Bulgarian

Anna Marco-Cortiel

Linguistics 3101

December 12, 2006

1. Ethnography

Bulgarian is a South Slavic language, mutually intelligible with Macedonian and closely related to Serbian, Bosnian, and Croatian. It is an Indo-European language. spoken by about 12 million people, mostly in Bulgaria (Ager); other sources have this at a much lower number, around 10 million (Ethnologue). It is the official language of the Republic of Bulgaria, and is spoken by 90% of the population there, about 8 million people. Other large Bulgarian communities exist in Serbia, Macedonia, Ukraine, Turkey, Greece, and Romania, as well as the diaspora in Canada, the United States, and Australia. Bulgarian is spoken as a second language by the ethnic minorities in Bulgaria as well, including the Roma (Gypsy), the Turks, the Greek, and the Romanians.

Bulgarian played a major role, historically, in the development of the Slavic language family. In the 9^th century, the ruler of Moravia, now part of the Czech Republic, wanted to counter German missionaries with an evangelization in the native Slav language of his subjects. He got the help of Byzantine scholars, Cyril and Methodius, who designed an alphabet for the Slavs much like that of their native Saloniki (Rå Hague 1999: ix). The missionary effort in Moravia never got anywhere, but this newly created language became not only the literary and administrative language of Bulgaria, but was also a liturgical language for all Orthodox Slavs. It is this latter form that is often referred to as Old Church Slavonic. The Cyrillic alphabet spread from Bulgaria to many other Slavic countries, and in recent decades was used for many languages outside of Slavic and even outside of Indo-European due to the existence of the USSR.

Bulgarian was suppressed during the Ottoman occupation of Bulgaria (from the end of the 14^th century until the early 19^th century), and only emerged in the 1800’s as the New Bulgarian used today (Rå Hague 1999: ix). The five hundred years of Ottoman rule left many traces in the language of Bulgarians, and these are talked about in the final section.

2. Phonology

2.1 Vowels

Bulgarian has six vowel phonemes, which occur freely. There is no vowel harmony in Bulgarian phonology. The vowel inventory is as follows:

	Front	Central	Back
	Non-round		Round
High	i	u[1]	u
Mid	e		o
Low		a

(Scatton 1995: 58)

The sounds /o/, /a/, and /u/ are like their English counterparts, only the lack the offglide (slight “w” at the end) that these English sounds have (Alexander 2000: 4).

There is also a semi-vowel, /j/, which never appears on its own. It can combine to form the two Bulgarian diphthongal vowels: yu (j+u) and ya (j+a), as the word-initial syllable [jo], but also can appear with any vowel anywhere in a word (Kandeva 2005: 19). It is necessary to talk about orthography in order to make this clearer. Ю is the letter that represents the diphthong /ju/ and я is the letter that represents the /ja/. /j/ cannot occur after a consonant, and thus when a diphthong follows a consonant, it represents a [u] and the [j] serves to palatalize the consonant rather than functioning as a semi-vowel. The word юг jug ‘jug’ shows the diphthong, while the word люлюшка l^jul^jushka 'swing-3rd-sg-pres' palatalizes the /l/ (Rå Hague 1999:9).

There is no length distinction in Bulgarian vowels, but some loanwords show geminate vowels: vakuum ‘vacuum’ and zoolog ‘zoologist’ (Rå Hague 1999: 1). Vowels are nasalized when followed by a nasal consonant plus a fricative: [‘õnzi] onzi ‘that (demonstrative pronoun)’ (Rå Hague 1999: 2).

2.2 Consonants

Bulgarian has 33 consonant phonemes. These can be divided into 16 voiced-voiceless pairs, with the exception of /x/, which lacks a voiced counterpart. In spoken language, all voiced consonants are devoiced when they occur word-finally, but this is not expressed in the orthography. Grad ‘city’ is pronounced /grat/.[2] All consonants are non-aspirated, no matter their position.

There is a soft sign in Bulgarian, much like that in Russian, which occurs rarely, only occurring before /o/ and acts to palatalize (soften) a preceding consonant: шофЬор îof^jor ‘driver.’

