Teteven dialect explained

The Teteven dialect is a Bulgarian dialect, which is part of the Balkan group of the Eastern Bulgarian dialects. It is spoken in the town of Teteven and several neighbouring villages and is almost completely surrounded by the Central Balkan dialect, except on the west where it borders on the Western Bulgarian Botevgrad dialect. The most significant feature of the dialect, as in all Balkan dialects, is the pronunciation of Old Church Slavonic ѣ (yat) as pronounced as /ʲa/ or pronounced as /ɛ/, depending on the character of the following syllable.

Phonological and morphological characteristics

• The articulation of yat generally follows the Central Balkan dialect. However, the Teteven dialect features a much greater number of cases of articulation of pronounced as /ʲa/ than either the Balkan dialects or Standard Bulgarian, e.g. before ж pronounced as //ʒ//, ш pronounced as //ʃ//, ч pronounced as //tʃ//, in one-syllable words and in certain verbs. This brings the Teteven dialect closer to certain Rup dialects: черpronounced as /ʲa/ша vs. formal Bulgarian череша (cherry), мpronounced as /ʲa/т vs. formal Bulgarian мет (honey; Proto-Slavic медъ, without yat)

• Articulation of Old Church Slavonic ѫ (yus) and ъ as broad е (pronounced as /æ/) in a stressed syllable and as a slightly reduced a in an unstressed syllable, as in the Erkech dialect: зpronounced as /æ/п vs. formal зъп, даждpronounced as /æ/ vs. formal дъждът
• pronounced as /ɛ/ for Old Church Slavonic little yus (ѧ) with palatalisation of the preceding consonant: кл҄етва ^[1] vs. formal Bulgarian клетва (oath)
• Transition of a into e only after a soft (palatal) consonant and ч pronounced as //tʃ// but not before ж pronounced as //ʒ// and ш pronounced as //ʃ// (cf. Balkan dialects)
• Vocalic r and l for Old Church Slavonic ръ/рь and лъ/ль as in the Northwestern Bulgarian dialects instead of the combinations ръ/ър (pronounced as /rə/~pronounced as /ər/) and лъ/ъл (pronounced as /lə/~pronounced as /əl/) in Standard Bulgarian - дрво, слза instead of дърво, сълза (tree, tear)
• The masculine definite article is broad е (pronounced as /æ/) in a stressed syllable and as a slightly reduced a in an unstressed syllable: даж'дpronounced as /æ/ vs. formal Bulgarian дъж'дът
• Ending e instead of formal Bulgarian i for plural past active aorist participles (биле instead of били), as in the Northwestern Bulgarian dialects
• Ending e instead of formal Bulgarian i for multi-syllable masculine nouns (българе instead of българи)

Most of the other phonological and morphological characteristics of the Erkech dialect are similar to the general features typical for all Balkan dialects, cf. article for details.

Sources

Стойков, Стойко: Българска диалектология, Акад. изд. "Проф. Марин Дринов", 2006 http://www.promacedonia.org/jchorb/st/st_2_b_izt_2.htm#tetevenski

References

1. The diacritic ◌҄ indicates palatalization.