Skopje, 18 January 2023 (MIA) – In the year marking 70th anniversary of its establishment, Krste Misirkov Macedonian Language Institute promoted Wednesday the project for the digitization of the manuscripts from the card index records, which were processed for one year, from December 2021 to December 2022, in the Inbox Archive & Data Center.

Around five million original records of written old Macedonian words and dialects from the Institute’s nine card index records, which for decades were stored in cardboard boxes and were in danger of being lost, destroyed or damaged, are now permanently protected in digital and microfilm form.

A total of 14 million denars were provided for the project, of which 9 million denars through the Fund for Innovation and Technological Development (FITD) and 5 million denars from the Ministry of Culture.

“The records with original Macedonian words and expressions date back to the 14th and 15th centuries. With the project, these records will no longer be stored in boxes and closets, but will be stored in digital form, ensuring their further preservation as an invaluable national treasure… The Macedonian language is a legacy that we should be proud of because only through the nurturing and preserving our language and its original content, we will be able to preserve our own identity, which the generations before us fought for, and it was left to us as a testament from which we must not abandon,” Prime Minister Dimitar Kovachevski said during his visit to the Institute.

He also referred to other government projects that promote and protect the Macedonian language, among which is the digital edition of interpretive dictionary of the Macedonian language makedonski.gov.mk, and reminded that last year the government gave approval for 17 employments of young scientists at the Institute where over the past two decades there had been only one employment.

“The term “Macedonian language” is precisely used today, clearly and loudly, in official statements, which is equally represented, along with all other European languages in the European Union, the first proof of which is the Frontex agreement. The opening of the EU negotiations, and thus the translation of the entire European legislation into the Macedonian language, is the concrete recognition of the Macedonian language that we expected and ensured. By making statesmanlike decisions, we ensured the European and world recognition of the Macedonian language and Macedonian identity, which I believe our esteemed Koneski would be proud of,” PM Kovachevski said.

Minister of Culture Bisera Kostadinovska-Stojchevska noted that this is a complex and painstaking project and that it is a historical effort that saved an invaluable spiritual and cultural treasure.

“Digitized and permanently protected are five million records, language records, carefully and dedicatedly collected for decades by the employees of the Institute from numerous researchers, students and language lovers. Extensive card index from various areas of the Macedonian language have been protected, 12 collections have been digitized, 425 microfilms have been created, through which the entire dialectological and onomastic material of the Macedonian language has been preserved.

Kostadinovska-Stojchevska added that digitization made it possible to save every record from the card index of the Krste Misirkov Macedonian Language Institute in digital form and to create a copy of the original.

“This is a historic moment for our Institute because behind us is a historic year in which all the card index records, all the material that was worked on – at first by the founders of the Institute and then by all the colleagues in the past 70 years, has finally been digitized,” Institute’s director Elena Grujoska – Jovanova said, thanking the government for the support of the project and the professionalism of the employees at the Inbox Archive & Data Center.