Today we honor our uniqueness, the pillar of our identity and our linguistic pride – the Macedonian language. The language of Koneski, Shopov, Janevski and all other creators of the Macedonian literary work is a mirror of our identity, writes news agency MIA.
It’s also our fundamental human right, the right to self expression and self declaration, said President Stevo Pendarovski in honor of Macedonian Language Day, May 5.
The Macedonian language, he says, has its own place in the Slavonic language tree, thanks to the generations before us who tasked us with nurturing it through its script, which we honor on this day.
“We mustn’t forget the long and arduous fight our ancestors led to prove the uniqueness of the Macedonian language and our right to use it. It’s not any easier today, now that we’re facing new challenges, but in the spirit of European values and our promise to honor differences, we will continue to emphasize our defining trait, our uniqueness, our identity. The centuries-long literary tradition left to us is the biggest testimony to the particularity of the Macedonian language,” Pendarovski says in his message.
He emphasizes that the obligation to nurture and uphold the Macedonian language is more than just our debt to our ancestors, it’s also our debt to our descendants, to the human civilization’s cultural heritage, and an investment in our motherland as part of the European cultural space.
“As Misirkov put it: ‘Loving our language is our debt and right. It is our duty to care for our language, because it is ours the same way our motherland is ours’,” said President Pendarovski in his Macedonian Language Day message.
