Bulgarian Dialects

[Svet]

In "Bulgaria and Macedonia" we talked about dialects, and I thought it might be interesting, if I place maps with two very basic explanations regarding the main difference between the existing dialects.

I. The first and most famous thing is the different pronounciation of a word with a я-letter, which changes to е in its plural form, according to official Bulgarian.
Example: white (sing.) = бял
white (plural) = бели
In some Eastern dialects, this substitution is ignored and people pronounce the plural form with я:
Example: white (sing.) = бял
white (plural) = бяли
In most Western dialects, the substitution is again ignored, but this time in the singular form:
Example: white (sing.) = бел
white (plural) = бели
This specific phenomenon is called the "Yat"-border i.e. there is a linguistic border, which separates the regions in Eastern and Western:



The small circles that you're seeing within the two regions are specific places, where exclusions of the general dialect rule are present.

II. The second characteristic is the different pronounciation of the ъ-sound. As you can see from the map below, this sound is changed to а, о, е or even middle-sounds, according to the region:




Feel free to dig up and post more peculiarities and characteristics of the different Bulgarian & Macedonian dialects.

[gothwolf]

I know that the dialect which is spoken in the Rhodope Mountains is highly varied and pretty incomprehensible for the people from other parts of Bulgaria. It contains a lot of archaic words and expressions that are hardly understandable. I have two friends from Smolyan and when they speak in Rhodopian I cannot get anything at all.
Here there is a special site devoted to the Rhodope dialect: http://www.napenalki.com/glossary.html

[Ludwig Whitby]

What do the diacritics represent? There is a circumflex and an acute accent.

[Svet]

What do the diacritics represent? There is a circumflex and an acute accent.

Diacritics represent a middle vocal sound, for which the modern Bulgarian alphabet lacks a letter. The second map explains the diacritics, and those are used also in the dictionary link that gothwolf provided. And by the way - after looking at it: man, this is a language of its own!!!

[gothwolf]

This confrontation "е" [e] vs. "я" [ja] exists because till 1945 there was a special letter "ѣ" which could be pronounced either like е [е] or я [ja] - both pronunciations were acceptable. For example till 1945 the world for milk was written in that way: млѣко and it could be pronounced both like млеко [mleko] and мляко [mljako] but after 1945 this letter was removed and the only "true" variant remained: мляко.

And by the way - after looking at it: man, this is a language of its own!!!

Yes, the people in that area claim that the Rhodope dialect should be accepted as a different from Bulgarian language. Did you have a look into the idiom dictionary? It's so weird.

[Æren]

Awesome maps! I loved the second one

[Svet]

Another tiny, but valuable resource of a local dialect - and one I am personally very proud of - is the book, presenting specific words, idioms and slang of the North-West Vratza region:




Short TV report below:
http://tv-vratsa.bg/index.php?lang=bg&r=home/tvvratza/t140/t2703

[gothwolf]

Give us some examples, please! I'm very curious.

[Svet]

От "Речнико на Баце":

`а - звуково изразяване на частицата "да"; примери: `а зема `а дойда? - Да взема да дойда?; Леко `а съ не лъзнеш - внимавай да не паднеш, подхлъзвайки се

Баце - най-срещаната врачанска дума във Вселената; използва се за всичко и при всички обстоятелства; уважително, гальовно, задължително обръщение към всеки, на който искаш да покажеш отношението си:
положително: Добре, Баце! Яла, Баце! (ела)
отрицателно: Айде, Баце - кини! (изчезвай от тук)
начин за запознанство: Кажи, Баце!
маму, баце - много важен и често използван от Баце израз на голям възторг от нещо, което е станало или предстои да се случи

връзал кънките - напил се

дзвекам - звънкам; Дзвека му главата - луд, откачен; шъ го дзвекна - ще го ударя

йут - лют

кеф на буци! - възклицание, изразяващо голямата радост на Баце от всичко, което му доставя удоволствие

моа - мога: Не моа да удуши глис, На връзано куче леб не моа да даде - оценки на Баце за некадърен човек; Я моо ода `а си бегам, а моо `а бегам да си ода - философско виждане на Баце за възможността да си тръгне (подобно на Хамлетовското "Да бъда или да не бъда")

пиши мъ бегал - няма да дойда

сакам - искам

таа съ - спотайвам се

фуфляк - определение за смотан човек

х - в речнико на Баце не може да има дума с начална буква "х"; почти всички думи и по средата не съдържат "х" - т.е. във Врачанския диалект звукът почти не съществува: леб, убаво, ора, ода, аресвам, апам, фащам, иляда, алтав, лъзгам, му`и, олюв и др.