Bulgarian language - this is the simple name for a whole group of dead, now non-existent (not existing in live speech) languages used by the Bulgars. The Bulgars as a nationality settled in the Balkans, part of the Volga region and also in the north of the Caucasus. Along with the modern Chuvash language, and, presumably, with the Khazar (also dead), this language was part of the so-called Bulgar group of languages, uniting them according to the principles of kinship and genetic similarity (grammar, phonetics, etc.)
Basic information. Classification
An interesting fact from the history of the language: the Bulgarian script has changed many times. So, initially it was based on the Bulgar runic script, but in the 6th-9th centuries AD it gave way to the Greek alphabet. However, there was also a period of dominance of the Arabic alphabet over the rest. This is not surprising if we consider the classification of the Bulgar language in more detail.
In the most global consideration, Bulgarian belongs to the languages of Eurasia. Whether to consider it involved in the Altai languages - scientists have not yet come to an agreement on this. However, it is known for sure that the Bulgar group belongs toTurkic languages - hence the connection with the Arab culture.
Territorial and historical varieties
In total, several stages of the "life" of the Bulgar language can be distinguished. Thus, the period of the Early Bulgar language can be distinguished. It was widespread in the V-VII centuries among the tribes that later formed the basis of the population of Great Bulgaria. Echoes of this language are observed today in some Caucasian languages.
Danubian-Bulgarian language was spread on the territory of the Balkans from the 7th century to the 10th. It was a kind of sociolect of the so-called Bulgar aristocracy. Disappeared, according to researchers, due to Slavic influence (merger and subsequent displacement). There is an opinion that it is in this variety of the Bulgar language that many still undeciphered runic messages are written.
Middle Bulgarian (a term especially often used in linguistics) is also called Volga-Bulgarian and has a historical distribution, as you might guess, in the Volga region - where today the Chuvash Republic, the Republic of Tatarstan, the Ulyanovsk Region are located.
Runic writing
As mentioned above, in certain territories in a certain period of historical development, a special runic script was used in the Bulgar language. Interestingly, for some time on the territory of the Balkan Peninsula, it was also used along withgaining more and more popularity (and later became the basis of the Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian alphabets) Cyrillic.
The most historically significant monuments of Bulgar (or Bulgarian) runic writing were found on the territory of Romania, Bulgaria (in the Shumen region, more specifically, in Pliska, the first capital of the Bulgar state).
However, there are also a number of questions regarding how such writing should be called and whether it should be attributed to the so-called "runic" one. According to some researchers (including scientists from Bulgaria itself), the runes of the ancient Bulgars, like those of the Germans, had a special magical meaning. Others argue that this script consisted of both Greek and Cyrillic elements, often without the expected connections, and it has nothing to do with runes.
Materials, monuments, literature
Sad as it may seem, in fact, today there is no final version of the decipherment of the ancient Bulgarian writing. The main problem preventing this is the insufficient amount of quality material found.
So, for the most part, the Bulgar language is studied today thanks to lexical and other borrowings that have been preserved in modern living, related and simply neighboring languages. Also, the study materials include the Preslav inscription, the name of the Bulgarian khans, the runes from Murfatlar (a city in Romania), the “Collection of Turkicdialects" by Mahmud Kashgari, as well as the data of modern Chuvash and Tatar languages (comparative method; for example, the word for "the next world" in the Chuvash language looks like "ahrat", in the Tatar - like "akhirat", in the unfamiliar Volga-Bulgarian it looks like way - “akhirat”).
