Bulgarian language
Bulgarian (/bʌlˈɡɛəriən/ (
listen), /bʊlˈ-/ bu(u)l-GAIR-ee-ən; български, bălgarski, pronounced [ˈbɤɫɡɐrski] (listen)) is a South Slavic language spoken in Southeastern Europe, primarily in Bulgaria. It is the language of the Bulgarians.
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| Bulgarian | |
|---|---|
| български | |
| Pronunciation | bǎlgarski [ˈbɤɫɡɐrski] |
| Native to | |
| Ethnicity | Bulgarians |
Native speakers | 8 million[4][dubious ] |
| Dialects | |
| Official status | |
Official language in | |
Recognised minority language in | |
| Regulated by | Institute for Bulgarian Language, BAS |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-1 | bg |
| ISO 639-2 | bul |
| ISO 639-3 | bul |
| Glottolog | bulg1262 |
| Linguasphere | 53-AAA-hb < 53-AAA-h |
 The Bulgarian-speaking world:[citation needed] regions where Bulgarian is the language of the majority regions where Bulgarian is the language of a significant minority | |
Along with the closely related Macedonian language (collectively forming the East South Slavic languages), it is a member of the Balkan sprachbund and South Slavic dialect continuum of the Indo-European language family. The two languages have several characteristics that set them apart from all other Slavic languages; changes include the elimination of case declension, the development of a suffixed definite article and the lack of a verb infinitive. They retain and have further developed the Proto-Slavic verb system (albeit analytically). One such major development is the innovation of evidential verb forms to encode for the source of information: witnessed, inferred, or reported.
It is the official language of Bulgaria, and since 2007 has been among the official languages of the European Union.[8][9] It is also spoken by minorities in several other countries.