# Bulgarian: Standard language, dialects and Colloquial Sofia



## Martin78

Hi everyone!

I have some questions about Bulgarian, particularly the way it's spoken in Sofia, and would be very grateful for all help I can get. I've seen that there are some very helpful Bulgarian speakers on this forum!

I speak both Russian and Serbian (on a conversational level at least). As you all know, and as has been discussed here, Serbian verbs typically end in _*-м*_ and Russian verbs in *ю*. Standard Bulgarian, as far as I know, is to a certain degree a midway house, so we have

*I think*
Serbian: Мислим
Russian: Я думаю
Bulgarian: мисля

*I have*
Serbian: Имам
Russian: Я имeю (if we use that verb, I do it here for the consistency)
Bulgarian: Имам

*I read*
Serbian: читам
Russian: Я читаю 
Bulgarian: чета

That far it's easy, this information can be found in any book on grammar for Bulgarian. Now, as far as I know, the Western Bulgarian dialects are closer to Serbian and Macedonian in this regard, so people speaking Western dialects would say *мислям*, *Имам* and *четам*, right?

Now, what I've read (briefly) in different descriptions of Bulgarian is that the speech of Sofia is increasingly seen as an "unofficial standard", or rather as a form of speech that is seen as prestigeous. This, of course, is in line with language development in most countries, where the prestige of the capital often gives the speech used there a certain prestige of its own. Scatton writes briefly about it in his description of Bulgarian in _The Slavonic Languages_

My questions concern primarilt this "prestigeous" speech of Sofia and its differences from standard Bulgarian.

1. Is this Sofia colloquial (henceforth SC) identical to the Western dialects?
2. Is SC more Northwestern or Southwestern?
3. The Eastern/Western-distinction, as you all know, goes back to the treatment of Slavic _yat_. Does SC always pronounce old yat [e] as in Serbian, or it [ja] used as the Standard Bulgarian.
4. Does SC use the personal pronouns *я, он, она, оно, они* of the Western dialects (and Serbian + Russian) or the *аз, той, тя, то, те* of Standard Bulgarian.
5. Are the any other differences between SC and Standard Bulgarian?

Very grateful for all help!!


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## Orlin

Hi! Sofia belongs to Shopska (шопска) ethnographical and dialectal region, whose dialect is classified as western. Unfortunately I'm not a specialist in dialectology though, more about шопи here: http://bg.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A8%D0%BE%D0%BF%D0%B8. Let other foreros better acquainted with the Bulgarian dialectology explain more.
However, in practice most people in Sofia speak an approximation of standard Bulgarian (Bulgarian dialects quickly lost popularity in the 2nd half of the 20th century and dialects are much used only in some rural areas nowadays) or even have dialectal features of other regions (our capital is too large for the country - 20% of the country's population lives here - and its economic development attracts people from all over the country; Sofia has grown from 10,000 to 1,300,000 people from 1879, when it became the country's capital, till now).
And finally, as far as I know, features characteristic of Eastern Bulgarian dialects are predominant in standard Bulgarian (although Sofia is the nowadays capital of Bulgaria, they say that the dialect of Veliko Tarnovo (Велико Търново), a capital of Bulgaria in 1185-1393, is the closest to standard Bulgarian, I'm not completely sure in this statement).


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## Martin78

Orlin said:


> Hi! Sofia belongs to Shopska (шопска) ethnographical and dialectal region, whose dialect is classified as western. Unfortunately I'm not a specialist in dialectology though, more about шопи here: http://bg.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A8%D0%BE%D0%BF%D0%B8. Let other foreros better acquainted with the Bulgarian dialectology explain more.
> However, in practice most people in Sofia speak an approximation of standard Bulgarian (Bulgarian dialects quickly lost popularity in the 2nd half of the 20th century and dialects are much used only in some rural areas nowadays) or even have dialectal features of other regions (our capital is too large for the country - 20% of the country's population lives here - and its economic development attracts people from all over the country; Sofia has grown from 10,000 to 1,300,000 people from 1879, when it became the country's capital, till now).
> And finally, as far as I know, features characteristic of Eastern Bulgarian dialects are predominant in standard Bulgarian (although Sofia is the nowadays capital of Bulgaria, they say that the dialect of Veliko Tarnovo (Велико Търново), a capital of Bulgaria in 1185-1393, is the closest to standard Bulgarian, I'm not completely sure in this statement).




Thanks for the information, благодаря!

