My mother tongue lives the most dramatic and critical moments of its existence on the long historical axis, writes Macedonian scholar and professor from the Institute of Macedonian Language “Krste Misirkov”, Elka Jaceva-Ulcar, on the occasion of International Mother Language Day.

Today, for those in the south, the Macedonian language does not exist, because there someone agreed that there are no people who speak Macedonian. In the east, someone is currently agreeing that there are no Macedonians speaking Macedonian down below Pirin. At home, someone nameless agreed again that he would take away the binding power it had until recently: the only means of communication for everyone living in Macedonia, regardless of how many there are and what their ethnicity is. Without even thinking about curtailing the language rights of non-Macedonians who were born and live here. My mother tongue lives the most dramatic and critical moments of its existence on the long historical axis. And that threat is not only foreign, foreign language. My mother tongue at home is short on love from young Macedonians. The knowledge of the teachers of young Macedonians is lacking in my mother tongue. My mother tongue is getting short on speakers. My mother tongue is short of care for it from the state. My mother tongue is short of care in the public space. Many things at home are lacking in my mother tongue. There are only a few things it does not lack: its uniqueness, on which pages and pages of literature have been written, its verbosity, on which thousands of stories have been told orally, its melodiousness, on which the most beautiful folk songs of the Balkans have been sung… that’s why it will live long… so much as long as the last person who speaks MACEDONIAN will live…, writes the professor.