1.
Bulgarian language
–
Bulgarian /bʌlˈɡɛəriən/, /bʊlˈ-/ is an Indo-European language, a member of the Southern branch of the Slavic language family. Various evidential verb forms exist to express unwitnessed, retold, with the accession of Bulgaria to the European Union on 1 January 2007, Bulgarian became one of the official languages of the European Union. Development of the Bulgarian language may be divided into several periods, prehistoric period – occurred between the Slavonic migration to eastern Balkans and the mission of Saints Cyril and Methodius to Great Moravia in the 860s. Old Bulgarian – a literary norm of the southern dialect of the Common Slavic language from which Bulgarian evolved. It was used by Saints Cyril and Methodius and their disciples to translate the Bible, Middle Bulgarian – a literary norm that evolved from the earlier Old Bulgarian, after major innovations were accepted. It was a language of literary activity and the official administration language of the Second Bulgarian Empire. Modern Bulgarian – dates from the 16th century onwards, undergoing general grammar, present-day written Bulgarian language was standardized on the basis of the 19th-century Bulgarian vernacular. Bulgarian was the first Slavic language attested in writing, as Slavic linguistic unity lasted into late antiquity, in the oldest manuscripts this language was initially referred to as языкъ словяньскъ, the Slavic language. In the Middle Bulgarian period this name was replaced by the name языкъ блъгарьскъ. In some cases, the name языкъ блъгарьскъ was used not only with regard to the contemporary Middle Bulgarian language of the copyist but also to the period of Old Bulgarian. During the Middle Bulgarian period, the language underwent dramatic changes, losing the Slavonic case system, today one difference between Bulgarian dialects in the country and literary spoken Bulgarian is the significant presence of Old Bulgarian words and even word forms in the latter. Russian loans are distinguished from Old Bulgarian ones on the basis of the presence of specifically Russian phonetic changes, as in оборот, непонятен, ядро and others. As usual in cases, many other loans from French, English. Modern Bulgarian was based essentially on the Eastern dialects of the language, between 1835–1878 more than 25 proposals were put forward and linguistic chaos ensued. Eventually the eastern dialects prevailed, and in 1899 the Ministry of Education officially codified a standard Bulgarian language based on the Drinov-Ivanchev orthography, the language is mainly split into two broad dialect areas, based on the different reflexes of the Common Slavic yat vowel. This split, which occurred at some point during the Middle Ages, led to the development of Bulgarias, E. g. млеко – milk, хлеб – bread. This rule obtains in most Eastern dialects, although some have ya, or an open e sound. The literary language norm, which is based on the Eastern dialects
2.
First Bulgarian Empire
–
The First Bulgarian Empire was a medieval Bulgarian state that existed in southeastern Europe between the 7th and 11th centuries AD. It was founded circa 681 when Bulgar tribes led by Asparukh moved to the north-eastern Balkans, there they secured Byzantine recognition of their right to settle south of the Danube by defeating – possibly with the help of local South Slavic tribes – the Byzantine army led by Constantine IV. At the height of its power, Bulgaria spread from the Danube Bend to the Black Sea, as the state solidified its position in the Balkans, it entered into a centuries-long interaction, sometimes friendly and sometimes hostile, with the Byzantine Empire. Bulgaria emerged as Byzantiums chief antagonist to its north, resulting in several wars, Byzantium had a strong cultural influence on Bulgaria, which also led to the eventual adoption of Christianity in 864. After the disintegration of the Avar Khaganate, the country expanded its territory northwest to the Pannonian Plain, later the Bulgarians confronted the advance of the Pechenegs and Cumans, and achieved a decisive victory over the Magyars, forcing them to establish themselves permanently in Pannonia. During the late 9th and early 10th centuries, Simeon I achieved a string of victories over the Byzantines, thereafter, he was recognized with the title of Emperor, and proceeded to expand the state to its greatest extent. After the annihilation of the Byzantine army in the battle of Anchialus in 917, the Byzantines, however, eventually recovered, and in 1014, under Basil II, inflicted a crushing defeat on the Bulgarians at the Battle of Kleidion. By 1018, the last Bulgarian strongholds had surrendered to the Byzantine Empire, and it was succeeded by the Second Bulgarian Empire in 1185. After the adoption of Christianity, Bulgaria became the center