The fundamental difference between the temper of the Serbian and the Bulgarian is apparent to travelers in Balkan lands. The former are true Slavs. They are lighthearted and always ready to make merry. Their mountains re-echo with folk songs of the genuine Slavic type. The Bulgarian on the other hand is inclined to silence. Both peoples are equally industrious, but in the Serbian the mobile and restless spirit of the west is discernible, while the Bulgarian is as slow and ponderous a thinker as ever was bred on the vast and open stretches of Eurasia’s central lowlands.
Proof of the Altaic origin of some of the Bulgarians is derived from philology. To be sure, the Bulgarian and Turkish languages, as now spoken, prevent mutual understanding, even though a number of Turkish words have crept into Bulgarian in the course of the centuries of Turkish rule. These are mostly modern words, however, which did not exist at the time of the Asiatic migrations. On the other hand, a deeper etymological bond is found in the words for both wild and domestic animals, which are very similar in the two languages. In the same way the old stock of words relating to agricultural or pastoral pursuits are very closely akin in Turkish and Hungarian. An interesting feature of the peopling of Bulgaria is the modern tendency of the Bulgarian to abandon his ancient home in the Balkan mountains and seek the fertile lowlands of the country’s main valleys. A steady emigration from mountain to plain has been going on since the Turks withdrew their garrisons from Bulgaria. This movement reflects a sense of security which followed the expulsion of the Turks. It is not yet ended. The fertile basins of southeastern Bulgaria are still sparsely populated. The reason is clear. They were peopled largely by Turks who preferred to retire on Turkish soil after the Balkan wars of 1912-1913. The Bulgarians have not yet had time to occupy the territory abandoned by the Turks.
After the Turkish conquest Turkish historians, particularly Evlia Tchelebi and Sa’aeddin, constantly refer to the Macedonians as Bulgarians. This belief was held by the Turks until the end of their rule of the province. The first Bulgarian bishop authorized by the Turkish government was appointed for the diocese of Uskub and southern districts. This appointment followed census-taking in the district which indicated Bulgarian predominance.
In southwestern Macedonia the inhabitants of the districts of Kastoria, Florina and Kailar are generally Bulgarians. Even in the Mohammedan villages, as, for example, Grevena and Nedilia, nothing but Bulgarian is heard. The fundamental Bulgarian character of the entire region is furthermore established by place names which are Bulgarian in spite of secular infiltrations of Greeks, Albanians and Turks.
This portion of Macedonia along with the Vodena, Yenije-Vardar and Salonica districts which were lately allotted to Greece, constitute an interesting linguistic zone. Here alone, of all Bulgarian-speaking regions, have been preserved forms peculiar to the old Bulgarian language. The speech of the inhabitants of Kastoria in particular reveals antiquated styles which are found only in the first manuscripts prepared for the use of Christian Slavs.
At the ambassadorial conference of Constantinople in 1876 the cazas of Kastoria and Florina were included within the boundaries of the proposed autonomous province which was to have Sofia as its capital. The treaty of San Stefano likewise comprised the districts under the newly created Bulgaria. These considerations suffice in themselves to demonstrate the Bulgarian nationality of the inhabitants of the present northern confines of Greece.
The Serbian claim on portions of Macedonia acquired after the Balkan war of 1913 rests largely on a relatively short term of military occupation at the height of the Serbian might in the fourteenth century. This is made the basis of an historical plea. The crowning of Dushan, their most renowned ruler, in the city of Uskub however did not change the national character of the inhabitants of the city or the districts surrounding it. Furthermore, Serbian rule in Macedonia was preceded by Bulgarian sovereignty and was followed by Byzantine supremacy over the land. Greeks and Bulgarians may therefore buttress their claims on equally valid historical contentions. Samuel, one of the Bulgarian Czars, had extended his domain as far west as the Adriatic. His success in adding the seaport of Durazzo to his land, however, failed to change the Serbian nationality of the western districts he managed to conquer.
Only in recent years have Serbian claims on Macedonia been set forth by Serbian scholars. Historians like Raitch, Solaritch and Vouk Karadjitch formerly concurred in setting southern Serbian frontiers at the Shar mountains. In 1860 Serbian scientific societies had joined in the publication of Macedonian songs collected by Verkovitch under the title of “Bulgarian Songs.” Serbian writers of the period around 1870 describe inland inhabitants of Thrace, Rumelia and Macedonia as Bulgarians, while they recognized the coast dwellers as Greeks.[199]
A transition dialect between Bulgarian and Serbian is spoken by the inhabitants of the Krajste and Vlasina valleys in eastern Serbia. The Krajste, an ill-known region, skirts the Serbo-Bulgarian boundary and spreads eastward to the basins of Tren and Kustendil. The Vlasina upper valley is known to Serbians as containing the most important peat bog in their country. The two districts are characterized by seasonal migrations of their inhabitants which acquire decided intensity in the Vlasina valley.[200]
In its westernmost area the delimitation of a Bulgarian linguistic boundary is greatly hampered by the relatively large Serbian-speaking element on the north and a corresponding mass of Greeks on the south. Reliable statistics are still unavailable. Figures supplied by rival nationalist propaganda institutions are for obvious reasons open to suspicion. The region where the determination of this linguistic boundary is most difficult is found in the neighborhood of Pirot and Vrania. Here the language of the Slavic natives departs equally from the Bulgarian and Serbian. This region, however, lies north of Macedonia proper. At the same time there appears to be little room to doubt that the area of Bulgarian speech attains the zone of the eastern Albanian dialects and that it attains the Gulf of Salonica. But the seafaring population of the Ægean coast is largely Greek.