So when people in Sofia speak casually would they say "мисля" or "мислям"? And same thing with yat, would they say "бял" or "бел"? In other words, when you say that people in Sofia speak an approximation of Standard Bulgarian, I'm interested in which the differences are. Seem like most grammar books don't cover this as they typically deal with rural dialects, not with modern casual speech in bigger cities.


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## Orlin

Martin78 said:


> Thanks for the information, благодаря!
> 
> So when people in Sofia speak casually would they say "мисля" or "мислям"? And same thing with yat, would they say "бял" or "бел"? In other words, when you say that people in Sofia speak an approximation of Standard Bulgarian, I'm interested in which the differences are. Seem like most grammar books don't cover this as they typically deal with rural dialects, not with modern casual speech in bigger cities.


 
I think that most people will say standard "мисля" and "бял" - non-standard speech isn't prestigious. I said that people use _an approximation_ of standard Bulgarian because all people except some professionally trained have deviations from standard here and there and so their speech can't be completely standard.


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## DenisBiH

Interesting. The situation in Sofia seems to be somewhat like that of Zagreb.


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## Orlin

DenisBiH said:


> Interesting. The situation in Sofia seems to be somewhat like that of Zagreb.


 
Zdravo! Ja govorim od sopstvenog iskustva (već 12 godina živim u Sofiji), ali je ipak moguće da više ili manje grešim zato što ovde žive toliko mnogo ljudi (kako sam već rekao, više od 1 300 000, možda još više nego su zvanično registrirani) i isto nisam bio u svim delovima grada i naseljenim mestima okoline.


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## iobyo

DenisBiH said:


> Interesting. The situation in Sofia seems to be somewhat like that of Zagreb.



And Skopje too.

The original Skopje dialect is all but lost with the exception of the villages in the outskirts. Nowadays most people there will speak a form of Standard Macedonian with a few elements from the authentic dialect, not to mention the numerous Serbian loans used by younger generations.


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## Martin78

DenisBiH said:


> Interesting. The situation in Sofia seems to be somewhat like that of Zagreb.



Or probably like the situation in almost any European capital, I would say. Most capitals have grown at a fast pace, with people from different parts of the country moving there. Since these people com from different dialect areas, they tend to adopt a more standardized way of speaking. 

The reason I asked was because I had read that in Bulgaria, the modern spoken language in Sofia retained some Western dialect features, and I wanted to know whether that's correct. Based on the answers here, it seems as if it's not.


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## DenisBiH

Martin78 said:


> Or probably like the situation in almost any European capital, I would say. Most capitals have grown at a fast pace, with people from different parts of the country moving there. Since these people com from different dialect areas, they tend to adopt a more standardized way of speaking.




Of course, but I see some additional parallels for Sofia and Zagreb: the capital being situated in an area whose dialect is well outside the area of the dialect used as the basis of the standard language, and moreover, being situated in an area whose dialect rather than being central represents a transition to dialects of neighboring languages - in the case of Zagreb to Slovenian, in the case of Sofia to Serbian and Macedonian. 

So you have a gigantic ever increasing mass of people supplanting the original speech of the capital, and the countryside literally just outside the city bounds speaking a very different variety of the language. Though the last bit might be somewhat different, Kajkavian around Zagreb is still very much alive as far as I know, and Orlin mentioned that Bulgarian dialects have lost much of their prestige.


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## Arath

As it has already been mentioned, the population of Sofia is not homogeneous. There are people from all over the country living there. The way you are asking your question makes it seem as if you think that "Sofia Colloquial" is a uniform dialect, which is certainly not the case. Different people in Sofia speak differently depending on where they come from or where their ancestors come from.

As Orlin said, original dialects are unprestigious and people try to speak properly, this means that there are some who are very close to the standard and some who are not so much. If you have read material on the original dialects and on the standard, you can imagine how someone who's in between sounds.

I have managed to find some material by one Krasimira Aleksova: http://www.belb.net/personal/aleksova/chestotni_varianti.pdf. Her research includes people from Western and Eastern Bulgaria and from the capital, all living in Sofia. In the article she compares people based on where they were born, on their education and on their profession. This is a brief summary of the results (ordered by frequency).



