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Torlakian, or Torlak is a group of South Slavic dialects of southeastern Serbia,
Kosovo Kosovo ( sq, Kosova or ; sr-Cyrl, Косово ), officially the Republic of Kosovo ( sq, Republika e Kosovës, links=no; sr, Република Косово, Republika Kosovo, links=no), is a partially recognised state in Southeast Eur ...
, northeastern
North Macedonia North Macedonia, ; sq, Maqedonia e Veriut, (Macedonia before February 2019), officially the Republic of North Macedonia,, is a country in Southeast Europe. It gained independence in 1991 as one of the successor states of Socialist Feder ...
, and northwestern
Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Mac ...
. Torlakian, together with Bulgarian and
Macedonian Macedonian most often refers to someone or something from or related to Macedonia. Macedonian(s) may specifically refer to: People Modern * Macedonians (ethnic group), a nation and a South Slavic ethnic group primarily associated with North M ...
, falls into the Balkan Slavic linguistic area, which is part of the broader Balkan sprachbund. According to
UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. I ...
's list of endangered languages, Torlakian is vulnerable."Torlak" at Torlakian is not standardized, and its subdialects vary significantly in some features. Yugoslav linguists traditionally classified it as an old
Shtokavian dialect Shtokavian or Štokavian (; sh-Latn, štokavski / sh-Cyrl, italics=no, штокавски, ) is the prestige dialect of the pluricentric Serbo-Croatian language and the basis of its Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian and Montenegrin standards. It ...
or as a fourth dialect of
Serbo-Croatian Serbo-Croatian () – also called Serbo-Croat (), Serbo-Croat-Bosnian (SCB), Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian (BCS), and Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian (BCMS) – is a South Slavic language and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia an ...
along with Shtokavian, Chakavian, and Kajkavian. Bulgarian scholars classify it as a Western Bulgarian dialect, in which case it is referred to as a Transitional Bulgarian dialect. According to Ivo Banac, during the Middle ages Torlak and the
Eastern Herzegovinian dialect The Eastern Herzegovinian dialect (, Serbo-Croatian: ''istočnohercegovački'' / источнохерцеговачки) is the most widespread subdialect of the Shtokavian dialect of Serbo-Croatian, both by territory and the number of speakers ...
were part of
Eastern South Slavic The Eastern South Slavic dialects form the eastern subgroup of the South Slavic languages. They are spoken mostly in Bulgaria and North Macedonia, and adjacent areas in the neighbouring countries. They form the so-called Balkan Slavic lin ...
, but since the 12th century, especially the Shtokavian dialects, including Eastern Herzegovinian, began to diverge from the other neighbouring South Slavic dialects. Some of the phenomena that distinguish western and eastern subgroups of the South Slavic languages can be explained by two separate migratory waves of different Slavic tribal groups of the future
South Slavs South Slavs are Slavic peoples who speak South Slavic languages and inhabit a contiguous region of Southeast Europe comprising the eastern Alps and the Balkan Peninsula. Geographically separated from the West Slavs and East Slavs by Austria, ...
via two routes: the west and east of the Carpathian Mountains.The Slavic Languages, Roland Sussex, Paul Cubberley, Publisher Cambridge University Press, 2006, , p. 42. Speakers of the dialectal group are primarily ethnic
Serbs The Serbs ( sr-Cyr, Срби, Srbi, ) are the most numerous South Slavic ethnic group native to the Balkans in Southeastern Europe, who share a common Serbian ancestry, culture, history and language. The majority of Serbs live in their ...
,
Bulgarians Bulgarians ( bg, българи, Bǎlgari, ) are a nation and South Slavs, 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 complete ...
, and Macedonians. There are also smaller ethnic communities of
Croats The Croats (; hr, Hrvati ) are a South Slavic ethnic group who share a common Croatian ancestry, culture, history and language. They are also a recognized minority in a number of neighboring countries, namely Austria, the Czech Republic, ...
(the Krashovani) in Romania and Slavic Muslims (the Gorani) in southern Kosovo.


Classification

The Torlakian dialects are intermediate between the Eastern and Western branches of South Slavic
dialect continuum A dialect continuum or dialect chain is a series of language varieties spoken across some geographical area such that neighboring varieties are mutually intelligible, but the differences accumulate over distance so that widely separated varie ...
, and have been variously described, in whole or in parts, as belonging to either group. In the 19th century, they were often called ''Bulgarian'', but their classification was contested between Serbian and Bulgarian writers. Previously, the designation "Torlakian" was not applied to the dialects of
Niš Niš (; sr-Cyrl, Ниш, ; names in other languages) is the third largest city in Serbia and the administrative center of the Nišava District. It is located in southern part of Serbia. , the city proper has a population of 183,164, whil ...
and the neighbouring areas to the east and south.


