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Let's discuss the linguistical differences between Bulgarian and Macedonian and could those differences make us conclude that the languages are today separate. It's also interesting to point out the differences regarding mentality, culture, phenotypes. Although I think that we can find out more common things than differences.
Here are some differences I can think of
- The Macedonian alphabet is definitely closer to the Serbian alphabet. It doesn't have ъ , я , й , ю like before 1945, but it has some Serbian or pseudo Serbian letter who have been added during the same year.
- Standard Bulgarian is based on Central-Northern Tarnovo dialects which are part of the Eastern Bulgarian dialects. According to Koneski, Macedonian is based on the Central Macedonian dialects (Veles, Prilep). This creates different pronounciation of certain words (MK: пат, заб, леб, млеко, БГ: път, зъб, хляб, мляко). In the past the words in both Bulgaria and Macedonia were written as зѫбъ, пѫть, хлѣбъ, млѣко. The letters ѫ and ѣ do not exist in Bulgarian or Macedonian today, but their usage in the past was very important and a symbol of equivalence of all Bulgarian dialects.
- As far as I know the grammar is the same. The vocabulary is the only thing that can confuse Bulgarian and Macedonian people in a conversation.
1. I have read that they made an analysation of MAcedonian newspapers from 70' and 80'. Around 80% of the words were the same as in standard Bulgarian or present in some dialects within Bulgaria. The rest 20% come from Serbian and various other languages.
2. There are some Macedonian words that do not exist in both Serbian or Bulgarian.
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