Editing Dialect (section)

=== The Balkans ===
The classification of speech varieties as dialects or languages and their relationship to other varieties of speech can be controversial and the verdicts inconsistent. [[Serbo-Croatian language|Serbo-Croatian]] illustrates this point. Serbo-Croatian has two major formal variants ([[Serbian language|Serbian]] and [[Croatian language|Croatian]]). Both are based on the ''[[Shtokavian]]'' dialect and therefore mutually intelligible with differences found mostly in their respective local vocabularies and minor grammatical differences. Certain dialects of Serbia (''[[Torlakian]]'') and Croatia (''[[Kajkavian]]'' and ''[[Chakavian]]''), however, are not mutually intelligible even though they are usually subsumed under Serbo-Croatian. How these dialects should be classified in relation to Shtokavian remains a matter of dispute.

[[Macedonian language|Macedonian]], which is largely mutually intelligible with [[Bulgarian language|Bulgarian]] and certain dialects of Serbo-Croatian ([[Torlakian dialect|Torlakian]]), is considered by Bulgarian linguists to be a Bulgarian dialect, while in [[North Macedonia]], it is regarded as a language in its own right. Before the establishment of a literary standard of Macedonian in 1944, in most sources in and out of Bulgaria before the Second World War, the South Slavic dialect continuum covering the area of today's North Macedonia were referred to as [[Bulgarian language#Relationship to Macedonian|Bulgarian dialects]]. Sociolinguists agree that the question of whether Macedonian is a dialect of Bulgarian or a language is a political one and cannot be resolved on a purely linguistic basis.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Chambers| first1=Jack |last2=Trudgill| first2=Peter| title=Dialectology|url=https://archive.org/details/dialectology00cham_601|url-access=limited| year=1998| publisher=Cambridge University Press| edition=2nd| page=[https://archive.org/details/dialectology00cham_601/page/n21 7]| quote =Similarly, Bulgarian politicians often argue that Macedonian is simply a dialect of Bulgarian – which is really a way of saying, of course, that they feel Macedonia ought to be part of Bulgaria. From a purely linguistic point of view, however, such arguments are not resolvable, since dialect continua admit of more-or-less but not either-or judgements.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=The Macedonian conflict: ethnic nationalism in a transnational world|first=Loring M.|last=Danforth|publisher=Princeton University Press|year=1997|isbn=978-0691043562| pages=67|quote=Sociolinguists agree that in such situations the decision as to whether a particular variety of speech constitutes a language or a dialect is always based on political, rather than linguistic criteria (Trudgill 1974:15). A language, in other words, can be defined "as a dialect with an army and a navy" (Nash 1989:6).}}</ref>