Name of Excellence: Bulgarian Language Grammar Textbooks from the Revival Period
Author: Prof. Boian Valtchev, Dr. Habil., Department of Bulgarian Language, Room 139А
Research domain: History of Bulgarian Literary Language, History of Bulgarian Philological Thought, Theory of Literary Languages, Sociolinguistics
| Prof. Boian Valtchev, Dr. Habil. is a lecturer at the Faculty of Slavic Studies, Department of Bulgarian Language. He specialised in the group of Prof. Al. Mladenivić аt the University of Novi Sad, Serbia. He taught courses and delivered lectures at the universities of Berlin, Blagoevgrad, Cologne, Krakow, and Saarbrücken. Author of over 200 scientific publications and 5 monographic books. Participant in dozens of scientific conferences and research projects in Bulgaria and abroad. Chairman of the Department of Philological Studies at the Union of Scientists in Bulgaria, Chief editor of “Language and Literature” journal, and member of the editorial boards of the journals “Variety in Unity” and “MAJESS” (Multilingual Academic Journal of Education and Social Sciences) (Florina/Greece). | |
| Prof. Boian Valtchev, Dr. Habil. |
Nowadays, a number of discrepancies could be found between the mass literary language practice in real life and what is formulated in grammar textbooks and dictionary rules. This means that over the time the language has deviated in its development from what was written decades ago in the manuals, i.e. codified. A lot of examples supporting this could be seen today.
The aim of this research is to identify and analyse the codification “myths” that should be abandoned today.
In the course of the study, 29 grammar textbooks of Bulgarian language, created from 1835 until 1875, were examined.
Along with this examination and comparison of the grammar textbooks, special attention is paid to their authors, which gives the study a sociolinguistic character. Thus, it became possible to connect a number of theoretical achievements and personal shaping of grammarians who usually follow the line set by their teachers. It turns out that the continuity and tradition have both positive and negative influence, as in this case it comes from foreign models. For example, the Bulgarian grammarians were not able to understand for a long time that the new Bulgarian language has no grammar cases and they did not differentiate between definite articles and case endings.
Along with the development of grammatical thought, the educational situation in Bulgaria is also traced, as well as the overall literary output that inevitably reflects different opinions from the grammar textbooks.
A significant achievement is the summary of the results in regard to the parts of the speech.
This research is addressed to the theory of grammatical thought, as well as to the practice of the society with its institutions. The contemporary coders of language and orthography can benefit a lot from it.
In 2009, the book of Prof. Valtchev dedicated to the present research received the Award of High Scientific Achievements of the Union of the Scientists in Bulgaria.
The perceptions of three generations of Bulgarian grammarians about the forms of the definite article of the noun masculine singular, reflected in their grammars (left to right): Neofit Rilski (Bolgarska grammatika. Kragujevac, 1835), Ivan Bogorov (Parvichka balgarska grammatika. Bucharest, 1844), and Ivan Momchilov (Grammatika za novobalgarskija ezik. Ruschuk, 1868)