What languages are widely spoken in Bulgaria?
- Bulgarian 97.84%
- English 12.25%
- Russian 9.18%
- Turkish 4.58%
- German 3.44%
- Greek 1.33%
- Spanish 1.28%
- French 1%
- Romanian 0.46%
- Italian 0.33%
What is the official language of Bulgaria?
The sole official language of the country is Bulgarian. Below you will find summaries for the languages supported by our translation services. Bulgarian belongs to the Slavic branch of the Indo-European language family. It is the sole official language of Bulgaria.
What Langauge do they speak in Belgium?
What Language Do Belgium People Speak? French, Dutch, and German are the official languages. 33% of the population uses Wallon, the local version of French. More than 60% of the population speaks Flemish, which is spoken in the northern part of the country. French and Dutch are the official languages of school.
Is Bulgarian the same language as Chuvash?
No. Bulgarian is a South Slavic language, while Chuvash is an Oghur-Turkic language, the only extant member of that branch of the Turkic language family. During the Early Medieval Period, Oghuric languages were spoken is some nomadic tribal confederations, such as those of the Bulgars and Khazars.
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Which language is Bulgarian closest to?
MacedonianBulgarian is the country's only official language. It's spoken by the vast majority of the Bulgarian population and used at all levels of society. It is a Slavic language, and its closest relative is Macedonian. Bulgarian is written with Cyrillic, which is also used by Russian, Ukrainian, Serbian and Macedonian.
Can Bulgarians speak Russian?
Around 23% of the population of Bulgaria speak Russian.
Are Bulgarian and Greek similar?
Bulgaria shares a 70% similarity to Serbians and Montenegrans, 79% to Greeks, 77% to Macedonians, 75% to Romanians, 67% to Hungarians. The greater similarity to Greeks than to Serbs reflects its higher percentage of pre-Slav genes.
What language sounds like Bulgarian?
Bulgarian is a South Slavic language, most closely related to Serbian-Croatian and Slovenian, while Russian is an East Slavic language and its closest languages are Belarussian and Ukrainian.
Is Bulgaria the oldest country?
Bulgaria is the oldest country in Europe and the only country that has not changed its name since it was first established. In the 7th century AD, the Proto- Bulgarians led by Khan Asparuh crossed the Danube River and in 681, they established their own state south of the Danube.
Is Bulgarian difficult to learn?
Bulgarian is known as one of the most difficult languages in the World (category 4), knowing that Japanese is in the most complex category (5). Learning Bulgarian is estimated to 44 weeks (1100 hours).
Do Greeks and Bulgarians get along?
Due to the strong political, cultural and religious ties between the two nations, (the majority of Bulgarians and Greeks practice the Eastern Orthodox faith), Bulgaria and Greece today enjoy excellent diplomatic relations and consider each other a friendly nation and an ally.
Who is older Macedonia or Bulgaria?
1. The roots of the Macedonians are in ancient Macedonia in Europe since 8th century BC, while the roots of the Bulgarians are in the Turko-Morgilic Bulgars who came into Europe from Asia in the 7th century AD.
Is Greek spoken in Bulgaria?
Greeks in Bulgaria (Bulgarian: гърци Gǎrci) constitute the eighth-largest ethnic minority in Bulgaria (Greek: Βουλγαρία Voulgaria). They number 1,356 according to the 2011 census....Census data.YearGreek PopulationPercentage of total19658.2410.1019924.9300.0620013,2190.0420111,3560.0210 more rows
Is Bulgarian harder than Russian?
There are multiple factors that influence this mutual intelligibility. On one hand, Bulgarian is much more simple than Russian in terms of grammar and thus, easier to understand by the Russian people.
Is Bulgarian the easiest Slavic language?
If you're looking for the easiest Slavic language to learn, we would suggest Bulgarian with the lack of grammatical cases.
Is Bulgarian like Russian?
There are many differences between Bulgarian and Russian speakers. The two languages are not mutually intelligible, and there are significant differences in grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation. In addition, the two groups have different cultural norms and values.
Can Bulgarians and Russians understand each other?
No. Although they are related (Slavic) languages, have similar grammar and use the same written character set, the words they use for even simple things are different. Most Bulgarians of a certain age were taught Russian in school, though, so they could probably communicate.
Is Bulgarian easy to learn if you know Russian?
