Hello! Welcome!
Let’s begin with
The Bulgarian Alphabet
Азбука
| Cyrillic
letter |
Transliterated
|
Pronunciation /
(approximate sound-correspondence as in English)
|
| A а | a | father |
| Б б | b | bag, boy abide |
| В в | v | very, video, evidence |
| Г г | g | good, Google |
| Д д | d | day, doll, add |
| Е е | e | egg, best, bet |
| Ж ж | ž – academic;
zh – popular; |
pleasure, treasure |
| З з | z | Zen, zebra, to use |
| И и | i | milk, mix, mall |
| Й й (i-kratko, meaning
i-short) |
j; i ( found only with a vowel in front or after “й“) | yard, Yosemite, mayonnaise
|
| К к | k | king |
| Л л | l | love, alive |
| М м | m | mum, Maria |
| Н н | n | none, noise, instance |
| О о | o | olive, or |
| П п | p | pen, spin |
| Р р | r | rest – trilled -r-, close to “r” in Spanish, German, and other European languages |
| С с | s; (ss) | seat, sister |
| Т т | t | tea, stiff
-t- is pronounced without the puff of breath that normally accompanies it in English |
| У у | u; (ou) | put, boot |
| Ф ф | f | fun, feature, tough |
| Х х | h (kh) | how (velar -ch-) |
| Ц ц | c; ts | tsar |
| Ч ч | č; ch | children, church |
| Ш ш | š; sh | she |
| Щ щ | št; sht | ashtray |
| Ъ ъ | ǎ
between “a” and “u” – [a] (English unstressed [a] |
sofa |
| ь | ’
it appears always with a vowel “o” – ьo; signifies that the preceding consonant is soft |
|
| Ю ю | ju; iu; (yu) – signifies sequence of soft consonant + -у- | you |
| Я я | ja; ia (ya) – signifies sequence of soft consonant + -а- | yard |
For further references please see
Alexander, Ronelle (with the assistance of Olga Mladenova). 2000. Intensive Bulgarian: A textbook and reference grammar, Volume 1. Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press.