Wikipedia:Centralized discussion/Macedonia/miscellaneous

This is a partial draft guideline covering various Macedonia-related naming conventions, other than those covered by the main polling pages. Most of this page describes existing consensus.

Referring to other "Macedonias"

Just like the country, the other Macedonias (region, ancient kingdom, Greek province, etc.) can always be referred to using plain "Macedonia" whenever there is no practical need for disambiguation, i.e. whenever the context is clear enough to make misunderstanding unlikely.

1. "Ancient Macedonia(n)" is the obvious and noncontroversial disambiguator for the ancient kingdom.
2. "Greek Macedonia" or "the Greek region of Macedonia" will often be required to refer to the Greek region, given the fact that subnational entities are usually less well known to a wider readership than independent countries. "Macedonia" alone can be used in unambiguous contexts such as enumerations and lists of Greek localities. For describing the administrative affiliation of Greek localities, the official names of the actual peripheries (e.g. Central Macedonia) will normally be used.
3. In modern-era historical contexts up to the early 20th century, the term "Macedonia" alone will normally be understood to refer to Macedonia (region). In later contexts, a qualifier such as "the wider region of Macedonia" or "geographical Macedonia" will normally be required.
4. The terms "Vardar Macedonia", "Aegean Macedonia" and "Pirin Macedonia" should only be used in historical contexts where they are common and relevant, i.e. in discussions of the political aftermath of the territorial divisions of the early 20th century, and only together with some suitable explanation. More neutral descriptions like "Yugoslav Macedonia", "Greek Macedonia" and "Bulgarian Macedonia" are preferable.

Adjectival use

1. The simple adjective "Macedonian" can always be used where the context makes it unambiguous, especially where the intended meaning has been made clear through previous disambiguation. For instance, if a previous sentence talks about "negotiations between Greece and the Republic of Macedonia", then there is no reason to avoid subsequent reference to "the Macedonian government".

Ethnic name

1. People of Macedonian ethnicity will normally be called simply "Macedonians". This applies particularly to contexts of naming the ethnic background of a person from the Republic of Macedonia or people belonging to Macedonian diaspora communities, where their ethnic affiliation/identity is not in doubt.
   1. "ethnic Macedonian" can be used for distinguishing people of that ethnicity from other groups within the Macedonian geographical context, for instance from ethnic Albanian citizens of the Republic, from Macedonian Bulgarians, from Macedonian Greeks, or from Macedonian-speakers in Greek Macedonia who identify politically as Greeks. "Slav Macedonian" can be useful as a further explanatory addition if needed.
   2. "Slav Macedonian" can also be used for disambiguation from ancient Macedonians.
   3. "Macedonian Slavs" can be used in historical contexts before the completion of Macedonian ethnogenesis, i.e. before the mid-20th century, to refer to the regional ethnologinguistic group without committing oneself to a particular national identity.
   4. "Slavophones" or "Slavic-speakers", possibly with the further clarification "Macedonian Slavic-speakers", is an acceptable term to describe Slavic-speakers of modern Greek Macedonia without committing oneself to a specific national identity.

Language name

1. The Macedonian language will normally be referred to simply as "Macedonian".
   1. Where disambiguation with the ancient language is required, "modern Macedonian" or "Slavic Macedonian" can be used.
   2. "Macedonian Slavic" can be used instead:
      1. when dealing specifically with the regional varieties in historical contexts before 1944, when Macedonian was not yet standardised and not yet predominantly regarded as a separate language
      2. when dealing with the Macedonian-speakers of post-1944 Greece, when neutrality with respect to separate-language status and affiliation with standard Macedonian is desired. (However, standard Macedonian itself will still be referred to as such also in these contexts.)
      3. When giving Slavic variant forms of placenames or personal names from a Greek-Macedonian context, either "Macedonian Slavic" or "Macedonian/Bulgarian" can be used. (The first refers to the local vernacular and is neutral as to its affiliation; the second refers explicitly to the two related standard varieties.)
2. The Ancient Macedonian language will be referred to as "Macedonian" or "ancient Macedonian" as required for disambiguation purposes.
3. For the modern regional dialects of Greek, "Macedonian Greek" or some other descriptive phrase should be used. The language name "Macedonian", as a noun, is not normally used in this sense in English.