Bulgarian language

“ As time goes on, however, Bulgaria is seen to absorb wanderers proceeding from more and more distant districts in the southern belts of the steppeland which forms the continuation of Europe into Asia. Slavic culture and speech preserved by the Bulgarians seem but the veil that hides their strong Asiatic affinity.
The fundamental difference between the temper of the Serbian and the Bulgarian is apparent to travelers in Balkan lands. The former are true Slavs. They are lighthearted and always ready [210] to make merry. Their mountains re-echo with folk songs of the genuine Slavic type. ”

“ Bulgarian orthography is in a state of chaos, because the people cannot decide between the luxury of an historical and the advantage of a scientific alphabet; that of the ninth century is still in use entire and unaltered; but the language has much changed in form and sound since the time of the Byzantine philologist missionaries, and no Vuk Stefanović Karadžić has arisen, as in Servia, to impose reform on the unwilling. ”

“ The first one is quite well known; since all that is written in our language up to now, was written in it, and in the other one not even a single bit, owing to the fact that the revival of our literacy started from the top down [3] This is the reason that not very many foreign linguists, but not very many of our linguists for whom the Macedonian dialect is not native as well, know it and have a defined opinion about it. To promote to the world the Macedonian dialect with all its general and local idioms, as much as we can, we intend to create a Grammar for it, in parallel with the other one ”

“ All the individuals of this nation who acquire any tincture of learning, and they are very few, are necessarily obliged to seek it through the medium of another language. A small beginning is at present being made to the cultivation of the Bulgarian tongue, in which two elementary works have lately been published the one a spelling-book, to which is appended a treatise on arithmetic, and a few partlculars of natural history ”

“ Russians can read Bulgarian newspapers very readily. Philologists are of the opinion that the Bulgarian language is quite as close to the old Slav tongue as the Russian, and it is a curious fact that many words may be traced to the old Thracian and Illyrian tongues. The Slavs drove the original population into the mountains and seized their lands on the plains, but in the second half of the seventh century a horde of uncouth warriors crossed the Danube and subjugated the Slavs, and their descendants have since occupied the territory which bears their name. ”

“ Among the Bulgarians the spoken language of the 9th century underwent important changes during the next three hundred years. The influence of these changes gradually asserts itself in the written language; in the period extending from the 12th to the 15th century the writers still endeavoured to follow the archaic model, but it is evident that the vernacular had already become widely different from the speech of SS. Cyril and Methodius. The language of the MSS. of this period is known as the "Middle Bulgarian"; it stands midway between the old ecclesiastical Slavonic and the modern speech. ”

“ Language.—The Bulgarian is at once the most ancient and the most modern of the languages which constitute the Slavonic group. In its groundwork it presents the nearest approach to the old ecclesiastical Slavonic, the liturgical language common to all the Orthodox Slavs, but it has undergone more important modifications than any of the sister dialects in the simplification of its grammatical forms ”

“ Ҍ is pronounced as E, always, without any exceptions, and it never sounds as Ѧ, as it does in the other dialect. It if wasn’t for this difference in the pronunciation, this letter could have quite easily be omitted from the New-Bulgarian alphabet. For the time being we put this aside, until we study it better and determine its destiny. ”

“ The modern Bulgarian is, however, so far changed from the mother tongue, that the people can understand little or nothing of what they hear in church; and numbers of the priests, from want of education, are much in the same circumstances with the people. When, in addition to this, it is considered that the Bulgarians have scarcely any books in their spoken language, it will appear absolutely impossible that they should be anything but what they are—extremely ignorant. ”

“ The Servian dialect extending into regions which escaped the Turkish yoke, enjoyed certain advantages denied to the Bulgarian: in free Montenegro the first Slavonic printing-press was founded in 1493; at Ragusa, a century later, Servian literature attained a high degree of excellence. Bulgarian, for nearly four centuries, ceased to be a written language except in a few monasteries; a literary revival, which began about the middle of the 18th century, was the first symptom of returning national consciousness. ”

“ And even these, born and educated on the borders of Europe, in the midst of divers Christian races, must form a character different from that of the Asiatic Turks in other parts of the empire.
Of the various races in European Turkey, the Bulgarians, properly so called, who are estimated at four millions, speaking the Bulgarian language, claim our first attention. They inhabit not only Bulgaria proper, extending from the Danube to the Balkan Mountains, but also an extensive region south of these mountains, reaching to the Bosphorus, the Marmora, and Albania ”

“ The Phanariot clergy—unscrupulous, rapacious and corrupt—succeeded in monopolizing the higher ecclesiastical appointments and filled the parishes with Greek priests, whose schools, in which Greek was exclusively taught, were the only means of instruction open to the population. By degrees Greek became the language of the upper classes in all the Bulgarian towns, the Bulgarian language was written in Greek characters, and the illiterate peasants, though speaking the vernacular, called themselves Greeks. ”

“ It remains to remark, that while in all the other Slavic popular poetry, the musical element is prominent, it is in the Servian completely crowded into the background. Even the little lyric pieces, or female ballads, are not only in a high degree monotonous, but even without the peculiar sweetness of most popular airs. They also are chanted rather than sung.
The Bulgarian language is said to be particularly rich in popular ballads; and it would hardly be credible, that the numerous nations with which they mixed for centuries, should not have influenced their poetry as well as their language. ”

“ No Bulgarian could understand a Greek, and vice versa, and a Russian peasant could not converse with a Bulgarian peasant any more readily than a Highlander could talk with a costermonger from Whitechapel, because each has his local idioms; but educated Russians and Bulgarians can understand each other even if each talks in his own language. ”