Pronunciation of the feminine definite article under stress as */t̪ɤ/* instead of standard Bulgarian */t̪a/*, so *любовта* is pronounced */ʎubofˈt̪ɤ/* not */ʎubofˈt̪a/* (frequency 87%).  This is an eastern feature.
Depalatalization in first person singular and third person plural, present tense, of first and second conjugation verbs. So *ходя* and *ходят* are pronounced */ˈxɔd̪ə/* and */ˈxɔd̪ət̪/*, not* /ˈxɔdʲə/* and */ˈxɔdʲət̪/* (66%). This is found in almost all western dialects and in many eastern ones.
Depalatalization in the definite forms of nouns ending in -*ел *and -*ар*. So *учителя* and *зъболекаря* are pronounced */uˈtʃit̪ɛɫə/* and */zəboˈlɛkərə/*, not */uˈtʃit̪ɛʎə/* and */zəboˈlɛkərʲə/*. Its frequency is almost as high as the previous one's, and its distribution among the Bulgarian dialects in also the same.
Ending -*ме *for first and second conjugation verbs in first person plural, present tense. In standard Bulgarian it's -*м*. So *четеме* and *говориме* instead of *четем* and* говорим*. (46%). This phenomenon is called *мекане*, and it's found in many western dialects and some eastern ones.
De-iotation (loss of */j/* between vowels). So *живея* and *тоя* are pronounced */ʒiˈvɛə/* and */ˈt̪ɔə/*, not  */ʒiˈvɛjə/* and */ˈt̪ɔjə/*. Mainly a western feature.
Stress of all verbs in the past aorist (and the past aorist participle) on the ending, not on the stem. Standard Bulgarian allows this only in unprefixed verbs, but even these forms are considered substandard nowadays. So *показах* is pronounced */po̝kɐˈzax/* not */poˈkazəx/*. This feature is found in all western dialects and some eastern ones.
Pronunciaton of the yat vowel consistently as */ɛ/*. So *бял* is pronounced */bɛɫ*/ not */bʲaɫ/ *(a western feature). She points out that there is a big difference between educated and uneducated people in this regard.
This list is not exhaustive. As there are examples of virtually every dialect in the capital, it's not improbable to hear some other features. For example, in this article http://www.belb.net/personal/aleksova/admirativ2.pdf, Krasimira Aleksova says that it's common for people in Sofia not to use the past imperfect participle (*носела*) and substitute it with the past aorist participle (*носила*). But generally people try to speak properly.

Moreover, people are still moving to the capital, and as any city whose demographics are changing so rapidly, Sofia is also prone to rapid dialect change. History provides us with many examples of that.


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## Martin78

Arath said:


> As it has already been mentioned, the population of Sofia is not homogeneous. There are people from all over the country living there. The way you are asking your question makes it seem as if you think that "Sofia Colloquial" is a uniform dialect, which is certainly not the case. Different people in Sofia speak differently depending on where they come from or where their ancestors come from.
> 
> As Orlin said, original dialects are unprestigious and people try to speak properly, this means that there are some who are very close to the standard and some who are not so much. If you have read material on the original dialects and on the standard, you can imagine how someone who's in between sounds.
> 
> I have managed to find some material by one Krasimira Aleksova: http://www.belb.net/personal/aleksova/chestotni_varianti.pdf. Her research includes people from Western and Eastern Bulgaria and from the capital, all living in Sofia. In the article she compares people based on where they were born, on their education and on their profession. This is a brief summary of the results (ordered by frequency).
> 
> 
> 
> Pronunciation of the feminine definite article under stress as */t̪ɤ/* instead of standard Bulgarian */t̪a/*, so *любовта* is pronounced */ʎubofˈt̪ɤ/* not */ʎubofˈt̪a/* (frequency 87%).  This is an eastern feature.
> Depalatalization in first person singular and third person plural, present tense, of first and second conjugation verbs. So *ходя* and *ходят* are pronounced */ˈxɔd̪ə/* and */ˈxɔd̪ət̪/*, not* /ˈxɔdʲə/* and */ˈxɔdʲət̪/* (66%). This is found in almost all western dialects and in many eastern ones.
> Depalatalization in the definite forms of nouns ending in -*ел *and -*ар*. So *учителя* and *зъболекаря* are pronounced */uˈtʃit̪ɛɫə/* and */zəboˈlɛkərə/*, not */uˈtʃit̪ɛʎə/* and */zəboˈlɛkərʲə/*. Its frequency is almost as high as the previous one's, and its distribution among the Bulgarian dialects in also the same.
> Ending -*ме *for first and second conjugation verbs in first person plural, present tense. In standard Bulgarian it's -*м*. So *четеме* and *говориме* instead of *четем* and* говорим*. (46%). This phenomenon is called *мекане*, and it's found in many western dialects and some eastern ones.
> De-iotation (loss of */j/* between vowels). So *живея* and *тоя* are pronounced */ʒiˈvɛə/* and */ˈt̪ɔə/*, not  */ʒiˈvɛjə/* and */ˈt̪ɔjə/*. Mainly a western feature.
> Stress of all verbs in the past aorist (and the past aorist participle) on the ending, not on the stem. Standard Bulgarian allows this only in unprefixed verbs, but even these forms are considered substandard nowadays. So *показах* is pronounced */po̝kɐˈzax/* not */poˈkazəx/*. This feature is found in all western dialects and some eastern ones.
> Pronunciaton of the yat vowel consistently as */ɛ/*. So *бял* is pronounced */bɛɫ*/ not */bʲaɫ/ *(a western feature). She points out that there is a big difference between educated and uneducated people in this regard.
> This list is not exhaustive. As there are examples of virtually every dialect in the capital, it's not improbable to hear some other features. For example, in this article http://www.belb.net/personal/aleksova/admirativ2.pdf, Krasimira Aleksova says that it's common for people in Sofia not to use the past imperfect participle (*носела*) and substitute it with the past aorist participle (*носила*). But generally people try to speak properly.
> 
> Moreover, people are still moving to the capital, and as any city whose demographics are changing so rapidly, Sofia is also prone to rapid dialect change. History provides us with many examples of that.



