The Northwestern Bulgarian dialects are two closely related dialects of the
Bulgarian language
Bulgarian (, ; bg, label=none, български, bălgarski, ) is an Eastern South Slavic language spoken in Southeastern Europe, primarily in Bulgaria. It is the language of the Bulgarians.
Along with the closely related Macedonian l ...
, which are located west of the
yat boundary and thus are part of the
Western Bulgarian dialects
Bulgarian (, ; bg, label=none, български, bălgarski, ) is an Eastern South Slavic language spoken in Southeastern Europe, primarily in Bulgaria. It is the language of the Bulgarians.
Along with the closely related Macedonian la ...
. The range of the dialects includes most of northwestern Bulgaria, to the west of the line between
Nikopol,
Pleven
Pleven ( bg, Плèвен ) is the seventh most populous city in Bulgaria. Located in the northern part of the country, it is the administrative centre of Pleven Province, as well as of the subordinate Pleven municipality. It is the biggest ...
and
Mezdra
Mezdra ( bg, Мездра ) is a town in northwestern Bulgaria, part of Vratsa Province. It is located on the left bank of the Iskar River just north of its gorge through the Balkan Mountains.
History
Although the area around it has been inhabit ...
and to the north of the line between
Vratsa
Vratsa ( bg, Враца ) is the largest city in northwestern Bulgaria and the administrative and economic centre of the municipality of Vratsa and Vratsa district. It is located about 112 km north of Sofia, 40 km southeast of Montana.
...
and
Belogradchik
Belogradchik ( bg, Белоградчик ) is a town in Vidin Province, Northwestern Bulgaria, the administrative centre of the homonymous Belogradchik Municipality. The town, whose name literally means "small white town," is situated in the fo ...
. They bear strong resemblance to their neighbouring
Eastern Bulgarian dialects and with some exceptions, mainly the pronunciation of
yat
Yat or jat (Ѣ ѣ; italics: ) is the thirty-second letter of the old Cyrillic alphabet and the Rusyn alphabet.
There is also another version of yat, the iotified yat (majuscule: , minuscule: ), which is a Cyrillic character combining ...
, have the same phonological and morphological features as the neighbouring subdialects of the Eastern Bulgarian
Central Balkan dialect
The Central Balkan dialect is a Bulgarian dialect that 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 Karl ...
.
Phonological and morphological characteristics
* Old Church Slavonic ѣ (yat) is always pronounced as instead of formal Bulgarian я/е (~) – ''бел/бели''
* 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). However, there are words where the
schwa
In linguistics, specifically phonetics and phonology, schwa (, rarely or ; sometimes spelled shwa) is a vowel sound denoted by the IPA symbol , placed in the central position of the vowel chart. In English and some other languages, it rep ...
() is pronounced as in Standard Bulgarian - връх, слънце (summit, sun)
* ending e instead of formal Bulgarian i for plural past active aorist participles (''биле'' instead of ''били'')
* The masculine definite article is () (in a stressed syllable) and slightly reduced a (in an unstressed syllable) - ''гърбъ́, сто́ла'' (the back, the chair)
Most other phonological and morphological features of the Northwestern Bulgarian dialects are similar to the characteristics of the Eastern Bulgarian dialects and the formal language: щ~жд (~) for Proto-Slavic ~ and Old Church Slavonic щ~жд (~), ъ () for both Old Church Slavonic ѫ (yus) and ъ (), vowel reduction, etc.
References
*Стойков, Стойко: Българска диалектология, Акад. изд. "Проф. Марин Дринов", 200
{{Bulgarian dialects
Dialects of the Bulgarian language