The continuum of
Macedonian and
Bulgarian is spoken in the prefectures of
Florina and
Pella, and to a lesser extent in
Kastoria,
Imathia,
Kilkis,
Thessaloniki,
Serres and
Drama. According to Riki van Boeschoten, the Slavic dialects of Greek Macedonia are divided into three main dialects (Eastern, Central and Western), of which the
Eastern dialect is used in the areas of
Serres and
Drama, and is closest to
Bulgarian, the Western dialect is used in
Florina and
Kastoria, and is closest to
Macedonian, the
Central dialect is used in the area between
Edessa and
Salonica and is an intermediate between Macedonian and Bulgarian. Trudgill classifies certain peripheral dialects in the far east of Greek Macedonia as part of the
Bulgarian language area and the rest as
Macedonian dialects.
Victor Friedman considers those
Macedonian dialects, particularly those spoken as west as
Kilkis, to be transitional to the neighbouring South Slavic language. Bulgarian dialectologists claim all dialects and do not recognize Macedonian. They divide
Bulgarian dialects mainly into Eastern and Western by a
separating isogloss (
dyado, byal/dedo, bel "grandpa, white"(m., sg.)) stretching from Thessaloniki to the meeting point of
Iskar and
Danube. The
nasal vowels are absent in all Slavic dialects except for the dialects of
Macedonian in Greece and the
Lechitic dialects (
Polabian,
Slovincian,
Polish and
Kashubian). This, along with the preservation of the paroxitonic in the
Kostur dialect and Polish, is part of a series of
isoglosses shared with the Lechitic dialects, which led to the thesis of a
genetic relationship between Proto-Bulgarian and Proto-Macedonian with Proto-
Polish and Proto-
Kashubian. The
Old Church Slavonic language, the earliest recorded Slavic language, was based on the dialects in Thessaloniki. Church Slavonic, long-used as a state language further north in East and West Slavic states and as the only one in
Wallachia and
Moldavia until the 18th century, influenced other Slavic languages on all levels, including
morphonology and
vocabulary. About 70% of Church Slavonic words are common to all Slavic languages.
Fringe views A series of ethnological and pseudo-linguistic works were published by three Greek teachers, notably Boukouvalas and Tsioulkas, whose publications demonstrate common ideological and methodological similarities. They published etymological lists tracing every single Slavic word to
Ancient Greek with fictional correlations, and they were ignorant of the dialects and the Slavic languages entirely. Among them, Boukouvalas promoted an enormous influence of the
Greek language on a Bulgarian idiom and a discussion about their probable Greek descent. Personal and topographic names were forcibly changed to their Greek versions. Cyrillic inscriptions across Northern Greece were removed from gravestones and churches. Under the regime of
Ioannis Metaxas, a law was passed banning the
Bulgarian language. Many people who broke the rule were deported, or arrested, and beaten. After the
fall of Communism the issue has continued. In 1994 report by the
Human Rights Watch, Greece implemented a program, which refuses the teaching of any Slavic language. The Greek state continues to exclude the Slavic speakers of Greek Macedonia from operating TV, or radio-stations in local Slavic. Per Slavist Christian Voss, the region had the typical situation of
language shift and decreased proficiency from the Slavic vernacular to Greek as follows: "Households with almost monoglot Slavic-speaking grandparents, bilingual parents, and monoglot Greek-speaking children with a passive knowledge of Slavic." He wrote that the threat of
language death in
Eastern Macedonia and partly
Central Macedonia was because 90% of the villages in Eastern Macedonia and 66% of the villages in Central Macedonia were affected by a huge wave of refugees during the 1920s. == Thrace ==