Bulgarian
Indo-European family · Slavic branch · Eurasia
Bulgarian is an SVO language, like 488 of the 1,376 languages WALS codes for basic word order.
Within the Slavic branch, all 7 other languages coded for Position of Case Affixes have the value “Case suffixes”; Bulgarian has “Neither case affixes nor adpositional clitics”.
On Suppletion in Imperatives and Hortatives, WALS codes Bulgarian as “A regular and a suppletive form alternate”, a value held by 8 of the 193 languages coded, Serbian-Croatian and Hungarian among them.
Contrast Bulgarian with Greek (Modern) or with any other language
Uncommon values
Values that fewer than one in ten of the coded languages share with Bulgarian, rarest first.
- Coding of EvidentialityPart of the tense system24 of 418
- Position of Polar Question ParticlesQuestion particle in second position in sentence52 of 884
- Relativization on SubjectsRelative pronoun12 of 166
- Order of Subject and VerbBoth orders with neither order dominant110 of 1,496
- Order of Genitive and NounBoth orders occur with neither order dominant96 of 1,249
- Distributive NumeralsMarked by preceding word21 of 251
- Reciprocal ConstructionsMixed16 of 175
Inside the Indo-European family
Bulgarian matches the most frequent Indo-European value on 51 of the 69 features where at least three other members of the family are coded (74%). Among the 39 Indo-European languages profiled here, that rate ranks fourth from the top.
Closest profiles
Languages that share the most coded values with Bulgarian; the count is out of the features both languages are coded for.
Outside the Indo-European family, the best match is Nahuatl (Tetelcingo) (Uto-Aztecan), with 36 of 55 features alike.
The rest of the profile
WALS codes Bulgarian for 69 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 59 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value Bulgarian shares with the fewest languages comes first.
Sounds 13
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Voicing in Plosives and Fricatives | Voicing contrast in both plosives and fricatives | 158 of 567 |
| Syllable Structure | Complex syllable structure | 151 of 486 |
| Consonant Inventories | Average | 201 of 563 |
| Consonant-Vowel Ratio | Average | 234 of 564 |
| Voicing and Gaps in Plosive Systems | /p t k b d g/ | 255 of 567 |
| Vowel Quality Inventories | Average vowel inventory (5-6) | 287 of 564 |
| Tone | No tones | 307 of 527 |
| Lateral Consonants | /l/, no obstruent laterals | 388 of 567 |
| Glottalized Consonants | No glottalized consonants | 409 of 567 |
| Presence of Uncommon Consonants | None | 449 of 567 |
| Uvular Consonants | No uvulars | 470 of 567 |
| Absence of Common Consonants | All present | 503 of 567 |
| Front Rounded Vowels | None | 525 of 562 |
Word structure 1
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology | Predominantly suffixing | 406 of 969 |
Nouns and pronouns 10
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Ordinal Numerals | First, second, three-th | 61 of 321 |
| Asymmetrical Case-Marking | Additive-quantitatively asymmetrical case-marking | 53 of 261 |
| The Associative Plural | Special bound associative plural marker | 48 of 236 |
| Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes | No possessive affixes | 260 of 902 |
| Definite Articles | Definite word distinct from demonstrative | 216 of 620 |
| Number of Cases | No morphological case-marking | 100 of 261 |
| Intensifiers and Reflexive Pronouns | Intensifiers and reflexive pronouns are formally differentiated | 74 of 168 |
| Coding of Nominal Plurality | Plural suffix | 513 of 1,066 |
| Indefinite Pronouns | Interrogative-based indefinites | 194 of 326 |
| Numeral Classifiers | Numeral classifiers are absent | 260 of 400 |
Noun phrases 2
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Action Nominal Constructions | Ergative-Possessive | 21 of 168 |
| Noun Phrase Conjunction | AND-languages: 'and' and 'with' are not identical | 131 of 234 |
Verbs: tense, mood, evidence 12
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Semantic Distinctions of Evidentiality | Both direct and indirect evidentials | 71 of 418 |
| Suppletion According to Tense and Aspect | Suppletion according to tense | 36 of 193 |
| The Prohibitive | Special imperative + special negative | 146 of 496 |
| Imperative-Hortative Systems | The language has a maximal system, but not a minimal one | 133 of 375 |
| The Perfect | Other perfect | 80 of 222 |
| The Past Tense | Past/non-past distinction marked; no remoteness distinction | 94 of 222 |
| Perfective/Imperfective Aspect | Grammatical marking of perfective/imperfective distinction | 101 of 222 |
| The Future Tense | No inflectional marking of future/non-future distinction | 112 of 222 |
| The Morphological Imperative | Second singular and second plural | 292 of 548 |
| Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes | Tense-aspect suffixes | 667 of 1,131 |
| Verbal Number and Suppletion | No singular-(dual)-plural pairs/triples | 159 of 193 |
| The Optative | Inflectional optative absent | 271 of 319 |
Word order 10
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Order of Adjective and Noun | Modifying adjective precedes noun (AdjN) | 373 of 1,367 |
| Position of Interrogative Phrases in Content Questions | Interrogative phrases obligatorily initial | 264 of 902 |
| Order of Numeral and Noun | Numeral precedes noun (NumN) | 479 of 1,154 |
| Order of Object, Oblique, and Verb | Verb-object-oblique (VOX) | 210 of 500 |
| Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase | Prepositions | 511 of 1,184 |
| Order of Demonstrative and Noun | Demonstrative word precedes noun (DemN) | 542 of 1,225 |
| Order of Object and Verb | Object follows verb (VO) | 705 of 1,518 |
| Order of Degree Word and Adjective | Degree word precedes adjective (DegAdj) | 227 of 481 |
| Order of Adverbial Subordinator and Clause | Initial subordinator word | 398 of 659 |
| Order of Relative Clause and Noun | Relative clause follows noun (NRel) | 579 of 824 |
Simple clauses 7
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Nominal and Locational Predication | Identical | 117 of 386 |
| Predicative Adjectives | Predicative adjectives have nonverbal encoding | 132 of 386 |
| Negative Morphemes | Negative particle | 502 of 1,157 |
| Zero Copula for Predicate Nominals | Zero copula is impossible | 211 of 386 |
| Polar Questions | Question particle | 585 of 955 |
| Expression of Pronominal Subjects | Pronominal subjects are expressed by affixes on verbs | 437 of 711 |
| Negative Indefinite Pronouns and Predicate Negation | Negative indefinites co-occur with predicate negation | 170 of 206 |
Complex sentences 2
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Relativization on Obliques | Relative Pronoun Strategy | 13 of 112 |
| 'Want' Complement Subjects | The complement subject is expressed overtly | 72 of 283 |
Vocabulary 1
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Tea | Words derived from Sinitic cha | 110 of 230 |
Other 1
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Para-Linguistic Usages of Clicks | Clicks may express logical meanings ('yes' and/or 'no') | 47 of 143 |