Arath, that is very helpful indeed! Thanks for both the detailed answer and the interesting links!!


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## DarkChild

Martin78 said:


> Now, what I've read (briefly) in different descriptions of Bulgarian is that the speech of Sofia is increasingly seen as an "unofficial standard", or rather as a form of speech that is seen as prestigeous. This, of course, is in line with language development in most countries, where the prestige of the capital often gives the speech used there a certain prestige of its own. Scatton writes briefly about it in his description of Bulgarian in _The Slavonic Languages_



I don't know where you got the impression about Sofia dialect (Shopski) being seen as prestigious. On the contrary, is seen as very low-class and uneducated. It is used widely by rappers, for example, because it sounds less refined, mostly by pronouncing the Slavic yat as "e" and placing the word stress in a different position. 
In addition, educated people in Sofia do not speak with that dialect, but they speak Standard Bulgarian with some variations of stress in words.


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## DarkChild

Martin78 said:


> 4. Does SC use the personal pronouns *я, он, она, оно, они* of the Western dialects (and Serbian + Russian) or the *аз, той, тя, то, те* of Standard Bulgarian.



*я, он, она, оно, они* are absolute no-no's unless you're a hardcore villager or extremely uneducated or old.


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## sokol

Moderator note:

Posts about other languages than Bulgarian, and other cities than Sofia, have been moved to a new thread in EHL forum. 

Cheers
sokol
moderator


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## Martin78

DarkChild said:


> I don't know where you got the impression about Sofia dialect (Shopski) being seen as prestigious. On the contrary, is seen as very low-class and uneducated. It is used widely by rappers, for example, because it sounds less refined, mostly by pronouncing the Slavic yat as "e" and placing the word stress in a different position.
> In addition, educated people in Sofia do not speak with that dialect, but they speak Standard Bulgarian with some variations of stress in words.




Thanks, obviosly the sources I read had got it wrong. One place I saw it was on Wikipedia (which of course isn't very reliable), as you can see here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_prestige_dialects it says that



> Although the standard language is based almost entirely on the eastern dialects, these dialects are universally considered unprestigious. The dialect of the capital Sofia, which is a mixture of the local Shopski dialects and the standard language, is the prestige dialect. It has various deviations from the literary language (more than the eastern dialects)—phonological, lexical and especially grammatical—but it is erroneously perceived by people from all over Bulgaria as closer to the standard language than most other dialects, including the eastern.



I tend not to trust unsourced claims on Wikipedia, but then I read something similar in a linguistic journal, but I'm afraid I don't remember which one it was. It wasn't the main topic of that article, it was just briefly mentioned. So the scant information is why I asked, and obviously this impression is wrong.


