Bulgarian is one of the Indo-European languages with the greatest number of dialects. One can hear colloquial language and various forms of dialects not only in the country but outside Bulgaria. Interesting and often archaic forms of Bulgarian language can be heard in the Aegean region, Macedonia, Northern Dobrudja, the Western Outlands and everywhere in the territories which were once part of Bulgaria. Now everyone who wants to check out the richness and variety of the Bulgarian language can do so by clicking on the special interactive map of dialects, created by the team of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.

 Bulgarian language, which in the 9th century was what the classic Slavic speech sounded like, nowadays is viewed as an exotic Balkan language with some characteristics that no other modern Slavic language has, Associate Professor Ana Kocheva of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences says. Some of these characteristics include the lack of cases, substitution of the infinitive with the typical Bulgarian “da”- structure, analytical of future tense, through the use of special particles, and so on. Bulgarian was the first Slavic language attested in writing.

The new dialect map presents 60 out of 100 different Bulgarian forms of speech. A pleasant surprise is that authentic audio recordings made on the spot by experts from the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, who toured Bulgaria to interview local people, can be heard on the website. It turns out that Bulgarian dialects do not differ from each other in morphological terms, while differences in phonetics and vocabulary are essential. What else can we learn from the interactive map of BAS?

"We can learn that Bulgarian dialects vary greatly and also which are the most archaic ones among them. Colors help us show this. Warm colors and red depict those dialects which are closer to the Old Bulgarian language. Cool colors show those dialects that have drifted a little more from Old Bulgarian language. One can also get acquainted with very interesting and specific characteristics of individual dialects. And of course, by clicking on an icon one can hear the authentic dialect speech. Together with my colleagues we had expeditions to record the living dialects and show the incredible diversity of the Bulgarian language."

The dialect map will continue to be enriched and developed. Anyone who loves Bulgarian language and wants to contribute to the protection of its richness could provide a recording of a dialect to be included in the interactive map.

English: Alexander Markov