THE BULGARIAN ALPHABET

In Bulgarian, we use the Cyrillic alphabet. The same alphabet (with some modifications) is used in
other languages -Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Serbian, Macedonian and some Central
Asian Altaic languages.
Every Bulgarian letter has an English equivalent sound (or combination of sounds) close enough
to give you a clue to its pronunciation. In the first few lessons, every Bulgarian word will be
followed by phonetic transcription of its pronunciation in Latin letters and symbols from the
International Phonetic Alphabet please refer to the column Symbol.

L
ett
er

Not
e

Eng
lish
equi
vale
nt

whe
n
stre
ssed

ar
my

gu
n

bat
h

brat

brothe
r

ver
y

vo`da

water

whe
n
unst
ress
ed

So
un
d
Val
ue

Sy
m
bo
l

Bul
gari
an
wor
d

Pronu
nciati
on

Englis
h
transl
ation

`azbu
k

alpha
bet

`azbu
k

alpha
bet

gu
n

`gar

railwa
y stati
on

do
g

den

day

sen
d

`esen

autum
n

ple
asu
re

zh

zhi`v
ot

life

ze`m
ya

earth

zoo

bit

`istin

truth

yo
uth

`may
k

mothe
r

kit
che
n

`kotk

cat

luc
k

lof

huntin
g

lea
f

`lyato

summ
er

me
et

mo`re

sea

not

ne`be

sky

hot

ok`o

eye

pot

pt

road

rob
ot

`rib

fish

sun

`slnt
ze

sun

tall

`tatko

daddy

oo

roo
m

`ume
n

smart

fis
h

`form

shape

`hor

peopl
e

hat

tz

qua
rtz

tz

tzar

tzar

ch

ch
urc
h

ch

cho`v
ek

man,
perso
n

sh

fis
h

sh

`shap
k

hat

sht

sm
ash
ed

sh
t

`shtas
tie

happi
ness

whe
n
stre
ssed

ugl
y

`gl

corner

whe
n
unst
ress
ed

but

`gl

corner

sho`f
yor

driver
,
chauff
eur

`yuni

June

`yab
lk

apple

yo
uth

you

yo
u

yu

ya

yar
n

ya

VOWELS
There are 6 vowels in Bulgarian - , , , , ,
When a vowel is stressed it is pronounced clearly.
When unstressed, some vowels are reduced, becoming shorter and less distinct.
Even though there is no Roman letter for it, the vowel exists in many English words. When
stressed, it is pronounced like u in ugly [`gli] or up [p].
When unstressed both a and are pronounced the same way somewhere
between a and - like a inaway [`way], or cinema [`sinim].
When unstressed both o and are slightly reduced and pronounced somewhere between and y.
The vowels e and dont change their pronunciation when not stressed*.

*Some regional pronunciations tend to turn unstressed e into .

CONSONANTS
There are 3 types of consonants in Bulgarian - voiced (), voiceless () and
sonorous ().

voiced

voicel
ess

sonoro
us

Note that the Bulgarian alphabet has letters for sounds which the Roman scripts represent with
combination of letters:
tz
ch
sh
sht
Some consonants change their pronunciation depending on their position in a word. These
changes occur naturally in order to facilitate the pronunciation.
VOICED CONSONANTS -
Every voiced consonant has a corresponding voiceless one.

voiced consonant

corresponding voiceless consonant

When at the end of a word (e.g. - bread), a voiced consonant is reduced to its corresponding
voiceless one - [hlyap]. So, becomes .
When placed immediately before any voiceless consonant (e.g. - general), a voiced
consonant is pronounced like its corresponding voiceless one - [opsht]. is a voiceless
consonant, causing the voiced consonant to become the voiceless .
Here are some more examples with the rest of the voiced consonants.
- (pencil) [`molif], (everybody) - e [`fseki]
- (instant, moment) - [mik]
- (income) - [`prihot], (boat) - o [`lotk]
- (rainfall) - [v`lesh], (note) - (be`leshk]
- (expresion) - [`izrs], (education) - [vspi`tanie]

VOICELESS CONSONANTS -
Most voiceless consonants have a corresponding voiced ones. Those which dont have a
corresponding voiced consonant dont change their pronunciation.

voiceless c
onsonant

correspon
ding voice
d
consonant

When before a voiced consonant (e.g. - building), a voiceless consonant is pronounced like
its corresponding voiced one - [`zgrad]. is a voiced consonant, causing to become .
More examples:
- - (wedding) - [`svadb]

SONOROUS CONSONANTS -
An easy way to remember the sonorous consonants in Bulgarian is the word
[lm`rin] laminated iron, which contains them all, apart from and .
The only sonorous consonant that changes its pronunciation depending on its position is .
When before e, , and it is pronounced softly like in leaf (pronounced by touching the
tongue to the palate).
When before a, , , and a consonant as well as at the end of the word like in last
(pronounced by touching the tongue to the teeth).
The letter ( i short) is a consonant, unlike the vowel .
can stand only before o (including at the beginning of the word) or after a vowel (including at
the end of the word) [r`yon] - district, region, [`mayk] - mother,
[`puyk] - turkey, [voy`nik] - soldier, ([ge`roy] hero, etc.
Its pronunciation is not like the one of the vowel , but shorter.
For example in , is pronounced as i in pilot; in [`peika] bench, is
pronounced as a in paper; in [moy] my, mine, is pronounced as oi in boil.
The letter ( ) doesnt have its own sound. Its purpose is to make a consonant sound
softer. It is used only in combination with o (yo)

The combination has the same pronunciation as (yo).

The difference - is only used after a consonant [sho`fyor] driver, [`Kolyo]
- male name, while is used in the beginning of the word and after a vowel - [Yor`dan]
male name, [ma`yor] - major.
The combination exists in Bulgarian (mostly in words of French origin) and is pronounced
like two separate vowels for example [ka-mi-`on] 3 syllables truck.
COMPOUND SOUNDS
The letters and represent compound sounds. They are both combination of a consonant and
a vowel.
=+ (yu)
=+ (ya or y) or + (y or y)
The Bulgarian alphabet doesnt have a letter representing the sound j (as in John). It is spelled
- .
THE STRESS -
The stress is very important for the pronunciation, as well as for the meaning of the word.
The bad news is that there is no rule for the position of the stress in Bulgarian. Every word should
be memorized separately.
In this tutorial the transliterations of the Bulgarian words, used as examples, are given
a mark indicating the position of the stress i.e. an accent mark preceding the stressed syllable
example the word book [`knig] the position of the accent indicates that the stress
falls over the first syllable kni.
In some words the stress can change its position when changing the form from singular to
plural or when adding a definite article.
e [`neshto] a thing vs. a [ne`shta] - things
e [`pesen] - a song vs. a [pesen`ta] - the song
There are words which change their meaning depending on the stress. These are the only
words in Bulgarian which have written stress!
For example:
[`vln] wool vs. [vl`n] - wave
[`zavet] lee, shelter vs. [z`vt] - legacy
[`roden] native vs. [ro`dn] born