Balkan sprachbund

The Torlakian dialects, together with Bulgarian and
Macedonian Macedonian most often refers to someone or something from or related to Macedonia. Macedonian(s) may specifically refer to: People Modern * Macedonians (ethnic group), a nation and a South Slavic ethnic group primarily associated with North M ...
, display many properties of the Balkan linguistic area, a set of structural convergence features shared also with other, non-Slavic, languages of the Balkans such as Albanian, Romanian and Aromanian. In terms of areal linguistics, they have therefore been described as part of a prototypical "Balkan Slavic" area, as opposed to other parts of
Serbo-Croatian Serbo-Croatian () – also called Serbo-Croat (), Serbo-Croat-Bosnian (SCB), Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian (BCS), and Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian (BCMS) – is a South Slavic language and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia an ...
, which are only peripherally involved in the convergence area.


Balkan linguists


Serbian linguists

Most notable Serbian linguists (like Pavle Ivić and Asim Peco) classify Torlakian (
Serbo-Croatian Serbo-Croatian () – also called Serbo-Croat (), Serbo-Croat-Bosnian (SCB), Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian (BCS), and Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian (BCMS) – is a South Slavic language and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia an ...
: / , ) as an Old-Shtokavian dialect, referring to it as the Prizren–Timok dialect. * Pavle Ivić, in his textbook of Serbo-Croatian dialectology (1956), treated the "Prizren–Timok dialect zone" as part of the overall Shtokavian zone. * Aleksandar Belić classified the Prizren–Timok dialect as "fundamentally Serbian", as well as claimed that the Western Bulgarian dialects were Serbian. * Dejan Krstić in his scientific paper "Ideas of the Pirot region population that concern the term the Torlaks" has claimed that the term Torlaks was and is used to refer to the bilingual Vlachs in Pirot area.


Croatian linguists

* Croatian linguist Milan Rešetar classified the "Svrljig dialect" (Torlak) as a different group from Shtokavian.


Bulgarian linguists

Bulgarian researchers such as Benyo Tsonev,
Gavril Zanetov Gavril Tanasov Zanetov ( bg, Гаврил Танасов Занетов) was a lawyer, historian, publicist and literary critic. He was a close associate and adviser to Prime Minister Vasil Radoslavov. He graduated from the Bolhrad High School o ...
and the Macedono-Bulgarian researcher Krste Misirkov classified Torlakian ( bg, Торлашки, Torlashki) as dialect of the Bulgarian language. They noted the manner of the articles, the loss of most of the cases, etc. Today Bulgarian linguists ( Stoyko Stoykov, Rangel Bozhkov) also classify Torlakian as a "
Belogradchik Belogradchik ( bg, Белоградчик ) is a town in Vidin Province, Northwestern Bulgaria, the administrative centre of the homonymous Belogradchik Municipality. The town, whose name literally means "small white town," is situated in the f ...
-
Tran Tran may refer to: Arts, media, and entertainment * "Tran", a novel in the Janissaries series named for a fictional planet * Dr. Tran, an animated miniseries People * Trần (陳), a Vietnamese surname * Tran, member of the Nazi-era comedy d ...
" dialect of Bulgarian, and claim that it should be classified outside the Shtokavian area. Stoykov further argued that the Torlakian dialects have a grammar that is closer to Bulgarian and that this is indicative of them being originally Bulgarian.


Macedonian linguists

In Macedonian dialectology, the Torlakian ( mk, Торлачки, Torlački) varieties spoken in North Macedonia ( Kumanovo, Kratovo and Kriva Palanka dialect) are classified as part of a northeastern group of Macedonian dialects.


Features


Vocabulary

Basic Torlakian vocabulary shares most of its Slavic roots with Bulgarian, Macedonian and Serbian but also over time
borrowed ''Borrowed'' is a 2022 drama film directed by Carlos Rafael Betancourt and Oscar Ernesto Ortega. The film explores the relationship between two men living in South Florida. ''Borrowed'' stars Jonathan Del Arco and Héctor Medina, and had its worl ...
a number of words from Aromanian,
Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
,
Turkish Turkish may refer to: *a Turkic language spoken by the Turks * of or about Turkey ** Turkish language *** Turkish alphabet ** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation *** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey *** Turkish communities and mi ...
, and Albanian in the
Gora Gora may refer to: *Gora (surname) *'' Gora'', a Bengali novel by Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore *Gora (musical instrument) *'' G.O.R.A.'', a 2004 Turkish comedy film * Goparaju Ramachandra Rao ("Gora", 1902–1975), Indian social reformer an ...
region of the Šar Mountains. It also preserved many words which in the "major" languages became archaisms or changed meaning. Like other features, vocabulary is inconsistent across subdialects, for example, a Krashovan does not necessarily understand a Goranac. The varieties spoken in the Slavic countries have been heavily influenced by the standardized national languages, particularly when a new word or concept was introduced. The only exception is a form of Torlakian spoken in
Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, a ...
, which escaped the influence of a standardized language which has existed in Serbia since a state was created after the withdrawal of the
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) ...
. The Slavs indigenous to the region are called Krashovani and are a mixture of original settler Slavs and later settlers from the Timok Valley in eastern Serbia.


