Bulgarian language
The Bulgarian language is one of the oldest Slavic languages. It has existed for around 1000 years and was of supra-regional importance in the Christian Orthodox area. Alongside Hebrew, Greek and Latin, this was the first time that another language was permitted to be used in Christian worship, and Old Bulgarian became the liturgical language of the church, the so-called Old Church Slavonic.
In the 12th century, Old Slavonic continued to develop and regional dialects emerged. The influence of the Byzantine Empire is still noticeable. During Ottoman rule, Turkish also had a strong influence on the Bulgarian language. In the 20th century, the language was standardized and grammatical rules were established.
Grammatically, there are similarities to the neighboring Romanian or Mezedonian, although the two languages are not actually related. There are also no cases instead of the six cases in Russian. And both Romanian and Bulgarian have the peculiarity of adding the definite article (der, die das) to the end of nouns instead of putting it in front of the noun, as in German, for example.
Around 8 million people worldwide speak Bulgarian, with 6.5 million speakers living in Bulgaria itself. Around 1200 native speakers live in Dresden.
Script
At the court of the Bulgarian tsar in Preslav, the highly educated Greek monk Cyril developed the Glagolitic alphabet together with his brother Methodius in the 9th century. This alphabet was complex and was mainly used for liturgical texts.
The Cyrillic alphabet was created as a further development of the Glagolitic alphabet. It was developed by the students of Cyril and Methodius and was based on the Greek alphabet, supplemented by a few Slavic letters. This alphabet made writing easier and soon became the dominant script in the Slavic world.
The modern Bulgarian Cyrillic alphabet consists of 30 letters.
Incidentally, the spelling in Bulgarian is considered simpler than in Russian. The hardness sign, for example, which often causes difficulties for learners of Russian in distinguishing it from the softness sign, is an independent vowel in Bulgarian.
Dresden spricht …
Workshops, tours, writing and printing workshops under the motto “Dresden speaks many languages”
Period
03-12.2024
Porject coordination
Yvonn Spauschus (Projektleitung)
Yulia Vishnichenko · Moussa Mbarek · Nadine Wölk · Rosa Brockelt · Yuliya Firsova · Martin Mannig (workshop leader)
Rosa Brockelt · Rosa Hauch · Falk Goernert · Birthe Mühlhoff (moderation, documentation)
Adina Rieckmann · Lydia Hänsel (tourguides)
Inge · Mahsa · Karin (voluntary help)
Cooperation partners
JugendKunstschule Dresden – Standort Passage, Omse e.V., Nachbarschaftshilfeverein, Stadtteilverein Johannstadt e.V., Malteser Hilfsdienste e.V., Jugendhaus LILA as well as Chinesisch-Deutsches Zentrum e.V., Lebenshilfe Dresden e.V., GEH8 Kunstraum und Ateliers e.V., Umweltzentrum Dresden – ABC Tische and many more
Supported by
The project is funded by the State Ministry for Social Affairs and Social Cohesion. This measure is co-financed with tax funds on the basis of the budget passed by the Saxon state parliament within the framework of the state programme Integrative Maßnahmen.
