The Bulgarian Language

The Bulgarian language belongs to the group of South Slavic languages, and is the official language of the Republic of Bulgaria. It is spoken in Bulgaria and in almost every part of the world where Bulgarian economic emigrants reside (which, more or less, means the rest of the world). The total number of speakers is around 8 million.

Bulgarian is written in the Cyrillic script, similarly to Russian, Serbian, Macedonian, Ukrainian and Belarusian. Unlike other Slavic languages, however, there are no cases in Bulgarian, while, similarly to English, the verb-system is well developed. In contrast to other Slav languages, there is a definite article in Bulgarian and no infinitive. These differences are the result of the close links of Bulgarian with the Greek, Turkish and Albanian languages when Bulgaria was a part of the Ottoman Empire (1393-1878). Hence, intonation in all these languages, the so-called Balkan linguistic union, is similar.

There are many loans from Turkish, which is easily explained if one examines Bulgarian history. These loans have remained in the language regardless of the attempts of language purists at the end of the nineteenth century to get rid of them. There are also many loans from French and, more recently, from English. Quite surprisingly, Bulgarian has a number of words in common with Hungarian.

The earliest literature in Bulgarian has come down to us from the ninth century. Thus, learning Bulgarian gives access not only to the many Bulgarian resorts (sea and mountain), but also to the many works of Bulgarian literature written since the Middle Ages. Recently, buying property in Bulgaria has become increasingly popular, and knowledge of Bulgarian can prove useful when communicating with neighbours or in emergency situations. Additionally, with the prospect of Bulgaria joining the European Union in 2007 there are likely to be an increasing number of possibilities for business links with the country.

To find out more about the Bulgarian language click on the links below:

• Bulgarian Language Web: http://www.spraakservice.net/bulgarian/



• Omniglot - Bulgarian: http://www.omniglot.com/writing/bulgarian.htm



• Bulgarian Language - Remote Lexical Database Access: http://www.pu.acad.bg/dcs/lingua.htm



• Bulgarian Language: http://www.answers.com/topic/bulgarian-language



• Bulgarian: http://www.sprachprofi.de.vu/english/bul.htm

This page last modified Thursday 16 December 2010.