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The map of Bulgarian dialects has angered the Greeks

12 December 2014 / 18:12:46  GRReporter
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The map of Bulgarian dialects created by scientists from the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, which covers the entire Bulgarian linguistic territory, has sparked angry publications with bombastic headlines in some Greek media.

In its article, the online edition iefimerida.gr states that through the map the Institute for Bulgarian Language in Sofia expresses its opinion that the inhabitants of a large part of northern Greece speak the Bulgarian language. The headline defines the map as "provocative." The text in turn stresses that it has been created and financed under the European Operational Programme "Human Resources Development" within the context of the project "Integrating New Practices and Knowledge in Courses in Computational Linguistics."

The final comment of the online media is, "The Institute for Bulgarian Language has concluded that today the spoken language in Skopje (as Macedonia is called in Greece - author’s note) is Bulgarian".

Similar is the headline of a publication in the online edition protothema.gr. In the subtitle the author states, "Half of northern Greece speaks...Bulgarian. These words do not belong to famous composer Stamatis Kraounakis but to the Institute of Bulgarian Language in Sofia, which is one of the oldest scientific institutes in the country."

The text emphasizes that the presented dialects exist "not only in Bulgaria but also abroad - in Greece, Skopje, Serbia, Turkey and Romania" and the comment is, "Of course, the drafters of the texts do not explain when the territories of northern Greece were within the "national borders" of their country, except during the occupation in World War I and II."

This article also emphasizes that researchers believe that today's inhabitants of Macedonia speak the Bulgarian language, stating in addition that the issue has provoked disputes between the two countries.

Both publications have been republished in other smaller media, especially in blogs, provoking many comments. The authors of the majority of them oppose the research in the following way, "Bulgarians and other peoples of the world speak Greek. It is enough to realize how many Greek words are contained in their vocabulary."

There are also comments like, "Bulgarian fascism" without any arguments for it, while other "analysts" have even referred to Byzantium and its relations with Bulgaria, "which was a satellite of the empire and there were problems between them only during the reign of Krum and Samuel."

Tags: SocietyMap of dialectsInstitute of Bulgarian Languagenorthern GreeceComments
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