How Many Letters in the Bulgarian Alphabet? 30, Explained
| Bulgarian alphabet | Count |
|---|---|
| Total letters | 30 |
| Vowel letters: а е и о у ъ ю я | 8 |
| Consonant letters | 20 |
| Semivowel й and soft sign ь | 2 |
| Letters removed in 1945: ѣ ѫ | 2 |
How many letters in the Bulgarian alphabet? There are 30, from А to Я: 8 vowel letters, 20 consonant letters, plus й and the soft sign ь. The count was set by the spelling reform of 12 February 1945, which removed ѣ (yat) and ѫ (big yus). Russian has 33.
There are 30 letters in the Bulgarian alphabet, from А to Я. That makes the answer to “how many letters in the Bulgarian alphabet” simpler than for most Cyrillic alphabets, and three fewer than Russian. The count has been fixed at 30 since a spelling reform in February 1945, which removed two older letters.
How many letters in the Bulgarian alphabet: the full list
Here are all 30, in alphabetical order:
А Б В Г Д Е Ж З И Й К Л М Н О П Р С Т У Ф Х Ц Ч Ш Щ Ъ Ь Ю Я
They break down like this:
- 8 vowel letters: а, е, и, о, у, ъ, plus ю and я, which add a “y” glide.
- 20 consonant letters: б в г д ж з к л м н п р с т ф х ц ч ш щ.
- 2 others: й, a short “y” sound, and ь, a sign that softens the consonant before о.
The eight vowel letters write six vowel sounds, because ю and я are combinations. You can hear every letter on the Bulgarian alphabet chart, or see them grouped by difficulty on the Bulgarian letters page.
What about Ѝ?
You will sometimes see ѝ, an и with a grave accent. It is not counted as a letter. It marks the short pronoun ѝ (“her,” “to her”) so that readers do not confuse it with the conjunction и (“and”). The same grave accent appears in dictionaries to mark stress, as in вълна̀ (valna, wave). Neither use adds a letter to the alphabet.
Why the Bulgarian alphabet went from 32 to 30 letters
For most of the period from the 1870s to 1945, standard Bulgarian was written with 32 letters. This spelling grew out of the work of the historian Marin Drinov, who chaired the Bulgarian Literary Society founded in 1869 in Brăila, Romania. His system had already dropped several older letters, including ы and ѳ.
Two letters survived until 1945:
- ѣ (yat), which stood for a vowel pronounced я or е depending on region and word.
- ѫ (big yus), originally a nasal vowel, by then pronounced like ъ in most words.
On 12 February 1945 the Council of Ministers adopted a decree-law on spelling reform, as the Bulgarian News Agency’s history calendar records. The reform replaced ѣ with я or е according to pronunciation and replaced ѫ with ъ. It also dropped the silent ъ and ь that had been written at the end of many words. A similar change in the early 1920s had been reversed in 1923, so 1945 was the second attempt.
Before and after: words from the old spelling
| Before 1945 | After 1945 | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| хлѣбъ | хляб (hlyab) | bread |
| рѫка | ръка (raka) | hand |
| градъ | град (grad) | city |
| сѫ | са (sa) | (they) are |
The last row is a special case: the verb form сѫ became са, not “съ.” Pre-1945 books, gravestones and old shop signs still show the 32-letter spelling. The old Bulgarian alphabet page covers these letters and the earlier ones that disappeared centuries before. The longer story is told in the history of the Bulgarian alphabet.
How many letters in the Bulgarian alphabet compared with other Cyrillic alphabets
Every language that uses Cyrillic has its own letter set. Bulgarian is among the smaller ones.
| Alphabet | Letters | Letters Bulgarian does not have |
|---|---|---|
| Bulgarian | 30 | (none) |
| Russian | 33 | Ё Ы Э |
| Ukrainian | 33 | Ґ Є І Ї |
| Serbian | 30 | Ђ Ј Љ Њ Ћ Џ |
| Macedonian | 31 | Ѓ Ѕ Ј Љ Њ Ќ Џ |
Russian is the comparison most people make. Every Bulgarian letter also exists in Russian, so Russian has the same 30 plus Ё, Ы and Э. The shared letters do not always share a sound, though: Щ and Ъ work very differently. See Bulgarian vs Russian alphabet for details, and the Serbian and Macedonian comparisons for the western neighbors.
Serbian has the same total of 30 by coincidence. The two sets overlap only in part: Serbian has six letters Bulgarian lacks, and it does without Й Щ Ъ Ь Ю Я.
Letter positions worth knowing
Because Bulgarian has no Ё, Ы or Э, the order of the letters is Russian order with those three removed. That shifts the positions of several letters, which matters if you use a numbered list or a dictionary:
- Ж is the 7th letter, straight after Е.
- Й is the 10th, right after И.
- Щ is the 26th, and Ъ the 27th.
- Ь is the 28th, immediately after Ъ. In Russian, Ы sits between them.
- Я is the 30th and last.
Bulgarian dictionaries follow this order, so a word starting with ъ, such as ъгъл (agal, corner), is found near the very end.
Why 30 letters makes Bulgarian easier to read
Knowing how many letters in the Bulgarian alphabet you need to learn is a good start, but the more useful fact is how they behave. Each of the 30 letters has one main sound. Since the 1945 reform dropped the silent word-final ъ and ь, the only letter without a sound of its own is the soft sign ь before о. So after you know the 30 shapes, you can sound out new words with fair accuracy. Stress and a few sound changes still need practice, which the step-by-step learning plan covers.
Common mistakes about the number of letters
- Saying 33. That is the Russian count. A 33-letter chart will include Ё, Ы and Э, none of which are used in Bulgarian.
- Saying 32. That was correct before 1945, when ѣ and ѫ were still in use.
- Counting ѝ as a 31st letter. It is и with an accent.
- Assuming ь is a vowel. It has no sound of its own and appears only before о, as in шофьор (shofyor, driver).
- Assuming ъ is silent, as in Russian. In Bulgarian it is one of the six vowels.
Frequently asked questions
How many letters in the Bulgarian alphabet are vowels?
Eight letters are vowels: а, е, и, о, у, ъ, ю and я. They represent six vowel sounds, because ю and я combine a ‘y’ glide with у and а.
Did the Bulgarian alphabet ever have more than 30 letters?
Yes. Before the reform of 12 February 1945 it had 32 letters, including ѣ (yat) and ѫ (big yus).
Why does Russian have more letters than Bulgarian?
Russian uses three letters that Bulgarian does not: Ё, Ы and Э. All 30 Bulgarian letters also exist in Russian.
Is Ѝ a letter in Bulgarian?
No. Ѝ is И with a grave accent, used to write the pronoun ‘her’ and tell it apart from и (‘and’).
Which letter is last in the Bulgarian alphabet?
Я (ya) is the last letter, as in Russian. The first is А.
Sources
- Bulgarian alphabet (Wikipedia)
- Reforms of Bulgarian orthography (Wikipedia)
- BTA: 12 February in history (1945 spelling reform)
- Russian alphabet (Wikipedia)