The Elin Pelin dialect is a Bulgarian dialect, member of the

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 o ...

, which is spoken in the eastern part of the

Sofia valley The Sofia Valley (), or Sofia Field (), is situated in central western Bulgaria. It is the second of the succession of the eleven Sub-Balkan valleys in direction west–east and is the largest of them in area and population. It is named after th ...

in central western Bulgaria. Its immediate neighbours are the Vratsa dialect to the north, the Botevgrad dialect to the east, the Sofia dialect to the west and the Samokov dialect to the south.

Phonological and morphological characteristics

* Vowel a for Old Church Slavonic ѫ (yus), ь and ъ: ''маж'' vs. formal Bulgarian ''мъж'' (man), ''сан'' vs. formal Bulgarian ''сън'' (sleep) * щ/жд (~) for Proto-Slavic ~ (as in Standard Bulgarian) - ''леща, между'' (lentils, between). The future tense particle, however, is ''ше'', ''к҄е'', ''к҄у'' The diacritic ◌҄ indicates palatalization. * Vocalic r and l for Old Church Slavonic ръ/рь and лъ/ль instead of the combinations ръ/ър (~) and лъ/ъл (~) in Standard Bulgarian - ''дрво, слза'' instead of ''дърво, сълза'' (tree, tear). * Verb ending -a instead of formal Bulgarian -ъ in verbs of the first and second conjugation: ''чет'а'' vs. formal Bulgarian ''чет'ъ'' (I read) For other phonological and morphological characteristics typical for all Southwestern dialects, cf.

Sources

Стойков, Стойко: Българска диалектология, Акад. изд. "Проф. Марин Дринов", 200

References

{{Bulgarian dialects Dialects of the Bulgarian language