Making your first visit to Bulgaria, you will immediately realize there is a unique language and alphabet in use here, and you should look forward to learning some of the language; but before your arrival, be fully prepared for reliance upon the Cyrillic alphabet. Bulgarians speak Bulgarian. That's straightforward enough, but they also read and write Bulgarian and they read and write it using the Cyrillic alphabet. Because it's the official alphabet, most street signs, road names, etc are written in Cyrillic and usually the Cyrillic writing bears absolutely no relation to how they would appear if written in the Roman alphabet.
If you were to ask the Greek men of letters: "Who created your letters or who translated your books and when was that?", you would see that it is seldom that any one of them knows. But if you ask a Slav child who is learning its ABC's "Who created your alphabet," or "Who translated your books," all of them would know and they would answer "Saint Constantin, the Philosopher, called Cyril; he and his brother Methodius created the alphabet and translated the books." And if you were to ask when it was, they would know and would say that it was in the lifetime of the Greek King Michael, of the Bulgarian King Boris, of the Moravian Prince Rastitsa and of the Blatenian Prince Cotsel, and they would say that it was in the year 6363 of the creation of the world (855 A.D.).
In 855, the brothers Cyril and Methodius of Thessaloniki (the largest city in Byzantium) retired to a monestary, dedicating themselves to evangelizing the Slavs. By 862, they had created an alphabet of Slavonic script and translated the fundamental liturgical books into Slavonic languages. Canonical recognition of the Slavonic alphabet came in 879 when the Slavonic books were sanctified by Pope Johann VIII. Until the invention of modern printing machines, books were copied by hand. In the Orthodox world the copying of manuscripts continued almost till modern times. The initial letters were an important element in the design of the medieval Bulgarian book.
For many years, Europe had only one patron acknowledged by canon law - Saint Benedict. Then, in 1979, Pope John Paul II proclaimed the creators of the Slav alphabet, the Bulgarians Cyril and Methodius, to also be patrons of Europe.
Their alphabet is known as Cyrillic and still today most of the Slavic countries, including Russia, use an extension of that alphabet. In Bulgaria, you will find not a subset nor an extension, but the pure Cyrillic alphabet of the original 30 letters. The Old Bulgarian language is a basis for the creation of Russian, Serbian, Slovene, Croatian variants and gained the significance of a universal literary Slavonic language. The modern Bulgarian literary language is characterized by dropping of the case forms, by the use of the definite article, by nine tenses, four moods, etc.
May 24 is celebrated throughout Bulgaria as "The Day Of Slavonic Alphabet, Bulgarian Enlightenment and Culture". The enthusiastic celebrating of the day of the Saint brothers Kiril and Methody by all Bulgarian people is a positive proof for their thirst for enlightenment and science, for national self-defining and fast economical and cultural advancement. It is a holiday that has no analogy among other nations - a holiday of spiritual rising, perfection striving for scientific and cultural achievements.
At the bottom of this page are some "friendly-looking" words that are pronounced much differently than they may appear. Yes, some hotels will use English and some restaurants will have translated English menus and some major street or highway signs may also be in English. But the Bulgarian language is the official language and the Cyrillic alphabet is the official alphabet. Of course it is possible to "get by" here with no knowledge of Bulgarian grammar or the Cyrillic alphabet, but then you become reliant upon someone else. If you can assert your independence, you will enjoy your visit much more. Bulgarians are pleased to assist one who makes the effort.
The following table of the Bulgarian Cyrillic alphabet, the pronounciation help and the sidebar notes are only as accurate as I can possibly make them with my limited knowledge of the Bulgarian language. My native dialect is "American Mid-West" - it is not "British English". If you insist to study Bulgarian language and Cyrillic as a scholar, please enroll at an accredited university. The Bulgarian language lacks definite rules for stress; therefore, the accent of every word must be learned individually.
Especially the following notes on pronounciation are "far from perfect" because we find many local accents and dialects in Bulgaria which vary from textbook accuracy and are somewhat dependent upon the individual and the locale. Often, 100 kilometers makes a huge difference in dialect.
With only a few exceptions, The Bulgarian Cyrillic letters and sounds map in an exact 1-to-1 correspondence, thus pronounciation of a word is clear from its writing (spelling) and vice versa. Curiously, this allows correct encoding of the sound of alien words with unknown meaning, so the 'spelling' hassle is practically non-existent. There is one very important caveat. When the Cyrillic letter "C" falls between two vowels, as in , the word is written as "ASSEN", with a double-S letter. This preserves the Cyrillic sound. In many non-English European languages, a single "S" between two vowels takes on the sound of a soft "Z".