of Slavic Europe. Old Bulgarian became the lingua franca of much of Eastern Europe, in 927, the fully independent Bulgarian Patriarchate was officially recognized. The Bulgars and other tribes in the empire gradually adopted an essentially foreign Slavic language. Since the late 9th century, the names Bulgarians and Bulgarian gained prevalence and became permanent designations for the local population, the First Bulgarian Empire became known simply as Bulgaria since its recognition by the Byzantine Empire in 681. Some historians use the terms Danube Bulgaria, First Bulgarian State, during its early existence, the country was also called the Bulgar state or Bulgar qaghanate. Between 864 and 917/927, the country was known as the Principality of Bulgaria or Knyazhestvo Bulgaria, in English language sources, the country is often known as the Bulgarian Empire. The eastern Balkan Peninsula was originally inhabited by the Thracians who were a group of Proto-Indo-European tribes, the whole region as far north as the Danube River was gradually incorporated into the Roman Empire by the 1st century AD. The decline of the Roman Empire after the 3rd century AD, nonetheless, it never relinquished the claim to the whole region up to the Danube. A series of administrative, legislative, military and economic reforms somewhat improved the situation, the group of Slavs that came to be known as the South Slavs was divided into Antes and Sclaveni who spoke the same language. The Slavic incursions in the Balkans increased during the half of Justinian Is reign and while these were initially pillaging raids
3.
Glagolitic script
–
The Glagolitic script is the oldest known Slavic alphabet. It was created in the 9th century by Saint Cyril, a Byzantine monk from Thessaloniki and he and his brother, Saint Methodius, were sent by the Byzantine Emperor Michael III in 863 to Great Moravia to spread Christianity among the West Slavs in the area. After the deaths of Cyril and Methodius, the Glagolitic alphabet ceased to be used in Moravia, the Glagolitic alphabet was preserved only by the Croats, using it from the 12th to the 20th century, mostly in liturgy. The name was not created until many centuries after the scripts creation, the verb glagolati means to speak. It has been conjectured that the name developed in Croatia around the 14th century and was derived from the word glagolity. In Old Church Slavonic the name is Ⰽⱛⱃⰺⰾⰾⱁⰲⰺⱌⰰ, Кѷрїлловица, the creation of the characters is popularly attributed to Saints Cyril and Methodius, who may have created them to facilitate the introduction of Christianity. It is believed that the letters were fitted to Bulgarian. The number of letters in the original Glagolitic alphabet is not known, in later centuries, the number of letters dropped dramatically, to fewer than 30 in modern Croatian and Czech recensions of the Church Slavic language. Twenty-four of the 41 original Glagolitic letters probably derive from graphemes of the medieval cursive Greek small alphabet but have given an ornamental design. The source of the consonantal letters is unknown. If they were added by Cyril, it is likely that they were taken from a used for Christian scripture. It is frequently proposed that the letters sha Ⱎ, tsi Ⱌ, and cherv Ⱍ were taken from the letters shin ש and tsadi צ of the Hebrew alphabet, however, Cubberley suggests that if a single prototype were presumed, the most likely source would be Armenian. Other proposals include the Samaritan alphabet, which Cyril learned during his journey to the Khazars in Cherson, an alternate theory asserts that Saint Cyril did not develop Glagolitic script, instead improving and codifying a preexisting South Slavic script derived from Linear B. Comparison of Linear A and Linear B with the Glagolitic script finds 20 Glagolitic characters aligning in form and/or phonetics with Linear A and 23 with Linear B, Glagolitic letters were also used as numbers, similarly to Cyrillic numerals. Unlike Cyrillic numerals, which inherited their numeric value from the corresponding Greek letter, the Kiev Missal, found in the 19th century in Jerusalem, was dated to the 10th century. In 886 an East Frankish bishop of Nitra named Wiching banned the script and jailed 200 followers of Methodius and they were then dispersed or, according to some sources, sold as slaves by the Franks. Many of them, however, reached Bulgaria and were commissioned by Boris I of Bulgaria to teach, after the adoption of Christianity in Bulgaria in 865, religious ceremonies and Divine Liturgy were conducted in Greek by clergy sent from the Byzantine Empire, using the Byzantine rite. As a result of Boris measures, two academies, one in Ohrid and one in Preslav, were founded, from there, the students traveled to other places and spread the use of their alphabet
4.
