Among his other duties, Nasrettin Hoca served as a judge once, during which time a man came to him complaining about a quarrel he had had with another man. He explained the situation and the arguments of his complaint. Having listened to his story intently, Hoca said to him:

'You are right.'

The man against whom the complaint was launched followed with his defensive explication. In the end, Hoca said to him:

'You are right.'

Hoca's wife was present at this trial, and all confused said to her husband:

'Hoca, I can't make anything out of this. How is it that both men are right? It can't be!'

In the same neutral manner, Hoca replied to her:

'You are right, too.'

Despite its turbulent and frequently oppressive history, Macedonia has the rare privilege of having been able to preserve its identity during all its excessive ordeals. Taking into account the outcome, that what has become of Macedonia after all those ordeals, Macedonia can be proud of its own past and could say: "History neither destroyed me, nor did it crush my spirits! It made me realise who I am and how I may become better and nobler: as good and noble as one can be!" Macedonia, therefore, does not need to look upon its history with feelings of inferiority, like a victim, but rather proudly, as a winner. In spite of all the socially imposed violence and tremendous linguistic, religious, educational, and institutional assimilation pressures, Macedonia never gave up the basic qualities with which it identified itself from the very beginning.

History has always subjected tiny Macedonia to radically different ideologies and policies. This clash has culminated in the centuries-long parallel existence of the Islamic model, represented by the political, military, and economic authority of Turkey, on the one hand, and the defeated, suppressed Christian model, on the other. Today the two models exist in symbiosis and tolerance in Macedonia, after as many as 550 years of unlimited supremacy of one over the other. Whatever the explanation, it would be incomplete unless an essential point is emphasised: the power and the domination were extremely great in theory, but not in practice. The Ottoman Empire, which conquered the strongest fortresses from Baghdad to Vienna and occupied Thessaloniki three times, while holding it under its reign for almost 400 years, could have easily and in no time destroyed the churches and monasteries across Macedonia. But it didn't.

Even amidst the constantly burning issue of ethnic intolerance, which has haunted the Balkans and Macedonia for centuries, the churches dating from the time before the Turks, as well as those built and often renovated during the Turkish occupation, were preserved by a state order and financially aided by the state. St. Joakim Osogovski, for instance, which was seriously damaged in a fire in the end of the 19^th century, received financial aid for its reconstruction by the government of Sultan Abdul Hamit. This indicates that construction and humanism prevailed over destruction and pathological xenophobia -- at least in Macedonia. After the withdrawal of the Turkish Empire, only Macedonia made an effort to preserve the plethora of holy Islamic buildings left behind. According to Turkish sources, out of approximately 450 mosques in Budapest and about 400 in Belgrade, there is only one in each city today. Quite a self-explanatory fact if compared with corresponding facts about Macedonia (with at least a dozen of mosques in its capital alone, in addition to numerous Turkish baths, tombs, inns, clock towers, and other facilities). [1][1]

Language, on the other hand, was more accommodating of the Ottoman Turkish influence. It showed a flexible attitude. Like it or not, people started, albeit unconsciously or unwillingly in the beginning, to use borrowed words from the language of the oppressor. Macedonian, like Bosnian, Serbian, Bulgarian, Greek, Albanian, Romanian, and Hungarian, was heavily affected by this very different non-Slavonic language. For Macedonian, Turkish was the most important source of vocabulary during the Ottoman rule. Most Turkish words that were adopted into and adapted to the Macedonian language are a natural and inseparable part of the colloquial and regional speech of the population today. In the Ottoman period, unlike today, these words were not only readily accepted in everyday speech, but were also incorporated and sanctioned in the literary and learned language of religious and other written texts. The majority of these words are archaic or dialectal forms in the standard Macedonian language today. Before turning to specific examples, I would like to point out the fact that a large number of the Turkish loan-words in Macedonian, believed to be over 3,000, have entered the language through Ottoman Turkish, but are in fact Arabic or Persian in origin. Obviously, Turkish has borrowed heavily, mainly through the expansion of Islam, and also as a result of geographic proximity and cultural contact.

