The dialects of Macedonian comprise the Slavic dialects spoken in the Republic of North Macedonia as well as some varieties spoken in the wider geographic region of Macedonia. They are part of the dialect continuum of South Slavic languages that joins Macedonian with Bulgarian to the east and Torlakian to the north into the group of the Eastern South Slavic languages. The precise delimitation between these languages is fleeting and controversial.
The Skopje-Veles dialect (Macedonian: Скопско-велешки дијалект, Skopsko-veleški dijalekt) is a member of the central subgroup of the Western group of dialects of Macedonian. The dialect is spoken by a larger group of people in the cities Skopje and Veles and in the surrounding villages: Volkovo, Katlanovo, Petrovec and Čaška among others. This dialect is of historical importance for Macedonian because it is considered by many to be a prestige dialect. On August 2, 1945, the Skopje-Veles dialect, together with the other dialects of the central group was officially regulated as a basis of standard Macedonian. Many Macedonian writers and linguists were writing on this dialect and considered it to be standard Macedonian. One of them was Krste Petkov Misirkov and in his book For Macedonian affairs wrote that this dialect should be standard Macedonian. He has been writing on Skopje-Veles dialect and on Prilep-Bitola dialect.
Internal migration to the capital Skopje in the 1950s and 1960s led to the development of a new, urban slang where newly arrived people attempted to incorporate elements of the Skopje-Veles dialect into their own speech, often confusing local elements with those from Serbo-Croatian. Language contact with Serbo-Croatian, then a more prestigious language in SFR Yugoslavia, also reached its height during this period. This variety has been described as a "creolized form of Serbian" (cf. also Surzhyk in Ukraine, Trasianka in Belarus) and is distinct from the 'authentic' Skopje-Veles dialect.
The Kostur dialect (Macedonian: Костурски дијалект, Kosturski dijalekt) is a member of the Southwestern subgroup of the Southeastern group of dialects of the Macedonian language. This dialect is mainly spoken in and around the town of Kastoria, known locally in Macedonian as Kostur, and in the surrounding Korešta region, (Macedonian: Корешта; in the Kostur dialect: Korèshcha/Корèшча) which encompasses most of the area to the northwest of the town. The Kostur dialect is also partially spoken in Albania, most notably in Bilisht and the village of Vërnik (Vrabnik). The dialect is partially preserved among the ″people of Bulgarian origin in Mustafapaşa and Cemilköy, Turkey, descending from the village of Agios Antonios (Zhèrveni) in Kostur region (Aegean Macedonia)″.
The Kostur dialect shares strong similarities with the Nestram-Kostenar dialect and the Korča dialect. Bulgarian linguist Stoyko Stoykov regarded the Nestram dialect as a subgroup of the Kostur dialect, part of Bulgarian dialects. Other Bulgarian linguists also regard the dialect as a Bulgarian dialect.
This article discusses the phonological system of Standard Macedonian (unless otherwise noted) based on the Prilep-Bitola dialect. For discussion of other dialects, see Macedonian dialects. Macedonian possesses five vowels, one semivowel, three liquid consonants, three nasal stops, three pairs of fricatives, two pairs of affricates, a non-paired voiceless fricative, nine pairs of voiced and unvoiced consonants and four pairs of stops.
The Reka dialect (Macedonian: Рекански дијалект, Rekanski dijalekt) is a member of the west and north-west subgroup of the western group of dialects of Macedonian. The dialect is mainly spoken on the territory of the region Reka in the north-western part of North Macedonia. The Reka dialect is very close with the Galičnik and the Debar dialects. This dialect contains a lot of archaic words.
The Nestram-Kostenar dialect (Macedonian: Нестрамско-Костенарски дијалект, Nestramsko-Kostenarski dijalekt) is a Macedonian Slavic dialect spoken in parts of northwestern Greece, in the area around the village of Nestorio (Nestram) and the area known as Kostenarija, which encompasses most of the Nestorio municipality as well as in the Akrites region. There are also speakers in the adjacent Devoll District of Albania.
The Nestram-Kostenar dialect shares strong similarities with the adjacent Kostur (Kastoria) and Korča/Gorica (Korçë) areas. Vidoeski (1991) classifies these dialects as members of a south-western subgroup of the southern group of Macedonian dialects. Stoykov (1962) in his work on Bulgarian dialectology describes them as subgroups of the Kostur dialect.
The Ser-Drama-Lagadin-Nevrokop dialect is a dialect currently treated both in the contexts of the southeastern group of Bulgarian dialects and the southeastern subgroup of dialects of the Macedonian.Prior to the codification of standard Macedonian in 1945, the dialects of Macedonia were classified as Bulgarian.The dialect is dynamic and is well known for the shortening of the words, and also characterised by the excessive use of /ʲa/ for the Proto-Slavic yat even in cases where standard Bulgarian has /ɛ/, a feature which is typical for a number of dialects spoken in southern and southwestern Bulgaria (e.g. the Thracian dialect).The Ser-Drama-Lagadin-Nevrokop dialect is closely related to the neighbouring dialects. It is closer to all Eastern Bulgarian dialects than to all Western. Macedonian shares much less features with the dialect than it does with the Maleševo-Pirin dialect of Macedonian and Bulgarian. Some Bulgarian dialects are more similar to Macedonian than the Ser-Nevrokop dialect, the Samokov dialect shares more features with Macedonian than both the Ser-Nevrokop and the Pirin-Malasevo dialects do, even though it is not considered a Macedonian dialect, most of the western Bulgarian dialects and the Smolyan dialect share more similarities with Macedonian than the Ser dialect does. The Samokov dialect, most remarkably, shares with Macedonian and the Maleševo-Pirin dialect—the "to be" verb for future tense—"ke", which in contrast is "shte" in the Ser-Nevrokop dialect and in the Bulgarian language. The Yat border passes through the Maleševo-Pirin dialect and divides it on such a way that in the northern area of the dialect the yat is pronounced "e" (as in all the Western Bulgarian dialects and Macedonian) and in the south—"ya" (as in the Eastern Bulgarian dialects and standard Bulgarian). In the Ser-Nevrokop dialect the yat is pronounced in most places "ya", therefore the city of Serres, after which the dialect is named, is called "Syar" by the locals, as opposed to "Ser" in Macedonian. The first person singular is as in Bulgarian, ending with "a" or "am" as opposed to the constant "am" in Macedonian and the Bulgarian Smolyan dialect. The words for man -"m'zh" and for a dream "s'n" are as in Bulgarian, unlike the Macedonian "mazh" and "son". The words for night and tear—"nosht" and "s'lza" are as the Bulgarian, unlike the Macedonian "nok" and "solza".
The Serres-Nevrokop dialect is treated both in the contexts of Bulgarian and Macedonian dialectology. As described in the section about its range, the vast majority of its speakers identify as Bulgarians. In the context of Bulgarian dialectology, the dialect is situated East of the Yat boundary and thus is considered to belong to the Eastern Bulgarian dialects, more exactly to the Rup subgroup