Most hard consonants (labials, dentals, alveolars) also have a palatalized counterpart, which is not present in the orthography. However, they are considered to be separate phonemes. As mentioned above, these occur preceding diphthongs and the soft sign (Scatton 1995:58). Near-minimal pairs, which differ in the Cyrillic by the presence of a diphthong, which isn’t present in the Romanization (it is visible only as the superscripted palatalization): тям t^jam ‘to them (DAT)’ and там tam ‘there.’

		Labial	Alveodental	Alveopalatal	Palatal	Velar
Stops	Voiceless	p p’	t t’		k’	k
	Voiced	b b’	d d’		k’	g
Fricatives	Voiceless	f f’	s s’	î
	Voiced	v v’	z z’	ï		x
Affricates	Voiceless		ts ts’	ì
	Voiced			dï
Nasals		m m’	n n’
Liquids	Lateral		l l’
	Trill		r r’
Glide				j

(Scatton 1995: 59)

In Bulgarian, stress is dynamic. There are no rules for the placement of stress, and stress must be learned individually with each word. Stressed syllables are longer and louder, and unstressed syllables are shortened.

In the language of young people, the phoneme /l/ is spoken as a labiovelar approximate [w] (wikipedia). It is not regional, but more age related. This is a phenomenon known as L-vocalization and also appears in Serbo-Croatian and Cockney English.

2.3 Orthography

Bulgarian has 31 Cyrillic letters. In addion to Cyrillic diphthongs listed above, there are two others that represent more than one phoneme. щ is î +t, ц is t+s. Many Cyrillic letters look identical to their Romanized counterparts: а, е, к, м, о, т, з; there are letters that look like English letters but represent different phonemes: с [s], в [v], н [n], у [u], х [x], р [r]; and there are letters that don’t look like any English letter: п [p], б [b], ж [ï], и [i], й [j], г [g], ф [f], д [d], ц [t+s], ш [î], щ [î+t], ч [ì], ю [j+u], я [j+a].

3. Morphology

Bulgarian is a fusional language. It is strongly suffixing but does have instances of prefixing. Morpheme divisions are not transparent: one morpheme can code for tense, person, and number; Bulgarian has many Portmanteau morphemes. In the word iskam, /isk/ is the stem meaning want, and /am/ means first person, singular, and present tense.There are examples of suppletion, especially in verb tenses, as in English: sam ‘I am,’ biax ‘I was,’ and stem changes: jam ‘I eat,’ jadesh ‘you eat.’

3.1 Nouns

Bulgarian nouns are usually only inflected for number (singular or plural) and gender. There are three genders of nouns: masculine, feminine, and neuter. Masculine nouns usually end in a consonant or /j/, feminine nouns in /a/ or /ya/, and neuter nouns in /o/, /e/, and, less commonly, /i/.

(1) Masculine: prozorets ‘window’

(2) Feminine: vrata ‘door’

(3) Neuter pismo ‘letter’

The plural ending of most masculine and all feminine nouns is [i]. Masculine nouns that are exceptions can end with [ove], [e], [a], or [ishta]. All neuter plurals end with [a]. In some instances it becomes [ja] and in others [et] precedes the plural [a].

(4) Masculine plural: prozoretsi ‘windows’

(5) Feminine plural: vrati ‘doors’

(6) Neuter plural: pisma ‘letters’

Other examples are masculine: kraj ‘district’ kraishta ‘districts’, feminine: raka ‘arm, hand’ ratse ‘arms, hands,’ neuter: pole ‘field’ poleta ‘fields.’

Unlike most other Slavic languages, which do not have articles, Bulgarian has acquired a way of differentiating between definite and indefinite nouns (this is due to the Balkan Sprachbund, see section 5.1). Masculine nouns take the suffix –ut, feminine nouns take -ta, neuter nouns take -to.

(7) Masculine: prozoretsut ‘the window’

(8) Feminine: vratata ‘the door’

(9) Neuter pismoto ‘the letter’

Adjectives agree with nouns in gender and number.

