Bosnek
Texts
DIALECTAL VARIATION
The complex dialectal variation of Bulgarian is best described within three major categories; the detailed description below follows this outline.
The rubric Phonology describes the sound system of a dialect. Because the current forms ("reflexes") of historical Slavic vowels divide the region so systematically, they are used as cover symbols for current lexical distribution of these sounds.
The rubric Accent notes systematic differences in accent placement from the standard language; these are usually associated with grammatically-defined groups.
The rubric Morphology describes features of nouns, pronouns and verbs that differ from the standard language in particularly noteworthy ways.
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- Southwestern / Sofia
Dialect Group: Southwestern / Sofia
Description of the dialect group:
SOUTHWESTERN: Sofia
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The dialect of Sofia is represented on this site by one village, Bosnek. The author of the first detailed description of the Sofia dialect, Georgi Popivanov, distinguished between the eastern and western Sofia dialects on the basis of the reflex of the back nasal, which is /a/ in the former and /ɤ/ in the latter. Because of the major differences between the two, Stojko Stojkov kept the term “Sofia dialect” only for the western variety and termed the eastern variety “Elin Pelin dialect”. (Prior to 1950, Elin Pelin was named Novoselci.)
Bosnek is an a-dialect, with some competing forms with /ɤ/ as a reflex for the back nasal, and also the back jer; this is likely due to the fact that the informant’s speech shows some influence from the literary standard. This is the only feature that Bosnek shares with the Elin Pelin dialect; all other features found in the texts are typical of the [western] Sofia dialect. We thus choose to classify it broadly as a “Sofia dialect”. We note here, for the interest of the foreign user, that unlike the speech of many other capital cities, the traditional dialect of Sofia is notably separate from the literary standard.
Phonology
• The historical Slavic vowel “jat” always appears as /e/
Examples: bème (B1: 4), golèmata (B1: 10), plèvata (B1: 31)
• The historical sequence “ja” (including the sequence “post-alveolar +a”) is preserved with very few exceptions.
Examples: jazovìro (B1: 14), vejàčka (B1: 21) // edète (B1: 11)
• The historical Slavic “back nasal” appears as /a/.
Examples: stàpime (B2: 7), sɤrbà (B2: 9), izvedà (B2: 40)
• The historical Slavic “back jer” (and also the preserved weak “front jer”) appears as /a/. In prefixes and prepositions, it appears as /o/. Inserted jer also appears as /o/.
Examples: snaà (B1: 47), vàški (B2: 8) // sobèra (B1: 58), sos (B1: 66); svekorò (B1: 44)
• The sequence /mn/ is dissimilated to /bn/.
Example: èbni (B3: 72)
• The consonant /x/ is lost in most positions, but can be preserved word-finally, or replaced by /j/ intervocalically.
Examples: bème (B1: 4), òdi (B1: 36), oddelìa (B1: 7) // rèkox (B1: 103), smèx (B1: 78) // odgrìbaja (B1: 30), tùreja (B1: 72).
• Before a vowel, the sequence /jk/ is replaced by /k’/.
Example: komšik’a (B1: 110).
Accent
• The accent is retracted in many disyllabic feminine and neuter nouns.
Examples: snàa (B1: 47), mèso (B1: 102)
• The accent is advanced to the ending in the plural of some masculine nouns.
Examples: ofčarjè (B1: 87), govedarjè (B1: 87), mažjète (B2: 33)
• The accent advances to the theme vowel in aorist forms and L-participles.
Examples: stanàme (BI: 82), odrasnàme (B1: 34), isselìa (B1: 14) // karàla (B1: 3), zatvorìl (B1: 63)
• The accent is retracted from the theme vowel in the present of many 2d-conjugation verbs.
Examples: pròsti (B1: 16), nakàčime (B1: 25)
• The accent is retracted to the initial syllable in imperative forms.
Examples: lɤ̀ži (B1: 119), òmesi (B3: 59)
Morphology
• The plural ending for masculine nouns is /-je/
Examples: ofčarjè (B1: 87), govedarjè (B1: 87), mažjète (B2: 33)
• The masculine singular definite article is /-o/.
Examples: kumò (B1: 66), jazovìro (B1: 14), prèdnijo (B3: 5)
• The forms of certain personal pronouns are different.
1st singular nominative jàze (B3: 47)
3rd singular masculine nominative òn (B2: 3)
3rd singular feminine nominative onà (B3: 45)
3rd plural nominative onì (B1: 57)
• The ending in all 1st person singular present tense forms is /-m/
Examples: kàžem (B1: 2), sìpem (B1: 12)
• The ending in all 1st person plural present tense forms is /-me/
nakàčime (B1: 25), revème (B2: 28)
• The ending for 3rd person plural present tense is /-a/, or /-a:/
Examples: uprègna (B1: 24), nasàda: (B1: 23)
• The expected softness of stem-final consonant in 2d-conjugation verbs is lacking.
Examples: sɤrbà (B2: 9) // nasàda: (B1: 23)
• All passive participles are formed with the suffix /-n/.
Example: ispìeni (B1: 135)
• Verbal nouns end in /-n’e/
Example: krɤštan’èto (B3: 3)
• The future particle is če.
Example: če sa gòreka (B1: 27)