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Torlakian or Torlak is a name given to the group of South Slavic dialects of southeastern Serbia (southern Kosovo - Prizren), northeastern Macedonia (Kratovo-Kumanovo), western Bulgaria (Belogradchik-Godech-Tran-Breznik), which is intermediate between Serbian, Bulgarian and Macedonian

Some linguists classify it as an Old-Shtokavian dialect of Serbian or a fourth dialect of Serbo-Croatian (along with Shtokavian, Chakavian, and Kajkavian). Other linguists classify it as a western Bulgarian dialect, in which case it is called Transitional. Torlakian is not standardized, and its subdialects significantly vary in some features.

Speakers of the dialectal group are primarily ethnic Serbs, Bulgarians, and Macedonians. There are also smaller ethnic communities of Krashovani in Romania (who mostly identify as Croats), and Gorani in southern Kosovo.

Classification

During the 19th century Torlakian and Macedonian dialects were often called Bulgarian, and Bulgarian and Serbian linguists and armies fought to draw the border between the both languages during the end of 19th and the first half of 20th centuries.

Most Serbian (like Pavle Ivić, Asim Peco) and Croatian linguists (like Milan Rešetar and Dalibor Brozović) classify Torlakian as an Old-Shtokavian dialect, referring to it as the Prizren-Timok dialect. Serbian linguist Pavle Ivić argues that some Bulgarian dialects have more similarities to Serbian rather than vice versa, maintaining that the Prizren-Timok dialect is a fully Serbian vernacular, also stressing that the so-called Transitional Bulgarian dialects and the Shopi idiom have in some cases more Western South Slavic elements than Eastern. All old Bulgarian scientists as Krste Misirkov, Benyo Tsonev and Gavril Zanetov classified Torlakian as dialect of Bulgarian language. They noted the manner of the articles, the lack of most of the cases, etc. Today Bulgarian linguists (Stoyko Stoykov, Rangel Bozhkov) also classify Torlakian as a "Belogradchik-Tran" dialect of Bulgarian, and claim that it should be classified outside the Shtokavian area.

Characteristics shared with Eastern South Slavic

• Loss of grammatical case as in Bulgarian and Macedonian
• Loss of infinitive as in Bulgarian and Macedonian, present in Serbian
• Full retention of the aorist and the imperfect, as in Bulgarian
• Use of a definite article as in Bulgarian and Macedonian, lacking in Serbian
• ə for Old Slavic ь and ъ in all positions (Bulgarian sən, Serbian san)
• Lack of phonetic pitch and length as in Bulgarian, present in Serbian
• Frequent stress on the final syllable in polysyllabilic words, impossible in Serbian (Bulgarian že'na, Serbian 'žena)
• Preservation of final l, which in Serbian developed to o (Bulgarian bil, Serbian bio)
• Comparative degree of adjectives formed with the particle po as in Eastern South Slavic,ubav, po-ubav, Serbian lep, lepše.
• Lack of epenthetic l, as in Eastern South Slavic zdravje/zdrave, Serbian zdravlje

Characteristics shared with Western South Slavic

In all Torlakian dialects

• ǫ gave labials u like Shtokavian Serbian, unlike unlabialized ъ in literary Bulgarian and a in Macedonian)
• vь- gave u in Western, v- in Eastern
• *čr gave cr in Western, but was preserved in Eastern
• Distinction between Proto-Slavic /ɲ/ and /n/ is lost in Eastern (S.-C. njega, Bulgarian nego).
• Consonants in final position preserve their leniency (S.-C. grad, Bulgarian/Macedonian grat)
• *vs stays preserved without metathesis in Eastern (S.-C. sve, Bulgarian vse)
• Genitive njega as in Serbian, unlike old genitive on O in Eastern (nego)
• Nominative plural of nomina on -a is on -e in Western, -i in Eastern
• Ja 'I, ego' in Western, as in Eastern
• Mi 'we' in Western, nie in Eastern
• First person singular of verbs is -m in Western, and the old reflex of *ǫ in Eastern
• suffixes *-itjь (-ić) and *-atja (-ača) are common in Western, not known in Eastern