(10) a. Masculine singular: dobur anglichanin ‘good Englishman’

b. Masculine plural: dobri anglichani ‘good Englishmen’

(11) a. Feminine singular: dobra bulgarka ‘good Bulgarian woman’

b. Feminine plural: dobri bulgarki ‘good Bulgarian women’

(12) a. Neuter singular: dulgo pismo ‘long letter’

b. Neuter plural: dulgi pisma ‘long letters’

When an adjectival phrase expresses definiteness, the adjective (and not the noun) takes the article.

(13) a. kushtata

house-the

‘the house’

b. novata kushta

new-the house

‘the new house’

Bulgarian luckily does not have the elaborate noun declension system that many other Slavic languages have (also due to the Sprachbund). Nouns stay the same, no matter the case they are in:

(14) Momche e dobro.

Boy-nom is good.

“A boy is good”

(15) Momiche udari momche.

Girl hit-3^rd-past boy-acc

A girl hit a boy.

(16) Momiche dade himikalka na momche.

Girl give-3^rd.sg-past pen to boy-dat

A girl gave a pen to a boy.

(17) Momche, ela tuka!

Boy-voc come-imperative here

Boy (as form of address), come here!

However, there are cases where the vocative will differ from the rest. Proper names especially have a special vocative form, but other words also can be used in the vocative. Masculine nouns take –e: Boris - vocative Borise, gospodin ‘gentleman, sir’ – vocative gospodine. Feminine nouns take –o or –e: mama ‘mother’ – vocative Mamo, Olga – vocative Olge.

3.2 Pronouns

Pronouns in Bulgarian do inflect for case: nominative, accusative, and dative. There is a gender distinction in third person singular, no inclusive/exclusive distinction in first person plural, and no gender distinction in third person plural.

In object form, there exists a long form (stressed) and a short form (unstressed) of pronouns. Short forms are clitics and adhere to strict rules concerning word order (Alexander 2000: 314). Both short and long forms exist in the accusative case and the dative case.

	Nominative	Accusative		Dative
		Long	Short	Long	Short
1^st sg.	Az	Mene	Me	Na mene	Mi
2^nd sg	Ti	Tebe	Te	Na tebe	Ti
3^rd sg masc	Toi	Nego	Go	Na nego	Mu
3^rd sg fem	Tja	Neja	Ya	Na neja	I
3^rd sg neut	To	Nego	Go	Na nego	Mu
1^st pl	Nie	Nas	Ni	Na nas	Ni
2^nd pl, formal 2^nd sg	Vie	Vas	Vi	Na vas	Vi
3^rd pl	Te	Tjah	Gi	Na tyah	Im

(Holman 2003:294)

Mene and tebe have shortened variants men and teb which are used colloquially and in creative writing (Rå Hauge 1999: 43). The nominative forms are used in the subject position, and can be omitted.

(18) Az njama da chakam.

I NEG-1^st modal-conj wait-1^st-sg-pres

I won’t wait.

(19) Njama da chakam.

NEG-1^st modal-conj wait-1^st-sg-pres

(Rå Hauge 1999: 43)

Bulgarian has a formal second person singular form that is still very much in use in speech to refer to strangers, elders, and superiors. It can be differentiated from the second person plural in that the formal second singular pronoun is always capitalized.

There are also possessive adjectival forms that inflect and have to agree in gender with the possessee. Each pronoun has an indefinite and definite form, as well as inflection for all the genders. All together there are 64 possible forms, along with self-forms for 3^rd person, making 72 total possessive adjectival forms.

The short forms of the personal pronouns are clitics. They are used wherever an ordinary direct or indirect object, without emphasis, is needed:

(20) Vzemi knigata i chantata! Slozhi gi na etazherkata!

Take-IMP book-the and briefcase-the! put-IMP them on shelf-the

Take the book and the briefcase! Put them on the shelf!

(Rå Hauge 1999: 45)

Long forms can be used with certain emphatic adverbs like samo ‘only,’ nito…nito ‘neither…nor.’

(21) Grupata e goljama i njama samo mene da chaka.

Group-the is big and NEG-3^rd-sg only me-DAT modal-conj wait-3^rd-sg

The group is big and won’t wait just for me.