Saints Cyril and Methodius
–
Saints Cyril and Methodius were two brothers who were Byzantine Christian theologians and Christian missionaries. Through their work influenced the cultural development of all Slavs. They are credited with devising the Glagolitic alphabet, the first alphabet used to transcribe Old Church Slavonic, after their deaths, their pupils continued their missionary work among other Slavs. Both brothers are venerated in the Orthodox Church as saints with the title of equal-to-apostles, in 1880, Pope Leo XIII introduced their feast into the calendar of the Roman Catholic Church. In 1980, Pope John Paul II declared them co-patron saints of Europe, the two brothers were born in Thessalonica, in present-day Greece – Cyril in about 827–828 and Methodius about 815–820. Cyril was reputedly the youngest of seven brothers, he was born Constantine, Methodius was born Michael and took the name Methodius upon becoming a monk at Mysian Olympus, in northwest Turkey. Their father was Leo, a droungarios of the Byzantine theme of Thessalonica, the exact ethnic origins of the brothers are unknown, there is controversy as to whether Cyril and Methodius were of Slavic or Byzantine Greek origin, or both. The two brothers lost their father when Cyril was fourteen, and the powerful minister Theoktistos, who was logothetes tou dromou, one of the ministers of the Empire. Cyril was ordained as priest some time after his education, while his brother Methodius remained only a deacon until 867/868, Cyrils mastery of theology and command of both Arabic and Hebrew made him eligible for his first state mission. He was sent to the Abbasid Caliph Al-Mutawakkil to discuss the principle of the Holy Trinity with the Arab theologians and this mission was unsuccessful, as later the Khagan imposed Judaism on his people as the national religion. It has been claimed that Methodius accompanied Cyril on the mission to the Khazars, the account of his life presented in the Latin Legenda claims that he learned the Khazar language while in Chersonesos, in Taurica. In 862, the brothers began the work which would give them their historical importance and that year Prince Rastislav of Great Moravia requested that Emperor Michael III and the Patriarch Photius send missionaries to evangelize his Slavic subjects. His motives in doing so were more political than religious. Rastislav had become king with the support of the Frankish ruler Louis the German, Rastislav is said to have expelled missionaries of the Roman Church and instead turned to Constantinople for ecclesiastical assistance and, presumably, a degree of political support. The Emperor quickly chose to send Cyril, accompanied by his brother Methodius, the request provided a convenient opportunity to expand Byzantine influence. Their first work seems to have been the training of assistants, in 863, they began the task of translating the Bible into the language now known as Old Church Slavonic and travelled to Great Moravia to promote it. They enjoyed considerable success in this endeavour, however, they came into conflict with German ecclesiastics who opposed their efforts to create a specifically Slavic liturgy. For the purpose of mission, they devised the Glagolitic alphabet
5.
