Bulgalingo
The Bulgarian alphabet, one letter at a time — for adults who read only Latin letters.
Why Cyrillic, how this book works
Bulgarian is written in Cyrillic, the alphabet created for the Slavic languages in Bulgaria in the 9th century and the EU's third script since 2007. It has 30 letters. Six of them you already know, six look familiar but lie to you, nine have new shapes for sounds you already make, and nine are new sounds. Every letter has a name Bulgarians use when they spell, and every letter has four faces: the printed shape, the Bulgarian printed shape, the italic and the handwritten one. This book shows all four. Tap any Bulgarian word to hear it.
1 Free letters
Same look, same sound
2 Traitors
Latin look, other sound
3 New faces, old sounds
Sounds you can already make
4 The Bulgarian sounds
Nine letters that make Bulgarian Bulgarian
5 Combinations and rhythm
дж, ьо, where the stress falls, and what happens at the end of a word
- дж дж = j
- дз дз = dz
- йо / ьо yo, two spellings
- ай ей ой уй vowel + й
- stress Stress is unmarked and unpredictable
- а→ъ, о→у Unstressed vowels relax
- б в г д ж з at the end Voiced consonants go quiet at the end of a word
This chapter's pages come after the letter pages.
Later (v1.1)
- 6 The four faces — Print, Bulgarian print, italic, handwriting
- 7 Instant wins — Words you already know, once you can read them
- 8 Type it — The Bulgarian keyboard on your phone