Bulgarian language

Lexis

Most of the word-stock in Modern Bulgarian consists of derivations of reflexes of some 2,000 words inherited from proto-Slavonic through the mediation of Old and Middle Bulgarian. The influence of the old Bolgar language is otherwise relatively insignificant, and fewer than 200 words of Bulgar origin have survived in Modern Bulgarian. Thus, the native lexical terms in Bulgarian (both from proto-Slavonic and from the Bulgar language) account for 70% to 75% of the word-stock of the language.

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The remaining 25% to 30% are loanwords from a number of languages, as well as derivations of such words. The languages which have contributed most to Bulgarian are Latin and Greek (mostly international terminology), and to a lesser extent French and Russian. The vast majority of the numerous loanwords from Turkish (and, via Turkish, from Arabic and Persian) which were adopted into Bulgarian during the long period of Ottoman rule have been largely substituted with native terms or borrowings from other languages. As in much of the rest of the world, English has had the greatest influence over Bulgarian over recent decades.

Related Topics:
Latin - Greek - French - Russian - Turkish - Arabic - Persian - Ottoman - English

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