| Bulgarian Cyrillic alphabet Българска кирилическа азбука | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Script type | |
Period | 9th century – present |
| Languages | Bulgarian |
| Related scripts | |
Parent systems | Egyptian hieroglyphs[1]
|
| ISO 15924 | |
| ISO 15924 | Cyrl(220), Cyrillic |
| Unicode | |
Unicode alias | Cyrillic |
| subset ofCyrillic (U+0400...U+04FF) | |
| This article containsphonetic transcriptions in theInternational Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, seeHelp:IPA. For the distinction between[ ],/ / and ⟨ ⟩, seeIPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters. | |
TheBulgarian Cyrillic alphabet (Bulgarian:Българска кирилическа азбука) is used to write theBulgarian language.TheCyrillic alphabet was originally developed in theFirst Bulgarian Empire during the 9th – 10th century AD at thePreslav Literary School.[2][3]
It has been used inBulgaria (with modifications and exclusion of certain archaic letters via spelling reforms) continuously since then, superseding the previously usedGlagolitic alphabet, which was also invented and used there before theCyrillic script overtook its use as a written script for theBulgarian language. The Cyrillic alphabet was used in the then much bigger territory ofBulgaria (including most of today's Serbia), North Macedonia, Kosovo, Albania, Northern Greece (Macedonia region),Romania andMoldova, officially from 893. It was also transferred fromBulgaria and adopted by theEast Slavic languages inKievan Rus' and evolved into theBelarusian,Russian andUkrainian alphabets and the alphabets of many other Slavic (and later non-Slavic) languages. Later, some Slavs modified it and added/excluded letters from it to better suit the needs of their own language varieties.
In the 9th century, theBulgarian Empire introduced theGlagolitic alphabet, devised bySaint Cyril andSaint Methodius. The Glagolitic alphabet was gradually superseded in later centuries by theCyrillic script, developed around thePreslav Literary School,Bulgaria at the end of the 9th century.
SeveralCyrillic alphabets with 28 to 44 letters were used in the early and middle 19th century during the efforts[clarification needed] on the codification of Modern Bulgarian until an alphabet with 32 letters, proposed byMarin Drinov, gained prominence in the 1870s: it was used until the orthographic reform of 1945, when the lettersyat (uppercaseѢ, lowercaseѣ) andyus (uppercaseѪ, lowercaseѫ) were removed from its alphabet, reducing the number of letters to 30. Yat was also known as "double e" (двойно е/е-двойно), and yus was also known as "big nasal sign" (голяма носовка), crossedyer (ъ кръстато), and "wideyer" (широко ъ).
Although Bulgarian uses the Cyrillic alphabet, some letter shapes in Bulgaria were made to look more 'Latin' in the 20th century[4] (see the pictures on the right in the article), however they are rarely used today and most typefaces do not support them.[citation needed]
With theaccession of Bulgaria to the European Union on 1 January 2007, theCyrillic script became the third official script of theEuropean Union, following theLatin andGreek scripts.[5]
| А а | Б б | В в | Г г | Д д | Е е | Ж ж | З з | И и | Й й |
| К к | Л л | М м | Н н | О о | П п | Р р | С с | Т т | У у |
| Ф ф | Х х | Ц ц | Ч ч | Ш ш | Щ щ | Ъ ъ | Ь ь | Ю ю | Я я |
The following table gives the letters of the Bulgarian alphabet, along with theIPA values for the sound of each letter. The listed transliteration in the Official transliteration column (known as theStreamlined System) is official in Bulgaria and is listed in the Official orthographic dictionary (2012). For other transliteration standards seeRomanization of Bulgarian.
