“Language is the means through which we understand the thoughts, feelings and wants of our interlocutor. In the language there are certain voice signs or words for all the thoughts, feelings and desires of a person, therefore the language of one nation is its spiritual wealth and heritage in which all thoughts, feelings and desires of a nation with which a nation has lived and is still living, and which are passed down as something sacred from generation to generation are kept turned into voice signs or words.
To preserve your national language and defend it as something sacred means to remain faithful to the spirit of your forefathers and respect what they have done for their posterity.
To renounce your own national language means to renounce your own national spirit.
This explains the wishes and efforts of the conquerors to make the subjugated give up their native language and instead learn the language of the conquerors; it also explains the persistence of the subjugated people to preserve all their national spiritual heritage, especially the language.“
“On Macedonian Matters”,
Krste Petkov Misirkov