Cases lacking inflections

Bulgarian and Macedonian are the only two modern Slavic languages that lost virtually the entire noun case system, with nearly all nouns now in the surviving
nominative In grammar, the nominative case ( abbreviated ), subjective case, straight case or upright case is one of the grammatical cases of a noun or other part of speech, which generally marks the subject of a verb or (in Latin and formal variants of ...
case. This is partly true of the Torlakian dialect. In the northwest, the instrumental case merges with the
genitive case In grammar, the genitive case ( abbreviated ) is the grammatical case that marks a word, usually a noun, as modifying another word, also usually a noun—thus indicating an attributive relationship of one noun to the other noun. A genitive can ...
, and the locative and
genitive In grammar, the genitive case ( abbreviated ) is the grammatical case that marks a word, usually a noun, as modifying another word, also usually a noun—thus indicating an attributive relationship of one noun to the other noun. A genitive can ...
cases merge with the
nominative case In grammar, the nominative case ( abbreviated ), subjective case, straight case or upright case is one of the grammatical cases of a noun or other part of speech, which generally marks the subject of a verb or (in Latin and formal variants of Engl ...
. Further south, all inflections disappear and syntactic meaning is determined solely by prepositions.


Lack of phoneme /x/

Macedonian, Torlakian and a number of Serbian and Bulgarian dialects, unlike all other Slavic languages, technically have no phoneme like , or . In other Slavic languages, or (the latter from Proto-Slavic *g in "H-Slavic languages") is common. The appearance of the letter h in the alphabet is reserved mostly for
loanwords A loanword (also loan word or loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language. This is in contrast to cognates, which are words in two or more languages that are similar because the ...
and toponyms within the Republic of North Macedonia but outside of the standard language region. In Macedonian, this is the case with eastern towns such as Pehčevo. In fact, the Macedonian language is based in Prilep, Pelagonia and words such as ''thousand'' and ''urgent'' are ''iljada'' and ''itno'' in standard Macedonian but ''hiljada'' and ''hitno'' in Serbian (also, Macedonian ''oro'', ''ubav'' vs. Bulgarian ''horo'', ''hubav'' (folk dance, beautiful)). This is actually a part of an isogloss, a dividing line separating Prilep from Pehčevo in the Republic of North Macedonia at the southern extreme, and reaching central Serbia ( Šumadija) at a northern extreme. In Šumadija, local folk songs may still use the traditional form of ''I want'' being ''oću'' (оћу) compared with ''hoću'' (хоћу) as spoken in Standard Serbian.


Syllabic /l/

Some versions of Torlakian have retained the syllabic , which, like , can serve the nucleus of a syllable. In most of the Shtokavian dialects, the syllabic eventually became or . In standard Bulgarian, it is preceded by the vowel represented by ъ () to separate consonant clusters. Naturally, the becomes velarized in most such positions, giving . In some dialects, most notably the Leskovac dialect, the word-final -l has instead shifted into the vocal cluster -(i)ja; for example the word пекал became пекја (''to bake''). Word-medially however the syllabic /l/ remains unaltered.


