Macedonian authors tend to treat all dialects spoken in the geographical region of Macedonia as Macedonian, including those spoken in the westernmost part of Bulgaria (so-called
Pirin Macedonia), whereas
Bulgarian authors treat all Macedonian dialects as part of the Bulgarian language. Prior to the
codification of
standard Macedonian in 1945, the dialects of Macedonia were for the most part classified as Bulgarian. In
Greece, the identification of
the dialects spoken by the local
Slavophone minority with either Bulgarian or Macedonian is often avoided, and these dialects are instead described simply as "Slavic",
Dopia ('Local'), Stariski (old) or Našinski (ours). Most Western linguists classify the dialects in the
Pirin (
Blagoevgrad) region of
Bulgaria and in the far east of
Greek Macedonia as
Bulgarian and the dialects in the rest of
Greece and in
North Macedonia as Macedonian. According to Chambers and
Trudgill, the question whether Bulgarian and Macedonian are distinct languages or dialects of a single language as well as where the exact boundary between the two languages is cannot be resolved on a purely linguistic basis, but should rather take into account sociolinguistic criteria, i.e., ethnic and linguistic identity. As for the
Slavic dialects of Greece, Trudgill classifies the dialects in the east Greek Macedonia as part of the
Bulgarian language area and the rest as
Macedonian dialects. According to Riki van Boeschoten, the dialects in eastern Greek Macedonia (around
Serres and
Drama) are closest to Bulgarian, those in western Greek Macedonia (around
Florina and
Kastoria) are closest to Macedonian, while those in the centre (
Edessa and
Salonica) are intermediate between the two.
Jouko Lindstedt also opines that the dividing line between Macedonian and Bulgarian should be defined by the linguistic identity of the speakers, i.e., by the state border:
Macedonian dialectology... considers the dialects of south-western Bulgaria to be Macedonian, despite the lack of any widespread Macedonian national consciousness in that area. The standard map is provided by Vidoeski. It would be futile to tell an ordinary citizen of the Macedonian capital, Skopje, that they do not realise that they are actually speaking Bulgarian. It would be equally pointless to tell citizens of the southwestern Bulgarian town of Blagoevgrad that they (or at least their compatriots in the surrounding countryside) do not ‘really’ speak Bulgarian, but Macedonian. In other words, regardless of the structural and linguistic arguments put forth by a majority of Bulgarian dialectologists, as well as by their Macedonian counterparts, they are ignoring one, essential fact – that the present linguistic identities of the speakers themselves in various regions do not always correspond to the prevailing nationalist discourses. Linguistically, the dialects of Macedonia in the wider sense can be divided into Eastern and Western groups (the boundary runs approximately from
Skopje and
Skopska Crna Gora along the rivers
Vardar and
Crna) based on a large group of features. In addition, a more detailed classification can be based on the modern reflexes of the
Proto-Slavic reduced vowels ("
yers"), vocalic sonorants and the back nasal (o). That classification distinguishes between the following 3 major groups: ==Dialects==