Cyrillic script
–
The Cyrillic script /sᵻˈrɪlɪk/ is a writing system used for various alphabets across eastern Europe and north and central Asia. It is based on the Early Cyrillic, which was developed in the First Bulgarian Empire during the 9th century AD at the Preslav Literary School. As of 2011, around 252 million people in Eurasia use it as the alphabet for their national languages. With the accession of Bulgaria to the European Union on 1 January 2007, Cyrillic became the official script of the European Union, following the Latin script. Cyrillic is derived from the Greek uncial script, augmented by letters from the older Glagolitic alphabet and these additional letters were used for Old Church Slavonic sounds not found in Greek. The script is named in honor of the two Byzantine brothers, Saints Cyril and Methodius, who created the Glagolitic alphabet earlier on, modern scholars believe that Cyrillic was developed and formalized by early disciples of Cyril and Methodius. In the early 18th century the Cyrillic script used in Russia was heavily reformed by Peter the Great, the new form of letters became closer to the Latin alphabet, several archaic letters were removed and several letters were personally designed by Peter the Great. West European typography culture was also adopted, Cyrillic script spread throughout the East and South Slavic territories, being adopted for writing local languages, such as Old East Slavic. Its adaptation to local languages produced a number of Cyrillic alphabets, capital and lowercase letters were not distinguished in old manuscripts. Yeri was originally a ligature of Yer and I, iotation was indicated by ligatures formed with the letter І, Ꙗ, Ѥ, Ю, Ѩ, Ѭ. Sometimes different letters were used interchangeably, for example И = І = Ї, there were also commonly used ligatures like ѠТ = Ѿ. The letters also had values, based not on Cyrillic alphabetical order. The early Cyrillic alphabet is difficult to represent on computers, many of the letterforms differed from modern Cyrillic, varied a great deal in manuscripts, and changed over time. Few fonts include adequate glyphs to reproduce the alphabet, the Unicode 5.1 standard, released on 4 April 2008, greatly improves computer support for the early Cyrillic and the modern Church Slavonic language. In Microsoft Windows, Segoe UI is notable for having complete support for the archaic Cyrillic letters since Windows 8, the development of Cyrillic typography passed directly from the medieval stage to the late Baroque, without a Renaissance phase as in Western Europe. Late Medieval Cyrillic letters show a tendency to be very tall and narrow. Peter the Great, Czar of Russia, mandated the use of westernized letter forms in the early 18th century, over time, these were largely adopted in the other languages that use the script. The development of some Cyrillic computer typefaces from Latin ones has also contributed to the visual Latinization of Cyrillic type, Cyrillic uppercase and lowercase letter forms are not as differentiated as in Latin typography
6.
Preslav Literary School
–
The Preslav Literary School was the first literary school in the medieval Bulgarian Empire. It was established by Boris I in 885 or 886 in Bulgarias capital, in 893, Simeon I moved the seat of the school from Pliska to the new capital, Preslav. The Preslav Literary School was the most important literary and cultural centre of Bulgaria and all Slavs until the capture, a number of prominent Bulgarian writers and scholars worked at the school, including Naum of Preslav, Constantine of Preslav, Joan Exarch, Chernorizets Hrabar, etc. The school was also a centre of translation, mostly of Byzantine authors, as well as of poetry, painting and painted ceramics. The school developed the Cyrillic script, and the earliest datable Cyrillic inscriptions have been found in the area of Preslav, in the city itself, at nearby Patleina, Krepcha. History of Bulgaria Ohrid Literary School Naum of Preslav Cyrillic script Early Cyrillic alphabet Nikolov, the Perception of the Bulgarian Past in the Court of Preslav around 900 AD. - In, State and Church, Studies in Medieval Bulgaria, ed. by V. Gjuzelev and K. Petkov. American Research Center in Sofia, Sofia,2011, 157-171
7.