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## DarkChild

Martin78 said:


> Thanks, obviosly the sources I read had got it wrong. One place I saw it was on Wikipedia (which of course isn't very reliable), as you can see here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_prestige_dialects it says that
> 
> 
> 
> I tend not to trust unsourced claims on Wikipedia, but then I read something similar in a linguistic journal, but I'm afraid I don't remember which one it was. It wasn't the main topic of that article, it was just briefly mentioned. So the scant information is why I asked, and obviously this impression is wrong.



The feature of Eastern dialects that is considered unprestigious is the reduction of unstressed "e" to "ye" or "i" which is very common, as well as palatalization of consonants. So it's mostly pronunciation. Shopski, on the other hand, is grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation too (no soft L, less vowel reduction (which is mandatory that unstressed "а" has to become closer to "ъ", "о" becomes closer to "у"). But again, absolutely no one on the news speaks with Shopski grammar - I mean it's never written "бел", but always "бял". In television, reporters and newscasters are from everywhere and they all sound pretty much neutral (as they should). And as I said, educated people speak with Standard grammar and pronunciation, the rest speak with their local varieties


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## Bog Svarog

DarkChild said:


> In television, reporters and newscasters are from everywhere and  they all sound pretty much neutral (as they should). And as I said,  *educated people speak with Standard grammar and pronunciation*, the rest  speak with their local varieties





DarkChild said:


> *I  don't know where you got the impression about Sofia dialect (Shopski)  being seen as prestigious. On the contrary, is seen as very low-class  and uneducated.* It is used widely by rappers, for example, because it  sounds less refined, *mostly by pronouncing the Slavic yat as "e"* and  placing the word stress in a different position.
> *In addition, educated people in Sofia do not speak with that dialect,*  but they speak Standard Bulgarian with some variations of stress in  words.


Dear Darkchild, no matter how long and hard you keep yelling your own opinion, it just won't turn into reality. What you are saying is just *your* opinion, and I can assure you that it means absolutely nothing to me.
This is really snobbery of the worst kind that you are displaying here. Besides, you are just blatantly offending people, on no base whatsoever. Do you actually believe any of the nonsense you are saying? I honestly hope not...
But alas, I will vent my opinion of some of your "facts" regardless.

*educated people speak with Standard grammar and pronunciation*,
So, you are the educated one here right? I guess it's uneducated to behave like a Sofian if you are.....a Sofian..?! Don't make yourself look ridiculous please...
Whenever I hear *anyone* from Sofia using "standard" speech to me, I stamp *IDIOT* on his forehead immediately, and classify that person as a pretentious fool. Only recently I took the bus to Sofia, and was driven by a bus driver from Pernik, who just talked his local dialect to me (ja, on, oti, and so on). This guy gained more respect from me than any of the people that you are classifying as "educated". Even if you would tell me you are the chairman of a bank, I would still rate this bus driver higher than you.
Besides, my girlfriend did actually finish school and found work in the Netherlands, and she speaks *hardcore* Sofian. So much for your "uneducated" fairytale.

*I  don't know where you got the impression about Sofia dialect (Shopski)  being seen as prestigious. On the contrary, is seen as very low-class  and uneducated.*
Actually, it is, at least to me.
What you are actually saying, is that it's low-class to be a Sofian, as the Sofian tongue is part of that identity.
You do realize that Sofia is the most high-class thing to be found in Bulgaria, right?
Get your facts straight please.
I use Sofian (as much as I know and can) by default, unless maybe I'm on the Black Sea coast, but that's about it. There is absolutely no sane reason as to why I shouldn't.

because it  sounds less refined, *mostly by pronouncing the Slavic yat as "e"* 
Again, get your facts straight please. It doesn't sound less refined in the slightest sense; you are making yourself look completely ridiculous now...
Do I honestly have to inform you of the old pronunciation of the yat?
Please, really, stop making me laugh...
Especially for you though, as you find it acceptable to make fun of dialects, I will give you my own opinion, in contrast of your own opinion (which you declare to be a given fact): pronunciation as the yat as "ja" is by far the most ugly, horrible, and plain peasantish sounding feature of Eastern Bulgarian.

*In addition, educated people in Sofia do not speak with that dialect,
*In addition, you are spreading even more complete and unfounded nonsense.


In conclusion, I won't even dream of apologizing for my hard tone, as you opened the door for me.
You are shamelessly insulting whole groups of people, and even more so without any explainable reason. Well you (think) have a reason, but it's founded on fantasy and personal bias. Who do you think you are? God? Get a grip on yourself please, and try not to act like a thirteen in a dozen pretentious villager. I seriously do beg you.
Nevertheless, I will thank you for some lessons that you've learned me:
- I'm stupid and uneducated
- My girlfriend is stupid and uneducated
- My mother-in-law is stupid and uneducated
- My friends are stupid and uneducated

Good day.


