Standard Macedonian or Literary Macedonian (Macedonian: Книжевен македонски јазик or Македонски литературен јазик) is the standard variety of the Macedonian language and official language of the Republic of Macedonia used as a written language, in formal contexts, and for communication between different dialect areas. Several prestige dialects have developed around the major urban centers of Skopje, Bitola, Kumanovo and Prilep.
It was only in the 1940s, however, that the Macedonian language was able to be implemented, after being formally declared the official language of the Socialist Republic of Macedonia. The rapid pace at which the standardization process took place was in part owing to an already existing interdialect (see Spoken Macedonian). The standard language is phonologically and morphologically based on the central Western Macedonian dialects (in particular, the Prilep-Bitola and Skopje-Veles dialect) with its lexicon influenced by all Macedonian dialects.
Educated speakers will usually use, or aim to use, the formal standard in public settings and in most forms of written language. Probably the best exemplars of this type of speech, though not always the case, are actors, teachers and writers. A high degree of social prestige and respect is assigned to those who correctly use the standard language in the appropriate situations. In extremely rare examples, some speakers will use the formal code exclusively in everyday conversational speech.
While acquisition of the formal code constitutes a significant part of elementary education, during which children are taught the relationship between their local dialect and the target code, the formal literary language. Most educated speakers switch to the colloquial register of the standard language, Spoken Macedonian, when communicating in less formal circumstances, but tend to aim for more formal usage in circumstances where educated speakers are present or as a sort of "interdialect" in the case where the company is not exclusively local.
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