Features shared with Eastern South Slavic

* Loss of
grammatical case A grammatical case is a category of nouns and noun modifiers ( determiners, adjectives, participles, and Numeral (linguistics), numerals), which corresponds to one or more potential grammatical functions for a nominal group in a wording. In va ...
as in Bulgarian and Macedonian * Loss of
infinitive Infinitive ( abbreviated ) is a linguistics term for certain verb forms existing in many languages, most often used as non-finite verbs. As with many linguistic concepts, there is not a single definition applicable to all languages. The word is de ...
as in Bulgarian and Macedonian, present in Serbian * Full retention of the aorist and the imperfect, as in Bulgarian * Use of a
definite article An article is any member of a class of dedicated words that are used with noun phrases to mark the identifiability of the referents of the noun phrases. The category of articles constitutes a part of speech. In English, both "the" and "a(n)" ...
as in Bulgarian and Macedonian, lacking in Serbian * ə for
Old Church Slavonic 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 ...
ь and ъ in all positions: ''sən'', ''dən'' (Bulgarian ''sən'', ''den''; Serbian ''san'', ''dan''; Macedonian ''son'', ''den''), including in the place of OCS suffixes -''ьцъ'', -''ьнъ'' (Bulgarian -''ec'', -''en''; Serbian -''ac'', -''an''; Macedonian -''ec'', -''en'') * Lack of phonetic pitch and length as in Bulgarian and Macedonian, present in Serbian * Frequent stress on the final syllable in polysyllabic words, impossible in Serbian and Macedonian (Bulgarian ''že'na'', Serbian žena'') * Preservation of final ''l'', which in Serbian developed to ''o'' (Bulgarian and Macedonian ''bil'', Serbian ''bio'') * Comparative degree of adjectives formed with the particle ''po'' as in Eastern South Slavic ''ubav, poubav'', Serbian ''lep, lepši''. * Lack of epenthetic ''l'', as in Eastern South Slavic ''zdravje/zdrave'', Serbian ''zdravlje'' * Use of ''što'' pronoun meaning what, as in Eastern South Slavic rather than ''šta'' as in standard Serbian (''što'' also preserved in some Croatian dialects) and of the standard Bulgarian ''kakvo'' (often shortened to ''kvo'').


Features shared with Western South Slavic

In all Torlakian dialects: * ǫ gave rounded ''u'' like in Shtokavian Serbian, unlike unrounded ''ъ'' in literary Bulgarian and ''a'' in Macedonian * vь- gave ''u'' in Western, v- in Eastern * *čr gave cr in Western, but was preserved in Eastern * Distinction between Proto-Slavic and is lost in Eastern (S.-C. ''njega'', Bulgarian ''nego''). * Voiced consonants in final position are not subject to devoicing (Serbian ''grad'' (written and pronounced), Bulgarian/Macedonian pronounced ' * *vs stays preserved without metathesis in Eastern (S.-C. ''sve'', Bulgarian ''vse'', simplified in Macedonian to ''se'') * Accusative ''njega'' as in Serbian, unlike old accusative on O in Eastern (''nego'') * Nominative plural of nomina on -a is on -e in Western, -i in Eastern * ''Ja'' 'I, ego' in Western, ''(j)as'' in Eastern * ''Mi'' 'we' in Western, ''nie'' in Eastern * First person singular of verbs is -m in Western, and the old reflex of *ǫ in Eastern * suffixes *-itjь (''
-ić Surname conventions and laws vary around the world. This article gives an overview of surnames around the world. English-speaking countries Gaelic Surnames Spanish-speaking countries Argentina In Argentina, normally only one family na ...
'') and *-atja (''-ača'') are common in Western, not known in Eastern In some Torlakian dialects: * Distinction between the plural of masculine, feminine and neuter adjectives is preserved only in Western (S.C. ''beli'', ''bele'', ''bela''), not in Eastern (''beli'' for masc., fem. and neutr.), does not occur in Belogradchik area; in some eastern regions there is just a masculine and feminine form. * The proto-Slavic *tj, *dj which gave respectively ''ć'', ''đ'' in Serbo-Croatian, ''št'', ''žd'' in Bulgarian and ''ќ'', ''ѓ'' in Macedonian, is represented by the Serbian form in the west and northwest and by the hybrid ''č'', ''dž'' in the east: Belogradchik and Tran, as well as Pirot, Gora, northern Macedonia. The Macedonian form occurs around Kumanovo.


Dialects

* Prizren–Timok dialect * Transitional Bulgarian dialects * Kumanovo dialect * Gora dialect * Krashovani


Literature

Literature written in Torlakian is rather sparse as the dialect has never been an official state language. During the Ottoman rule literacy in the region was limited to
Eastern Orthodox Eastern Orthodoxy, also known as Eastern Orthodox Christianity, is one of the three main branches of Chalcedonian Christianity, alongside Catholicism and Protestantism. Like the Pentarchy of the first millennium, the mainstream (or " canoni ...
clergy, who chiefly used
Old Church Slavonic 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 ...
in writing. The first known literary document influenced by Torlakian dialects is the
Manuscript from Temska Monastery Temska Manuscript ( bg, Темски ръкопис, sr, Темски рукопис/Temski rukopis) is a collection of writings from 1764, compiled by monk Kiril Zhivkovich (1730–1807) in the Temska Monastery near the village of Temska, in Pi ...
from 1762, in which its author, the Monk Kiril Zhivkovich from
Pirot Pirot ( sr-cyr, Пирот) is a city and the administrative center of the Pirot District in southeastern Serbia. According to 2011 census, the urban area of the city has a population of 38,785, while the population of the city administrative are ...
, considered his language "''simple Bulgarian''".


