Macedonian

Discovering the language

Macedonian-Slavonic is attested from the IX^th century thanks to the first translations from Greek into Slavonic (Glagolitic characters) made by the brothers Cyril and Methodius - evangelizers of the Slavs, based on a Slavo-Macedonian speech from the Salonika region known as Old-Slavonic or Old-Macedonian. As a result of exchanges with the surrounding non-slavic languages, Macedonian has developed linguistic features that distance it from its original group and bring it closer to Balkan languages (loss of declensions, doubling of the object complement, postposed article, etc.). Macedonian is therefore of great interest to linguists and Slavicists. As for French-speaking students, because of the loss of declensions, they recognize in Macedonian the structures of an analytical language with which they are familiar. This explains the high level of language skills acquired after the first three years. This level of language proficiency enables students to continue on to a research or professional Master's degree to become, on the one hand, researchers or specialists in the field of Macedonian language and civilization, and on the other, professional translators of Macedonian, a language that will in the near future (the Republic of Macedonia has been a candidate for European Union membership since 2005) be the official language of a European Union state, for which the demand for professional translators is set to increase.

On August 2, 1944, the Macedonian language was proclaimed the official language of the Republic of Macedonia within the Yugoslav federation. The Cyrillic alphabet currently in use was officially established on May 3, 1945.

On September 8, 1991, the Republic of Macedonia proclaimed its independence.

Studying Macedonian at Inalco

Inalco is the only university institution in France, and in Europe, to offer comprehensive and diversified higher education in the Macedonian language and to offer national degree courses.