The Moesian dialects are a group of closely related dialects 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 la ...

, part of the Eastern Bulgarian dialects. The Moesian dialects are spoken in northeastern Bulgaria and in the regions of

Karnobat Karnobat ( bg, Карнобат ) is a town in the Burgas Province, Southeastern Bulgaria. It is the administrative centre of the homonymous Karnobat Municipality. According to the 2021 census, the town has a population of 16,483 inhabitants.htt ...

Aytos Aytos ( bg, Айтос ), sometimes written Aitos and Ajtos, is a town located in eastern Bulgaria some 30 kilometers from the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast and belonging to the administrative boundaries of Burgas Province. It is the administrative ...

Burgas Burgas ( bg, Бургас, ), sometimes transliterated as ''Bourgas'', is the second largest city on the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast in the region of Northern Thrace and the fourth-largest in Bulgaria after Sofia, Plovdiv, and Varna, with a popu ...

and

Yambol Yambol ( bg, Ямбол ) is a town in Southeastern Bulgaria and administrative centre of Yambol Province. It lies on both banks of the Tundzha river in the historical region of Thrace. It is occasionally spelled ''Jambol''. Yambol is the admi ...

in southern Bulgaria. However, due to the mass population movements that affected eastern Bulgaria during the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, nowadays, there are very few areas where only Moesian is spoken. In most areas, and especially in southern Bulgaria and

Dobruja Dobruja or Dobrudja (; bg, Добруджа, Dobrudzha or ''Dobrudža''; ro, Dobrogea, or ; tr, Dobruca) is a historical region in the Balkans that has been divided since the 19th century between the territories of Bulgaria and Romania. I ...

, Moesian speakers are mixed with speakers speaking

Balkan dialects The Balkan dialects are the most extensive group of dialects of the Bulgarian language, covering almost half of the present-day territory of Bulgaria. Their range includes north-central Bulgaria and most of the Bulgarian part of Thrace, excluding ...

. As a result of this and also due to the influence of the literary language, most features of the Moesian dialects have given way to features typical for the

Phonological and morphological characteristics

* Vowel change я/broad е (/) instead of formal Bulgarian я/е (/) for Old Church Slavonic ѣ – (''бял/бли'' instead of ''бял/бели''). As a result of the influence of the

, the broad e () has now been almost universally replaced by () * щ/жд (/) for Proto-Slavic / (as in Standard Bulgarian) - ''нощ, между'' (night, between) * Universal loss of x and ф . The two consonants are either completely lost or replaced by v or u * The masculine definite article is о (stressed) and у (unstressed) instead of formal Bulgarian –ът/ъ (''гърˈбо, ˈстолу'' instead of ''гърˈбът, ˈстолът''). As a result of the influence of the

, the о/у definite article has largely been replaced by –ът/ъ * ending e instead of formal Bulgarian i for multi-syllable masculine nouns (''българе'' instead of ''българи'') * ending e instead of formal Bulgarian i for plural past active aorist participles (''биле'' instead of ''били'') * Preposition у instead of formal Bulgarian в (''у Русе'' instead of ''в Русе'')

Sources

Стойков, Стойко: Българска диалектология, Акад. изд. "Проф. Марин Дринов", 200

{{Bulgarian dialects Dialects of the Bulgarian language