(Rå Hauge 1999: 44)

Only long forms can be used after prepositions:

(22) Govorja c nego

Talk-1^st-sg with him-DAT

I talk to him.

3.3 Verbs

There are no infinitives in Bulgarian in the sense that we think about them in English; in a dictionary, verbs are listed in their first personal singular form[3].

Bulgarian verbs encode for tense, person, and number. Places where English would have an infinitive, Bulgarian must inflect the verb for person and number:

(23) Iskam da spiax

Want-1^st-sg-pres modal-conj sleep-1^st-sg-pres

I want to sleep.

(24) Iskash li da spish?

Want-2^nd-sg-pres QM modal-conj sleep-2^nd-sg-pres

Do you want to sleep?

3.31 Tense

Bulgarian tenses are simplex or compound (Alexander 2000: 316). Simplex tenses are present, aorist (simple past), and imperfect.

(25) Az pristigam.

1^st-sg-prn arrive-1^st-sg-pres

I arrive / I am arriving.

(26) Az pristignah

1^st-sg-prn arrive-1^st-sg-aorist

I arrived.

(27) Az pristignah

1^st-sg-prn arrive-1^st-sg-imperf

I was arriving.

Compound tenses are made up of an auxiliary plus a verb form, and include the future, present perfect, pluperfecct, and future in the past. The future has a future marker shte followed by the present tense, which is inflected for person and number.

(28) Shte ucha.

FUT study-1^st-sg-pres

I will study.

(29) Sam uchil.

Be-1^st-sg-pres study-past.part

I have studied.

(30) Bjax uchil.

Be-1^st-sg-past study-past.part

I had studied.

(31) Shte sam uchil.

FUT be-1^st-sg-pres study-past.part

I will have studied.

(note that though the Bulgarian uses ‘to be’ rather than ‘to have,’ it has the same meaning as the English ‘will have’ construction.)

There are three different conjugation paradigms for all verb tenses and are identified by three theme vowels ([a], [i], [e]):

	A	I	E
1^st singular	karam	nosja	cheta
2^nd singular	karash	nosish	chetesh
3^rd singular	kara	nosi	chete
1^st plural	karame	nosim	chetem
2^nd plural/2^nd singular formal	karmate	nosite	chetete
3^rd plural	karat	nosjat	chetat

(Rå Hauge 1999: 91+92)

3.32 Aspect

Most verbs exist in two forms: perfective (bounded) and imperfective (boundless). The distinction between the two is blurry at best, and the difference in meaning corresponds to the speaker’s point of view. Each time a Bulgarian speaks, they are forced to choose which of these two aspects they want to emphasize (Alexander Vol 2 2000: 55). The verbs in the pair have the same lexical meaning, but have a different viewpoint upon the duration of the action (Rå Hauge 1999: 85). There is no morphological feature to distinguish one aspect from the other. The difference in boundedness depends on the particular verb. Verbs like sam ‘to be’ and imam ‘to have’ only appear in imperfective forms. Verbs with neither prefixes nor suffixes are usually imperfective, but there are exceptions, which where not listed in any of the cited literature. Most imperfective verbs can be prefixed and thereby made into perfective verbs, creating the aspect pair. When the prefix is added, the meaning and aspect of the verb change, but they are still conjugated in the same way. Different prefixes can be added to the same imperfective form to create slightly different meanings. While the perfective form napisha ‘to write’ means the same as the imperfective form pisha, the perfective zapisha means ‘to write down’ or ‘to register.’ This perfective form in turn has its own imperfective form zapisvam, with the same meaning as the perfective (Rå Hauge 1999:86).

These are muddy waters, but the basic meaning of the perfective aspect is a completed action, while the imperfective lacks this. This can be related to aspects of other Indo-European languages, like the imperfect past tense versus the preterite in Spanish.

(32) Toj utre shte prepishe zadachite si.

He tomorrow FUT copy-3^rd-sg-pres-PERF assignment-the-pl his

He will copy his assignments tomorrow (to completion).

(33) Toj utre shte prepisva zadachite si.

He tomorrow FUT cop-3^rd-sg-pres-IMP assignment-the-pl his

He will be busy copying his assignments tomorrow.

