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Bulgarian dialects are the
regional varieties of the
Bulgarian language
Bulgarian (, ; bg, label=none, български, bălgarski, ) is an Eastern South Slavic language spoken in Southeastern Europe, primarily in Bulgaria. It is the language of the Bulgarians.
Along with the closely related Macedonian l ...
, a
South Slavic language
The South Slavic languages are one of three branches of the Slavic languages. There are approximately 30 million speakers, mainly in the Balkans. These are separated geographically from speakers of the other two Slavic branches (West and East) ...
. Bulgarian
dialectology Dialectology (from Greek , ''dialektos'', "talk, dialect"; and , '' -logia'') is the scientific study of linguistic dialect, a sub-field of sociolinguistics. It studies variations in language based primarily on geographic distribution and their ass ...
dates to the 1830s and the pioneering work of
Neofit Rilski
Neofit Rilski ( bg, Неофит Рилски) or Neophyte of Rila (Bansko, 1793 – January 4, 1881), born Nikola Poppetrov Benin ( bg, Никола Поппетров Бенин) was a 19th-century Bulgarian monk, teacher and artist, and an impo ...
, ''Bolgarska gramatika'' (published 1835 in
Kragujevac,
Serbia
Serbia (, ; Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin and the Balkans. It shares land borders with Hungar ...
, then
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...
). Other notable researchers in this field include
Marin Drinov
Marin Stoyanov Drinov ( bg, Марин Стоянов Дринов, russian: Марин Степанович Дринов; 20 October 1838 - 13 March 1906) was a Bulgarian historian and philologist from the National Revival period who lived and ...
,
Konstantin Josef Jireček
The first name Konstantin () is a derivation from the Latin name ''Constantinus'' ( Constantine) in some European languages, such as Russian and German. As a Christian given name, it refers to the memory of the Roman emperor Constantine the Great ...
,
Lyubomir Miletich
Lyubomir Miletich ( bg, Любомир Милетич) (14 January 1863 – 1 June 1937) was a leading Bulgarian linguist, ethnographer, dialectologist and historian, as well as the chairman of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences from 1926 to ...
,
Aleksandar Teodorov-Balan
Aleksandar Stoyanov Teodorov-Balan ( bg, Александър Стоянов Теодоров-Балан; 27 October 1859 – 12 February 1959) was a Bulgarian linguist, historian and bibliographer.
Balan was born in the village of Kubey in th ...
,
Stoyko Stoykov
Stoyko Ivanov Stoykov ( bg, Стойко Иванов Стойков; 26 October 1912 – 9 December 1969) was a Bulgarian linguist, Slavist.
Biography
Graduated Slavic Philology at Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski", (1935). Specialized ...
.
The
dialects of Macedonian
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 ...
are classified as part of Bulgarian in the older literature.
[Mazon, Andre. ''Contes Slaves de la Macédoine Sud-Occidentale: Etude linguistique; textes et traduction''; Notes de Folklore, Paris 1923, p. 4.] The Bulgarian linguistics continue to treat it as such in.
Since the second half of the 20th century, foreign authors have mostly adopted the convention of treating these in terms of a separate
Macedonian language
Macedonian (; , , ) is an Eastern South Slavic language. It is part of the Indo-European language family, and is one of the Slavic languages, which are part of a larger Balto-Slavic branch. Spoken as a first language by around two million ...
, following the codification of Macedonian as the literary standard language of
Yugoslav 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 ...
.
However, some contemporary linguists still consider Macedonian as a dialect of Bulgarian.
[Language profile Macedonian](_blank)
, UCLA International Institute Macedonian authors in turn tend to treat all dialects spoken in the geographical region of Macedonia as Macedonian, including those spoken in
Bulgarian Macedonia. Together with their closest lexical and grammatical relative they comprise the Eastern South Slavic branch. The present article treats all these dialects together, because of their close structural similarity and the fact that many important dialect boundaries intersect both territories.
The
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 ...
ethnos absorbed diverse Slavic tribes and not a particular language. The main
isogloss separating the Bulgarian dialects into Eastern and Western is the
yat border
Yat or jat (Ѣ ѣ; italics: ) is the thirty-second letter of the old Cyrillic alphabet and the Rusyn alphabet.
There is also another version of yat, the iotified yat (majuscule: , minuscule: ), which is a Cyrillic character combining a ...
, marking the different mutations of the
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 othe ...
yat
Yat or jat (Ѣ ѣ; italics: ) is the thirty-second letter of the old Cyrillic alphabet and the Rusyn alphabet.
There is also another version of yat, the iotified yat (majuscule: , minuscule: ), which is a Cyrillic character combining a ...
form (ѣ, *''ě''), pronounced as either
/ʲa/ or
/ɛ/
The open-mid front unrounded vowel, or low-mid front unrounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet
The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is an alphabetic ...
to the east (''byal'', but plural ''beli'' in
Balkan dialects, "white") and strictly as /ɛ/ to the west of it (''bel'', plural ''beli'') throughout
former Yugoslavia
The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, commonly referred to as SFR Yugoslavia or simply as Yugoslavia, was a country in Central and Southeast Europe. It emerged in 1945, following World War II, and lasted until 1992, with the breakup of Yu ...