Please use this information only as it is intended; as a helper to familiarize you with the Cyrillic alphabet. Learning the alphabet will enhance your ability to understand the language because then you will be able to read (pronounce) the Bulgarian words on signs, in advertising and newspapers. Only after you can read, then should you begin to concern yourself with the pronunciation and the rules of grammar. Without an understanding of this remarkable alphabet, your gains will be very slow.
Although the pronunciation rules of the Cyrillic alphabet are usually precise, you will note some special letters which combine the sounds of two or even three letters. Unlike the English alphabet which almost always combines two sounds for each letter (stop and think about it; a letter such as "C" is actually pronounced as "s" and a long "e"), most letters of the Bulgarian alphabet have a single sound and for that reason are pronounced very short. You will find other pronunciation tables with some variations in examples; but if they tell you the Bulgarian "E" has the sound of "E" as in "egg", dismiss them as misleading and innacurate, as you will find yourself pronouncing the letter "E" incorrectly as "AEE".
Cyrillic
letter
How it sounds in "English"
Peculiarities of this letter, its use, special pronunciation, etc.
as the "a" in "daughter"
The only letter of the Cyrillic alphabet which is pronounced with a wide-open mouth.
as the "b" in "buffalo"
as the "v" in "very"
When used alone in a sentence (where the word means
"from", it takes on the pronounciation of "vuff"
as the "g" in "garage"
as the "d" in "dot"
When this letter appears at the end of a word, it takes
on the sound of the letter "t" in "dot"
as the "e" in "elephant" (almost as the letter "a")
as the combined letters "ge" in "garage" (a "zh" sound)
as the final "z" in "buzz"
as the "i" in "inch" (almost as the letter "e")
When writing this letter, remember it differs from the
English "N" because it "begins from the sky"
as the "e" in "yes"
as the "k" in "king"
as the "l" in "lucky"
as the "m" in "mother"
Notice those sharp peaks on the script letter
and compare with "T" below.
as the "n" in "new"
as the "o" in "open"
as the "p" in "papa"
as the "r" in "restaurant"
Learn that the Bulgarian "r" is always rolled!
as the "s" in "sea"
When used alone in a sentence (where the word means
"with", it takes on the pronounciation of "suss")
as the "t" in "top"
occasionally very confusing because the lower-case script looks exactly like the printed english "m" (note the rounded peaks)
as "oo" in "moon"
as "f" in "fox"
as "h" in "hotel"
This is a harsh sound. It is a very important letter and one of the first sounds you MUST master.
as "ts" in "fits"
This letter begins a short series of letters which are a combination of two or more sounds.
It is sometimes translated in Latin letters as "TZ", which accounts for the appearance of
words such as "Maritza" for Maritsa and "Tzar" for Tsar, an influence of French phonetic
tradition which in the past was more popular in Bulgaria then the English one.
as "ch in "church"
as "sh" in "ship"
as "sht" in the final letters of the word "crushed"
(See "NOTE" below)
as "u" in "fur"
as "y" in york
This letter has no capital because no Bulgarian word ever begins with this letter. It is not pronounced, but softens any preceding
consonant before the letter o.
as the letters "you" in "youth" but shorter
as the letters "ya" in "yard" but shorter
This letter frequently takes on a two-syllable sound
as the "ia" in "media"
There is a site with a page of standard Bulgarian phrases at this link:There, you can also click on words (phrases) to hear how they sound. Another site definitely worth checking is Bulgarian Language Web.
There are many words which you will see in Cyrillic that would have an English pronounciation, such as "PECTOPAHT" (restaurant), "HOBO" ("novo" is the Bulgarian word for "new"), "HE" ("ne" is the Bulgarian word for "no"), "CHEK" (Bulgarian for "snack" ... as in "snack bar") and thousands more. Don't be confused by them.
As important as the correct sound of each letter is the pronounciation of the word, including correct placement of the accent. For example the Bulgarian word for "restaurant" is "PECTOPAHT" ... in English, phonetically, we say "rest-raunt", but in Bulgarian, it becomes "rest-o-rant" with the accent upon the word's final syllable. All letters you will see are pronounced and the accent typically moves one syllable to the right, but this is surely not to be considered as a hard and fast rule.
