The Central Balkan dialect is a Bulgarian dialect that is part of the

Balkan 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 ...

group of the Eastern Bulgarian dialects. Its range includes most of north-central Bulgaria (without the regions of

Dryanovo Dryanovo ( bg, Дряново, ) is a Bulgarian town situated at the northern foot of the Balkan Mountains in Gabrovo Province; amphitheatrically along the two banks of Dryanovo River, a tributary to the Yantra River. The town is a centre of t ...

and

Elena Elena may refer to: People * Elena (given name), including a list of people and characters with this name * Joan Ignasi Elena (born 1968), Catalan politician * Francine Elena (born 1986), British poet Geography * Elena (town), a town in Veliko ...

), as well as the regions of Karlovo,

Kazanlak Kazanlak ( bg, Казанлък , Thracian and Greek Σευθόπολις (''Seuthopolis''), tr, Kazanlık) is a Bulgarian town in Stara Zagora Province, located in the middle of the plain of the same name, at the foot of the Balkan mountai ...

and

Plovdiv Plovdiv ( bg, Пловдив, ), is the second-largest city in Bulgaria, standing on the banks of the Maritsa river in the historical region of Thrace. It has a population of 346,893 and 675,000 in the greater metropolitan area. Plovdiv is the ...

in southern Bulgaria, all the way down to the northernmost ridges of the Rhodopes. As a result of the mass population movements that affected eastern Bulgaria during the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, the Central Balkan dialect is now spoken also in vast areas of northeastern Bulgaria. The most significant feature of the dialect is the pronunciation of Old Church Slavonic ѣ (yat) as or , depending on the character of the following syllable. The Central Balkan dialect lies at the foundation of formal Bulgarian. However, it is not identical to the standard language because many of its features derive from the Western Bulgarian dialects, including the Macedonian dialects, or are a compromise between Eastern and Western standard. The Central Balkan dialect includes a number of subdialects, e.g.

Troyan Troyan ( bg, Троян ) is a town remembering the name of Roman Emperor Trajan, in Lovech Province in central Bulgaria with population of 21,997 inhabitants, as of December 2009. It is the administrative centre of the homonymous Troyan Mun ...

Lovech Lovech ( bg, Ловеч, Lovech, ) is a city in north-central Bulgaria. It is the administrative centre of the Lovech Province and of the subordinate Lovech Municipality. The city is located about northeast from the capital city of Sofia. Near ...

Gabrovo Gabrovo ( bg, Габрово ) is a town in central northern Bulgaria, the administrative centre of Gabrovo Province. It is situated at the foot of the central Balkan Mountains, in the valley of the Yantra River, and is known as an internat ...

, Karlovo,

Kalofer Kalofer ( ) is a town in central Bulgaria, located on the banks of the Tundzha between the Balkan Mountains to the north and the Sredna Gora to the south. Kalofer is part of Plovdiv Province and the Karlovo municipality. It is best known as th ...

, Tryavna, etc. which share many common features and yet have some differences.

Phonological and morphological characteristics

* Alternation of ръ and ър (~) and лъ and ъл (~) for Old Church Slavonic ръ/рь and лъ/ль depending on the number of syllables of the word - ''кълва'' vs. ''клъвна'' (as in Standard Bulgarian) * Consonants in endings for 1st person sing. present time are soft in the Gabrovo, Tryavna and Troyan subdialects - ''мол҄ъ'' The diacritic ◌҄ indicates palatalization. (I ask) and hard in the Lovech, Karlovo and Kalofer subdialects - ''молъ'' * The masculine definite article is always ът (''кракът'' - the leg) with the exception of the Tryavna subdialect where it is ъ (''кракъ'') * There are two forms for family and personal masculine names: one for nominative case (without an ending) and another one for oblique case (with an ending -a) - дай на брата си (give to your brother). The oblique form does not exist in Standard Bulgarian. Most other phonological and morphological characteristics of the Central Balkan dialect are the same as the general features typical for all Balkan dialects, cf. article.

Sources

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

References

{{Bulgarian dialects Dialects of the Bulgarian language