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Here are some excerpts taken from a book written by Anastasia Karakasidou, a descendant of Turkish-speaking Christians that were settled in the modern Greek state during the 1920's. The author of the book had travelled to some regions in Greek-occupied Macedonia and recorded interviews and events concerning the local "Slavic language" in the region and the people who spoke it, the Macedonians. For her efforts to expose some of the lies of 'Greek' history and society in Greek-occupied Macedonia she had the publishing of her book initially declined and even endured death threats made by Greek nationalists for her apparent treachery against the modern Greek state.
So the Macedonians of Gostovo/Guvezna who speak the local Macedonian language are now full-fledged Grkomani, no suprise there, but more interesting, they do not call themselves Macedonians now that they are Grkomani, although they did in the past prior to becoming 'Greeks'. And even still, they (Grkomani) refer to the local language as Macedonian.
Even the Vlach Grkomani know the language as Macedonian.
Have a look at the level of confusion even a regular Greek has to endure just to ensure he stays within the rules of the anti-Macedonian aspect of 'Hellenism'. She was a "Bulgarian" speaker, she spoke "Macedonian", but "Bulgarian" is a different language
The simple explanation here would have been for him to say she speaks Macedonian which is different to Bulgarian...........Nevertheless, at least among all that smoke, a regular Greek still notes that Macedonian and Bulgarian are different languages. I wonder, how many other 'Greeks' speak Macedonian as an 'ethimo'?
Some familiar stories for much of our Macedonian brethren in the south.
The last story always stands out as one of the most moving. The author had previously interviewed the old lady Pashkalina, where she was provided her account on certain matters. When the author conducted a follow-up interview, there was a significant change in the story of the old lady, here is the reason why:
Even this poor old lady knew that the language spoken by her relatives who had moved to Bulgaria is not the same as the language she speaks, which can only be Macedonian (Makedonski, Makedonika).
Those present-day inhabitants of Assiros who are descendants of Guvezna’s Slavic-speakers conceive of and conduct themselves as nothing less than Greek citizens and full-fledged members of the nation of Hellenes; they maintain strong convictions that Macedonia is Greek and some believe that they themselves are the Greek descendants of Alexander the Great. Yet they do not call themselves Macedonians. Some may have considered themselves Macedonians in the past and several referred to their former Slavic language as Macedonian(Makedhonika). Page 22
I leave the issue of the cultural or ethnic identity of these migrant settlers open, for while their descendants claimed that they had been Greek, other evidence suggests that they may have been Hellenized Vlachs who spoke Greek………..As one descendant told me:
Our grandfather’s father came from Trikala. There are Vlachs there. All of them there from the mountains are Vlachs. The Trikaliotes have strange words, they speak differently. From Trikala, they say they are all Vlachs. Our grandfather spoke no Macedonian (Makedhonika). He only spoke Turkish. He had a mill in Balaftsa (Kolhikon). They spoke Macedonian there. Page 50-51
Our grandfather’s father came from Trikala. There are Vlachs there. All of them there from the mountains are Vlachs. The Trikaliotes have strange words, they speak differently. From Trikala, they say they are all Vlachs. Our grandfather spoke no Macedonian (Makedhonika). He only spoke Turkish. He had a mill in Balaftsa (Kolhikon). They spoke Macedonian there. Page 50-51
As a descendant of an old Palehora put it:
My uncle married a woman from Vissoka (Present-day Ossa). She was a Bulgarian-speaker(voulgharofoni). She spoke Macedonian (Makedhonika). Bulgarian is a different language. She spoke Greek as well. And my mother, my father, and my mother-in-law all spoke Macedonian. It was the custom (ethimo) here. We were used to it. We call the aunt (thia) “tsino” and the water (nero) “voda”. Page 70-71
My uncle married a woman from Vissoka (Present-day Ossa). She was a Bulgarian-speaker(voulgharofoni). She spoke Macedonian (Makedhonika). Bulgarian is a different language. She spoke Greek as well. And my mother, my father, and my mother-in-law all spoke Macedonian. It was the custom (ethimo) here. We were used to it. We call the aunt (thia) “tsino” and the water (nero) “voda”. Page 70-71
The simple explanation here would have been for him to say she speaks Macedonian which is different to Bulgarian...........Nevertheless, at least among all that smoke, a regular Greek still notes that Macedonian and Bulgarian are different languages. I wonder, how many other 'Greeks' speak Macedonian as an 'ethimo'?
A man from the village of Xiloupolis, raised by his Slavic-speaking grandmother, asserted the he spoke only Macedonian (Makedhonika) until he began Greek primary school. He claimed that his mother had been obliged to go to night school in the 1930’s for Greek language lessons while she was pregnant with him. “The Macedonian language is lost,” he told me. “It has vanished. What a pity.” Other voices, sometimes public, often private, were more militant. One of the few elderly Assiriotes to speak directly about the Macedonian issue maintained that a certain village leader “used to say in the 1930’s that the Macedonian nation (Makedhoniko ethnos) is lost.” “Don’t listen to what the politicians say,” he told me. “They are themselves from Macedonian villages. What do you think the Langadhas area was?” Page 74
The last story always stands out as one of the most moving. The author had previously interviewed the old lady Pashkalina, where she was provided her account on certain matters. When the author conducted a follow-up interview, there was a significant change in the story of the old lady, here is the reason why:
During our conversation, I raised the question that her previous accounts had provoked in my mind. In response, she recounted her story for me once again, only this time with significant alterations in certain details. I asked Paskhalina why her previous accounts had differed from this third version. She replied that all these years she had been afraid to tell the truth, for fear of recriminations. Paskhalina spoke “Bulgarian” when she was growing up in Ambar-Koy. But the “Bulgarian” she spoke, she claimed, is not the same as the Bulgarian spoken by her relatives who now live in Bulgaria. Paskhalina told me that she met a man in Veroia and they spoke the same language. They communicated without any problem. Paskhalina also communicated well with people from Liti……..........Guvezna was called “Gostovo” in “her language”. Paskhalina’s father’s last name in Ambar-Koy was Galtsanoff, but he later adopted a Greek surname. Page 129-30
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