Translation:Thoughts about the Bulgarian language

by Parteniy Zografski

Thoughts about the Bulgarian language^[1][2]

Мисли за болгарскиот язик - Партения Зографски - 1858

We have already said this before, and we are saying it again, in order to create one common standard language first we need to study and publicize all local dialects and idioms of our language, so we can build our common language on top of all of them. Until this is done, no one can, and does not have right to determine and create a common standard (literary) language based on just one dialect, whatever that one dialect may be. Any such determination and creation, if it is not all inclusive, will be vain and fruitless.

Our language, as it is well known, is divided into two main dialects, of which one is spoken in Bulgaria and Thrace, and the other one in Macedonia. The first one is quite well known; since all that is written in our language up to now, was written in it, and in the other one not even a single bit, owing to the fact that the revival of our literacy started from the top down^[3] This is the reason that not very many foreign linguists, but not very many of our linguists for whom the Macedonian dialect is not native as well, know it and have a defined opinion about it. To promote to the world the Macedonian dialect with all its general and local idioms, as much as we can, we intend to create a Grammar for it, in parallel with the other one; but since that intention may be delayed for a while, now we are describing here in short its main characteristics compared to the other dialect.

Not only that the Macedonian dialect should not and cannot be excluded from the common standard language, but it would have been good if it was accepted as its main constituent; since it sounds fuller, smoother and stronger, and in many respects it is more complete and rich. The representatives of that dialect are the southwestern areas in Macedonia.

The first and biggest difference between the two dialects is, in our opinion, is the difference in pronunciation or the stress. The Macedonian dialect usually prefers to place the stress in the beginning of the words, and the other one in the end, so in the first dialect^[4] you can’t find a word with a stress on the last syllable, while in the latter^[5] in most cases the stress is on the last syllable. Here Macedonian dialect is approaching the Serbian dialect. In addition to this in the Macedonian dialect we find the following characteristics:

1) It doesn’t tolerate the following voiced letters Ж and Ш in front of Д and Т, and in that case they are either softened or they keep their hard pronunciation.

2) The letter A has always a full and clear pronunciation, and not, as in the other dialect, a silenced and half-sounded one.

3) E and O do not change their pronunciation ever, unlike in the other dialect they do, the first to И and the second to У.

4) Ъ and Ь have kept its half-sounded pronunciation much like in the other dialect, and in one sub-dialect they have turned into a full-sounded O, like: Корст, Цорков, Ворв, полн, Ворт, Торга etc, instead of: Кьрст, Цьрков, Вьрт etc.

5) Ҍ is pronounced as E, always, without any exceptions, and it never sounds as Ѧ, as it does in the other dialect. It if wasn’t for this difference in the pronunciation, this letter could have quite easily be omitted from the New-Bulgarian alphabet. For the time being we put this aside, until we study it better and determine its destiny.

6) Х is either fully omitted like in: ода, убаво, оро, арно, пишеа or одеа, стоеа and so on, instead of: хода, хубаво, ходеха, стоеха and alike, or it is pronounced as ф: пишеф, читав, праф, фала, фрла instead of пишех, прах, хвала and so on, or finally as в: уво, бьлва and so on, instead of: ухо, бьлха. The rules about this will be described in the Grammar.

7) The articles defining a locality ов and он, that we have written about earlier in detail, and we will continue to write so we can roll back (negate) some inaccurate opinions that exist about them.

8) The cases in personal names are better preserved in the Macedonian dialect, compared to the other one, as we will see in the Grammar.

9) The neuter nouns ending in ле and ре and all possessive nouns in plural end on иња, and not ета, like: поле полиња, море мориња, момче момчиња, книже книжиња.

10) The third person singular keeps the old suffix т.

11) The third person plural in the same vein has a different suffix, but it is not a proper place to describe the details of it now.

12) The Macedonian dialect has verbal adverbs.

