The Bulgarian Language and Alphabet
A South Slavic language
Bulgarian belongs to the eastern group of the South Slavic languages. Its closest relative is Macedonian, and the two share features that set them apart from all other Slavic languages. It is the language of the Bulgarians and is also spoken by Bulgarian communities in neighbouring countries and further afield.1
- Official language of Bulgaria, and an official language of the European Union since 2007.
- Recognised minority language in Albania, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Moldova, Romania, Serbia, Turkey and Ukraine.
- About 6.8 million people speak it as a first language and about 1.2 million as a second language.
Source: Wikipedia: Bulgarian language1
The Cyrillic alphabet
The Cyrillic alphabet was developed in the First Bulgarian Empire in the 9th and 10th centuries at the Preslav Literary School, and Bulgaria has used it ever since. Every year on 24 May the country celebrates the Day of Bulgarian Culture and the Slavonic alphabet.2,3
The modern alphabet has 30 letters. A 32-letter version proposed by Marin Drinov came into use in the 1870s; the spelling reform of 1945 dropped yat (ѣ) and yus (ѫ). When Bulgaria joined the EU on 1 January 2007, Cyrillic became the third official script of the European Union, after Latin and Greek.2
| А а | Б б | В в | Г г | Д д | Е е |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ж ж | З з | И и | Й й | К к | Л л |
| М м | Н н | О о | П п | Р р | С с |
| Т т | У у | Ф ф | Х х | Ц ц | Ч ч |
| Ш ш | Щ щ | Ъ ъ | Ь ь | Ю ю | Я я |
Source: Wikipedia: Bulgarian alphabet2
What makes Bulgarian different
Compared with other Slavic languages, Bulgarian grammar has some unusual features.1
- No noun cases: nouns no longer change their endings for case.
- A suffixed definite article: “the” is added to the end of the word rather than placed before it.
- No infinitive: verbs have no infinitive form.
- Evidential verb forms: verbs can show whether the speaker saw something, inferred it or heard it from someone else.
Source: Wikipedia: Bulgarian language1
Frequently Asked Questions
How many people speak Bulgarian?
About 6.8 million people speak Bulgarian as a first language, and 7.9 million speak it in total, including about 1.2 million second-language speakers.
How many letters are in the Bulgarian alphabet?
The modern Bulgarian alphabet has 30 letters. A 32-letter version came into use in the 1870s, and the 1945 spelling reform dropped yat and yus.
When did Cyrillic become an official script of the European Union?
Cyrillic became the European Union’s third official script on 1 January 2007, after Latin and Greek. Bulgarian has been an official EU language since 2007.
Sources
Facts checked 13 October 2026. Prepared by InvestBulgaria for general information.