The expansion of the Ottoman domination was a great deal about spreading Islam. It is precisely Islam that has a lot to account for shaping the Macedonian mentality through the centuries. Being a religion of peace and surrender, it explains such attributes often used to describe Macedonians as 'peaceful,' 'peace-loving,' and 'docile' (although history holds records of a more violent and rebellious kind of Macedonians, as well). Related to these are 'passive,' 'laid back,' 'care-free,' and 'slow,' all integrated in the Turkish borrowing javasluk (slowness), which in addition is used to denote the administrative bureaucratic inefficiency, a remnant of "the sick man of Europe".  Although not a Turkish word, utre (tomorrow, mañana), so often used in everyday speech, demonstrates that easy-going attitude of Macedonians, i.e. if something is not done today, it will be done tomorrow.

The Islamic concepts of halal (religiously allowed, right) and haram (religiously forbidden, wrong) have been deeply imprinted in telling right from wrong, despite the absence of the religious component. Any positive and socially approved behaviour is praised as alal (most Turkish borrowings lose the initial h in Macedonian) in the common set expression "alal da ti e" (alal to you, bravo). Similarly, any negative, socially unacceptable conduct is strongly condemned and stigmatised as aram ("aram da ti e" - aram to you, shame on you).

Frequently used Muslim expressions such as masallah (Wonderful! Praise be!) and insallah (God willing) are also found in Macedonian, although with a limited, colloquial, humorous, and slightly altered usage. Thus, with its traditional meaning and use -- to confirm, approve, and encourage something good, prosperous, beautiful, or successful -- masallah is almost exclusively applied to babies, young children, and beautiful girls to cast away the evil eye (regularly preceded by 'spitting,' commonly believed to cast away evil spirits). But, in addition, it very often follows statements implying something extremely big, expensive, overdone, or exaggerated. So if someone says I had four pizzas today, or He has 15 houses, or The jacket costs £1,000, the commonest reaction in Macedonian would be "Masallah," simply meaning "Wow! So much/so many!"  Similarly, insallah has been detached from its main meaning and is only used when the possibility or likelihood of something happening is believed to be very little or is completely doubted. The connotation is humorous. For instance, if someone says, I'll call you soon, and is notorious for never doing so, a typical answer would be Insallah meaning Like hell you will.[2][2]

Another common, but even more distant in meaning is the Turkish word cehennem 'hell' (Mac. dženem) which is never used with the meaning of 'hell' in Macedonian, but with the more distant and derived meaning of "far away." Thus, if one is said to live dženem, one lives very far away.

The long and oppressive Ottoman reign has left expressions such as aman (Oh! Mercy!), aman zaman / zor zaman (hard times), pusto tursko (damned Turkish reign), kuluk (slavery), zulum (tyranny, cruelty), bašibozuk (disorder), asker (army), janicar (janissary), aps (jail), zandana (dungeon), etc. Alongside these, a large number of words of cultural and historical importance can be found. As shown earlier, numerous Islamic buildings have been preserved as part of the immense treasure. Hence the Macedonian words such as amam (Tur. hamam, 'Turkish bath'), teke (tekke, dervish lodge), an (Tur. han 'inn'), turbe (tomb), meana (Tur. meyhane 'pub, bar'), konak (mansion), džamija (mosque), medresa (madrasa), and so forth.

Turkish has found an extensive and convenient application in Macedonian literature, especially old folk poetry, which once again illustrates how strongly it affected all spheres of life. Myriad of Turkisms are used even today, even in modern literature and music, to serve as intensifiers and to enhance the tone and add flavour. Thus, we more often come across at than konj (horse), sevda instead of ljubov (love), altan rather than zlato (gold), sokak instead of ulica  (street), merak and not zelba (desire). Even auxiliary words like cunki (Tur. çünkü 'because'), sanki (as if), andžak (however), sade (only) have fitted in the Ottoman literary legacy. The following extracts from the Macedonian revolutionary folk poetry can serve as an appropriate illustration:

"Aferim Jordan Piperkov, Makedonijo,

alal da ti e junastvo!"[3][3]

(Well done, Jordan Piperkov, Macedonia,

alal to your heroism!)