Bulgaria
–
Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in southeastern Europe. It is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, with a territory of 110,994 square kilometres, Bulgaria is Europes 16th-largest country. Organised prehistoric cultures began developing on current Bulgarian lands during the Neolithic period and its ancient history saw the presence of the Thracians, Greeks, Persians, Celts, Romans, Goths, Alans and Huns. With the downfall of the Second Bulgarian Empire in 1396, its territories came under Ottoman rule for five centuries. The Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78 led to the formation of the Third Bulgarian State, the following years saw several conflicts with its neighbours, which prompted Bulgaria to align with Germany in both world wars. In 1946 it became a one-party socialist state as part of the Soviet-led Eastern Bloc, in December 1989 the ruling Communist Party allowed multi-party elections, which subsequently led to Bulgarias transition into a democracy and a market-based economy. Bulgarias population of 7.2 million people is predominantly urbanised, most commercial and cultural activities are centred on the capital and largest city, Sofia. The strongest sectors of the economy are industry, power engineering. The countrys current political structure dates to the adoption of a constitution in 1991. Bulgaria is a parliamentary republic with a high degree of political, administrative. Human activity in the lands of modern Bulgaria can be traced back to the Paleolithic, animal bones incised with man-made markings from Kozarnika cave are assumed to be the earliest examples of symbolic behaviour in humans. Organised prehistoric societies in Bulgarian lands include the Neolithic Hamangia culture, Vinča culture, the latter is credited with inventing gold working and exploitation. Some of these first gold smelters produced the coins, weapons and jewellery of the Varna Necropolis treasure and this site also offers insights for understanding the social hierarchy of the earliest European societies. Thracians, one of the three primary groups of modern Bulgarians, began appearing in the region during the Iron Age. In the late 6th century BC, the Persians conquered most of present-day Bulgaria, and kept it until 479 BC. After the division of the Roman Empire in the 5th century the area fell under Byzantine control, by this time, Christianity had already spread in the region. A small Gothic community in Nicopolis ad Istrum produced the first Germanic language book in the 4th century, the first Christian monastery in Europe was established around the same time by Saint Athanasius in central Bulgaria. From the 6th century the easternmost South Slavs gradually settled in the region, in 680 Bulgar tribes under the leadership of Asparukh moved south across the Danube and settled in the area between the lower Danube and the Balkan, establishing their capital at Pliska
8.
Marin Drinov
–
Marin Stoyanov Drinov was a Bulgarian historian and philologist from the National Revival period who lived and worked in Russia through most of his life. He was one of the originators of Bulgarian historiography and a member of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. Drinov was born in Panagyurishte in 1838 and he left for Russia in 1858 to continue his education. He studied history and philology in Kiev and at the Moscow State University, travelled and worked in Austria, in 1869, he became one of the co founders and an active member of the Bulgarian Literary Society. Drinov achieved a degree and became a reader of Slavistics at Kharkiv University. During the period of Russian government of Bulgaria Drinov was Minister of Popular Enlightenment, Drinov lived in Kharkiv after 1881, continuing his scientific and educational activities until the end of his life. He died in the town in 1906 after a fight with tuberculosis. Drinov Peak on Smith Island, South Shetland Islands is named after Marin Drinov, Поглед върху произхождението на българския народ и началото на българската история. Исторически преглед на Българската църква от самото ѝ начало и до днес, Виена,1869 Заселение Балканскаго полуострова славянами Южные славяне и Византия в Х веке Дринов, М. Новый церковно-славянский памятник с упоминанием о славянских первоучителях, – Журнал Министерства Народного Просвящения, Ч.238. О некоторых трудах Димитрия Хоматиана, как историческом материале, О некоторых трудах Димитрия Хоматиана, как историческом материале. на Иван Дуйчев, София,1971 Сборниче за юбилея на професора Марин С, Нареди и издаде Българското книжовно дружество в София. С.1900 Изследвания в чест на Марин Стоянов Дринов, gjuzelev, V. Marin Drinov - Begründer der bulgarischen Slawistik und Mediävistik, Palaeobulgarica, XVII, №4, 107-126. An article on Marin Drinov by Nikola Filipov Rulex. ru article on Marin Drinov Chisholm, Hugh, works by or about Marin Drinov in libraries
9.
