The Balkan mountain range is located in the eastern part of the Balkans in Southeastern Europe . The range is conventionally taken to begin at the peak of Vrashka Chuka on the border between Bulgaria and Serbia . It then runs for about 560 kilometres (350 mi), first in a south-easterly direction along the border, then eastward across Bulgaria, forming a natural barrier between the northern and southern halves of the country, before finally reaching the Black Sea at Cape Emine . The mountains reach their highest point with Botev Peak at 2,376 metres (7,795 ft).
112-473: Karlovo ( Bulgarian : Карлово [ˈkarɫovo] ) is a historically important town in central Bulgaria located in a fertile valley along the river Stryama at the southern foot of the Balkan Mountains . It is administratively part of Plovdiv Province and has a population of about 19,373 (as of 2021), the mayor being Dr. Emil Kabaivanov. Karlovo is famous for the worldwide-known rose oil , which
224-532: A consonant and are feminine, as well as nouns that end in –а/–я (most of which are feminine, too) use –та. Nouns that end in –е/–о use –то. The plural definite article is –те for all nouns except for those whose plural form ends in –а/–я; these get –та instead. When postfixed to adjectives the definite articles are –ят/–я for masculine gender (again, with the longer form being reserved for grammatical subjects), –та for feminine gender, –то for neuter gender, and –те for plural. Both groups agree in gender and number with
336-515: A dialect continuum, and there is no well-defined boundary where one language ends and the other begins. Within the limits of the Republic of North Macedonia a strong separate Macedonian identity has emerged since the Second World War, even though there still are a small number of citizens who identify their language as Bulgarian. Beyond the borders of North Macedonia, the situation is more fluid, and
448-593: A feudal possession of Smilets of Bulgaria in the 13th-14th century and the likely capital of his brother despotēs Voysil's short-lived realm. The region became part of the Ottoman Empire in the late 14th century. The modern town originated in 1483 at the place of the village of Sushitsa (still today Sushitsa is one of Karlovo's districts) during the reign of Sultan Bayezit II , and was originally named Karlıova (Karlı's Plain) after its founder Karlızade Lala Ali Bey. The Kurshum Mosque (Leaden Mosque), built in 1485,
560-636: A locally endemic winged bellflower ( Campanula calyciliata ) and Pančić's frog grass ( Senecio pancicii ), which can be found only on the mountain. There are also communities of mountainous sphagnum bogs on the localities of Jabučko Ravnište, Babin Zub and Arbinje. Some 350 herb species are considered medicinal or aromatic . In 2022, several independent surveys from various universities and institutes were conducted, in order to list all of them, to enhance their protection, and to check possibilities for potential plantation production. Vast areas south and southeast from
672-502: A middle ground between the macrodialects. It allows palatalizaton only before central and back vowels and only partial reduction of / a / and / ɔ / . Reduction of / ɛ / , consonant palatalisation before front vowels and depalatalization of palatalized consonants before central and back vowels is strongly discouraged and labelled as provincial. Bulgarian has six vowel phonemes, but at least eight distinct phones can be distinguished when reduced allophones are taken into consideration. There
784-446: A much smaller group of irregular nouns with zero ending which define tangible objects or concepts ( кръв /krɤf/ 'blood', кост /kɔst/ 'bone', вечер /ˈvɛtʃɛr/ 'evening', нощ /nɔʃt/ 'night'). There are also some commonly used words that end in a vowel and yet are masculine: баща 'father', дядо 'grandfather', чичо / вуйчо 'uncle', and others. The plural forms of the nouns do not express their gender as clearly as
896-453: A much smaller scale. The 500 metres (1,600 ft) long gorge is a remnant of the former cave which eroded in time. Underground waters on the mountain reach the surface in the forms of common springs, well-springs ( vrelo ) and diffused springs ( pištevina ). There are some 500 springs with the flow of over 0.1 L/s (1.3 imp gal/min). The strongest spring is the intermittent Jelovičko vrelo , known for its fluctuations, characterized by
1008-569: A number of nature reserves . The Balkan Mountains are remarkable for their flora and fauna. Edelweiss grows there in the region of Kozyata stena . Some of the most striking landscapes are included in the Central Balkan National Park with steep cliffs, the highest waterfalls in the Balkans and lush vegetation. There are a number of important nature reserves such as Chuprene, Kozyata stena and others. Most of Europe 's large mammals inhabit
1120-484: A number of phraseological units and sayings. The major exception are vocative forms, which are still in use for masculine (with the endings -е, -о and -ю) and feminine nouns (-[ь/й]о and -е) in the singular. In modern Bulgarian, definiteness is expressed by a definite article which is postfixed to the noun, much like in the Scandinavian languages or Romanian (indefinite: човек , 'person'; definite: човек ът , "
1232-524: A special count form in –а/–я , which stems from the Proto-Slavonic dual : два/три стола ('two/three chairs') versus тези столове ('these chairs'); cf. feminine две/три/тези книги ('two/three/these books') and neuter две/три/тези легла ('two/three/these beds'). However, a recently developed language norm requires that count forms should only be used with masculine nouns that do not denote persons. Thus, двама/трима ученици ('two/three students')
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#17328520700051344-682: A waterfall. The museum is open year-round working hours: 08:00 to 12:00 and 13:00 to 17:00 pm. The library counts about 68,000 library documents and books. Orthodox Church Saint Nikolas was built in 1847 by Nikola Troyanov. Karlovo Peak on Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands , Antarctica is named after Karlovo. The Terror (1877) Bulgarian language Rup Moesian Bulgarian ( / b ʌ l ˈ ɡ ɛər i ə n / , / b ʊ l ˈ -/ bu(u)l- GAIR -ee-ən ; български език , bŭlgarski ezik , pronounced [ˈbɤɫɡɐrski] )