.
Isoglosses shape three groups. Besides the Eastern and Western dialects, the
Rup group of dialects is distinct, which comprises the
Rhodopes
The Rhodopes (; bg, Родопи, ; el, Ροδόπη, ''Rodopi''; tr, Rodoplar) are a mountain range in Southeastern Europe, and the largest by area in Bulgaria, with over 83% of its area in the southern part of the country and the remainder in ...
and everything southwards from Thessaloniki to Istanbul, although it is an Eastern dialect. The official language derives most often from the northeastern group of dialects nominally based on
Veliko Tarnovo
Veliko Tarnovo ( bg, Велико Търново, Veliko Tărnovo, ; "Great Tarnovo") is a town in north central Bulgaria and the administrative centre of Veliko Tarnovo Province.
Often referred as the "''City of the Tsars''", Veliko Tarnovo ...
dialect. Many Western South Slavic lexical, morphological and phonological isoglosses are present in all Western Bulgarian dialects and rarer in
Rup dialects
The Rup dialects, or the Southeastern dialects, are a group of Bulgarian dialects located east of the yat boundary, thus being part of the Eastern Bulgarian dialects. The range of the Rup dialects includes the southern part of Thrace, i.e. Str ...
, which peak in
Torlakian
Torlakian, or Torlak is a group of South Slavic dialects of southeastern Serbia, Kosovo, northeastern North Macedonia, and northwestern Bulgaria. Torlakian, together with Bulgarian and Macedonian, falls into the Balkan Slavic linguistic ar ...
. Bulgarian, Macedonian and Serbian dialects share characteristics far beyond the
Torlakian
Torlakian, or Torlak is a group of South Slavic dialects of southeastern Serbia, Kosovo, northeastern North Macedonia, and northwestern Bulgaria. Torlakian, together with Bulgarian and Macedonian, falls into the Balkan Slavic linguistic ar ...
area and beyond the contested territories of the medieval Bulgarian and Serbian states, which are west of
Sofia
Sofia ( ; bg, София, Sofiya, ) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain in the western parts of the country. The city is built west of the Iskar river, and h ...
. So, these political entities are not responsible for the transitional features, but they are basically rooted in other type of evolution, likely in a makeup in the contact area of the two sources of Eastern and Western South Slavic tribes. The makeup of the transitional area shows a mix of Eastern and Western South Slavic characteristics found in western Bulgaria, which contact happened in the Balkans assuming the exact location of this area. All isoglosses commonly share gradual borders deep inside the country, but the northeast always don't, which likely means that the contact zone mixed after the settling of the
Slavs in 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 ...
. In one instance both ''a'' and ''ъ'' for nasal
yus are part of
Elin Pelin dialect
The Elin Pelin dialect is a Bulgarian dialect, member of the Southwestern Bulgarian dialects, which is spoken in the eastern part of the Sofia valley in central western Bulgaria. Its immediate neighbours are the Vratsa dialect to the north, the Bot ...
. Probably one of the words that remain the same on one of the largest areas in Bulgaria is that for night ''nosht'', which is at best rare in other
Slavic languages
The Slavic languages, also known as the Slavonic languages, are Indo-European languages spoken primarily by the Slavic peoples and their descendants. They are thought to descend from a proto-language called Proto-Slavic, spoken during the ...
, in which along with the
Torlaks in Bulgaria ''noch'' means night.
In eastern Bulgarian dialects in contrast with the other South Slavic languages, standard Ukrainian and Czech, the unstressed vowel ''e'' by
palatalization turns into ''i'' or ''ie''. The Bulgarian pronouns in third person ''toy, te'' are documented in
some
Some may refer to:
*''some'', an English word used as a determiner and pronoun; see use of ''some''
*The term associated with the existential quantifier
*"Some", a song by Built to Spill from their 1994 album ''There's Nothing Wrong with Love''
*S ...
Ukrainian dialects.
Bulgarian dialects can be divided into the following dialectal groups and individual dialects:
[Per Stoykov.]
See also
*
History of the Bulgarian language
The history of the Bulgarian language can be divided into three major periods:
* Old Bulgarian (from the late 9th until the 12th century);
* Middle Bulgarian (from the 12th century to the 16th century);
* Modern Bulgarian (since the 17th century ...
*
Bulgarian lexis
The lexis of Bulgarian, a South Slavic language, consists of native words, as well as borrowings from Russian, French, and to a lesser extent English, Greek, Ottoman Turkish, Arabic and other languages.
Native lexical items
Around three-qu ...
*
Bulgarian grammar
*
Torlakian dialect
Torlakian, or Torlak is a group of South Slavic dialects of southeastern Serbia, Kosovo, northeastern North Macedonia, and northwestern Bulgaria. Torlakian, together with Bulgarian and Macedonian, falls into the Balkan Slavic linguistic ar ...
*
Macedonian language
Macedonian (; , , ) is an Eastern South Slavic language. It is part of the Indo-European language family, and is one of the Slavic languages, which are part of a larger Balto-Slavic branch. Spoken as a first language by around two million ...
*
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 ...
Notes
References
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{{Authority control
Bulgarian language
Dialects by language