“ Мисли за болгарскиот язик - Партения Зографски - 1858 We have already said this before, and we are saying it again, in order to create one common standard language first we need to study and publicize all local dialects and idioms of our language, so we can build our common language on top of all of them. Until this is done, no one can, and does not have right to determine and create a common standard (literary) language based on just one dialect, whatever that one dialect may be. Any such determination and creation, if it is not all inclusive, will be vain and fruitless. ”

“ Not only that the Macedonian dialect should not and cannot be excluded from the common standard language, but it would have been good if it was accepted as its main constituent; since it sounds fuller, smoother and stronger, and in many respects it is more complete and rich. ”

“ Even in Philippopolis some years ago the Bulgarian ladies had great difficulty in understanding the conversation of the ladies belonging to the American mission, who had learnt the written language and spoke it with great purity. The modern Bulgarian is based upon the Slav, and although differing considerably from the Russian Slav language, the two nations have no great difficulty, after a little practice, in comprehending each other. No less than seven Bulgarian grammars are in existence, all written during the last fifteen years ”

“ The literary language began in the western dialect under the twofold influence of Servian literature and the Church Slavonic. In a short time, however, the eastern dialect prevailed, and the influence of Russian literature became predominant. An anti-Russian reaction was initiated by Borgoroff (1818–1892) , and has been maintained by numerous writers educated in the German and Austrian universities. Since the foundation of the university of Sofia the literary language has taken a middle course between the ultra-Russian models of the past generation and the dialectic Bulgarian. ”

“ Thus zhena-ta is “the woman”; zhena-va or zhena-sa, “the woman close by”; zhena-na, “the woman yonder.” In the borderland between the Servian and Bulgarian nationalities the local use of the article supplies the means of drawing an ethnological frontier; it is nowhere more marked than in the immediate neighbourhood of the Servian population, as, for instance, at Dibra and Prilep. The modern Bulgarian has admitted many foreign elements. It contains about 2000 Turkish and 1000 Greek words dispersed in the various dialects ”

“ This view receives support from the fact that the two nasal vowels of the Church-Slavonic (the greater and lesser ûs) , which have been modified in all the cognate languages except Polish, retain their original pronunciation locally in the neighbourhood of Salonica and Castoria; in modern literary Bulgarian the rhinesmus has disappeared, but the old nasal vowels preserve a peculiar pronunciation, the greater ûs changing to ŭ, as in English “but,” the lesser to ĕ, as in “bet,” while in Servian, Russian and Slovene the greater ûs becomes ū or ō, the lesser e or ya. ”

“ It has never had any influence on the fate of the neighboring peoples; on the contrary it has been the arena for political and cultural strife between the various Balkan nations. We may hear similar arguments from some of our fellow-countrymen, Macedonian Slavs who call themselves Bulgarians, once they have exhausted all other means of fighting against Macedonian national unification. There is no single language in Macedonia; instead there are several different dialects which have a close affinity to the Bulgarian dialects and they all together make up one language — Bulgarian. ”

“ The East Roman emperors were compelled to cede to them the province of Moesia and to pay them an annual tribute. The invading horde was not numerous, and during the next two centuries it became gradually merged in the Slavonic population. Like the Franks in Gaul the Bulgars gave their name and a political organization to the more civilized race which they conquered, but adopted its language, customs and local institutions. Not a trace of the Ugrian or Finnish element is to be found in the Bulgarian speech. This complete assimilation of a conquering race may be illustrated by many parallels. ”

“ They came as conquerors, but in time were absorbed in the more stable Slavonic type.
Without a doubt the Bulgars were racially nearly akin to the Turks—first cousins at least. Mingling with the Slavs they adopted their [45] language and many of their customs. But something of the Turk survives to this day in the character of the Bulgarian people. It shows particularly in their treatment of their women. Though the Bulgarian is monogamic he submits his wife to an almost harem discipline. Once married she lives for the family alone. ”

“ The first and biggest difference between the two dialects is, in our opinion, is the difference in pronunciation or the stress. The Macedonian dialect usually prefers to place the stress in the beginning of the words, and the other one in the end, so in the first dialect [4] you can’t find a word with a stress on the last syllable, while in the latter [5] in most cases the stress is on the last syllable. Here Macedonian dialect is approaching the Serbian dialect. ”

“ Those circumstances today raise one dialect to the level of a literary language, tomorrow another, and so on. Historical and cultural conditions have always dominated the creation of literary languages, they dominate it now too. Thanks to them, we have recently given up choosing one of our dialects for our standard literary language, and instead we have started to learn and write in foreign neighboring languages, mostly Bulgarian. Thanks to the conditions, we now choose the central Macedonian language as a general literary language, ie. Veles-Prilep-Bitola-Ohrid dialect. ”

“ POPULATION: About 8.7 million in 1973; density 203 persons per square mile. Growth rate 0.7 percent annually.
6. ETHNIC GROUPS AND LANGUAGES: 85 percent of population is Bulgar. Persons of Turkish, Macedonian, Greek, Romanian, and other origins are guaranteed the right to use their languages and to preserve their cultural heritage, but Bulgarian, the official language, is spoken by the entire population.
7. RELIGION: 90 percent of population adheres to the Eastern Orthodox faith. There are some 750,000 Moslems, 26,000 Protestants, 32,000 Roman Catholics, and 3,000 to 7,000 Jews. ”

“ The majority of the inhabitants are Turks, and even the native Bulgarians here speak Turkish better than their own language. One Bulgarian here told me that he could not speak the national language. Now in the west of Bulgaria, on the borders of Servia, the Turks speak Bulgarian better than Turkish.
From Varna to Roustchouk is three days' journey, the latter half of the road being agreeably diversified with wood, corn, and pasture ”