In some Torlakian dialects

• Distinction between the plural of masculine, feminine and neuter adjectives is preserved only in Western (S.C. beli, bele, bela), not in Eastern (beli for masc., fem. and neutr.), does not occur in Belogradchik area, in some eastern regions there is just a masculine and feminine form
• The proto-Slavic *tj, *dj which gave respectively ć, đ in Serbian , št, žd in Bulgarian and ќ, ѓ in Macedonian, is represented by the Serbian form in the west and northwest and by the hybrid č, dž in the east: Belogradchik and Tran, as well as Pirot, Gora, northern Macedonia. The Macedonian form occurs around Kumanovo.

Notes on speech

The varieties spoken in the Slavic countries has been heavily influenced by the standardized national language, particularly when a new word or concept was introduced. The only exception is a form of Torlakian spoken in Romania, which escaped the influence of a standardized language which has existed in Serbia since a state was created after the defeat of the Ottoman Empire. The Slavs indigenous to the region are called Krašovani (Krashovans), and are a mixture of original settler Slavs and later settlers from Timočka Krajina (eastern Serbia).

Notes on geography

Torlakian dialects appear where Macedonian/Bulgarian blend into Serbian. Many of the Torlakian features from these parts also blend into the Shop dialects.

Vocabulary

Basic Torlakian vocabulary shares most of its Slavic roots with Serbian, Bulgarian, and Macedonian, but also over time borrowed a number of words from Aromanian, Greek, Turkish, and Albanian in the Gora region of the Šar mountains. Also, it preserved many words which in the "major" languages became archaisms or changed meaning. Like other features, vocabulary is inconsistent across subdialects: for example, a Krashovan need not necessarily understand a Goranac.

Cases lacking inflections

Macedonian and Bulgarian are the only two modern Slavic languages that lost virtually the entire noun case system, with nearly all nouns spoken in the surviving nominative case. This is also true of the Torlakian dialect. In the northwest, the instrumental case merges into the genitive case, and the locative and genitive cases merge into the nominative case. Further south, all inflections disappear and meaning is determined solely by prepositions.

Lack of phoneme /x/

Macedonian, Torlakian and a number of Serbian and Bulgarian dialects, unlike all other Slavic languages, technically have no phoneme like [x], [ɦ] or [h]. In other Slavic languages, [x] or [ɦ] (from Proto-Slavic *g in "H-Slavic languages") is common.

The appearance of the letter h in the alphabet is reserved mostly for loanwords, and toponyms within the Republic of Macedonia but outside of the standard language region. In Macedonian, this is the case with eastern towns such as Pehčevo. In fact, the Macedonian language is based in Prilep, Pelagonia and words such as thousand and urgent are iljada and itno in standard Macedonian but hiljada and hitno in Serbian (also, Macedonian oro, ubav vs Bulgarian horo, hubav (folk dance, beautiful)). This is actually a part of an isogloss, a dividing line separating Prilep from Pehčevo in the Republic of Macedonia at the southern extreme, and reaching central Serbia (Šumadija) at a northern extreme. In Šumadija, local folk songs may still use the traditional form of I want being oću (оћу) compared with hoću (хоћу) as spoken in standard Serbian.

Syllabic /l/

Torlakian has preserved much of the ancient syllabic /l/, which, like /r/, can serve the nucleus of a syllable. This is still the case in some West Slavic languages. In Shtokavian dialects, the syllabic /l/ eventually became /u/ or /o/. In Bulgarian, it became preceded by the vowel represented by ъ ([ɤ] or [ə]), to separate consonant clusters. Not all Torlakian subdialects preserved the syllabic /l/ to the full extent, but it is reflected either as full syllabic or in various combinations with , , or . Naturally, the /l/ becomes velarized in most such positions, giving [ɫ].