Ethnography

According to one theory, the name ''Torlak'' derived from the South Slavic word ''tor'' ("
sheepfold A pen is an enclosure for holding livestock. It may also perhaps be used as a term for an enclosure for other animals such as pets that are unwanted inside the house. The term describes types of enclosures that may confine one or many anim ...
"), possibly referring to the fact that ''Torlaks'' in the past were mainly
shepherd A shepherd or sheepherder is a person who tends, herds, feeds, or guards flocks of sheep. ''Shepherd'' derives from Old English ''sceaphierde (''sceap'' 'sheep' + ''hierde'' ' herder'). ''Shepherding is one of the world's oldest occupations ...
s by occupation. Some Bulgarian scientists describe the Torlaks as a distinct
ethnographic Ethnography (from Greek ''ethnos'' "folk, people, nation" and ''grapho'' "I write") is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. Ethnography explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject o ...
group. Another theory is that it is derived from
Ottoman Turkish Ottoman Turkish ( ota, لِسانِ عُثمانى, Lisân-ı Osmânî, ; tr, Osmanlı Türkçesi) was the standardized register of the Turkish language used by the citizens of the Ottoman Empire (14th to 20th centuries CE). It borrowed exten ...
''torlak'' ("unbearded youth"), possibly referring to some portion of the youth among them not developing dense facial hair. The Torlaks are also sometimes classified as part of the Shopi population and vice versa. In the 19th century, there was no exact border between Torlak and Shopi settlements. According to some authors, during Ottoman rule, a majority of the Torlakian population did not have national consciousness in an ethnic sense. Therefore, both Serbs and Bulgarians considered local Slavs as part of their own people and the local population was also divided between sympathy for Bulgarians and Serbs. Other authors take a different view and maintain that the inhabitants of the Torlakian area had begun to develop predominantly Bulgarian national consciousness.The Serbian newspaper, Srbske Narodne Novine (Year IV, pp. 138 and 141-43, May 4 and 7, 1841), described the towns of Niš, Leskovac, Pirot, and Vranja as lying in Bulgaria, and styles their inhabitants Bulgarians. In a map made by Dimitrije Davidović called „Territories inhabited by Serbians” from 1828 Macedonia, but also the towns Niš, Leskovac, Vranja, Pirot etc. were situated outside the boundaries of the Serbian race. The map of Constantine Desjardins (1853), French professor in Serbia represents the realm of the Serbian language. The map was based on Davidović‘s work confining Serbians into the limited area north of Šar Planina. For more: G. Demeter et al., "Ethnic Mapping on the Balkans (1840–1925): a Brief Comparative Summary of Concepts and Methods of Visualization" in (Re)Discovering the Sources of Bulgarian and Hungarian History. pp. 65–100. With Ottoman influence ever weakening, the increase of nationalist sentiment in the Balkans in late 19th and early 20th century, and the redrawing of national boundaries after the
Treaty of Berlin (1878) The Treaty of Berlin (formally the Treaty between Austria-Hungary, France, Germany, Great Britain and Ireland, Italy, Russia, and the Ottoman Empire for the Settlement of Affairs in the East) was signed on 13 July 1878. In the aftermath of the ...
, the
Balkan wars The Balkan Wars refers to a series of two conflicts that took place in the Balkan States in 1912 and 1913. In the First Balkan War, the four Balkan States of Greece, Serbia, Montenegro and Bulgaria declared war upon the Ottoman Empire and defe ...
and
World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...
, the borders in the Torlakian-speaking region changed several times between Serbia and Bulgaria, and later the Republic of North Macedonia.


See also

* Balkan language area * Gorani * Krashovani * Shopi *
Shtokavian dialect Shtokavian or Štokavian (; sh-Latn, štokavski / sh-Cyrl, italics=no, штокавски, ) is the prestige dialect of the pluricentric Serbo-Croatian language and the basis of its Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian and Montenegrin standards. It ...


Notes


References


Sources

* * * Стойков, Стойко: Българска диалектология, Акад. изд. "Проф. Марин Дринов", 2006. *


External links


A Handbook of Bosnian, Serbian, and Croatian (by Wayles Brown and Theresa Alt)


Further reading

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Torlak Dialect South Slavic languages Dialects of Serbo-Croatian Serbian dialects Dialects of the Macedonian language Dialects of the Bulgarian language