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## Kartof

Bog Svarog said:


> Dear Darkchild, no matter how long and hard you keep yelling your own opinion, it just won't turn into reality. What you are saying is just *your* opinion, and I can assure you that it means absolutely nothing to me.
> This is really snobbery of the worst kind that you are displaying here. Besides, you are just blatantly offending people, on no base whatsoever. Do you actually believe any of the nonsense you are saying? I honestly hope not...
> But alas, I will vent my opinion of some of your "facts" regardless.



Let's get the facts straight here, shall we?  First of all, there is no reason to insult anyone for their opinion.  Calling Darkchild a snob is an unfounded accusation.  When Darkchild discussed how dialects were less preferred than the standard language, he used the term "unprestigious" meaning that the dialects aren't held as the language of the cultural elite, which they aren't, that much is true.  He never referred to the dialects of four million people as "peasantish" which you did when discussing the eastern dialects.

The fact of the matter is, is that no one really speaks purely standard Bulgarian except for television personalities.  In reality, everyone's speech is affect to some degree by their local dialects.  It just so happens that standard Bulgarian is the language used in schools and universities and in most forms of literature.  Therefore, the more schooling you've gotten and the more literature you've read, the more you've been exposed to standard Bulgarian.  It's from there that most people tend to align their own speech with that of standard Bulgarian because it is easier to communicate with the language to people from all parts of Bulgaria and because the large exposure to standard Bulgarian and the significant amount of dialect leveling that has occurred in Bulgarian history makes it easier to maintain correct standard Bulgarian speech rather than the correct dialectal forms of Bulgarian.

Also, the reason why the Sofian dialect isn't regarded as prestigiously as standard Bulgarian is because, unlike most countries, standard Bulgarian is not the codified language of the capital.  Standard Bulgarian was a compromise between eastern and western Bulgarian in order to create more national unity in Bulgaria.  The Sofian dialect maintains overwhelmingly most features of western Bulgarian dialects.  However, in the actual city itself, there have been so many migrants from other parts of Bulgaria that the dialect within the city has begun to merge closer to standard Bulgarian.  You can look at the facts yourself; Sofia's population has more than doubled from 1946 and has increased by more than 10% in the past ten years alone.  In the past ten years, Bulgaria's population has fallen because of emigration, yet Sofia continues to grow.  This is because of people who moved from other parts of Bulgaria to find better work, to work for the government, etc.  

In addition, I have read some of your other posts and you seem to be vehemently against standard languages in general.  Well, they aren't going anywhere.  You may find it unfortunate that people are losing their local pronunciations in exchange for standard Bulgarian pronunciation, but, in reality, the dialectical forms aren't going anywhere.  However, I find standard Bulgarian a much more beautiful thing that most dialects because it represents compromise and working together from the side of the Bulgarian people. 

No matter how much you try to run away from it, you can't escape the standard language because it's linked to a Bulgarian national identity and to most forms of linguistic culture produced in Bulgaria.  It's not shameful to use a dialect, but there's a time and a place.  The most appropriate time to use a dialect is with friends and family, the least is with strangers and people of authority.

Also, I don't think it's as big a deal as you make it out to be to speak a dialect.  Some languages, like Arabic, have the standard language and the local dialects as completely separate, and almost mutually unintelligible languages.  Bulgarian isn't like that.  Speaking the standard language isn't a mark of snobbery, but rather the admittance and respect for OTHER dialects of your language.  In my opinion, it's very pretentious to use your own dialect amongst people who don't speak that dialect.  Speaking the standard language is only common courtesy.


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## Arath

It is a fact that most people in Bulgaria consider the usage of the original dialects (both eastern and western) as unprestigious and as a marker of poor education. The most likely scenario if a 20-year-old person goes to university and uses "ja, on, oti, and so on" is that they will be ridiculed, ostracized and eventually forced to conform to the standard norm. BogSvarog, don't get angry at me. It is not I who decides these things.


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## DarkChild

Bog Svarog, no one cares about your girlfriend, her education, and her dialect. You can keep giving me thousand of examples about how she talks, it doesn't make a difference. She's not representative of what most young educated people in Sofia are like. 
I think you just like to come here and provoke arguments.


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