Bulgarian Language: Speakers, Grammar and Alphabet
| Bulgarian language | Key fact |
|---|---|
| Native name | български език (balgarski ezik) |
| Family | South Slavic |
| Mother tongue in Bulgaria | 5,037,607 people (Census 2021) |
| EU official language | Since 1 January 2007 |
| Alphabet | Cyrillic, 30 letters |
The Bulgarian language is a South Slavic language and the official language of Bulgaria, spoken as a mother tongue by 5,037,607 people in the 2021 census. It has been an official EU language since 2007. Bulgarian uses a 30-letter Cyrillic alphabet, has almost no noun cases and adds the definite article to the end of words.
What is the Bulgarian language?
The Bulgarian language is a South Slavic language, the official language of Bulgaria and one of the 24 official languages of the European Union. It is written in the Cyrillic alphabet, which took shape in the First Bulgarian Empire in the 9th and 10th centuries. In Bulgarian, the language is called български език (balgarski ezik).
Bulgarian is closely related to Macedonian, and more distantly to Serbian, Croatian, Slovenian and the East and West Slavic languages. It is also unusual among Slavic languages, because it lost most of its noun cases and gained a definite article. Linguists see these changes as part of the wider Balkan language area it shares with Greek, Albanian and Romanian.
How many people speak Bulgarian?
Bulgaria’s 2021 census counted 6,519,789 residents. Of the people who answered the mother-tongue question, 5,037,607, or 85.3%, named Bulgarian (NSI, Census 2021). Turkish (8.7%) and Romani (3.9%) are the next largest mother tongues in the country.
Outside Bulgaria, there are long-standing Bulgarian-speaking communities in Moldova, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Greece and Turkey, as well as large emigrant communities in Western Europe and North America. International estimates of total speakers vary by method; reference works generally put native speakers between about 6 and 8 million.
| Fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Family | Indo-European, Slavic, South Slavic (eastern group) |
| Official in | Bulgaria; European Union (since 2007) |
| Script | Cyrillic, 30 letters |
| Language codes | ISO 639-1 bg, ISO 639-2/3 bul |
| Regulated by | Institute for Bulgarian Language, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences |
The Bulgarian language in the EU
Bulgaria joined the European Union on 1 January 2007, and Bulgarian became an official EU language on the same date. The EU’s own overview lists it among the 24 official languages (European Union, Languages). With it, Cyrillic became the third alphabet used in official EU texts, alongside Latin and Greek. EU legislation, the Official Journal and many institution websites are published in Bulgarian. The Cyrillic alphabet page explains how the script spread.
Bulgarian grammar in brief
Bulgarian grammar surprises learners who know Russian or Polish. Several features set it apart.
No noun cases
Nouns do not change endings for subject, object and so on. Bulgarian uses word order and prepositions instead: на масата (na masata), “on the table.” Britannica describes the near-total loss of noun declension as one of the language’s defining traits (Britannica). Pronouns still keep case forms: аз (I), мене or ме (me).
A definite article on the end
“The” is a suffix attached to the noun or its first adjective. маса (masa) is “a table,” масата (masata) is “the table.” град (grad) is “a town,” and “the town” is градът (gradat) as a subject or града (grada) otherwise. This full/short article rule for masculine nouns is a classic school topic in Bulgaria and is a spelling rule rather than a difference in speech.
| Gender | Indefinite | Definite | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| Masculine | стол | столът / стола | chair |
| Feminine | книга | книгата | book |
| Neuter | село | селото | village |
| Plural | книги | книгите | books |
No infinitive
Where English says “I want to eat,” Bulgarian says “I want that I eat”: Искам да ям (Iskam da yam). Dictionaries list verbs by the first person singular, so you look up ям (“I eat”), not “to eat.”
A rich verb system
Bulgarian verbs have aspect (perfective and imperfective pairs), several past tenses and a set of forms for reported or inferred information. Той беше тук (Toy beshe tuk) means “He was here” (I saw it). Той бил тук (Toy bil tuk) means “He was here, apparently” (I was told). English needs extra words to express that difference; Bulgarian builds it into the verb.
Dialects and the standard language
The main dialect boundary is the “yat border,” a line running roughly from Nikopol on the Danube to Thessaloniki. It is named after the old letter ѣ (yat), whose sound developed differently on each side. East of the line, many words have я where western dialects have е: standard бял (byal, “white”) but western бел. Standard Bulgarian is based mainly on eastern dialects, while Sofia lies to the west, which is why speakers from the capital sound distinctive. The letter yat was dropped in the 1945 spelling reform, covered in our page on the history of the Bulgarian alphabet.
The relationship between Bulgarian and Macedonian is a sensitive subject. Macedonian has had its own standard since 1945 and is the official language of North Macedonia. Linguists agree the two are closely related and largely mutually intelligible; views differ, often along national lines, on how to describe that relationship. Our Macedonian vs Bulgarian alphabet page compares the two writing systems.
Writing the Bulgarian language
Bulgarian uses a 30-letter Cyrillic alphabet. It has no Ё, Ы or Э, and Ъ is a full vowel, not a silent sign. Spelling is close to pronunciation, though stress is not marked and unstressed vowels weaken. Many Bulgarian fonts use distinct lowercase letterforms, for example д and л; see Bulgarian Cyrillic for examples, and how many letters are in the Bulgarian alphabet for the full list.
Bulgarian has an official romanization too, the Streamlined System of the 2009 Transliteration Act. It is used on passports and road signs, and gives spellings such as Sofia for София and Plovdiv for Пловдив.
The oldest Slavic literary language, Old Church Slavonic, is also called Old Bulgarian in Bulgarian scholarship. Modern Bulgarian is its direct descendant. Britannica divides the history into Old (9th to 11th century), Middle (12th to 16th) and Modern Bulgarian (from the 16th century).
Common mistakes
- Assuming Bulgarian is a dialect of Russian. They are separate languages from different Slavic branches, with different grammar and many different words.
- Expecting six cases. Bulgarian nouns have no cases; only pronouns keep them.
- Putting “the” before the noun. The article is a suffix: книгата, not “the книга.”
- Looking up verbs as infinitives. Dictionaries list the “I” form, such as пиша (“I write”).
- Reading Ъ as silent. In Bulgarian it is a vowel, [ɤ]. See our guide to Bulgarian pronunciation.
Frequently asked questions
What kind of language is the Bulgarian language?
Bulgarian is a South Slavic language of the Indo-European family. Its closest relative is Macedonian.
How many people speak Bulgarian?
In Bulgaria’s 2021 census, 5,037,607 people named Bulgarian as their mother tongue. Worldwide estimates of native speakers are roughly 6 to 8 million.
Is Bulgarian an official language of the EU?
Yes. Bulgarian has been one of the EU’s official languages since Bulgaria joined on 1 January 2007.
Is Bulgarian similar to Russian?
They share the Cyrillic script and much vocabulary, but Bulgarian has no noun cases, a suffixed definite article and no infinitive, so the grammar is quite different.
Is Bulgarian hard to learn?
The alphabet and spelling are quick to learn. Verbs are the hardest part, but the lack of noun cases makes nouns easier than in most Slavic languages.
Sources
- National Statistical Institute of Bulgaria, Census 2021: ethnocultural characteristics
- European Union, Languages
- Bulgarian language (Britannica)
- Bulgarian language (Wikipedia)