Macedonia Languages

Macedonian is a South Slavic language spoken by close to 2 million people. It became the national language of Macedonia in 1945. The language is composed of 31 Cyrillic alphabetical letters with a large Serbian influence on the written form. The Macedonian dialect constitutes a continuum with the dialect of the Bulgarian language, forming a broader continuum with Serbo-Croatian.

Macedonian is the most widely spoken language in Macedonia. The language is spoken by approximately 66% of the population as the first language, translating to over 1.3 million people. Worldwide, the language is spoken by approximately 2.5 million people. Apart from Macedonia, the language is also native to Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, and Romania among other countries where it is considered a minority language.

Common Macedonian phrases include "zdravo" for "hello" and "kako si?" for "how are you?"

Although Macedonian is the most widely spoken language in Macedonia, some of the minority languages spoken in the country include Albania, Serbian, Romani, Bosnia, and sign language. Albania is the second most spoken language in the country with 32% of the population considering it a first or second language. Turkish is spoken by about 3% of the population while Serbo-Croatian is spoken by merely 2% of the population. English is spoken mainly by the younger generation.