Bulgarian Letter Д: How to Say Д and Read Its Two Shapes
The Bulgarian letter Д is the fifth letter of the alphabet and a consonant pronounced [d], like the ‘d’ in ‘dog’, with the tongue against the teeth. Its name is дъ (duh). At the end of a word it sounds like [t]. It is transliterated as d, and дж as dzh.
The Bulgarian letter Д is a ‘d’. The sound is familiar, but the letter has two very different faces. In print the capital looks like a little house on stilts or a triangle with feet. In Bulgarian typefaces and handwriting the lowercase often looks like a Latin ‘g’.
How to pronounce the Bulgarian letter Д
Bulgarian Д is dental: the tip of the tongue touches the back of the upper teeth, slightly further forward than English ‘d’. The difference is small, and you will be understood either way. It is not aspirated or softened before Е and И.
| Word | Transliteration | Meaning | Hear |
|---|---|---|---|
| дете | dete | child | |
| ден | den | day | |
| добър | dobar | good | |
| дъжд | dazhd | rain (said ‘dusht’) | |
| джоб | dzhob | pocket (said ‘jop’) |
Final devoicing: Д becomes Т
At the end of a word Д is pronounced [t]. So град (grad, city) sounds like ‘grat’. In дъжд (dazhd, rain), both final letters devoice, and the word is said ‘dusht’. According to the phonology overview, the voiced sound can survive when the next word begins with a voiced consonant, but in isolation you will hear a ‘t’.
Д also goes silent in a few clusters. In здн the Д is usually dropped, so бездна (bezdna, abyss) is said ‘bezna’.
Дж and дз: two sounds, two letters
Bulgarian has no single letter for the ‘j’ in ‘jam’. It writes Д plus Ж: дж. You find it mostly in loanwords from Turkish and English, such as джоб (dzhob, pocket) and джинси (dzhinsi, jeans). The rarer ‘dz’ sound is written дз.
The Transliteration Act lists both as fixed combinations: дж becomes dzh and дз becomes dz. So a name like Джамбазов is written Dzhambazov, not Jambazov. Our name in Bulgarian page shows the reverse case, writing English ‘j’ as дж.
The g-shaped lowercase д
In Russian print, lowercase д is a small copy of the capital with feet below the line. Bulgarian typefaces often use a round form that, as type.today notes, echoes one variant of the Latin ‘g’. It looks like д. Handwriting across the Cyrillic world uses a similar g-like д, so learners who write by hand need to read it either way. See Bulgarian cursive for examples.
If you see a ‘g’ in the middle of a Bulgarian word on a café sign, it is almost certainly Д in Bulgarian letterforms.
Д on the map
Place names give good practice. The river Дунав (Dunav, Danube) forms most of Bulgaria’s northern border. Видин (Vidin) and Добрич (Dobrich) are both read with a plain ‘d’. Note the final Д in Благоевград (Blagoevgrad) or any name ending in –град, the common Slavic word for ‘town’: the spelling ends in d, the sound ends in ‘t’.
Spelling contrast with Russian
Bulgarian dropped the Д in some words where Russian keeps it. Russian ‘праздник‘ (holiday) is Bulgarian празник (praznik), with no Д. Copying the Russian spelling is a common error among Russian speakers.
Д is a frequent letter, ranked 11th of 30 at about 3.2% in a corpus count by Sttmedia. The preposition до (do, to, until) and the particle да (da, yes; to) keep it busy.
Common mistakes with the Bulgarian letter Д
- Failing to recognize the g-shaped lowercase д in Bulgarian fonts.
- Saying a voiced ‘d’ at the end of град or дъжд. Use ‘t’.
- Reading дж as two sounds. It is one ‘j’ sound, as in ‘jam’.
- Writing ‘j’ when transliterating дж. The official form is dzh.
Before Д comes Г; after it comes Е.
Frequently asked questions
How do you pronounce the Bulgarian letter Д?
Like English ‘d’, with the tongue touching the upper teeth. At the end of a word it sounds like ‘t’.
Why does the Bulgarian д look like a g?
Bulgarian typefaces and handwriting use a rounded lowercase д that resembles a Latin ‘g’. Russian print uses a small version of the capital.
How do you write the English ‘j’ sound in Bulgarian?
With two letters, дж, as in джинси (jeans). It is transliterated dzh.
Is дъжд pronounced ‘dazhd’?
No. Both final consonants devoice, so it is said ‘dusht’.
What is the name of the letter Д?
It is called дъ, pronounced ‘duh’.
Sources
- Bulgarian alphabet (Wikipedia)
- Bulgarian phonology (Wikipedia)
- Transliteration Act, SG No. 19/2009 (Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works)
- Bulgarian Cyrillic letterforms (type.today)
- Bulgarian letter frequency (Sttmedia corpus count)