Paulician dialect
Encyclopedia
The Paulician dialect is a Bulgarian
dialect of the Rhodopean group of the Rup dialects
. The Paulician dialect is spoken by some 40,000 people, nearly all of them Catholic Bulgarians
, in the region of Rakovski
in southern Bulgaria and Svishtov
in northern Bulgaria
. The language of the Banat Bulgarians
, late 17th century Bulgarian Catholic migrants to Banat
, is phonologically and morphologically identical to the Paulician dialect (Banat Bulgarian language). However, as a result of its three-century separation from Standart Bulgarian and its close interaction with German
and Hungarian
, Banat Bulgarian
has adopted a number of loanwords not present in Standard Bulgarian and a Croatian-based Latin alphabet and is therefore now considered to be one of the three literary forms of Modern Bulgarian. The Paulician dialect is almost entirely surrounded by the Central Balkan dialect
. It keeps many archaic characteristics and thus represents an older stage of development of the Rhodopean dialects.
For other phonological and morphological characteristics typical for all Rup or Rhodopean dialects, cf. Rup dialects
.
Edouard Selian: Le dialect Paulicien, In: The Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Armenian Linguistics, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, 1995. Publisher: Caravan books, Delmar, New York, 1996, 408 pp.
Bulgarian language
Bulgarian is an Indo-European language, a member of the Slavic linguistic group.Bulgarian, along with the closely related Macedonian language, demonstrates several linguistic characteristics that set it apart from all other Slavic languages such as the elimination of case declension, the...
dialect of the Rhodopean group of the Rup dialects
Rup dialects
The Rup dialects, or the Southeastern dialects, are a group of Bulgarian dialects located east of the yat boundary, thus being part of the Eastern Bulgarian dialects. The range of the Rup dialects includes the southern part of Thrace, i.e. Strandzha, the region of Haskovo, the Rhodopes and the...
. The Paulician dialect is spoken by some 40,000 people, nearly all of them Catholic Bulgarians
Roman Catholicism in Bulgaria
Roman Catholicism is the third largest religious congregation in Bulgaria, after Eastern Orthodoxy and Islam. It has roots in the country since the Middle Ages and is part of the worldwide Roman Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope and curia in Rome.As an entity, the Catholic...
, in the region of Rakovski
Rakovski (town)
Rakovski is a town in southern Bulgaria, in the historical region of Thrace. It is located in the Plovdiv Province. The town is also the centre of the Rakovski Municipality. Rakovski was founded in 1966 with the merging of three villages — General Nikolaevo, Sekirovo and Parchevich...
in southern Bulgaria and Svishtov
Svishtov
Svishtov is a town in northern Bulgaria, located in Veliko Tarnovo Province on the right bank of the Danube river opposite the Romanian town of Zimnicea. It is the administrative centre of the homonymous Svishtov Municipality...
in northern Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
. The language of the Banat Bulgarians
Banat Bulgarians
The Banat Bulgarians are a distinct Bulgarian minority group which settled in the 18th century in the region of the Banat, which was then ruled by the Habsburgs and after World War I was divided between Romania, Serbia, and Hungary...
, late 17th century Bulgarian Catholic migrants to Banat
Banat
The Banat is a geographical and historical region in Central Europe currently divided between three countries: the eastern part lies in western Romania , the western part in northeastern Serbia , and a small...
, is phonologically and morphologically identical to the Paulician dialect (Banat Bulgarian language). However, as a result of its three-century separation from Standart Bulgarian and its close interaction with German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
and Hungarian
Hungarian language
Hungarian is a Uralic language, part of the Ugric group. With some 14 million speakers, it is one of the most widely spoken non-Indo-European languages in Europe....
, Banat Bulgarian
Banat Bulgarian
Banat Bulgarian may refer to:*Banat Bulgarian dialect*Banat Bulgarians...
has adopted a number of loanwords not present in Standard Bulgarian and a Croatian-based Latin alphabet and is therefore now considered to be one of the three literary forms of Modern Bulgarian. The Paulician dialect is almost entirely surrounded by the Central Balkan dialect
Central Balkan dialect
The Central Balkan dialect is a Bulgarian dialect, which is part of the Balkan group of the Eastern Bulgarian dialects. Its range includes most of north-central Bulgaria , as well as the regions of Karlovo, Kazanlak and Plovdiv in southern Bulgaria, all the way down to the northernmost ridges of...
. It keeps many archaic characteristics and thus represents an older stage of development of the Rhodopean dialects.
Phonological and morphological characteristics
- Broad e (æ) for Old Church Slavonic yatYatYat or Jat is the thirty-second letter of the old Cyrillic alphabet. Its name in Old Church Slavonic is jěd’ or iad’ . In the common scientific Latin transliteration for old Slavic languages, the letter is represented by e with caron: .The yat represented a Common Slavic long vowel...
in all positions and irrespective of the character of the following syllable : бæл/бæли vs. formal Bulgarian бял/бели (white). However, the broad e has started giving way to ɛ, as in the formal language - Merger of Old Church Slavonic big yus , little yus , ь and ъ into ъ (ə) in a stressed syllable and into a slightly reduced a in an unstressed syllable: къшта (as in formal Bulgarian – house), vs. formal Bulgarian клетва (oath), vs. formal Bulgarian гледам (I look)
- Reduction of stressed broad vowels /ɛ/ and /ɔ/ into their narrow counterparts /i/ and /u/, i.e. a development which is exactly opposite to the vowel reduction in the Balkan dialectsBalkan dialectsThe Balkan dialects are the most extensive group of dialects of the Bulgarian language, covering almost half of the present-day territory of Bulgaria and slightly less than a third of the territory on the Balkans where Bulgarian is spoken. Their range includes north-central Bulgaria and most of the...
: тибе vs. Standard Bulgarian тебе (you), жина vs. Standard Bulgarian жена (woman) - Traces of Old Bulgarian ы (ɨ): сын vs. formal Bulgarian син (blue). An archaic trait, as (ɨ) is considered to be the original pronunciation of Old Church Slavonic ы
- Individual cases of transition of stressed i or (ɨ) into (ɨ) or ə: объчай vs. Standard Bulgarian обичай (custom)[cf. Russian обычай, Polish obyczaj]
- Transition of unstressed i into ə: шъроко vs. Standard Bulgarian широко (wide)
- More consonant depalatalizations than in the rest of the Rup dialects and even Standard Bulgarian: молъ vs. Standard Bulgarian (I ask)
- Transition of х (x) before a consonant and at the end of the word into the semivowel й (j): тейно vs. Standard Bulgarian техно (theirs)
- Single definite article: -ът, -та, -то, -те
For other phonological and morphological characteristics typical for all Rup or Rhodopean dialects, cf. Rup dialects
Rup dialects
The Rup dialects, or the Southeastern dialects, are a group of Bulgarian dialects located east of the yat boundary, thus being part of the Eastern Bulgarian dialects. The range of the Rup dialects includes the southern part of Thrace, i.e. Strandzha, the region of Haskovo, the Rhodopes and the...
.
Sources
Стойков, Стойко: Българска диалектология, Акад. изд. "Проф. Марин Дринов", 2006 http://www.promacedonia.org/jchorb/st/st_2_b_izt_3.htm#pavlikjanskiEdouard Selian: Le dialect Paulicien, In: The Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Armenian Linguistics, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, 1995. Publisher: Caravan books, Delmar, New York, 1996, 408 pp.