We may note with a great deal of curiosity that the Bulgaria word for the personal pronoun "I" is "az" ... a word containing only the first and last letter of our Latin alphabet. Az is not capitalized unless it begins a sentence. Of further intrigue, the Bulgarian for "I am..." is "az sum" ... running the two words together, you will hear "awesome".The sound of some English letters does not exist at all in the Bulgarian language; for example, the English "W" as in the word "wolf" does not appear at all in the language. In writing, the letter is usually replaced with the Cyrillic "y" but sometimes you may find an occasional variation of the Cyrillic (L) in which the letter is pronounced nearly the same as the English "w" as in "wolf". And then ... there is the commercialization of the language which has introduced many "new" English or American words which require the use of a non-existant Cyrillic letter. One such example is the word "juice". Bulgarian has a very acceptable standard word "COK". However, to mimic the English, an advertising agency has created a new word, "". Sadly, this commercialization happens many times over and has begun to erode the purity of the Bulgarian language. You may wish to download SA Dictionary from this link. SA Dictionary is a unique computer dictionary, which translates words and phrases from one language to another. It is usually used when you work with a foreign language. It replaces the ordinary paper dictionary and gives you many advantages. SA Dictionary works with different languages and dictionaries. This version of the product includes English-Bulgarian and Bulgarian-English dictionaries, containing about 50000 English and 20000 Bulgarian words. Minimum system requirements: Windows 95, Windows NT 4.0 or next versions. SA Dictionary is the leading Windows dictionary in Bulgaria and it has become a standard for the people who use computers.
Another useful aid for you will be the Bulgarian keyboard images attached to these links:
To enable the Cyrillic keyboard in Windows 98 you must have multilanguage support enabled in Windows setup. If you are unsure how to do this, search for cyrillic in Windows help.When meeting someone, Bulgarians usually shake hands. Formal greetings include Kak ste? (“How are you?”) or Zdraveite (“Hello”). The informal equivalents, Kak si? and Zdrasti or Zdravei are used among friends, relatives, and colleagues. Other greetings include Dobro utro (“Good morning”), Dobar den (“Good day”) or Dobar vecher (“Good evening”). For parting, Bulgarians will use the phrase Lek den (good day), Leka vecher (good evening) or Leka nosht (“Good night”). Learn MOL YAH for "please"and BLAGODAR YA is "thank you".
Bulgarian grammar is complex in comparison to English, but you can get by with some simple words. "Yes" is "Dah"; "No" is "Nay". I find "Dobre" (strictly meaning "good") to be a rather universal word, acceptable for "OK" or general agreement. In addition to masculine, feminine and neuter, the Bulgarian language retains another ... distant ... somewhat similar to the old formal "thee, thou and thine" in English. Also worth mentioning is the Bulgarian head movements: they are opposite most of the rest of the world (VERY confusing!) An down-and-up movement, similar to "our" head movement for agreement, is negative; a side-to-side movement (similar to "our" disagreement) is affirmative. Sometimes they reverse these gestures if they know they’re speaking to foreigners, thereby complicating the issue further. Emphatic use of the words da (yes) and ne (no) should be enough to avoid misunderstandings. The modern Bulgarian language, which is generally said to date from the 16th century, borrowed many words from Greek and Turkish during the period of Turkish domination; more recently it has borrowed words from Russian, French, and German.
"Note": After this page existed for one year, there was frequent disagreement from Bulgarians about the pronounciation of this 26th Cyrillic letter. The fact I have come to realize is that while many Bulgarians will correctly learn English words, they very seldom have the opportunity to practice English speech. Frequently, the past tense of English words such as "crush" are learned as a two-syllable word "crush-ed" and the Bulgarian will pronounce the past tense in this way. Without the opportunity to hear the speech while reading the text, this mis-conception is easy to understand but it is not the purpose of this page to "teach English".
, the word is written as "ASSEN", with a double-S letter. This preserves the Cyrillic sound. In many non-English European languages, a single "S" between two vowels takes on the sound of a soft "Z".
(L) in which the letter is pronounced nearly the same as the English "w" as in "wolf". And then ... there is the commercialization of the language which has introduced many "new" English or American words which require the use of a non-existant Cyrillic letter. One such example is the word "juice". Bulgarian has a very acceptable standard word "COK". However, to mimic the English, an advertising agency has created a new word, "
". Sadly, this commercialization happens many times over and has begun to erode the purity of the Bulgarian language. You may wish to 
download SA Dictionary