Additional Note: Keep in mind that Bulgarian learners who already know Russian or another Slavic language will have a much easier time picking up the language. This is because Bulgarian and other Slavic languages have many things in common.
Is Bulgarian the easiest Slavic language?
If you're looking for the easiest Slavic language to learn, we would suggest Bulgarian with the lack of grammatical cases.
Can a Polish person understand Russian?
Is Russian and Polish Mutually Intelligible? Russian is East Slavonic and Polish is West Slavonic. While the two share a similar grammar system and some vocabulary words, Polish and Russian aren't mutually intelligible.
What language is Bulgarian based on?
Bulgarian is a Slavic language belonging to a group of South Slavic languages that includes Old Church Slavonic (a liturgical language), Slovene, Serbian/Croatian, and Macedonian. The modern South Slavic languages form a continuum of a series of mutually intelligible dialects.
Is Bulgarian similar to Russian?
They are very similar as vocabulary – most words are easily recognisable as derived from the same source despite the phonetic changes; however, grammatically they are very far apart as Bulgarian is a rather analytic language while Russian is very synthetic.
Is Bulgarian easier than Russian?
Although they belong to the Slavic languages family, they are in two different subfamilies – Bulgarian is part of the Southern while Russian belongs to the Eastern subgroup.On one hand, Bulgarian is much more simple than Russian in terms of grammar and thus, easier to understand by the Russian people.
Can Croatians understand Bulgarian?
Croatian and Slovene native speakers had the lowest score for Bulgarian, lower than for Czech, Slovak and Polish as the test languages.Slovak speakers could understand Slovene (63.3 %) just as well as Polish (63.3 %).
Are Bulgarians white?
1) contemporary Bulgarians are distributed nearer to contemporary Caucasians than most European populations which suggests an extra degree of Caucasian admixture that has been absent in the rest of Europe.
Can Bulgarians understand Russian?
Bulgarians are also able to understand a lot of Russian, even if they never learned it but you can’t rely on it. Bulgarian and Russian are close but there are also a lot of differences.
Is Bulgarian hard language?
Keep in Mind that Bulgarian is one of the most difficult languages in the World .Bulgarian is known as one of the most difficult languages in the World (category 4), knowing that Japanese is in the most complex category (5). Learning Bulgarian is estimated to 44 weeks (1100 hours).
What is Bulgarian?
Bulgarian is a South Slavic language spoken by approximately 10 million people worldwide. It is primarily spoken in Bulgaria, as well as in parts of Romania, Turkey, Greece, and Albania. Bulgarian is closely related to Serbian and Macedonian and has a few similarities with other Slavic languages such as Croatian.
What is Russian?
It’s pretty straightforward: Russian is a Slavic language spoken by about 144 million people worldwide. You can find it in Russia, obviously, but also all over Eastern Europe (particularly Ukraine and Belarus) and throughout Central Asia.
Language Similarities
Most Bulgarians can speak a few words of Russian; however, most Russians cannot speak Bulgarian. The languages share many similarities—for example, they use similar alphabet systems (Cyrillic) and have many similar words.
Language Differences
Many confuse Bulgarian with Russian, but in fact, there are several differences between these two Slavic languages. The following list some of these language differences. Bulgarian uses Cyrillic characters, while Russian uses an alphabet based on Latin characters.
Reading and Writing
Although many Slavic languages (Bulgarian, Serbian, Croatian, etc.) share similar roots and grammatical structures, they are incredibly different when it comes to vocabulary. Bulgarian and Russian are no exception.
Pronunciation and Spelling
The good news is that both languages are closely related, so they share many similarities. The bad news is that they are also closely related: most linguists consider variations of one another rather than two distinct languages. However, there are some critical differences between Bulgarian and Russian that make it worthwhile to note.
Bulgarian vs. Russian Speakers
The Bulgarian and the Russian languages are very similar. Both have a rich history, but they also share many similarities in their grammar. The two languages are closely related and can be used interchangeably for some purposes. For example, if you know how to read and write in Russian, you should be able to read and write in Bulgarian just fine.
What was the Old Bulgarian period?
Old Bulgarian period (9th – 11th century): during this period Saints Cyril and Methodius together with their disciples translated the Bible and other pieces of literature from Greek to Old Church Slavonic. This was a literary norm of a Common Slavic language from which Bulgarian stems.