(Rå Hauge 1999: 89)

3.33 Mood

Verbal moods also are simplex or compound. Simplex moods are the indicative and the imperative. Compound moods are the re-narrated and the conditional. They can also be separated into real (indicative) and irreal moods (imperative and conditional). Imperatives are formed from both perfective and imperfective verbs, occur only in the present tense, and can be singular or plural. These again fall into three conjugation paradigms of stem+ the following endings:

	A	E, I
2^nd singular	-aj	O
2^nd plural	-ajte	te

The following examples illustrate the imperative in the e-conjugation

(34) Uchi!

Study-2^nd-sg-imperative

Study! (to one person, informally)

(35) Uchete!

Study-2^nd-pl-imperative

Study! (to more than one person, formally)

In the affirmative, imperatives areusually in the perfective form because commands often do not imply repetition of the action. When repetition is implied, as in the sentence ‘Take one aspirin three times daily,’ it appears in Bulgarian in an imperfective form. In the negative, all verbs are in their imperfective forms.

(36) Sednete do prozoretsa.

Sit-2^nd-pl-imperative-PERF by window-definite

Sit by the window.

(37) Ne syadaite do prozoretsa.

NEG sit-2^nd-pl-imperative-IMP by window-definite

Don’t sit by the window.

(Rå Hauge 1999: 127)

The conditional is constructed from the auxiliary verb bix (a form of sam that only appears in the conditional), inflected for person and number, plus the past participle, also inflected.

(38) Az bix kazal

I AUX say-past-part-masc

I (male) would say

(39) Az bix kazala.

I AUX say-past-part-fem.

I (female) would say.

4. Syntax

4.1 Word Order

Major functions are identified generally by prepositions. Bulgarian is an SVO language. In the following example, Bulgarian has a preposition where English does not.

(40) Ani vjarva na istorijata.

Ani believe-3^rd-sg-pres in story-definite

Ani believes (in) the story.

The noun precedes the possessor. The preposition /na/ is used with possessors in most cases. With pronouns, there are special possessive adjectival forms that can be used instead of the form shown in (41). The short form in (42a.) is exactly the same as that in (42b.), but in this case is functioning as a genitive. Accusative short forms are clitics which always occur after the noun they qualify (Rå Hauge 1999: 47). Short possessive pronouns only occur with definite noun phrases. Long forms like that in (42b) are declined for the gender of the possessed object. The masculine form of mojata is mojt, as in mojt bashta ‘my father.’

(41) maikata na Ivan

mother-definite of Ivan

Ivan’s mother

(42) a. maika mi

mother 1^st-sg-short-acc/gen-pronoun

my mother

b. mojata maika

1^st-sg-DEF-poss-ADJ mother

my mother

Demonstratives precede the noun they are referring to: Dem (Adj) N: tozi hubav grad ‘this nice city’.

The noun phrase precedes the relative clause

(43) Chovekut, kogoto poznavam dobre, zhivee u vas.

Man-def who-rel know-1^st-sg-pres well live-3^rd-sg-pres with you.pl

The man I know well lives with you.

Bulgarian uses prepositions rather than postpositions: ot Varna ‘from Varna,’ na bulgarski ‘in Bulgarian,’ v srjada ‘on Wednesday.’

Auxiliaries and modals both precede the main verb.

(44) Iskam da jam.

Want-1^st-sg-pres modal-conj eat-1^st-sg-pres

I want to eat.

(45) Byah uchil.

Be-1^st-sg-past study-past.part.

I had studied.

Adverbs follow verbs.

(46) Nadka risuva mnogo dobre.

Nadka draw-3^rd-sg-pres very well

Nadka draws very well.

4.2 Clitics

Clitics are elements that have some properties of words and some properties of bound morphemes. They have more freedom than affixes, but often have strict rules governing their position in a sentence. Along with the short pronoun clitics mentioned earlier, there is an interrogative particle, [li], and the copula/auxiliary verb that also behaves like a copula. Bulgarian clitics are always unstressed, cannot stand in initial position, and must obey other word order rules. As we saw earlier, the possessive short pronouns always had to follow the noun: maika mi ‘my mother.’ The copula sam can never occur sentence initially. It must be preceded by a pronoun, or word order must be inverted with something else to fill the subject position.