13) The “horned” letter Ѫ in the Macedonian dialect is pronounces as a clear A, and in some places as O, for example: рака, мака, лажа, каде, маж and so on, or рока, мока, пот, ложа and so on, instead of рѪка, мѪка, пѪт etc. Only in one sub-dialect it is preserved, and only in the above mentioned cases where it is a root letter. This letter is not preserved in the other dialect as well, except in the above mentioned cases, and in these words where it is in the middle. So, if we hold the principle to write according to the current pronunciation, as we should, if we don’t want to fall into contradictions and make the spelling unnecessarily difficult, without any benefit from it, the letter Ѫ shouldn’t be used, except in the above mentioned cases.

(Then follows a long paragraph discussing the etymological use of the letter Ѫ to signify the old cases that are not present in the vernacular, and the conclusion is that): At the end which one of the two letters we should use A or Ѫ? Obviously it is A, since you can't expect that the entire nation will change the way they speak and twists their tongues to a half sounded pronunciation where they are used to pronounce it fully and freely.

Whatever we said about Ѫ applies for ЪІ too. This letter has a completely equal pronunciation with И, and it doesn't differ from it one single bit, so according to our opinion it can be rejected from the Neo-Bulgarian literacy as a completely unnecessary member. In that case the etymology will not suffer, since it is based on the current pronunciation. The ones who claim that if we eliminate ЪІ and other similar letters, a large un-comfort will be created in the pronunciation; have not provided an argument for it. If they do, we are prepared to reconsider this opinion.

After this short argument, we provide few folk songs in the Macedonian dialect that are interesting in many ways:

1.

СЬлнцето ми е на заод.

Самовила е зад гора.

Миче војвода пред неја.

Брза е коња водеше,

Црвен е бајрак носеше,

Мирче војвода говорит:

Самовило ле мајко ле,

Доста ти кона поводиф;

доста ти бајрак поносиф.

А Самовила говорит:

Поводи Мирче поводи,

И црвен бајрак поноси

До зеленине ливаде,

до студенине кладенци.

Тамо се женит Јанкула.

Девет си сестри канило,

Десета сестра не кани,

Десета сестра коприна.

Коприна во двор седеше,

Друмка си керка чешлаше,

Грумко ле керко, Грумко ле,

Кога ќа одиш у вујка,

У вујка керко на свадба,

Да в фатиш оро наокол;

Да и пуштиш саја[2] до земи,

Да и кренеш[3] превез от очи,

Да и догледат вујко ти,

Вујко ти керко Јанкула:

От е вујко ти неверен,

Неверн керко без вера;

А и ми ти кренет срамота.

Грумка отиде на свадба,

Грумка си мајка не почу,

Си фати оро наокол,

Си пушти саја до земи,

Си крена превез от очи.

Ми ја догледа вујко е,

Вујко е лето говорит:

Сватови бели сватови,

Не приполивте пушките;

Не презобавте коните;

Невеста ни е во дворе.

Грумка си вујка дочула

И љуто ми проколнала,

Оф леле Боже милечек.

Зароси роса крвава,

И погорешти камење,

Потапчите го вујка ми,

вујка ми Боже Јанкула.

Како ми Грумка прок’лна

Пуста се клетва фатила,

Зароси роса крвава,

И погорешти камење,

И потолкое вујка е.

2.

Што е врева во поројна црков,

Али грмит ил се земја тресет?

Ни ми грмит ни се земја тресет

Се венчават Милош со невеста.

Е постиснал прсти со прстени

Таја му се нему милно молит,

А Милоше мое мило добро

Не стискај ми прсти со прстени.

3.

Похвалил се богатијот

Ја су богат и пребогат,

Тук се нашат и понашат

Како риба во глобина.

Како орел во вишина

Како овца с руго јагне,

Како лоза с бело грозе

Notes

1. Historically, the term Bolgàrski ("Bulgarian") had been used by this author.
2. Partenij Zografski, Thoughts about the Bulgarian language. Translated by Nikola Jordanovski in Late Enlightenment: Emergence of modern national ides, Texts and Commentaries, Balázs Trencsényi et al. as ed., ISBN 9637326510, Central European University Press, 2006, ISBN 9637326529, pp. 253-257.
3. Meaning from north to the south, from Bulgaria to the north toward Macedonia and Thrace to the south.
4. Macedonian
5. Bulgarian