Blagoy Stefanov Shklifov ( bg, Благой Стефанов Шклифов; January 30, 1935 – September 25, 2003) was a

Bulgarian Bulgarian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Bulgaria * Bulgarians, a South Slavic ethnic group * Bulgarian language, a Slavic language * Bulgarian alphabet * A citizen of Bulgaria, see Demographics of Bulgaria * Bul ...

dialectologist and phonologist. Shklifov was born in Polykeraso (Chereshnitsa),

Vitsi Vitsi ( el, Βίτσι) is a former municipality in Kastoria regional unit, West Macedonia, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Kastoria, of which it is a municipal unit. It takes its name from Mount Vitsi ...

municipality, Kastoria regional unit, Greece in 1935. In 1948, at the end of the

Greek Civil War The Greek Civil War ( el, ο Eμφύλιος �όλεμος ''o Emfýlios'' 'Pólemos'' "the Civil War") took place from 1946 to 1949. It was mainly fought against the established Kingdom of Greece, which was supported by the United Kingdom ...

, he left his burned village and after a short stay in

Socialist Republic of Macedonia The Socialist Republic of Macedonia ( mk, Социјалистичка Република Македонија, Socijalistička Republika Makedonija), or SR Macedonia, commonly referred to as Socialist Macedonia or Yugoslav Macedonia, was ...

went to

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...

, with many refugees from

Greek Macedonia Macedonia (; el, Μακεδονία, Makedonía ) is a geographic and former administrative region of Greece, in the southern Balkans. Macedonia is the largest and Greek geographic region, with a population of 2.36 million in 2020. It is ...

. In 1964, he went to Bulgaria and studied at

Sofia University Sofia University, "St. Kliment Ohridski" at the University of Sofia, ( bg, Софийски университет „Св. Климент Охридски“, ''Sofijski universitet „Sv. Kliment Ohridski“'') is the oldest higher education i ...

"St. Clement of Ohrid". He was a lecturer at the

University of Szeged , mottoeng = Truth. Bravery. Freedom. , established = , type = Public research university , founder = Emperor Franz Joseph I , affiliation = European University Association, Science Without Borders, Confucius Institute , budget = US$220 mi ...

, Hungary and at

, Bulgaria. In his books, he claimed that the Slavophones of Greek Macedonia are

Bulgarians Bulgarians ( bg, българи, Bǎlgari, ) are a nation and South Slavic ethnic group native to Bulgaria and the rest of Southeast Europe. Etymology Bulgarians derive their ethnonym from the Bulgars. Their name is not completely understo ...

. For this reason, he was not permitted to enter Greece for 40 years. He died in September 2003 in a car crash during a field work trip in Greece. Some of his colleagues suspect he was murdered.

Work

Shklifov specialised on Bulgarian dialectology, especially the phonetics of South-West Bulgarian (Macedonian) dialects and their connection with

Old Bulgarian Old Church Slavonic or Old Slavonic () was the first Slavic literary language. Historians credit the 9th-century Byzantine missionaries Saints Cyril and Methodius with standardizing the language and using it in translating the Bible and other ...

. Considering these dialects in comparative plan with Old Bulgarian he explained the development of many sounds, for example ѫ, not with external influences, but with internal processes in the language.Тот, Имре. Предговор към Шклифов, Благой. Проблеми на българската диалектна и историческа фонетика с оглед на македонските говори, София 1995, с. 7-8 (Thoth, Imre. Preface, in: Shklifov, Blagoy. Problems of the Bulgarian dialectal phonology from the point of view of the Macedonian dialects, Sofia 1995, p. 7-8) Shklifov regarded the western

Slavic dialects of Greece The Slavic dialects of Greece are the Eastern South Slavic dialects of Macedonian and Bulgarian spoken by minority groups in the regions of Macedonia and Thrace in northern Greece. Usually, dialects in Thrace are classified as Bulgarian, whi ...

as a part of the Bulgarian dialect area.

References

External links

Shkifov, Blagoy and Ekaterina Shklifova. Bulgarian dialect texts from Aegean Macedonia, Sofia 2003, Published by Bulgarian Academy of Sciences
(in Bulgarian)

in Bulgarian

in Bulgarian {{DEFAULTSORT:Shklifov 1935 births 2003 deaths Linguists from Bulgaria Bulgarian expatriates in Hungary Bulgarians from Aegean Macedonia Dialectologists Bulgarian educators Road incident deaths in Greece Child refugees People from Kastoria (regional unit) 20th-century linguists 20th-century Bulgarian people