What is the difference between Bulgarian and Russian?
Bulgarian vs Russian: Difference 1 Russian has a complex case system, while Bulgarian has lost its case declension almost entirely. 2 Bulgarian verbs have no infinitive form, Russian – still have it (e.g. ходить meaning to walk) 3 Bulgarian is a synthetic language and as such, the definite article added after the noun or the adjective (e.g. маса or a table becomes масата or the table). Russian has no definite article. 4 Russian has a specific way to address people – besides the name of the person, the name of the father added (e.g. If you are called Ivan and your father’s name is Andrej then people in Russian will address you as Ivan Andrejevich) 5 Bulgarian is older than Russian and thus, has kept the Old Slavonic personal pronouns (аз, ти, той, тя, то, ние, вие, те) while Russian uses more modern forms of the personal pronouns (я, ты, он, она, оно, мы, вы, они). 6 Bulgarian is heavily influenced by Turkish, Romanian, and Greek. Russian by German and French. 7 Since Bulgarian is more archaic than Russian, it has kept more vocabulary from the Old Slavonic language. (e.g. to whisper or шепна ( pronounced as /’shepna/) in Bulgarian is a word dating from the 7th century).
What is the prehistoric period?
Prehistoric period (7th – 8th century): this period is marked by the beginning of the migration of the Slavonic tribes to the Balkans and ends with the shift from the now-extinct Bulgar language to the Old Church Slavonic. This shift initiated with the mission of Saints Cyril and Methodius who created the Cyrillic alphabet. This writing system was based on the Greek one, but a few new letters were added to represent some typically Slavic sounds that were not found in the Greek language.
What was the first Slavic language?
You will be surprised to learn that Bulgarian is the first Slavic language that attained a writing system – what we call today the Cyrillic alphabet. Thus, in antiquity, it refers to Bulgarian as the Slavic language.
Why are Bulgarian and Russian so different?
Although they belong to the Slavic languages family, they are in two different subfamilies – Bulgarian is part of the Southern while Russian belongs to the Eastern subgroup.
What language was influenced by Bulgaria?
It was also heavily influenced by its neighboring countries (Romanian, Greek, Serbian) and later on during the 500-year Ottoman rule – by the Turkish language.
How to address people in Russian?
Russian has a specific way to address people – besides the name of the person, the name of the father added (e.g. If you are called Ivan and your father’s name is Andrej then people in Russian will address you as Ivan Andrejevich)
How are Bulgarian and Greek related?
They are distantly related as both are Indo-European languages, Bulgarian on the South-Slavic cluster of the Slavic branch, and Greek as the only member of the Hellenic branch (unless one considers some forms of Greek like Tsakonika, Italika (Griko) and Pontika to be separate languages.) In that way Greek and Bulgarian are about as close as they are to English or Gaelic, and more so than they would be to Japanese but not so close enough to be useful to learn each other compared to an other two random IE languages from different branches.
Which country is connected to the Northern Greeks?
History of the Northern Greeks is also connected with the Bulgarian one (Ancient Macedon kingdom vs Thracians, Byzantines, common suffering under Ottoman rule, WW1 and Bulgarian invasion during WW2). The reason I listed them 2nd only to the Romanians is that the Northern Greeks are less than 1/3 of the entire Greek population and modern Greece is concentrated around the Southern Greeks, with which Bulgarians have very little in common (both historically and genetically). Also Greece has always been pro-Western and has never come under communist rule, unlike Bulgaria.
Which group of people are closer to Romanians?
Northerners - Moesians and Dobrudzhantsi are closer to Romanians (notably Southern Romanians - Wallachia and Dobrogea). Some of the Moesians descend from Slavicized Vlachs/Romanians or are mixed with them ( хърцои ), while some of the Dobrudzhantsi are mixed with Gagauzes. Bulgarians and Romanians from Dobruja share some folk dances, customs and traditional clothes.
What race are Bulgarians?
Phenotypically: Everyone has their own appearance, but in generall most Bulgarians are part of the Pontid subtype of the Mediterranean race - medium to tall, long skull, dark hair (straight or wavy), brown/hazel eyes, light olive skin, rather slender. Here the closest are the Greeks, majority of whom are also Pontid (especially those from continental Greece). Pontid
Which ethnicity is closest to us?