Yat
–
Yat or jat is the thirty-second letter of the old Cyrillic alphabet, as well as the name of the sound it represented. Its name in Old Church Slavonic is jět’ or iat’, in the common scientific Latin transliteration for old Slavic languages, the letter is represented by e with caron, ě. There is also version of Yat, the iotified Yat, which is a Cyrillic character combining a Decimal I. There was no value for this letter and it was not in the Glagolitic alphabet. It was encoded in Unicode 5.1 at positions U+A652, Yat represented a Common Slavic long vowel. It is generally believed to have represented the sound, which was a reflex of earlier Proto-Slavic */ē/, */oj/ and that the sound represented by yat developed late in the history of Common Slavic is indicated by its role in the Slavic second palatalization of the Slavic velar consonants. Significantly, from the earliest texts, there was confusion between the yat and the Cyrillic iotified a ⟨ꙗ⟩. One explanation is that the dialect of Thessaloniki, and other South Slavic dialects shifted from /ě/ to /ja/ independently from the Northern and Western branches, the confusion was also possibly aggravated by the fact that Cyrillic Little Yus ⟨ѧ⟩ looks very similar to the older Glagolitic alphabets yat ⟨ⱑ⟩. An extremely rare iotated yat form ⟨ꙓ⟩ also exists, in various modern Slavic languages, yat has reflexed into various vowels. For example, the old Slavic root běl became bel /bʲel/ in Standard Russian, bil /bʲil/ in Ukrainian, bjal in Bulgarian, biel / biały in Polish, bílý in Czech and biely in Slovak. Older, unrelated reflexes of yat exist, for example, old word телѣгы became modern Russian телеги, due to these reflexes, yat no longer represented an independent phoneme but an already existing one, represented by another Cyrillic letter. As a result, children had to memorize by rote whether or not to write yat and it has, since 1991, found some favor in advertising. In Bulgarian, the different reflexes of the yat form the so-called yat border, the yat border is the most important Bulgarian isogloss. West of that isogloss, old yat is always realized as /ɛ/, east of it, the reflexes of yat prototypically alternate between /ja/ or /ʲa/ and /ɛ/. After World War II, Literary Bulgarian was based on the pronunciation of the eastern dialects, some examples of the alternation in the standard language follow, mlyako → mlekar, mlechen, etc. syadam → sedalka, sedalishte, etc. svyat → svetoven, svetski, etc. From the liberation of Bulgaria until 1945, the standard Bulgarian orthography did not reflect this alternation and this was regarded as a way to maintain unity between Eastern and Western Bulgarians, as much of what was then seen as Western Bulgarian dialects was under foreign control. In 1947 the letter was removed from the Bulgarian alphabet and the spelling was changed to conform to the Eastern pronunciation, in Russian, written confusion between the yat and е appears in the earliest records, when exactly the distinction finally disappeared in speech is a topic of debate. Some scholars, for example W. K. Matthews, have placed the merger of the two sounds at the earliest historical phases, attributing its use until 1918 to Church Slavonic influence
10.
Yus
–
Little yus and big yus, or jus, are letters of the Cyrillic script representing two Common Slavonic nasal vowels in the early Cyrillic and Glagolitic alphabets. Each can occur in iotified form, formed as ligatures with the decimal i, other yus letters are blended yus, closed little yus and iotified closed little yus. Phonetically, little yus represents a front vowel, possibly, while big yus represents a nasalized back vowel. This is also suggested by the appearance of each as a digraph of Am. The names of the letters do not imply capitalization, as little and big yus exist in majuscule and minuscule variants. All modern Slavic languages that use the Cyrillic alphabet have lost the nasal vowels, big Yus was a part of the Bulgarian alphabet until 1945. However, by time, in the eastern dialects the back nasal was pronounced the same way as ъ. Because the language is based mainly on them, the western pronunciations were deemed unliterary, there are some Bulgarian and Macedonian dialects spoken around Thessaloniki and Kastoria in northern Greece that still preserve a nasal pronunciation. To the younger people this pronunciation was completely alien, they would think that the old ladies were speaking Greek. In Polish, which is a Slavic language written with Latin alphabet, the iotated forms are written ię, ią, ję, ją in Polish. However, the phonemes written ę and ą are not directly descended from those represented by little and big yus, little and big yuses can also be found in the Romanian Cyrillic alphabet, used until about 1860. Little yus was used for /ja/ and big yus for /ɨ/, Я я, Cyrillic letter Ya Ѣ ѣ, Cyrillic letter Yat Ę Ą
)[c]
are used as cursive forms.