Balkan dialects

Balkan dialects

The Balkan dialects are the most extensive group of dialects of the Bulgarian language, covering almost half of the present-day territory of Bulgaria and slightly less than a third of the territory on the Balkans where Bulgarian is spoken. Their range includes north-central Bulgaria and most of the Bulgarian part of Thrace, excluding the Rhodopes, the region of Haskovo and Strandzha. As a result of the mass population movements that affected eastern Bulgaria during the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, the Balkan dialects are now spoken also in vast areas of northeastern Bulgaria, especially the regions of Dobrich and Varna. The most significant feature of the dialects, as in most Eastern Bulgarian dialects, is the pronunciation of Old Church Slavonic Unicode|ѣ (yat) as IPA|ʲa or IPA|ɛ, depending on the character of the following syllable. The Balkan dialects, and in particular, the Central Balkan dialect, are usually said to lie at the foundation of formal Bulgarian. However, this is not entirely true as many features of Standard Bulgarian derive from the Western Bulgarian dialects, including the Macedonian dialects, or are a compromise between Eastern and Western standard.

Phonological and morphological characteristics

* Pronunciation of Old Church Slavonic Unicode|ѣ (yat) as я/е (IPA|ʲa/IPA|ɛ) – "бял/бели" (as in Standard Bulgarian)
* щ/жд (IPA|ʃt/IPA|ʒd) for Proto-Slavic IPA|*tʲ/IPA|*dʲ (as in Standard Bulgarian) - "нощ, между" (night, between)
* ъ (IPA|ə) for Old Church Slavonic Unicode |ѫ (yus) and ъ (IPA|ə) (as in Standard Bulgarian) - мъж, сън (man, sleep)
* Strong reduction of unstressed broad vowels IPA|/a/, IPA|/ɛ/ and IPA|/ɔ/, which are usually transformed into IPA|ə, IPA|/i/ and IPA|/u/. In contrast, Standard Bulgarian allows only moderate reduction of IPA|/a/ and IPA|/ɔ/ and does not allow any reduction IPA|/ɛ/, i.e. the formal norm is a compromise between Eastern and Western Bulgarian (Macedonian)
* Full mutation of a into e after a soft (palatal) consonant and ж IPA|/ʒ/, ш IPA|/ʃ/, ч IPA|/ʧ/ and дж IPA|/ʤ/, before a soft syllable: "жаба-жеби" (frog-frogs), "чаша-чеши" (cup-cups), "пиян-пиени" (drunk sing. - drunk pl.). This is not accepted in Standard Bulgarian, which has instead adopted Western Bulgarian "жаба-жаби", "чаша-чаши", "пиян-пияни"

For the phonological and morphological characteristics of the individual dialects included in the Balkan dialects, cf. individual articles.

ources

Стойков, Стойко: Българска диалектология, Акад. изд. "Проф. Марин Дринов", 2006 [http://www.promacedonia.org/jchorb/st/st_2_b_izt_2.htm]


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужно сделать НИР?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Dialects, Romani Language —    At the time of the Gypsies arrival in Europe there were perhaps two main dialects of the Romani language (Romani and Sinti), but since then different clans have developed separate features that may have been present in the speech of some… …   Historical dictionary of the Gypsies

  • Balkan sprachbund — The Balkan sprachbund or linguistic area is the ensemble of areal features similarity in grammar, syntax, vocabulary and phonology among languages of the Balkans, which belong to various branches of Indo European, such as Slavic, Greek, Romance… …   Wikipedia

  • Balkan Gagauz Turkish language — language name=Balkan Gagauz Turkish familycolor=Altaic states=Turkey, Greece, Republic of Macedonia speakers=331,000 fam1=Altaic [The existence of the Altaic family is controversial. See Altaic languages.] fam2=Turkic fam3=Oghuz iso3=bgxBalkan… …   Wikipedia

  • Balkan Romani — noun One of several dialects of Romani …   Wiktionary

  • Rup dialects — The Rup dialects, or the Southeastern dialects, are a group of Bulgarian dialects located east of the yat boundary, thus being part of the Eastern Bulgarian dialects. The range of the Rup dialects includes the southern part of Thrace, i.e.… …   Wikipedia

  • Moesian dialects — Yat border in the Bulgarian language The Moesian dialects are a group of closely related dialects of the Bulgarian language, part of the Eastern Bulgarian dialects. The Moesian dialects are spoken in northeastern Bulgaria and in the regions of… …   Wikipedia

  • Southwestern Bulgarian dialects — The Southwestern Bulgarian dialects are a group of Bulgarian dialects which are located west of the yat boundary and are part of the Western Bulgarian dialects. The range of the Southwestern dialects on the territory of Bulgaria includes most of… …   Wikipedia

  • Central Balkan dialect — The Central Balkan dialect is a Bulgarian dialect, which is part of the Balkan group of the Eastern Bulgarian dialects. Its range includes most of north central Bulgaria (without the regions of Dryanovo and Elena), as well as the regions of… …   Wikipedia

  • Bulgarian dialects — ( bg. български диалекти, balgarski dialekti , also български говори, balgarski govori or български наречия, balgarski narechiya ) are the regional spoken varieties of the Bulgarian language, a South Slavic language. Bulgarian dialectology dates… …   Wikipedia

  • Slavic dialects of Greece — Infobox Language name=Slavic dialects of Greece nativename= bălgarski / makedonski familycolor=Indo European states=Greece speakers=20,000 (2008)Στη Δυτική Μακεδονία, κυρίως στις περιοχές της Φλώρινας, της Καστοριάς, της Βέροιας και του Κιλκίς… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”