| Bulgarian is a Southern Slavic language with about 8 to 12 million speakers mainly
in Bulgaria,it was the first Slavic language to be written: it started to appear in writing
during the 9Th century in the Glagolitic alphabet, which was gradually replaced by an
early version of the Cyrillic alphabet over the following centuries.
Bulgarians were required to learn the Russian language at school up until 1989; most preferred not to speak it.
The Middle Bulgarian period lasted from the 12Th to the 14Th century.
The Modern Bulgarian period started in the 15Th century, but the modern literary language,
which is quite different from Old Bulgarian, was formed during the 19Th century. Modern
Bulgarian’s two major dialect groups are the
western,and eastern dialects, each subdivided into
southern and northern varieties. The modern literary language is based primarily on the northeastern dialect.
Bulgarians shake their heads for
“yes” and nod
for “no”. Sometimes they
reverse these gestures if they know they’re speaking to foreigners, thereby complicating the issue further. |
