I said that I would rather call your Bulgarophones Macedonians. You call those people
Bulgarophones, owing to their language which is similar to Bulgarian. But, is it Bulgarian,
is it the same language spoken in Sofia? No. Macedonian is just as similar to Serbian as it
is to Bulgarian. I am not a linguist and I would not allow myself a personal judgment, but
disinterested Balkanologists have asserted to me that Macedonian is more similar to
Serbian than Bulgarian. It is possible that there are linguists who assert the opposite. But it
is a fact that the Macedonian language is spoken neither in Sofia nor in Belgrade. It is an
individual Slav language, just as we have the Romansch in Switzerland, spoken in Grisons,
apart from Italian. To my mind, the Macedonian can be called neither Bulgarian nor Serb,
but simply Macedonian.
taken from this book, R. A. Reiss, Sur la situation des Macedoniens et des musulmans dans les nouvelles
provinces grecques. Paris, 1918, pp. 6-7.
Makedonika: The Macedonian Blog 
20080312 at 01:19
ALEXANDER THE GREAT WAS SREAKING GREEK
20080317 at 13:56
“Macedonian is more similar to Serbian than Bulgarian”
This is simply false. The grammar is basically the same as that of Bulgarian. It bears almost all characteristics of Western Bulgarian dialects and is slightly different from the Eastern Bulgarian dialects. The literary Bulgarian language was based mostly on the Eastern Bulgarian dialects.
20080317 at 14:19
Simeon, you are viewing the conflict thru a Bulgarian filter, remove the filter then you will see clearly.
20080317 at 14:58
Everyone looks through a filter. That is why various points of view through freedom of speech are always necessary.
Would you be so kind to publish some ethnographical maps of Macedonia (or including Macedonia) before 1912, i.e. from the XIX and beginning of the XX century? I am writing here because I cannot write on the thread “Macedonian Maps”. I can help with some maps, if you like.
20080317 at 15:16
You are welcome to post in the above mentioned thread.
All views are important and thus the Macedonian point of view cannot be dismissed.
20080317 at 17:40
Thanks, I will post several maps later.
As far as the language is concerned, here is an episode from my stay in Ohrid.
I was on a small ship in the lake at night. There were a lot of young people there from the same hotel – some local people, some from Bulgaria, and some from other countries. The music was loud. I heard a group of boys and girls in their twenties talking in a language I thought was Bulgarian. I went to a guy and asked him in Bulgarian “Ot kade ste?” (Where are you from?). He answered “Od Skopje” (From Skopje). I said “Muzikata e mnogo silna i zatova pomislih che govorite na Bulgarski” (The music is very loud and that’s why I thought you were talking in Bulgarian). He said “Ist jazik” (The same language). I gave them some vodka that I had with me and they liked it.
20080317 at 20:39
Nice to hear your story, the person you asked most likely would have told a Serb the same thing if he had asked the same question.
You see, Macedonian, Serbian, Bulgarian etc.. all have their roots in Old Church Slavonic which was the spoken language in Salonica region of Macedonia, at the time of its codification 9th century AD by Saints Cyril and Methodius.
Every Slavic language has a strong bond to Old Church Slavonic thanks to its use in the liturgy of the Orthodox Church, and to the fact that the Bible was translated into Old Church Slavonic.
So in a sense Simeon, you spoke his language the language that has its roots in Macedonia, Old Church Slavonic, with its modern form; Macedonian.
20080318 at 14:32
I agree with some things that you said.
But I still insist that “Macedonian is more similar to Serbian than Bulgarian” is false. I don’t want write more under this topic, because it got quite long but I am ready for a serious discussion elsewhere. If you are interested, contact me at my email if you can see it, or give your own.
As I possess enough knowledge in Bulgarian, Macedonian and Serbian, I claim that Macedonian is closer to Bulgarian than to Serbian. I am talking about the literary forms of these languages. And I am ready to prove it in a serious discussion.
I do know that the current Macedonian alphabet is based on the Serbian one of Vuk Karadzhic and is almost the same. But a language can be written in different alphabets, so that is not a basis for comparison.
20080319 at 08:57
Makedonika
Why are you talking with Simeon..
He is a member of VMRO-BND forum..
He hates the macedonians, and probably he’s a VMRO-BND agent…
Ban him……he’s stupid he won’t understand you….
You expect from bulgarian to understand you??
Do you know the joke for the bulgarians??
A bulgarian goes to the zoo and he looks a giraffe and later when he comes out from the zoo he says..
No this animal doesn’t exist 😀
20080320 at 10:11
That joke refers to the Bulgarian Shopi people who live around Sofia. I am not one of them.
Here you can see a lot of other jokes about the Shopi:
They are usually to be taken with a bit of humorous attitude.
I have never been on that forum that you mention. Simeon is a common name, just as Vladimir is, you are talking about a different person.
20080428 at 21:43
Simeon about that loud music and lake: also bulgarian can understood easily with russians too (which is not case with the macedonains), but does that makes you bulgarians – russians?
20080428 at 21:45
Ioannis Says: ALEXANDER THE GREAT WAS SREAKING GREEK – typical greek, he is so blind, he cannot read what this topix is about, and we want to proove him about Alexander the Great. Pufff pathetic…
20080429 at 13:51
AGAIN MY BALKAN GYPSY (AS RACIST AS MAY SOUND) YOU ARE HOPELESSLY DEVOTED TO CHARACTERIZE A BULGARIAN DIALECT AS MACEDONIAN LANGUAGE……..COME ON NOW YOU DO NOT EVEN CONVINCE YOURSELVES (YOU ALEXANDER THE GREAT DESCENDANTS????) YOU ARE BECOMING DAY BY DAY THE LAUGHTER OF THE BALKANS NOT TO MENTION OF EUROPE….
JUST ACCEPT YOUR GEOGRAPHICAL TERM YOU ARE ABOUT TO ACCEPT AND KEEP ON GROWING UP YOUR CHILDREN WITH FAKE AND BORROWED HISTORY -WHEN THEY GROW UP AND GET A BROADER EDUCATION THEY WILL WAKE UP FROM THEIR FAIRYTALE…..RACISM IS A CHARACTERISTIC OF AN UNIDENTIFIED NATION WHICH STRUGGLES TO HAVE IDENTITY JUST LIKE YOU ARE DOING NOW BUT BEING OUSTED BY ALL INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS……
Commented by makedonika: This is your final post on this Blog, as I have warned you before I will post your email and IP-number. Your RACISM ends here!
STEDO’s
email: FREE-PRESS@YAHOO.GR
IP-numbers: 84.205.244.133 and 84.205.244.135
Some information about the IP:
inetnum: 84.205.224.0 – 84.205.255.255
netname: SYZEFXIS-GR
descr: Greek Public Administration Network
country: GR
I hope you all will have fun, goodbye STEDO!
20080625 at 04:17
I speak only poor Bulgarian, but throughout Macedonia people understand me. In Serbia this isn’t true. Why is this so?
20080716 at 22:31
The truth is here, we dont need to take on the neganivity of stedo, we have done enougth fighting. The puzzle has peaced. Pak ke stani. stedo, its ok. Should it matter what it sounds like, thats not our message. All we ask for is to be left alone. 1913 is a long time.