Bulgarian phonology

This article discusses the phonological system of Standard Bulgarian.

Vowels


Bulgarian's eight vowels may be grouped in three pairs according to their backness: front, central and back. Unstressed vowels tend to be shorter and weaker compared to their stressed counterparts, and the corresponding pairs of open and closed vowels approach each other with a tendency to merge, above all as low (open and open-mid) vowels are raised and shift towards the high (close and close-mid) ones. However, the coalescence is not always complete. The vowels are often distinguished in emphatic or deliberately distinct pronunciation, and reduction is strongest in colloquial speech. Besides that, some linguists distinguish two degrees of reduction, as they have found that a clearer distinction tends to be maintained in the syllable immediately preceding the stressed one. The complete merger of the pair –  is regarded as most common, while the status of  vs  is less clear. The coalescence of and  is not allowed in formal speech and is regarded as a provincial (East Bulgarian) dialectal feature; instead, unstressed  is both raised and centralized, approaching. The vowel itself does not exist as a phoneme in other Slavic languages, though a similar reduced vowel transcribed as  does occur.

Semivowels
The Bulgarian language possesses only one semivowel:, equivalent to the sound marked by the letter y in yes. Orthographically it is represented by the Cyrillic letter й (и with a breve) as in най ("most"), тролей  ("trolleybus"), except when it precedes  or  (and their reduced counterparts  and ), in which case the two phonemes are represented by a single letter, respectively я or ю: e.g. ютия  "(flat) iron" (but Йордан  "Jordan" - a male given name).

Consonants
Bulgarian has a total of 36 consonant phonemes (see table below). Three additional phonemes can also be found (,, and ), but only in foreign proper names such as Хюстън ("Houston"), Дзержински  ("Dzerzhinsky"), and Ядзя , the Polish name "Jadzia". They are, however, normally not considered part of the phonetic inventory of the Bulgarian language. The Bulgarian obstruent consonants are divided into 12 pairs voiced<>voiceless on the criteria of sonority. The only obstruent without a counterpart is the voiceless velar fricative. The contrast 'voiced vs. voiceless' is neutralized in word-final position, where all obstruents are voiceless (as in most Slavic languages); this neutralization is, however, not reflected in the spelling.

According to, are dental. He also analyzes as palatalized dental nasal, and provides no information about the place of articulation of.

Only as an allophone of /m/ and /n/ before /f/ and /v/. Examples: инфлация [iɱˈflaʦijɐ] 'inflation'.

As an allophone of /n/ before /k/ and /g/. Examples: тънко [ˈtɤŋko] 'thin' (neut.), танго [tɐŋˈgɔ] 'tango'.

is voiced at word boundaries before voiced obstruents. Example: видях го [viˈdʲaɣgo] 'I saw him'.

Not a native phoneme, but appears in borrowings from English.

/l/ can be analyzed as an allophone of /ɫ/ as it appears only before front vowels. A trend of l-vocalization is emerging among younger native speakers and more often in colloquial speech.

Hard and palatalized consonants
The Bulgarian consonants б, в , г , д , з , к , л , м , н , п , р , с , т , ф , ц can denote both a normal, "hard" pronunciation, as well as a "soft", palatalized one. The hard and the palatalized consonants are considered separate phonemes in Bulgarian. The consonants ж, ш , ч and дж  do not have palatalized variants, which is probably connected with the fact that they have arisen historically through palatalization in Common Slavonic. These consonants may still be somewhat palatalized in some speakers' pronunciation, but as a rule this is not the case.

The softness of the palatalized consonants is always indicated in writing in Bulgarian. A consonant is palatalized if:
 * it is followed by я, ю , or ьо . (Note: ь occurs only before о in Bulgarian)

(When я and ю aren't preceded by a consonant, they signal that the vowels and  are preceded by the semivowel . For /jɔ/, Bulgarian uses "йо", as in Ню Йорк, "New York".)

Even though palatalized consonants are phonemes in Bulgarian, they may in some cases be positionally conditioned, hence redundant. In Eastern Bulgarian dialects, consonants are always allophonically palatalized before the vowels and. This is not the case in Standard Bulgarian, but that form of the language does have similar allophonic alternations. Thus, к, г and х  tend to be palatalized before  and , and the realization of the phoneme л  varies along the same principles: one of its allophones, involving a raising of the back of the tongue and a lowering of its middle part (thus similar or, according to some scholars, identical to a velarized lateral), occurs in all positions, except before the vowels  and , where a more "clear" version with a slight raising of the middle part of the tongue occurs. The latter pre-front realization is traditionally (and incorrectly) called "soft l", even though it is not palatalized (and thus isn’t identical to the signalled by the letters ьо, я and ю). In some Western Bulgarian dialects, this allophonic variation does not exist.

Furthermore, in the speech of many young people the more common and arguably velarized allophone of is often realized as a labiovelar approximant. This phenomenon, colloquially known as мързеливо "л" (lazy "l") in Bulgaria, was first registered in the 1970s and isn't connected to original dialects. Similar developments, termed L-vocalization, have occurred in many languages, including Polish, Serbo-Croatian, Brazilian Portuguese and certain dialects of English such as Cockney and AAVE.

Palatalization
During the palatalization of most hard consonants (the bilabial, labiodental and alveolar ones), the middle part of the tongue is lifted towards the palate, resulting in the formation of a second articulatory centre whereby the specific palatal "clang" of the soft consonants is achieved. The articulation of alveolars, and , however, usually does not follow that rule; the palatal clang is achieved by moving the place of articulation further back towards the palate so that ,  and  are actually alveopalatal (postalvelolar) consonants. Soft and  ( and, respectively) are articulated not on the velum but on the palate and are considered palatal consonants.

Word stress
Stress usually isn't signified in written text. In cases where the stress must be indicated, a grave accent is placed on the vowel of the stressed syllable. (Note:the following examples are also shown with a grave accent.)

Bulgarian word stress is dynamic. Stressed syllables are louder and longer than unstressed ones. As in Russian and other East Slavic languages, Bulgarian stress is also lexical rather than fixed as in French, Latin or the West Slavic languages. It may fall on any syllable of a polysyllabic word, and its position may vary depending on the inflection and derivation, for example –
 * nouns – мъ̀ж (man), мъжъ̀т  (the man), мъжè (men), мъжèте (the men)
 * verbs – отѝвам (otìvam – I am going), отидѝ (otidì – go!)

Bulgarian stress is also distinctive: the following examples are only differentiated by stress –
 * nouns
 * въ̀лна ('wool'), вълна̀  ('wave')
 * па̀ра (pа̀ra – steam), пара̀ (parа̀ – coin)
 * verbs
 * когато дòйде (kogato dòyde – when he comes), когато дойдè (kogato doydè – when he came)
 * взрѝвен (vzrìven – explosive), взривèн (vzrivèn – exploded)

Stress usually isn't signified in written text, even in the above examples, if the context makes the meaning clear. However, the grave accent may be written if confusion is likely. The single case where it is imperatively used is –
 * и ('and'), ѝ ('to her')

The stress is often written in order to signify a dialectal deviation from the standard pronunciation –
 * kazà mi – he told me (instead of kàza mi)
 * iskà da doyde – he wanted to come (instead of ìskashe da doyde)

The stress is sometimes placed earlier in the word than it should be for emphasis (this is considered rude) –
 * èla – "come here" (instead of elà)
 * kàzhi – "tell me" (instead of kazhì)
 * òstavi me na mira – "leave me alone" (instead of ostavì me)