Blazеe Koneski's merit for the codification of the Macedonian literary language is
that he created "Grammar of the Macedonian literary language", "Dictionary of the
Macedonian literary language", as well as "Spelling of the Macedonian literary
language", prepared together with Krum Toshev, which is legal on June 7, 1945, or
75 years ago.
"Language is our homeland," said Blaze Koneski, the founder and codifier of the
modern Macedonian language, leaving us a lasting message for its preservation,
nurturing and advancement as one of the pillars of our identity.
At a time when there is a lot of talk about the Macedonian language, and especially
in the media when it is very loudly protected from attacks that arise from time to time
on this or that side, one of the tools to protect it is the necessary knowledge and
application of the Macedonian language orthography.
Language is a living matter, in which every new phenomenon of the whole human
life is reflected, and the orthography of each language is a set of rules for written
presentation of the language itself.
The spelling and orthography of the Macedonian language, known as orthography
and orthoepy, are the standard language norms of any language that indicate correct
speech and correct writing. Orthography means the correct way of writing, ie. proper
use of graphic signs and punctuation in a given language, as well as proper
application of all laws according to which the rules are established.
At the First Session of ASNOM, August 2, 1944, a decision was made to introduce
the Macedonian language as an official language in the Macedonian state. The
Language and Spelling Commission formulated its views in a Resolution adopted on
3 May and adopted on 5 May 1945. Blaze Koneski's merit for the codification of the
Macedonian literary language is that he created "Grammar of the Macedonian
literary language", "Dictionary of the Macedonian literary language", as well as
"Spelling of the Macedonian literary language", prepared together with Krum Toshev,
which is legal on June 7, 1945.
The orthography of the Macedonian language has undergone several changes since
the moment of its standardization, i.e. there were small changes in the spelling in
1945, 1950, 1970 and 1998.
"The first major modernization of the Macedonian orthography was practically done
with the 1969 Orthography followed by the 1998 one, compiled by the same authors
without Tosev, who died in 1976," reads the preface to the latest edition of the
Macedonian Orthography.
The last editions of the Orthography of the Macedonian Literary Language were
published in December 2015 and March 2017, modernizing its latest version made
almost two decades earlier, respecting the previous editions of its first compilers,
Blaze Koneski and Krum Toshev in 1945, as well as the following ones: Bozidar
Vidoeski, Todor Dimitrovski, Kiril Koneski, Krum Toshev and Radmila Ugrinova-
Skalovska. The Institute for Macedonian Language "Krste Misirkov" and the
publishing house "Kultura" participated in the publication of the last edition of the
Spelling. The second edition is a collective work, in which a total of 48 authors
participated, specialists in their fields led by the editorial staff: Dr. Zivko Cvetkovski
(President), Dr. Snezana Venovska-Antevska, Dr. Simona Gruevska-Madzoska,
Ph.D. Dr. Elka Jaceva-Ulcar and Dr. Simon Sazdov.
The National and University Library "St. Kliment Ohridski" is the publisher of the free
electronic version of the Macedonian Orthography, which can be found at
www.pravopis.mk.
On this website, orthography rules can be found free of charge, i.e. spelling of
vowels and consonants, use of capital letters, merged and separated word writing,
word division, punctuation and spelling signs, as well as abbreviations and
transcriptions.