"...vov Solun grada ke ideš,

vov terziskata caršija,

vov terziskite dukjani..."[4][4]

(..you'll go to Salonika,

to the tailor's market,

to the tailor's shops...")

"A bre Mitre, cauš Mitre,

cauš Mitre, buljukbaša!"[5][5]

(Hey Mitre, officer Mitre,

officer Mitre, vojvoda!"

Finally, the way certain words are used (or not used) and the effect they produce can tell a lot about how the human mind works when it comes to language interference and borrowing. The reason for this unique phenomenon, though, is not easy to detect. It is beyond explanation why certain borrowings are liberally used and even preferred to their native Macedonian counterparts labelled as standard. One can safely suppose that it will take a long time before nautro (in the morning), sosed (neighbour), gradina (garden), cas (hour), svež (fresh), and domat (tomato) replace the preferred and more widely used sabajle (Tur. sabahleyin), komšija (Tur. komsu), bavca (Tur. bahçe), saat, taze, and patlidžan[6][6]. The Macedonian equivalents sound bookish and stilted. Then there are words that are used with folksy or comic connotation: kef (pleasure), bujrum (here you are), adet (custom), bendisuva (to like), kalabalak (crowd), pendžere (window), perde (curtain), džade (street), and many others. The speaker is aware of the fact that these words are colloquial and sound archaic, but resorts to them to make a statement sound more 'original,' more convincing, or more determined. In the end, there are numerous words that have been so strongly incorporated in the standard Macedonian language that they are used as any Macedonian word would be used, with no consciousness of their true origin: pazar (market), jorgan (quilt), tendžere (pot), masa (table), kuršum (bullet), cešma (water tap), frla (to throw), kajsija (apricot), saksija (flower-pot), sungjer (sponge), kula (tower), dukjan (shop), kamšik (whip), boja (colour), top (cannon), džeb (pocket).

Unlike the influence of other languages (e.g. Greek), the Turkish influence was spread more or less evenly across Macedonia. Turkish lexical items entered all levels of vocabulary, all the traditional parts of speech, and every semantic field, and have been an issue from the beginning of codification. There was one current of thought maintaining that Turkisms should be encouraged and preserved, because they were characteristic of folk speech and also distinguished Macedonian from the other Slavonic languages. The predominant current, however, encouraged Slavonic, Western, and 'international' replacements for Turkisms. The socio-political changes since 1989 have seen a new rise in the use of Turkisms.[7][7]  Is it some feeling of nostalgia and seeking the roots, or is it all due to the recent infectious upsurge of nationalism?  Whatever it is, Nasrettin Hoca would think we are right.

  Bibliography:

1. Akdikmen, Resuhi (1992), Langenscheidt's Pocket Turkish Dictionary, Berlin and München: Langenscheidt KG

2. Balabanov, Kosta (1994), Stara Skopska Caršija, Skopje: Turisticki sojuz na Makedonija

3. Comrie, B. and Corbett, G. (ed.) (1993), The Slavonic Languages, London and New York: Routledge 

4. Hengirmen, Mehmet (1993), Türkçe ögreniyoruz 3, Ankara: Nurol Matbaacilik A.S.

5. Muhic, Ferid (1994), Macedonia: Clasp of the World, Skopje: Tabernakul

6.  Penušliski, Kiril (1965), Crven se bajrak razveva: narodni borbeni pesni, Skopje: Kultura

7. Stoneman, Richard (1993), A Traveller's History of Turkey, Gloucestershire: The Windrush Press

8. Swallow, Charles (1973), The Sick Man of Europe: Ottoman Empire to Turkish Republic 1789-1923, London & Tonbridge: Ernest Benn Ltd.

9. Škaljic, Abdulah (1979), Turcizmi u srpskohrvatskom jeziku, Sarajevo: Svjetlost