The Shumen dialect is a

Bulgarian Bulgarian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Bulgaria * Bulgarians, a South Slavic ethnic group * Bulgarian language, a Slavic language * Bulgarian alphabet * A citizen of Bulgaria, see Demographics of Bulgaria * Bul ...

dialect, member of the

Moesian dialects 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 Karnobat, Aytos, Burgas and Yambol in ...

. It is one of the best preserved Moesian dialects and is spoken in the regions of Shumen and

Kaspichan Kaspichan ( bg, Каспичан, ) is a town in central northeastern Bulgaria, part of Shumen Province. It is located in the eastern Danubian Plain, some from the major Black Sea port Varna and around from the key Danube ports of Ruse and Sil ...

Phonological and morphological characteristics

* The reflex of Old Church Slavonic ѣ in a stressed syllable is я () before a hard syllable (бѣлъ > ) and broad е () before a soft syllable (бѣли > ). In an unstressed syllable, the reflex is, however, only я (). * Complete loss of x in all positions. It is replaced by either f or v: ''фулера'' vs. formal Bulgarian ''холера'' (cholera) * The masculine definite article is о (stressed) and у (unstressed) instead of formal Bulgarian –ът/ъ (''гърбо̀, сто̀лу'' instead of ''гърбъ̀т, сто̀лът'') * Preserved traces of Old Bulgarian ы : ''сын'' vs. formal Bulgarian ''син'' (son). This makes the Shumen dialect extremely archaic as is considered to be the original pronunciation of Old Church Slavonic ы * Transition of a into e after a soft (palatal) consonant and before a soft syllable: ''шапка-шепки'' vs. Standard Bulgarian ''шапка-шапки'' (hat-hats) * Large number of o reflexes of Old Church Slavonic ъ in a suffix position (as in 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 of ...

) and subsequent reduction of o into у: ''напредук'' vs. Standard Bulgarian ''напредък'' (progress) * Labialisation of и into ʲу: ''пипер'' is /pʲupɛr/ (as if ''пюпер'') vs. Standard Bulgarian /pipɛr/ (pepper) * Elision of syllables, vowels and consonants, usually in frequently used words: ''рапта'' vs. Standard Bulgarian ''работа'' (work) * A large number of lexical peculiarities, e.g. ''жерка'' vs. common Bulgarian ''воденица'' (watermill) * The modern Bulgarian vowel ъ (from both

yers A yer is either of two letters in Cyrillic alphabets, ъ (ѥръ, ''jerŭ'') and ь (ѥрь, ''jerĭ''). The Glagolitic alphabet used, as respective counterparts, the letters (Ⱏ) and (Ⱐ). They originally represented phonemically the "ult ...

and *ǫ) is pronounced as a close /ɯ/, rather than close-mid /ɤ/ For other phonological and morphological characteristics that are typical for all Moesian dialects, cf.

article Article often refers to: * Article (grammar), a grammatical element used to indicate definiteness or indefiniteness * Article (publishing), a piece of nonfictional prose that is an independent part of a publication Article may also refer to: G ...

Sources

Стойков, Стойко: Българска диалектология, Акад. изд. "Проф. Марин Дринов", 2006, с. 105-1

{{Bulgarian dialects Dialects of the Bulgarian language Culture in Shumen