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Bulgaria marks 165 years since the birth of prominent linguist Aleksandar Balan

Aleksandar Balan (1859-1959)
Photo: bulgarianhistory.org

October 27 marks the 165th anniversary of the birth of Academician Aleksandar Teodorov-Balan, who was the first theorist of the Bulgarian literary language, phonetics and grammar. 

He was born was born in 1859 in the village of Kubey, Bessarabia. His father, Stoyan Balan, was from a big family in Sliven. His mother Maria Grekova was the daughter of Panayot Grekov, defender of the Bulgarian language in Bessarabia and sister of the Bulgarian politician and lawyer Dimitar Grekov. 

A graduate of the Bolgrad High School, he studied Slavic and Czech philology at the Charles University in Prague. In Leipzig, he studied Greek, Latin and German. In Prague, he defended his doctorate on the topic "On the sound "ь" in the modern Bulgarian language". 

In 1889, Balan was elected the first rector of the Higher School in Sofia - today Sofia University, and from 1945 he was an academician. 

He is the author of over 900 articles, reports, studies and books. 

He died on February 12, 1959 at the age of 99. 

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Radio Bulgaria History and religion    Aleksandar Balan Aleksandar Teodorov-Balan Bulgarian language linguist Professor Balan

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