Transitional Bulgarian dialects
Image:Bulgarian dialects by Todor Bozhinov.png|right|thumb|300px|Map of the Bulgarian dialects within Bulgaria
The Transitional Bulgarian dialects are a group of Bulgarian dialects, whose speakers are located west of the yat boundary and are part of the Bulgarian dialects">Bulgarian language">Bulgarian dialects. As they have most of the typical characteristics of the North-Western Bulgarian dialects, they are sometimes classified as belonging to this subgroup under the name of Extreme North-Western dialects. On Bulgarian territory, the Transitional dialects occupy a narrow strip of land along the Bulgarian border with Serbia, including the regions of Tran, Breznik, Godech, Chiprovtsi and Belogradchik. They also cross the border to include the dialects or subdialects of the Bulgarian minority in the Western Outlands. The Transitional dialects are part of the Torlak dialectal group also spoken in southeastern Serbia and North Macedonia and are part of the gradual transition from Bulgarian to Serbian. The Bulgarian Transitional dialects and the Serbian Prizren-Timok dialects are loosely characterised by mixed, predominantly Serbian phonology and predominantly Bulgarian morphology. The features described here are characteristic only of the Transitional dialects within Bulgaria.
Phonological characteristics
- Old Bulgarian ѣ is always pronounced as ' vs. standard Bulgarian я/е – бел/бели
- ч/дж for Proto-Slavic - леча, меджу. Partial manifestation of reflex ' for Proto-Slavic in words like чужд. The future tense particle is чеу for Old Bulgarian ѫ : мука vs. Standard Bulgarian мъка for Old Bulgarian ь and ъ in all positions: сън
- Complete loss of consonant х in all positions : мъ vs. Standard Bulgarian мъх
- Preservation of final l : бил
- Articulation of voiced consonants at the end of the word in some areas/subdialects and devoicing in others
- Lack of phonemic pitch
- Lack of phonemic length
- Frequent stress on the final syllable in polysyllabic words : жен'а
- Complete loss of consonant f. It does not exist even in new words where it is usually replaced by v: венер vs. Standard Bulgarian ''фенер''
Grammatical and morphological characteristics
- Definiteness realized with post-positive articles. The definite articles are usually -ът, -та, -то, -те as in standard Bulgarian
- Breakup of the Old Bulgarian case system. Apart from nominal forms, there is an agglomerative form only for masculine animate names and feminine names
- Loss of the infinitive
- Full retention of the aorist and the imperfect
- Doubling of objects with an additional object pronoun
- Ending -e for plural of feminine nouns and adjectives : жене
- The plural endings of adjectives vary from three, to two and one, depending on dialect/subdialect
- Ending -мо for 1st person pl. present time : носимо
- Ending -ше for 3rd person pl. past tense : плетоше equal to Serbian imperfect tense, vs. standard Bulgarian плетоха