There is no doubt that the Macedonian language is literary, not a dialect, and the history of the Macedonian language does not begin with the Comintern. Those who claim that the Macedonian language is artificial must be told that the Bulgarian language is also an artificial construction and was created in the 19th century, claims Aleksandar Kjosev, culture historian and literary scholar, professor at Sofia University “St. Clement of Ohrid”. The BGNES agency reported that Kjosev, otherwise the head of the Cultural Center at Sofia University, organized a translation from Macedonian to Bulgarian and from Bulgarian to Macedonian language at an event in the center and spoke about four views on the relations between the Bulgarian and Macedonian languages.

The first position is the official Bulgarian position that the Macedonian language is a codified norm of the Bulgarian language, and according to Kjosev, this position is based on some hypothetical linguistic history.

The second position is the Macedonian one.

The official Macedonian position, which is not only Macedonian, defines the Macedonian language and its relationship to Bulgarian through origin. But not through historical origins, but through the origins of the common man. Because language is born every time a baby is born and learns its mother tongue and learns this magical, sweet native speech. That is, there is an innate attitude of the individual towards the language that makes him a native speaker. Imagine the situation of the Macedonians, who lived with this native language, charming, sweet, Macedonian, then someone comes and tells them: “This is not your language”. And what happens afterward, of course, jokes follow, says Kjosev.

The third position is modern science, and this view is supported by professor Kjosev. Modern science investigates and explains clearly how modern nations came into being and how literary languages are codified.

I dare to say that I agree with this position and the central objection of the Bulgarian side, that Macedonian is an artificial construction. This position says something very simple, that the Bulgarian language is also an artificial construction. It is an artificial construction that was created during one century, the 19th century, and which codified the language in order to have an identity – a political identity, not a linguistic identity, emphasized Kjosev.

According to him, the fourth position belongs to Slavists all over the world.

There are linguists at world universities and who knows why they do not doubt that the Macedonian language exists. They somehow do not have a common position with the Bulgarian linguists, says Kjosev who adds that for this not small “academic community” the Macedonian language deserves to be studied, and its phonetics, morphology, syntax, and its literature are unquestionable. For these Slavists around the world, the Bulgarian-Macedonian dispute is “very strange and almost incomprehensible”.

For Aleksandar Kjosev, there is no doubt that Macedonian is a literary language.