The Transitional Bulgarian dialects are a group of
Bulgarian dialects, whose speakers are located west of the
yat boundary and are part of the
Western Bulgarian dialects. As they have most of the typical characteristics of the North-Western Bulgarian dialects, they are sometimes classified as belonging to this subgroup under the name of Extreme North-Western dialects. On Bulgarian territory, the Transitional dialects occupy a narrow strip of land along the Bulgarian border with
Serbia
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, image_coat = Coat of arms of Serbia.svg
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, map_caption = Location of Serbia (gree ...
, including the regions of
Tran,
Breznik,
Godech,
Chiprovtsi and
Belogradchik. They also cross the border to include the dialects or
subdialect
Subdialect (from Latin , "under", and Ancient Greek , ''diálektos'', "discourse") is a linguistic term designating a dialectological category between the levels of dialect and idiolect. Subdialects are basic subdivisions of a dialect. Subdialect ...
s of the Bulgarian minority in the
Western Outlands
The Western (Bulgarian) Outlands () is a term used in Bulgarian to denote several regions located in ex-Yugoslavia, today southeastern Serbia and southeastern North Macedonia, that were traditionally part of Bulgaria and which were predominant ...
(the regions of
Tsaribrod and
Bosilegrad). The Transitional dialects are part of the
Torlak dialectal group also spoken in southeastern Serbia and
North Macedonia
North Macedonia, officially the Republic of North Macedonia, is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe. It shares land borders with Greece to the south, Albania to the west, Bulgaria to the east, Kosovo to the northwest and Serbia to the n ...
and are part of the gradual transition from
Bulgarian to
Serbian. The Bulgarian Transitional dialects and the Serbian
Prizren-Timok dialects are loosely characterised by mixed, predominantly Serbian phonology and predominantly Bulgarian morphology. The features described here are characteristic only of the Transitional dialects within Bulgaria.
Phonological characteristics
* Old Bulgarian ѣ (yat) is always pronounced as vs. standard Bulgarian я/е (/) – ''бел/бели''
* ч/дж () for Proto-Slavic - ''леча, меджу'' ("lentils", "between"). Partial manifestation of reflex for Proto-Slavic (as in standard Bulgarian) in words like ''чужд'' ("foreign"). The future tense particle is ''че''
* у for Old Bulgarian ѫ (yus) (as in standard Serbo-Croatian): ''мука'' vs. Standard Bulgarian ''мъка'' ("sorrow")
* for Old Bulgarian ь and ъ in all positions: ''сън'' ("sleep")
* Complete loss of consonant х () in all positions (preserved in both Bulgarian and Serbian): ''мъ'' vs. Standard Bulgarian ''мъх'' ("moss")
* Preservation of final l (as in Bulgarian): ''бил'' ("was")
* Articulation of voiced consonants at the end of the word (as in Serbian) in some areas/subdialects (
Tran,
Breznik) and devoicing (as in Bulgarian) in others (
Bosilegrad,
Tsaribrod,
Godech,
Belogradchik)
[
]
* Lack of phonemic pitch (as in standard Bulgarian)
* Lack of phonemic length (as in standard Bulgarian)
* Frequent stress on the final syllable in polysyllabic words (as in standard Bulgarian, not possible in standard Serbo-Croatian, though frequent in
archaic Serbo-Croatian dialects): ''жен'а'' ("woman")
* Complete loss of consonant f. It does not exist even in new words where it is usually replaced by v: ''венер'' vs. Standard Bulgarian ''фенер'' ("lantern")
Grammatical and morphological characteristics
* Definiteness realized with post-positive articles. The definite articles are usually -ът, -та, -то, -те as in standard Bulgarian
* Breakup of the Old Bulgarian case system (as in standard Bulgarian). Apart from nominal forms, there is an agglomerative form only for masculine animate names and feminine names
* Loss of the
infinitive
Infinitive ( abbreviated ) is a linguistics term for certain verb forms existing in many languages, most often used as non-finite verbs that do not show a tense. As with many linguistic concepts, there is not a single definition applicable to all ...
(as in standard Bulgarian)
* Full retention of the
aorist
Aorist ( ; abbreviated ) verb forms usually express perfective aspect and refer to past events, similar to a preterite. Ancient Greek grammar had the aorist form, and the grammars of other Indo-European languages and languages influenced by the ...
and the
imperfect
The imperfect ( abbreviated ) is a verb form that combines past tense (reference to a past time) and imperfective aspect (reference to a continuing or repeated event or state). It can have meanings similar to the English "was doing (something)" o ...
(as in standard Bulgarian)
* Doubling of objects with an additional object pronoun (as in standard Bulgarian)
* Ending -e for plural of feminine nouns and adjectives (as in standard Serbo-Croatian): ''жене'' ("women")
* The plural endings of adjectives vary from three (for each gender, as in standard Serbo-Croatian), to two (one for masculine and neuter and one for feminine) and one (as in standard Bulgarian), depending on dialect/subdialect
* Ending -мо for 1st person pl. present time (as in standard Serbo-Croatian): ''носимо'' ("we carry")
* Ending -ше for 3rd person pl. past tense (vs. -ха in Bulgarian): ''плетоше'' equal to Serbian imperfect tense, vs. standard Bulgarian ''плетоха'' ("they knitted")
For the phonological and morphological characteristics of the individual dialects included in the dialectal group, cf. individual articles.
Sources
* ''Sprachatlas Ostserbiens und Westbulgariens'',
Andrej N. Sobolev. Vol. I-III. Biblion Verlag, Marburg, 1998.
* Стойков, Стойко: Българска диалектология, Акад. изд. "Проф. Марин Дринов", 200
* Sussex, Roland and Cubberley, Paul: ''The Slavic Languages'', Cambridge, 2006
Notes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Transitional Bulgarian Dialects
Dialects of the Bulgarian language