| Bulgarian alphabet[a] | ISO 9 | Official transliteration | IPA[b] | Name of letter | English equivalent |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| А а (а) | A a | A a | /a/,/ɐ/ or/ə/ | а | a as in "part" |
| Б б | B b | B b | /b/ or/p/ | бъ | b as in "bug" |
| В в (в) | V v | V v | /v/ or/f/ | въ | v as in "vet" |
| Г г (г) | G g | G g | /ɡ/ or/k/ | гъ | g as in "good" |
| Д д (ɡ/д)[c] | D d | D d | /d/ or/t/ | дъ | d as in "dog" |
| Е е | E e | E e | /ɛ/ | е | e as in "best" |
| Ж ж | Ž ž | Zh zh | /ʒ/ or/ʃ/ | жъ | s as in "treasure" |
| З з | Z z | Z z | /z/ or/s/ | зъ | z as in "zoo" |
| И и (и) | I i | I i | /i/ | и | i as in "machine" |
| Й й (й) | J j | Y y | /j/ | и кратко | y as in "yes" or "yoyo" |
| К к | K k | K k | /k/ or/ɡ/ | къ | k as in "kick" |
| Л л (л) | L l | L l | /l/ before е and и,/ʎ/ before ю, я and ь,/ɫ/ elsewhere | лъ | l as in "call" or "lend" |
| М м | M m | M m | /m/ | мъ | m as in "man" |
| Н н | N n | N n | /n/ | нъ | n as in "normal" |
| О о | O o | O o | /ɔ/,/o/ | о | o as in "order" |
| П п (п) | P p | P p | /p/ or/b/ | пъ | p as in "pet" |
| Р р | R r | R r | /r/ | ръ | trilled r as in Spanish "perro" |
| С с | S s | S s | /s/ or/z/ | съ | s as in "sound" |
| Т т (т) | T t | T t | /t/ or/d/ | тъ | t as in "stick" |
| У у | U u | U u | /u/,/o/ or/ʊ/ | у | оо as in "boot" |
| Ф ф | F f | F f | /f/ or/v/ | фъ | f as in "food" |
| Х х | H h | H h | /x/ | хъ | ch as inScottish Englishloch |
| Ц ц (ц) | C c | Ts ts | /t͡s/ | цъ | ts as in "fits" |
| Ч ч | Č č | Ch ch | /t͡ʃ/ | чъ | ch as in "chip" |
| Ш ш (ш) | Š š | Sh sh | /ʃ/ or/ʒ/ | шъ | sh as in "shot" |
| Щ щ (щ) | Št št[d] | Sht sht | /ʃt/ | щъ | sht as in "shtick" |
| Ъ ъ | Ǎ ǎ[d] | A a | /ɤ/,/ɐ/ or/ə/ | ер голям | u as in "turn" |
| Ь ь | ʹ[d] | Y y | /j/ or not pronounced | ер малък | soft sign: y as in "canyon" |
| Ю ю | Ju ju[d] | Yu yu | /ju/,/jo/,/ʲu/ or/ʲo/ | ю | you as in "youth" |
| Я я | Ja ja[d] | Ya ya | /ja/,/jɐ/,/ʲa/ or/ʲɐ/ | я | ya as in "yarn" |
Most letters in the Bulgarian alphabet stand for just one specific sound. Five letters stand for sounds written in English with two or more letters. These letters areч (ch),ш (sh),щ (sht),ю (yu), andя (ya). Two additional sounds are written with two letters: these areдж (/dʒ/) andдз (/dz/). The letterь marks the softening (palatalization) of any consonant (exceptж,ч, andш) before the letterо, whileю andя after consonants mark the palatalization of the preceding consonant in addition to representing the vowels/u/ and/a/.[6]
The names of most letters are simple representations of their phonetic values, with consonants being followed by/ɤ/ – thus the alphabet goes:/a/ –/bɤ/ –/vɤ/, etc. However, the name of the letterЙ is "i-kratko" (short i), the name ofЪ is "er-golyam" (largeyer), and the name ofЬ is "er-malak" (small yer). People often refer toЪ simply as/ɤ/.
TheBulgarian alphabet features:
Thegrave accent is used to distinguish the pronoun⟨ѝ⟩ 'her' from the conjunction⟨и⟩ 'and'.Ѝ is not considered a separate letter but rather a special form ofИ.
Bulgarian is usually described as having aphonemic orthography, meaning that words are spelt the way they are pronounced. This is largely true, but there are exceptions. Three of the most cited examples are:
Since the time of Bulgaria'sliberation in the late 19th century, the Bulgarian language has taken on a large number of words from Western European languages. All of these are transcribed phonetically intoCyrillic, e.g.:
Notable is the transliteration of many English names through German, e.g.:
In the years since the end of communism and the rise of technology, the tendency for borrowing has shifted mainly to English, where much computer-related terminology has entered and beeninflected accordingly – again, in a wholly phonetic way. Examples include:
The computer-related neologisms are often used interchangeably with traditional Bulgarian words, e.g. 'download' and 'upload' can be simplyсвалям andкачвам (svalyam andkachvam – 'to bring down' and 'to put up').
The insertion of English words directly into a Cyrillic Bulgarian sentence, while frowned upon, has been increasingly used in the media. This is done for several reasons, including –
Brand names are also often not transcribed:WikiLeaks,YouTube,Skype – as opposed toУикиликс,Ю-Тюб,Скайп. However, this is not always the case, as in the headline "Фейсбук vs. Гугъл"[9] (official transliteration:Feysbuk vs. Gugal). Note the inconsistency here – despite the insistence on Cyrillic, the "vs." has been retained in Roman script.
The 2012Official Orthographic Dictionary of the Bulgarian Language by theBulgarian Academy of Sciences permits widely known proper names to remain in their original alphabet. Example sentences are given, all containing names of American IT companies:Yahoo,Microsoft,YouTube,PayPal,Facebook.
The standard Bulgariankeyboard layout for personal computers is as follows:
| South Slavic languages and dialects | ||||||
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Western South Slavic
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Transitional dialects
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Definitions from Wiktionary
Media from Commons
News from Wikinews
Quotations from Wikiquote
Texts from Wikisource
Textbooks from Wikibooks
Resources from Wikiversity
Phrasebook from Wikivoyage
Bulgarian edition of WikipediaItalics indicate that the language no longer uses Cyrillic | |||||||||||||||||
| Cyrillic alphabets |
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| Cyrillization of | |||||||||||||||||
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Authority control databases: National |
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