(47) a. Az sam mnogo gladna.

I am-1^st-sg-pres very hungry-fem

I (female) am very hungry.

b. *Sam mnogo gladna.

(48) Mnogo gladna sam.

Very hungry-fem am-1^st-sg-pres

I am very hungry.

4.3 Question formation

Yes-No questions use the interrogative particle /li/. This must be present in all yes-no questions. With the exception of copula constructions (for reasons mentioned above), /li/ always occurs directly after the verb.

(49) a. Iskash da spish.

Want-2^nd-sg-pres modal-conj sleep-2^nd-sg-pres

You want to sleep.

b. Iskash li da spish?

Want-2^nd-sg-pres QM modal-conj sleep-2^nd-sg-pres

Do you want to sleep?

The word order only changes if the verb is sam ‘to be.’ This is because the clitic copula cannot occur sentence-initially.

(50) a. Ti si student.

You be-2^nd-sg-pres student

You are a student.

b. Student li si?

Student QM be-2^nd-sg-pres

Are you a student?[4]

Constituent questions start with the question-word. This always comes directly before the verb.

(51) a. Tuk sam.

Here am-1^st-sg-pres

Here I am.

b. Kade si?

Where are-2^nd-sg-pres

However, when there is a preposition needed in the question, this precedes even the question word.

(52) a. Ti patuvash.

You go-2^nd-sg-pres

You go/are going.

b. Za kade patuvash?

To where go-2^nd-sg-pres

(To) where are you going?

4.4 Particles

Particles, like clitics, are also unstressed, but they can be in initial position, they are unchanging in form, and they must stand at the head of a clitic string. As we saw with the clitics, they can be inflected for person, gender, and number. Particles are less flexicble in that sense: the form is unchanging, and thus the meaning of them differs from that of Bulgarian clitics. Bulgarian particles are the modal conjunction [da], the negative particle [ne], the future particle [shte] and the hortative particle (and) [ja] (Alexander 2000:319). They have no placement restrictions like the clitics above do, and occur often sentence-initally:

(53) Shte te prebija.

FUT you-DO beat-1^st-sg-pres

I will beat you.

(54) Ne znam.

NEG know-1^st-sg-pres

I don’t know.

5. Negation

Verbs are negated with the negative particle directly preceding the verb.

(55) a. Nie patuvame dnes.

We travel-1^st-pl-pres today

We travel/are traveling today.

b. Nie ne patuvame dnes.

We NEG travel-1^st-pl-pres today

We are not traveling today.

Negation of the word imam ‘to have’ is an exception. In this case, there exists a different negation word, which is inflected just like the word imam would be.

(56) Imash li moliv?

Have-2^nd-sg-pres QM pencil?

Do you have a pencil?

(57) Nyamam moliv.

NEG.have-1^st-sg-pres pen.

I don’t have a pencil.

5. Semantics and Lexicon

5.1 Sprachbund

Bulgarian is in the Balkan region, and thus shares many areal features with the other Balkan languages. The Balkan Sprachbund includes Bulgarian, Albanian, Greek, Serbo-Croatian, Romanian, Macedonian, and Romany, Turkish, and Hungarian to a lesser extent. The areas used to show this Sprachbund are: loss of a case system, as was touched on above for Bulgarian, and also occurs in other languages of the area, and pleonastic pronouns, as in this Bulgarian example:

(58) Az nego go posvnvam.

I him him know-1^st-pres

I know him.

And this from Greek:

(59) Emena me fainetai

To-me me seems

It seems to me

Balkan languages have lost an infinitive case for their verbs. As mentioned above, Bulgarian uses the first person singular to express an infinitive:

(60) Daj mi da pija

Give to-me that drink-1^st-sg-pres

Give me (something) to drink.

