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DistributionBulgarian is the official language of the Republic of Bulgaria. It is also spoken in Canada, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Moldova, Republic of Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Turkey, Ukraine and the United States, with an estimated total of 12 million native speakers. HistoryThe development of Bulgarian language can be divided into several historical periods. The prehistoric period (essentially Proto-Slavic) occurred between the Slavonic invasion of the eastern Balkans and the mission to Moravia in the 9th century. Old Bulgarian (9th to 11th century) was the language used by St. Cyril, St. Methodius and their disciples to translate the Bible and other liturgical literature from Greek. It is also referred to as Old Church Slavonic. Middle Bulgarian (12th to 15th centuries) was a language of rich literary activity and major innovations. Modern Bulgarian dates from the 16th century onwards. The present-day written language was standardized on the 19th century Bulgarian vernacular. Some words and structures remain from the language of the Bulgars, the Central Asian people who moved into present-day Bulgaria and eventually adopted the local Slavic language. The proto-Bulgar language, probably a member of the Iranian language family (Pamir languages), was otherwise unrelated to Bulgarian. Old Bulgarian (Old Church Slavonic), is the first Slavonic language attested in writing. As Slavonic linguistic unity lasted into late antiquity, in the oldest manuscripts this language is initially referred to as ѩӡыкъ словѣньскъ (языкъ словяньскъ), "the Slavonic language". Consequently it was called ѩӡыкъ блъгарьскъ (языкъ блъгарьскъ). The language is referred to in various ways by its different researchers. Jernej Kopitar and Franc Miklošič called it "Old Slovenian language", as in the oldest written records they sought features of the Slav dialect of Panonia. A. H. Vostokov calls it "Slav-Bulgarian language". J. Dobrovsky in "Institutiones linguae slavicae dialecti veteris" (Vindobonae, 1822) (Study of the old dialect of the Slav language) found the language an old Serbian dialect. But as early as the mid-19th century, A. Schleicher, M. Hatala and L. Geitler noticed that the linguistic features of the first Slav literary works are the same as those of the Bulgarian language. They introduced the term Old Bulgarian language (German Altbulgarisch), fully adopted in Bulgaria. In contemporary linguistics other frequently used terms are Old Slavic and Old Church Slavonic, which refer to the language of these same texts. Naturally, some scholars hold the opinion that the scientific study of the language should only have as its subject the texts of the so-called "canon", subject the texts of the so-called "canon", i.e., the language of the works associated with St. Constantine/Cyril and St. Methodius and their work, rather than the language of the Bulgarian literary and cultural circles. But this is a one-sided understanding of the nature and extent of the first Slav language attested in writing. There are no documents surviving to modern times written by the brothers themselves, so we derive this "canon" from records written at least 50 or 60 years later. During this period, certain changes occurred in both the written and the spoken language. Therefore the language of Cyril and Methodius may be reconstructed roughly from the copies of their works, but the authenticity of the reconstruction is not supported by any documentary evidence, and that applies also to the earlier proto-Slav language. That is reason enough not to designate the language of the first Slav written records "the language of Cyril and Methodius". As for the terms "Old Slavic" and "Old Church Slavonic", they do not account for the actual nature and ethnic basis of the language. The large amount of research devoted to it has undeniably proven the Bulgarian ethnic base of the oldest manuscripts that have survived to this day. Proof can be found in phonetics (in the reflexes of the proto-Slav *tj, *gtǐ, *ktǐ, *dj, and in the open articulation of the ѣть vowel), the lexicon (in certain loans from the colloquial Greek language of the time, with which only the Bulgarian Slavs were in direct contact...words such as сѫбота [Saturday] from σαμβατο, and not σαββατον), and in the syntax:
General characteristicsBulgarian demonstrates several linguistic developments that set it apart from other Slavic languages, such as the elimination of noun declension, the development of a suffixed definite article (possibly inherited from the Bulgar language), the lack of a verb infinitive, and the retention and further development of the Proto-Slavic verb system. There are various verb forms to express non-witnessed, retold, and doubtful action. Bulgarian is part of the Balkan linguistic union, which also includes Greek, Romanian, Albanian and some Serbian dialects. Most of these languages share some of the above-mentioned characteristics (e.g., definite article, infinitive loss, complicated verb system) and many more. However, the complete loss of case declension seems to set Bulgarian apart both from the Balkanic and from the Slavic languages (even