Science

According to one theory, the name Torlak derives from the South Slavic word "tor" ("sheepfold" in English), referring to the fact that Torlaks in the past were mainly shepherds by occupation. According to Konstantin Panaiotov, the lowlanders of northeastern Bulgaria understand Torlak as "Barbarian Balkanic villager of northeastern Bulgaria.

Some Bulgarian scientists describe the Torlaks as a distinct ethnographic group. Serbian scientists, if having to put a label on the "Torlaks", put them under the wider Shopi group.

Literature written in Torlakian is rather sparse, as the dialect has never been an official language, and for the most part of the literary history in the region was limited to Eastern Orthodox clergy, which chiefly used Old Church Slavonic in writing. The first known literary monument, influenced by Torlakian dialects is the Temska manuscript from 1762, in which its author, the Monk Kiril Zhivkovich from Pirot, consideres his language as: "simple Bulgarian".

Veljko Petrović, who was born outside the Sanjak of Smederevo, in "Torlak area", joined Stanoje Glavaš in 1803, a year prior to the outbreak of the First Serbian Uprising. He fought alongside Karađorđe at Belgrade in 1806, and in 1807 he receives the permission to start uprisings in Krivi Vir and then Crna Reka (Trgovište), he had on his own initiative asked for it. From 1806 until the end of the Uprising in 1813, Timočka Krajina is part of the Revolutionary Serbian government. In 1830, the Turks gave the Serbs in the Sanjak of Smederevo some autonomy, but had divided the previous "Six Nahijas". Miloš Obrenović, in 1833, travels to Timočka Krajina and plans a revolt, quickly in the same year, the sultan acknowledges Obrenović' jurisdiction over the region. In the period of December 1833 and February 1834, an Ottoman-Serbian comission decides the borders between the two, in which the Stara Planina is used, and the population that is called "Torlaks" lives on both sides. Sine 1878, the border of the Stara Planina continues as the border between Serbia and newly found Bulgaria. With emphasis on that more than 170 years have gone by with different fates, overly negative state relations, it is not strange that "Torlaks" on both sides of the border claim different ethnicity, also not knowing of eachother.

In the 19th century, there were no exact border between Torlak and Shopi settlements. According to some authors during Ottoman rule, the majority of native Torlakian Slavic population did not have national consciousness in an ethnic sense. Therefore, both, Serbs and Bulgarians, considered local Slavs as part of their own people, while local population was also divided between sympathy for Bulgarians and Serbs.

Jérôme-Adolphe Blanqui, when traveling across Bulgaria in 1841, describes the population of the Sanjak of Niš as Bulgarians. Felix Philipp Kanitz recalled in the end of the 19th century that the inhabitants of Pirot were divided on the issue of nationality, many in the older generation had fondess of Bulgarians, leading to a collision with the Serbian government.

With Ottoman influence ever weakening, the increase of nationalist sentiment in the Balkans in late 19th and early 20th century, and the redrawing of national boundaries after the Treaty of Berlin (1878), the Balkan wars and World War I, the borders in the Torlakian-speaking region changed several times between Serbia and Bulgaria, and later Republic of Macedonia.