Russian has retained an infinitive form for its verbs. Greek and Albanian have also lost their infinitives. The most interesting similarity between the Balkan languages is the postponed articles. Historically, Slavic languages didn’t have articles at all, and most non-Balkan Slavic languages also lack articles. Romanian, as a Romance language, at one point historically had articles that preceded the noun, as in Spanish and Italian. It’s clear that the areal region is the reason for the grammatical similarities between languages of distantly related Indo-European languages, and with the case of Turkish and Hungarian, although less affected by the Sprachbund, are from entirely different language families entirely. All these similar phenomena show that there has been an areal convergence among many of the Balkan languages.

5.2 Loanwords

Since Bulgaria was part of the Ottoman Empire, there are many Turkish loanwords. In fact, there exists a whole book on Turkish influence on Bulgarian, A Dictionary of Turkisms in Bulgarian, by Alf Grannes, which notes 7427 loanwords. Dictionaries like this are not new; the first compilation of Turkish loanwords in Bulgarian was written in 1883 (Grannes 2002: vii).

Many of the words seem obscure and dated, perhaps due to the time period in which most Turkisms entered Bulgarian. Most appear only in Eastern Bulgarian dialects and in colloquial speech, thus is It seems unlikely that these words have much of a place in a Bulgarian’s everyday lexicon: arshak ‘spindle whorl,’ kuiya ‘well supplying water to a mill-wheel, hole used when playing with nuts and marbles,’ sofarlak ‘cloth for putting under a low dining table to prevent crumbs from falling onto the carpet,’ tegar ‘tin vessel for grain in the shape of a sieve.’ However, this dictionary also contains words that entered Turkish via other languages, and then made their way into Bulgarian. These are more common words that have also made their way into English: makarina ‘macaroni’ (from Italian), kimion ‘cumin’ (from Greek) and madzhar ‘Magyar’ (from Hungarian), to name a few. There are also influences from Islam that result in Arabic loanwords like masal-ketaba ‘storybook.’ The most salient Turkish loanwords in Bulgarian are those that also appear in English: kepab ‘kebab’ and baklava ‘baklava,’ to name just a few.

Due to the close proximity of the countries, Bulgarian also has many loanwords from Greek. The Cyrillic alphabet was based largely off the Greek alphabet, as Cyril and Methodius used it as their foundation when they were hired to create a new Slavic alphabet for the ruler of Moravia (as was mentioned above).

6. Bibliography

Ager, Simon. 1998-2006. Bulgarian. Omniglot: Writing Systems and Languages of the World. http://www.omniglot.com/writing/bulgarian.htm

Alexander, Ronelle. 2000. Intensive Bulgarian: a textbook and reference grammar. Volume 1. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.

Alexander, Ronelle. 2000. Intensive Bulgarian: a textbook and reference grammar. Volume 2. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.

Bulgarian. http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=bul

Bulgarian language. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulgarian_language

Grannes, Alf. 2002. A dictionary of Turkisms in Bulgarian. Oslo: Novus Forlag.

Holman, Michael and Mira Kovatcheva. 2003. Teach yourself Bulgarian. Coventry, England: Hodder Headline.

Kandeva, Krasimira. 2005. Bulgarian for English speakers. Veliko Turnovo, Bulgaria: Gramma.

Katzner, Kenneth. 1995. The languages of the world. London: Routledge.

Rå Hague, Kjetil. 1999. A short grammar of contemporary Bulgarian. Bloomington, Indiana: Slavica Publishers.

Scatton, Ernest A. 1983. A reference grammar of modern Bulgarian. Columbus, Ohio: Slavica Publishers, Inc.

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[1] This is like an unstressed [a] in English; this is also a disputed transliteration. This sound is written [ъ] in Cyrillic, and can be transliterated as [Č], [u], or colloquially, [u]. Since the Romanizations I am using all come from different books, any of the above could be used to represent the [ъ] phoneme. In IPA this phoneme is represented by a schwa.

[2] When specific examples are given without a citation, I have gotten them from personal communication with a Bulgarian colleague at work.

[3] Thus, when a verb is glossed in English as infinitive, the Bulgarian form is in the first person singular present form.

[4] Person and number of a verb are understood from the conjugation of the verb, and so personal subject pronouns aren’t required.