Razlog dialect


The Razlog dialect is a Bulgarian dialect, member of the Rup dialects. Its range includes the valley of Razlog in southwestern Bulgaria and its immediate neighbours are the Rup Serres-Nevrokop dialect to the south, the Babyak dialect to the east, the Samokov and Ihtiman dialects to the north and the Blagoevgrad-Petrich dialect to the west. It shares a number of phonological characteristics with both the Rup and the Southwestern dialects. This is the dialect through which the Bulgarian language became known to modern science, because in 1822 the creator of the modern Serbian language Vuk Karadžić published in Vienna Dodatak k sankpeterburgskim sravnitelnim rijechnicima sviju jezika i narijechija s osobitom ogledom Bugarskog jezika;, in which are placed 273 words, a short grammar, 27 folk songs and 2 chapters of the gospel, which he wrote and said to him pravi bugarin iz Razloga;.

Phonological and morphological characteristics

  • Broad e for Old Bulgarian yat in a stressed syllable and ordinary e in an unstressed syllable : бл/бли vs. formal Bulgarian бял/бели but деца as in Standard Bulgarian.
  • Broad e for Old Bulgarian я in all positions : вун vs. formal Bulgarian воня
  • Vowel a for Old Bulgarian big yus ѫ and back yer ъ : зап vs. Standard Bulgarian зъп, даж'до vs. Standard Bulgarian дъж'дът
  • Schwa for Old Church Slavonic лъ/ль : съза vs. formal Bulgarian сълза
  • Moderate vowel reduction, as in the rest of the Rup dialects and Standard Bulgarian
  • The masculine definite article is о and у as in the Moesian dialects, compared to formal Bulgarian –ът/ъ. However, after a historically soft consonant, the article is e : дене vs. formal Bulgarian ден'ъ, коне vs. formal Bulgarian кон'ъ. The masculine definite article for adjectives is -йъ as in Standard Bulgarian: гулмийъ
  • Dynamic stress : маж/ма'же vs. formal Bulgarian мъж/мъ'жъ
  • Lack of ending -т in the forms for 3rd person pl. present tense: яда vs. formal Bulgarian ядът
For other phonological and morphological characteristics typical for all Rup or Rhodopean dialects, cf. Rup dialects.

Noteworthy

  • The first grammatical treatise of Modern Bulgarian published by Serbian scholar Vuk Karadzic in 1822 is based on the grammatical and morphological characteristics of the Razlog dialect
  • The first full grammar of Modern Bulgarian published by Bulgarian scholar Neofit Rilski in 1835 is also based on the grammatical and morphological characteristics of the Razlog dialect