THE BULGARIAN ALPHABET

In Bulgarian, we use theCyrillic alphabet. The same alphabet (with some modifications) is used in other languages -Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Serbian, Macedonian and some Central AsianAltaic languages.

Every Bulgarian letter has an English equivalent sound (or combination of sounds) close enough to give you a clue toits pronunciation. In the firstfewlessons,every Bulgarian word will be followed by phonetic transcription of its pronunciation in Latin letters and symbols from the International Phonetic Alphabet please refer to the column Symbol.

Letter

Note

English equivalent

Sound Value

Symbol

Bulgarian word

Pronunciation

Englishtranslation

when stressed

a

army

a

`azbuk

alphabet

when unstressed

u

gun

`azbuk

alphabet

b

bath

b

brat

brother

v

very

v

vo`da

water

g

gun

g

`gar

railwaystation

d

dog

d

den

day

e

send

e

`esen

autumn

s

pleasure

zh

zhi`vot

life

z

zoo

z

ze`mya

earth

i

bit

i

`istin

truth

y

youth

y

`mayk

mother

k

kitchen

k

`kotk

cat

l

luck

l

lof

hunting

l

leaf

l

`lyato

summer

m

meet

m

mo`re

sea

n

not

n

ne`be

sky

o

hot

o

ok`o

eye

p

pot

p

pt

road

r

robot

r

`rib

fish

s

sun

s

`slntze

sun

t

tall

t

`tatko

daddy

oo

room

u

`umen

smart

f

fish

f

`form

shape

h

hat

h

`hor

people

tz

quartz

tz

tzar

tzar

ch

church

ch

cho`vek

man, person

sh

fish

sh

`shapk

hat

sht

smashed

sht

`shtastie

happiness

when stressed

u

ugly

`gl

corner

when unstressed

u

but

`gl

corner

y

youth

y

sho`fyor

driver, chauffeur

you

you

yu

`yuni

June

ya

yarn

ya

`yablk

apple

VOWELS

There are 6 vowels in Bulgarian -, , , , ,

When a vowel is stressed it is pronounced clearly.

When unstressed, some vowels are reduced, becoming shorter and less distinct.

Even though there is no Roman letter for it, the vowelexists in many English words. When stressed, it is pronounced likeuinugly [`gli] orup [p].

When unstressed bothaandare pronounced the same way somewhere betweenaand-likeainaway [`way], or cinema[`sinim].

When unstressed bothoandare slightly reduced and pronounced somewhere betweenandy.

The vowelseanddont change their pronunciation when not stressed*.

*Some regional pronunciations tend to turn unstressedeinto.

CONSONANTS

There are 3 types of consonants in Bulgarian -voiced(), voiceless()and sonorous().

voiced

voiceless

sonorous

Note that the Bulgarian alphabet has letters for sounds which the Roman scripts represent with combination of letters:

tz

ch

sh

sht

Some consonants change their pronunciation depending on their position in a word. These changes occur naturally in order to facilitate the pronunciation.

VOICED CONSONANTS -

Every voiced consonant has a corresponding voiceless one.

voicedconsonant

correspondingvoiceless consonant

When at the end of a word (e.g.- bread), a voiced consonant is reduced to its corresponding voiceless one -[hlyap]. So,becomes.

Whenplaced immediatelybeforeanyvoiceless consonant(e.g. -general),avoiced consonantispronouncedlikeitscorrespondingvoiceless one- [opsht].is a voiceless consonant, causing the voiced consonantto become the voiceless.

Here are some more examples with the rest of the voiced consonants.

- (pencil) [`molif], (everybody) -e [`fseki]

- (instant, moment) -[mik]

- (income) -[`prihot], (boat) -o [`lotk]

- (rainfall) -[v`lesh], (note) - (be`leshk]

-(expresion) -[`izrs], (education) - [vspi`tanie]

VOICELESS CONSONANTS -

Most voiceless consonants have a corresponding voiced ones. Those which dont have a corresponding voiced consonant dont change their pronunciation.

voicelessconsonant

correspondingvoiced consonant

-

-

-

-

When before a voiced consonant(e.g.-building),avoiceless consonant is pronouncedlike itscorresponding voiced one - [`zgrad].is a voiced consonant, causingto become.

More examples:

-- (wedding) - [`svadb]

SONOROUS CONSONANTS -

An easy way to remember the sonorous consonants in Bulgarian is the word [lm`rin] laminated iron, which contains them all, apart fromand.

Theonly sonorousconsonantthat changes its pronunciation depending on its position is.

When beforee, , andit is pronounced softly like in leaf (pronounced by touching the tongue to the palate).

When beforea, , , and aconsonantas well asat the end of the word like in last (pronounced by touching the tongue to the teeth).

The letter ( i short) is a consonant, unlike the vowel.

can stand only beforeo(including at the beginning of the word) or after a vowel (including at the end of the word) [r`yon] -district, region, [`mayk] -mother, [`puyk] -turkey, [voy`nik] -soldier, ([ge`roy] hero, etc.

Its pronunciation is not like the one of the vowel , but shorter.

For example in ,is pronounced asiin pilot; in [`peika] bench,is pronounced asain paper; in [moy] my, mine,is pronounced asoiin boil.

The letter( )doesnt have its own sound. Its purpose is to make a consonant sound softer. It is used only in combination witho (yo)

The combinationhas the same pronunciation as(yo).

The difference -is only used after a consonant [sho`fyor] driver, [`Kolyo] -male name, whileis used in the beginning of the word and after a vowel - [Yor`dan] male name, [ma`yor] -major.

The combination exists in Bulgarian (mostly in words of French origin) and is pronounced like two separate vowels for example [ka-mi-`on] 3 syllables truck.

COMPOUNDSOUNDS

The lettersandrepresent compoundsounds. They are both combination of a consonant and a vowel.

=+(yu)

=+(ya or y) or+(y or y)

TheBulgarian alphabet doesnt have a letter representing thesound j (asinJohn). It is spelled -.

THE STRESS-

The stress is very important for the pronunciation, as well as for the meaning of the word.

The bad news is that there is no rule for the position of the stress in Bulgarian. Every word should be memorized separately.

In this tutorial the transliterations of the Bulgarian words, used as examples, are given amarkindicatingthe position of the stress i.e. an accent mark preceding the stressed syllable example the word book [`knig] the position of the accent indicates that the stress falls over the first syllable kni.

In some words the stress can change its position when changing the form from singular to plural orwhen addingadefinite article.

e [`neshto] a thing vs. a [ne`shta] -things

e [`pesen] -a song vs. a [pesen`ta] -thesong

There are words which change their meaning depending on the stress.These are the only words in Bulgarian which have written stress!

For example:

[`vln] wool vs. [vl`n] -wave

[`zavet] lee, shelter vs. [z`vt] -legacy

[`roden] native vs. [ro`dn] born