Pyotr Danilovich Draganov (russian: Пётр Данилович Драганов; bg, Петър Драганов; mk, Петар Драганов; – February 7, 1928) was a Russian

philologist Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined ...

and

slavist Slavic (American English) or Slavonic (British English) studies, also known as Slavistics is the academic field of area studies concerned with Slavic areas, languages, literature, history, and culture. Originally, a Slavist or Slavicist was prim ...

Biography

Draganov was born in

Komrat Comrat ( ro, Comrat, ; gag, Komrat, Russian and bg, Комрат, Komrat) is a city and municipality in Moldova and the capital of the autonomous region of Gagauzia. It is located in the south of the country, on the Ialpug River. In 2014, Comra ...

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War ...

in 1857. He was a Bessarabian Bulgarian. Draganov studied history and philology at the University of Saint Petersburg. From 1885 to 1887 he was working as a teacher in

Thessaloniki Thessaloniki (; el, Θεσσαλονίκη, , also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece, with over one million inhabitants in its metropolitan area, and the capital of the geographic region of ...

after he was invited by the

Bulgarian Exarchate The Bulgarian Exarchate ( bg, Българска екзархия, Balgarska ekzarhiya; tr, Bulgar Eksarhlığı) was the official name of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church before its autocephaly was recognized by the Ecumenical See in 1945 and th ...

. He came to Thessaloniki with the claim that the

Slavic speakers in Ottoman Macedonia Slavic-speakers inhabiting the Ottoman-ruled region of Macedonia had settled in the area since the Slavic migrations during the Middle Ages and formed a distinct ethnolinguistic group. While Greek was spoken in the urban centers and in a coastal ...

are Bulgarians. However, after the huge research that he has done in Macedonia he came up with his own scientific opinion about them. In other words, Draganov claimed that Macedonia is a separate ethno-geographic unit of the

Balkans The Balkans ( ), also known as the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throughout the who ...

and the

Macedonian dialects The dialects of Macedonian comprise the Slavic dialects spoken in the Republic of North Macedonia as well as some varieties spoken in the wider geographic region of Macedonia. They are part of the dialect continuum of South Slavic languages that ...

form a separate language. In St. Petersburg, the prominent Slavist Pyotr A. Lavrov criticized the Draganov concept. As a result of this claim and his personal beliefs, he was sent back to Russia, where he set the foundations of

Macedonian studies Macedonian studies ( mk, Македонистика ''Makedonistika'') is a science that studies the Macedonian language. A person who studies Macedonian is called a Macedonian specialist (Macedonian: ''Македонист / Makedonist''). Prom ...

References

External links

Petar Draganov for the ethnography of the Macedonian Slavs
(English)
The nasal vowels in the Macedonian and Bulgarian dialects

Studying contemporary Macedonia in ethnographic, statistic and dialectal sense
{{DEFAULTSORT:Draganov, Petar Linguists from Russia Bessarabian Bulgarians People from Comrat Early Macedonists 1857 births 1928 deaths