Genetically: Most genetic researches suggest that Romanians are the closest ethnicity to us considering all genetic markers (Y-DNA, mtDNA, auDNA), which is not surprising - after all, the vast majority of Bulgarians and Romanians descend from the Bronze-Age inhabitants of south-eastern Europe (called Dacians and Thracians respectively on both sides of the Danube).
What does the word "ouzo" sound like?
Even the word Ouzo in Greek sounds more like Olzo.
What language sounds like Greek?
The closest language to sound like Greek is Spanish. But keep in mind that Spanish is the clos
Overview
Bulgarian is a South Slavic language spoken in Southeastern Europe, primarily in Bulgaria. It is the language of the Bulgarians.
Along with the closely related Macedonian language (collectively forming the East South Slavic languages), it is a member of the Balkan sprachbund and South Slavic dialect continuum of the Indo-European language family. The two languages have several characteristics that set them apart f…
History
One can divide the development of the Bulgarian language into several periods.
• The Prehistoric period covers the time between the Slavic migration to the eastern Balkans (c. 6th century CE) and the mission of Saints Cyril and Methodius to Great Moravia in 860s and the language shift from now extinct Bulgar language.
Geographic distribution
Bulgarian is the official language of Bulgaria, where it is used in all spheres of public life. As of 2011, it is spoken as a first language by about 6 million people in the country, or about four out of every five Bulgarian citizens.
There is also a significant Bulgarian diaspora abroad. One of the main historically established communities are the Bessarabian Bulgarians, whose settlement in the Bessarabia region of nowa…
Dialects
The language is mainly split into two broad dialect areas, based on the different reflexes of the Proto-Slavic yat vowel (Ѣ). This split, which occurred at some point during the Middle Ages, led to the development of Bulgaria's:
• Western dialects (informally called твърд говор/tvurd govor – "hard speech")
• Eastern dialects (informally called мек говор/mek govor – "soft speech")
Relationship to Macedonian
Until the period immediately following the Second World War, all Bulgarian and the majority of foreign linguists referred to the South Slavic dialect continuum spanning the area of modern Bulgaria, North Macedonia and parts of Northern Greece as a group of Bulgarian dialects. In contrast, Serbian sources tended to label them "south Serbian" dialects. Some local naming conventions included …
Alphabet
In 886 AD, the Bulgarian Empire introduced the Glagolitic alphabet which was devised by the Saints Cyril and Methodius in the 850s. The Glagolitic alphabet was gradually superseded in later centuries by the Cyrillic script, developed around the Preslav Literary School, Bulgaria in the late 9th century.
Several Cyrillic alphabets with 28 to 44 letters were used in the beginning and t…
Phonology
Bulgarian possesses a phonology similar to that of the rest of the South Slavic languages, notably lacking Serbo-Croatian's phonemic vowel length and tones and alveo-palatal affricates. The eastern dialects exhibit palatalization of consonants before front vowels (/ɛ/ and /i/) and reduction of vowel phonemes in unstressed position (causing mergers of /ɛ/ and /i/, /ɔ/ and /u/, /a/ and /ɤ/) - both patterns have partial parallels in Russian and lead to a partly similar sound. The w…
Grammar
The parts of speech in Bulgarian are divided in ten types, which are categorized in two broad classes: mutable and immutable. The difference is that mutable parts of speech vary grammatically, whereas the immutable ones do not change, regardless of their use. The five classes of mutables are: nouns, adjectives, numerals, pronouns and verbs. Syntactically, the first four of these form the group of the noun or the nominal group. The immutables are: adverbs, pre…
Bulgarian vs Russian: Speakers
History of The Bulgarian Language
- You will be surprised to learn that Bulgarian is the first Slavic language that attained a writing system – what we call today the Cyrillic alphabet. Thus, in antiquity, it refers to Bulgarian as the Slavic language. Source: Generally, the diachronic development of the Bulgarian language can be divided into four main periods: 1. Prehistoric period (7th – 8th century): this period is marked by …
History of The Russian Language
- As mentioned above, during the 6th century began the migration of the Slavic tribes. Some of them settled in the Balkans, however, others continued to Southern Europe. By the 10th century, three main Slavonic language groups had established: Western, Eastern, and Southern. Source: The modern languages that we call today Russian, Ukrainian and Belorussian, in fact, emerged fr…