New Data on the Bulgarian Dialects in the Eastern Part of Aegean Macedonia – Drama and Serres Areas

The purpose of the paper is to make an overview of the state of Bulgarian speeches from Drama and Serres areas, based on material collected in the course of journeys in that region in 2010. The data proves that despite the restrictions imposed on them, Bulgarian dialects are well known in the region. 

Their Eastern Bulgarian dialect character is preserved, which places them closer to the main phonetic properties of literary Bulgarian – ya-articulation in the place of the yat vowel, articulation of ъ in the place of the back nasal vowel. Preserved until today are the specific archaic peculiarities that relate them to the Old Bulgarian language – e.g. the existence of the interrogative pronoun кутри, but also in the presence of the question-forming interrogative particle ли, characteristic of today’s Bulgarian literary language: Къдʼè ви съ лузèту? На кутрò мʼàсту?; Ти ỳжънет³–ли си? 

The speakers of these dialects have the clear consciousness of speaking Bulgarian dialects related to those of the Bulgarian population in the Western Aegean and Southern Albania – cf.: Òти натàтък къдʼе нъкуò, къдʼе Албàний ¨ и тàм ùма сʼе ѓ лà, дʼèту лахòвът (говорят) бòлгърцкʼи тùйе, ама мàлку пò-дрỳгу… Тùйе, нùйе, и тùе съ хòръ ... т³й лахòвът пу силàрскʼи.