõþÿÃÂõôõûõýþ ÃÂòÃÂÃÂõýþ òÃÂõüõ (minato neopredeleno svrà ¡eno 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 ÿÃÂþÃÂøÃÂð (proÃÂita, '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'.
The English tense 'Present perfect continuous' functions similarly as the Macedonian tense üøýðÃÂþ ýõþÿÃÂõôõûõýþ ýõÃÂòÃÂÃÂõýþ òÃÂõüõ (minato neopredeleno nesvrà ¡eno 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 ÃÂøÃÂð (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.
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 ÃÂõ (ḱe, 'will') to the inflected present tense form of the verb. In this respect, both Macedonian and Bulgarian differ from other South Slavic languages, since in both the clitic is fixed, whereas in Serbo-Croatian it inflects for person and number . The negative form of the future tense in Macedonian is made by adding the particles ýõüð ôð (nema + da) or just ýõ (ne) before the verb pattern, whereas the interrogative form is made by adding the question word ôðûø (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 '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: øüð (ima, 'have') + ôð ('da', 'to') + present simple form of the verb.
Besides the main usage, the future tense is used to express:
Some of these mentioned rules, can be recognized in the following examples:
Future-in-the-past is expressed by means of the same clitic ÃÂõ (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:
In this respect, Macedonian is different from Bulgarian: Macedonian is consistent in the use of ÃÂõ as a clitic, whereas the equivalent Bulgarian construction involves the inflection of the clitic for tense, person and number as a regular verb (ÃÂÃÂàôð ôþùôð, 'I would [have] come'; ÃÂõÃÂõ ôð ôþùôõ, 'he would [have] come').
Adjectives (ÿÃÂøôðòúø, pridavki) appear before nouns, and agree with them in gender, number and definiteness. For definite nouns, the definite article is added to the first adjective in a phrase, rather than to the noun itself. Adjectives use the same definite article suffixes which nouns do, with one exception: singular masculine nouns add -ø before the masculine definite article; -þàtherefore becomes -øþÃÂ.
Adjectives have three degrees of comparison (ÃÂÃÂõÿõýÃÂòðÃÂõ ýð ÿÃÂøôðòúø, stepenuvanje na pridavki) â positive, comparative and superlative. The positive form is identical to all the aforementioned forms. The other two are formed regularly, by prepending the particle ÿþ and the word ýðàdirectly 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 â üýþóÃÂ.
A subtype of the superlative â the absolute superlative â also present in some other South Slavic languages and Romance languages (such as Italian and Spanish), expresses the highest quality without comparison. It is formed by prefixing the particle ÿÃÂõ (pre) to an adjective, roughly corresponding to the English 'very + adjective' or 'too + adjective' combinations.
Prepositions (ÿÃÂõôûþ÷ø, 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 ýð (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, pomeõu, etc.). Based on the meaning the preposition express, they can be divided into:
Having in mind the fact that the preposition "ýð" is the most frequently used in the language, it may be used to express different meaning:
The particles (ÃÂõÃÂÃÂøÃÂúø, ÃÂestiÃÂki) 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:
The Macedonian numbers (ñÃÂþõòø, broevi) have gender and definiteness. The first ten cardinal and ordinal numerals in the Macedonian are:
The group of words that are used in the language as one unit, word construction, are called phraseological units or in Macedonian ÃÂÃÂð÷õþûþóø÷üø (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, 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:
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.
Macedonian onomastics () is a part of Macedonian studies, which studies the names, surnames and nicknames of the Macedonian language 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, History or Ethnography, until it became a discipline on its own in the 20th century. The Macedonian Onomastics, generally speaking, is divided into toponomastics and anthroponomastics.