Research

See also

• Balkan linguistic union
• Shtokavian dialect
• Shopi
• Gorani
• Krashovani

References

1. Concise encyclopedia of languages of the world, Keith Brown, Sarah Ogilvie, Elsevier, 2008, ISBN 0080877745, p.120.
2. ^ Pavle Ivić, Dijalektološka karta štokavskog narečja
3. ^ Ivić Pavle, Dijalektologija srpskohtrvatskog jezika, 2001, 25 (also published in German)
4. Josip Lisac, Osnovne značajke torlačkoga narječja
5. ^ Krstić Dejan, p. 3
6. Bŭlgarska etnografiia, Nikolaĭ Ivanov Kolev, Izdatelstvo Nauka i izkustvo, 1987, p. 69.
7. Istoricheski pregled, Bŭlgarsko istorichesko druzhestvo, Institut za istoriia (Bŭlgarska akademia na naukite), 1984, str. 16.
8. Българскиият език през 20-ти век. Василка Радева, Издател Pensoft Publishers, 2001, ISBN 9546421138, стр. 280-281.
9. Василев, В.П. Темският ръкопис – български езиков паметник от 1764 г, Paleobulgarica, IX (1986), кн. 1, с. 49-72
10. ^ Krstić Dejan, p. 1
11. ^ Krstić Dejan, p. 2
12. Jérôme-Adolphe Blanqui, „Voyage en Bulgarie pendant l'année 1841“ (Жером-Адолф Бланки. Пътуване из България през 1841 година. Прев. от френски Ел. Райчева, предг. Ив. Илчев. София: Колибри, 2005, 219 с. ISBN 978-954-529-367-2.) The author describes the population of Sanjak of Niš as ethnic Bulgarians.
13. Felix Philipp Kanitz, (Das Konigreich Serbien und das Serbenvolk von der Romerzeit bis dur Gegenwart, 1904, in two volumes) # "In this time (1872) they (the inhabitants of Pirot) did not presume that six years later the often damn Turkish rule in their town will be finished, and at least they did not presume that they will be include in Serbia, because they always feel that they are Bulgarians. ("Србија, земља и становништво од римског доба до краја XIX века", Друга књига, Београд 1986, p. 215)...And today (in the end of XIX century) among the older generation there are many fondness to Bulgarians, that it led him to collision with Serbian government. Some hesitation can be noticed among the youngs..." ("Србија, земља и становништво од римског доба до краја XIX века", Друга књига, Београд 1986, c. 218; Serbia - its land and inhabitants, Belgrade 1986, p. 218)

Sources

• БАН (2001). Български диалектален атлас (in Bulgarian). София: Издателство "Труд". p. 218. ISBN 954-90344-1-0.
• Friedman, Victor (2006). "Determination and Doubling in Balkan Borderlands" (PDF). Harvard Ukrainian Studies. 1–4: 105–116.
• Friedman, Victor (2008). "Balkan Slavic Dialectology and Balkan Linguistics: Periphery as Center" (PDF). American Contributions to the 14th International Congress of Slavists. 1:Linguistics: 131–148.
• A Handbook of Bosnian, Serbian, and Croatian (by Wayles Brown and Theresa Alt)
• Стойков, Стойко: Българска диалектология, Акад. изд. "Проф. Марин Дринов", 2006.
• Dijalekti istočne i južne Srbije, Aleksandar Belić, Srpski dijalektološki zbornik, 1, 1905.
• Sprachatlas Ostserbiens und Westbulgariens, Andrej N. Sobolev. Vol. I-III. Biblion Verlag, Marburg, 1998.
• Encyclopedia of the Languages of Europe, Glanville Price, Blackwell Publishing, p. 423.
• Language and Conflict: A Neglected Relationship, Dan Smith, Paul A Chilton - Language Arts & Disciplines, 1998, Page 59
• South Slavic and Balkan Linguistics, A. Barentsen, Rodopi, 1982
• Hrvatska dijalektologija 1, Josip Lisac, Golden marketing – Tehnička knjiga, Zagreb, 2003.
• The Slavonic Languages, Bernard Comrie, Greville G Corbett - Foreign Language Study, 2002, pp 382–384.
• Etnokulturne razlike između Torlaka u Srbiji i Torlaka u Bugarskoj, Krstić Dejan, - Glasnik Etnografskog muzeja u Beogradu 2003-2004, br. 67-68, str. 139-153 PDF

• South Slavic languages
• Serbian dialects
• Dialects of the Macedonian language
• Dialects of the Bulgarian language