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Article published In:
The Historical Sociolinguistics of Spelling
Edited by Laura Villa and Rik Vosters
[Written Language & Literacy 18:2] 2015
► pp. 287–308

Macedonian orthographic controversies

The standardization of the Macedonian language and controversies surrounding it have been described in detail by many scholars. This paper seeks to contribute to this discussion in several ways. First, I will provide a brief summary of debates concerning selection of an orthography in the period 1944–1945. Significantly, I will expand that discussion through inclusion of important archival materials from the Koneski archive at the Macedonian Academy of Sciences. Second, I will briefly discuss debates that have arisen with suggestions for orthographic reform since the 1940s. In the final section of the paper I will examine the use of Cyrillic and new debates surrounding the use of different systems of transliteration in the Latin alphabet that compete in the linguistic landscape as well as in on-line fora leading to new proposals for orthographic reform.

Keywords: codification, orthography, transliteration, Macedonian language, standardization
Published online: 31 August 2015
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https://doi.org/10.1075/wll.18.2.07kra
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