Below are research notes about the Maleshevski (Maleš) dialect, as it is spoken in Berovo and Pehčevo in the south-eastern part of Republic of Macedonia. Linguistic remarks are mainly made when features deviate from the Macedonian standard language.
This paper deals with the Macedonian dialect spoken in the two municipalities Berovo and Pehčevo as of as of the 1996 territorial division of the Republic of Macedonia. The dialect(-s) are treated as one in a linguistic sense.
Berovo covers an area of 595 square kilometers. It is a hilly area with an abundance of rivers. The municipality of Berovo and surrounding communities are located at the periphery of the Maleš lowland. According to the last survey the number of inhabitants in the Berovo Municipality is 14,400 (2004).
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Pehčevo is to the north of Berovo. Apart from Pehčevo proper, the municipality covers the villages Robovo, Umlena, Čiflik, Negrevo, Crnik, and Pančarevo. These villages number less than one thousand each. Pehčevo itself has between 1,000 and 5,000 inhabitants. In Crnik, which is located about 11 kilometers to the north of Pehčevo along the main road, the total of the Roma and Turkish population elements outnumbers the Macedonian part.
Both municipalities are net emigration areas. The economic crisis in the Republic of Macedonia from the end of the 1990's and till the period of my observation in November 2004 has lead to an outflux of inhabitants from the Maleš region as well as adjacent Štip and Strumica. In fact, my informers could not tell me of newcomers in the different villages and towns in recent times. In other words, most - if not all - inhabitants are born and raised in the area. This includes married couples.
Berovo and Pehčevo municipalities border to Bulgaria in the east. Communications with Bulgaria, especially for trade, have been lively since 1989 when the socialist model there collapsed. The preferred crosspoint of the Maleševians is at Delčevo (MK) - Logodaš (BG).
My observations of the dialect stem from November 6-10, 2004, when I was staying in the area and in Skopje as a short-term observer of the ODIHR Election Observations Mission for the Referendum about the Territorial Division of the Republic of Macedonia, which took place on November 6-7, 2004.
My informers were aged 20-70 and from Berovo, Pehčevo, Negrevo, Crnik, Pančarevo, Umlena, Smojmirovo, Vladimirovo, and Ratevo. Notable informers were my driver Goran Andonovski (ca. 25 years, Berovo), interpreter Jasminka Andonovska (ca. 30 years, Pehčevo), judge Danka Bubevska (ca. 50 years, Berovo), cook (44 years, Berovo).
Maleš (english Malesh) has the adjective form in Macedonian maleševski. Locals use the names Maleševija (definite Maleševijata) and Maleševie (definite Maleševieto) for the region comprising the two municipalities. The etymology should be of mal- from Albanian mal mountain
, and thus referring to the Maleš Mountain Ridge that encumbers the region. The origin of this word indicates a presence of (Proto-) Albanians some time in the past; this, though, is not reflected in the contemporary composition of nationalities in the area.
The prosody of the Maleš dialect follows by and large the patterns of Bulgarian standard. The stress may fall on any syllable. The stress is dynamic. Unlike the Bulgarian standard and Skopian vernacular, stressed syllables are pronounced with less physical effort and resulting in identical systems of stressed and unstressed vowels. This also infers that no vowel reduction takes place in the Maleš dialect, at least by my observations. There are no signs that the standard Macedonian prosodic system with the stress on the antepenultimate syllable is under establishment. Examples: d'ojda, dojd'oh, dojd'ohme I shall come, I came, we came
.
In negations with ne, the stress falls on ne.
The Maleš dialect has the vowels /a/, /e/, /i/, /o/, /u/, and the schwa /ъ/. The number and quality of vowels is identical in both stressed and unstressed positions, i.e., no vowel reduction takes place.
The phoneme written as ќ as in ќелав bald
, ќе (future marker)
, бидејќи because
, is realised as a sound close to Serbo-Croatian ћ as in the corresponding ћелав, ће, будући. I shall employ /ć/ instead in writing.
The system of verbal classes and their conjugated follows the Bulgarian Standard model. In present tense, the first person singular morpheme of the present tense of the -i- and -e- conjugations is -(j)a and is pronounced as such, da vidja, da dojda, to see, to come. The first person plural morpheme of those classes is identical to the one of the -a- class - -me.
The imam dojdeno perfect is absent in the dialect. Instead, a došъl sъm or jaden sъm is used.
The definite article of the Maleš dialect is based on -t- only, i.e., unlike the standard Macedonian system with the -v- desinence for proximity, the -n- desinence for distance, and the -t- desinence for neutral marking. However, in the masculine forms the final -t has disappeared, leaving the -(i)o to mark definitiy. E.g., čoveko the (hu-)man, amerikanskio prezident the American president.
Macedonian Standard kako how
, nekako somehow
are kak, nekak in the Maleš dialect, i.e., as in Bulgarian standard.
oh!, Macedonian Standard (o-)lele!
I want, Macedonian Standard sakam, Bulgarian Standard iskam. Both sakam and iskam coexist in the dialect, but iskam is most frequent.