though it might be argued that it is a logical development of "Balkanization"). The "non-witnessed action" verb forms have been attributed to Turkish influences by some linguists. AlphabetIn 886 AD, Bulgaria adopted the Glagolitic alphabet which was devised by the Byzantine missionaries Saint Cyril and Methoduis in the 850s. The Glagolitic alphabet was gradually superceded in the following centuries by the Cyrillic alphabet, which was developed around the Preslav Literary School in the beginning of the 10th century. Most of the letters in the Cyrillic alphabet were borrowed from the Greek alphabet; those which had no Greek equivalents, however, represent simplified Glagolitic letters. The original Cyrillic alphabet (44 letters for 44 sounds) remained in use in Bulgaria until the 1870s when the letters were reduced to 32 as part of the efforts on the codification of Modern Bulgarian. This modified alphabet was used until the orthographic reform of 1945 when the letters yat (ѣ, called "double e"), and yus (ѫ) were removed from the alphabet. Thus, the present Bulgarian alphabet has 30 letters. The following table gives the majuscule forms of the letters in the Bulgarian alphabet, along with IPA values for the sound of each letter:
1 softens consonants before 'o' Most letters in the Bulgarian alphabet stand for one specific sound and that sound only. Three letters stand for the single expression of combinations of sounds, namely щ (sht), ю (yu), and я (ya). Two sounds do not have separate letters assigned to them, but are expressed by the combination of two letters, namely дж (like j in Jack) and дз (dz). The letter ь is not pronounced, but it softens any preceding consonant before the letter o. PhoneticsVowelsThe Bulgarian vowel system consists of the following six vowels:
SemivowelsBulgarian possesses one semivowel: /j/, equivalent to the English <y> in yes. The /j/ always immediately precedes or follows a vowel. The semi-vowel is most usually expressed graphically by the letter й, as, for example, in най /naj/ "most" and тролей /trolej/ "trolleybus". The letters ю and я are, however, also used (though never before a consonant!), for example ютия /jutija/ "iron". ConsonantsBulgarian has a total of 33 consonant phonemes (see table below). Three additional phonemes can also be found—[xʲ], [ʣ] and [ʣʲ]) but only in foreign proper names like Хюстън /xʲustən/, "Houston", Дзержински /dzεrʒinski/, "Dzerzhinsky", and Ядзя /jaʣʲa/, the Polish name "Jadzia". They are, however, normally not considered part of the phonetic inventory of the Bulgarian language. According to the criterion sonority, the Bulgarian consonants can be divided into 16 pairs (voiced<>voiceless). The only consonant without a counterpart is the voiceless velar fricative [x]. Hard and palatalized consonantsThe Bulgarian consonants б /b/, в /v/, г /g/, д /d/, з /z/, к /k/, л /l/, м /m/, н /n/, п /p/, р /ʀ/, с /s/, т /t/, ф /f/, ц /ʦ/ can have both a normal, "hard" pronunciation, as well as a "soft", palatalized one. These hard and the palatalized consonats are considered separate phonemes in Bulgarian. The consonants ж /ʒ/, ш /ʃ/, ч /tʃ/ and дж /ʤ/ do not have palatalized variants as they are essentially soft (palatal) consonants in Bulgarian.
GrammarArticles
e.g., мъжът (the man), котаракът (the tomcat), учителят (the teacher)
e.g., новият (the new [one]), глупавият (the stupid [one])
e.g., жената (the woman), котката (the cat), бащата (the father), децата (the children)
e.g., детето (the child), котето (the kitten), слънцето (the sun)
e.g., мъжете (the men), жените (the women), бащите (the fathers)
малкото умно дете (the small clever child) смелата млада жена (the brave young woman) приятният любезен мъж (the nice polite man) новите смешни обувки (the new funny shoes)
e.g., English the new one is Bulgarian 'новият'.
e.g., моят/моята/моето/моите (*the my [one], masc./fem./neut./plural), няколкото (*the a few). This is used to form relative pronouns: къде (where?) => където (in which).
NounsBulgarian nouns have three genders (masculine, feminine and neuter), much like Russian and German. There are no case declensions. The definite article is suffixed to the word, as in the Nordic languages. It is easier to guess the gender of an unknown Bulgarian word than of a German one.
Masculine count nouns (човек, телефон) have two plural forms—regular plural and a special countable plural to be used after a numeral and the adverbs колко (how many), няколко (a few, several), толкова (so/this/that many). All other nouns have only one plural form. It is said, however, that when a noun is a person, it must not be used with a countable form. The plural is formed by adding different suffixes or by changing the final vowel of the word. The definite article is suffixed after the plural suffix.
LexiconAfter the Bulgarians achieved independence in 1878, a modern literary language based on the vernacular came into its own. Modern Bulgarian, which is generally said to date from the 16th century, borrowed many words from Greek and Turkish during the period of Turkish domination; more recently it has borrowed words from Russian, French and German.
Common Bulgarian Expressions
See alsoExternal links
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