1456-464: A young brown bear was filmed on camera. There are 203 species of birds, of which 154 are nesting in the park, 10 are wintering, 30 are passing and 13 are wandering. Important species include golden eagle , Ural owl and hawk . As the park is the most important habitat in Serbia for long-legged buzzard , Eurasian woodcock and an endemic Balkan horned lark , an area of 440 km (170 sq mi)
1568-621: Is " Ye lena Yankovich" ( Йелена Янкович ). Until the period immediately following the Second World War , all Bulgarian and the majority of foreign linguists referred to the South Slavic dialect continuum spanning the area of modern Bulgaria, North Macedonia and parts of Northern Greece as a group of Bulgarian dialects. In contrast, Serbian sources tended to label them "south Serbian" dialects. Some local naming conventions included bolgárski , bugárski and so forth. The codifiers of
1680-517: Is 'old mountain'. It is believed the name was brought to the region in the 7th century by Bulgars who applied it to the area, as a part of the First Bulgarian Empire . In Bulgarian , the archaic word balkan (балкан) was borrowed from Turkic and means "mountain". It may have ultimately derived from the Persian bālkāneh or bālākhāna , meaning "high, above, or proud house." The name
1792-425: Is 0.1 °C (32.2 °F) (with an absolute minimum of −25.8 °C (−14.4 °F)). The average July temperature is 22.9 °C (73.2 °F) (with an absolute maximum of 39.6 °C (103.3 °F)). Average total annual rainfall is 694 mm (27 in), being highest in the summer 221 mm (9 in), and lowest in the winter 169 mm (7 in). Karlovo is located on the main road E 78, one of
1904-603: Is a salmonid region, inhabited by the riverine brown trout . Another 25 species of fish live in the rivers and streams, so as the fire salamander and newts . Over 30 mammalian species are found in the park, including lesser mole-rat , hazel dormouse and the Tertiary relict, European snow vole . Brown bear became extinct in Serbian part, but evidence showing the presence of the bears were found in 2014. The bears have been photographed in 2015, before disappearing again until 2019 when
2016-621: Is also a significant Bulgarian diaspora abroad. One of the main historically established communities are the Bessarabian Bulgarians , whose settlement in the Bessarabia region of nowadays Moldova and Ukraine dates mostly to the early 19th century. There were 134,000 Bulgarian speakers in Ukraine at the 2001 census, 41,800 in Moldova as of the 2014 census (of which 15,300 were habitual users of
2128-506: Is also its southernmost locality worldwide. There have been successful efforts in the reintroduction of two vulture species that went extinct from the mountain range in the past several decades. In 2021 the first cinereous vulture in Bulgaria in nearly 30 years hatched in Kotel mountains in the eastern section of the mountain range, thus establishing the second breeding colony in the Balkans, after
2240-800: Is an Eastern South Slavic language spoken in Southeast Europe , primarily in Bulgaria . It is the language of the Bulgarians . Along with the closely related Macedonian language (collectively forming the East South Slavic languages ), it is a member of the Balkan sprachbund and South Slavic dialect continuum of the Indo-European language family . The two languages have several characteristics that set them apart from all other Slavic languages , including
2352-488: Is based on a general consensus reached by all major Bulgarian linguists in the 1930s and 1940s. In turn, the 39-consonant model was launched in the beginning of the 1950s under the influence of the ideas of Russian linguist Nikolai Trubetzkoy . Despite frequent objections, the support of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences has ensured Trubetzkoy's model virtual monopoly in state-issued phonologies and grammars since
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#17328520700052464-433: Is common in all modern Slavic languages (e.g. Czech medv ě d /ˈmɛdvjɛt/ "bear", Polish p ię ć /pʲɛ̃tɕ/ "five", Serbo-Croatian je len /jělen/ "deer", Ukrainian нема є /nemájɛ/ "there is not ...", Macedonian пишува ње /piʃuvaɲʲɛ/ "writing", etc.), as well as some Western Bulgarian dialectal forms – e.g. ора̀н’е /oˈraɲʲɛ/ (standard Bulgarian: оране /oˈranɛ/ , "ploughing"), however it
2576-405: Is currently no consensus on the number of Bulgarian consonants, with one school of thought advocating for the existence of only 22 consonant phonemes and another one claiming that there are not fewer than 39 consonant phonemes. The main bone of contention is how to treat palatalized consonants : as separate phonemes or as allophones of their respective plain counterparts. The 22-consonant model
2688-501: Is derived from Aemon . A folk etymology holds that 'Haemus' derives from the Greek word "haima" ( αἵμα ) meaning 'blood', and is based on Greek mythology. During a fight between Zeus and the monster/titan Typhon , Zeus injured Typhon with thunder; and Typhon's blood fell on the mountains, which were then named for this battle. Other names used to refer to the mountains in different time periods include Aemon , Haemimons , Hem , Emus ,
2800-641: Is formed by the predominantly narrow Iskar Gorge , a few miles north of the Bulgarian capital, Sofia . The karst relief determines the large number of caves, including Magura , featuring the most important and extended European post-Palaeolithic cave painting, Ledenika , Saeva dupka , Bacho Kiro , etc. The most notable rock formation are the Belogradchik Rocks in the west. There are several important protected areas: Central Balkan National Park , Vrachanski Balkan , Bulgarka and Sinite Kamani , as well as
2912-584: Is grown there and used in producing perfume. In addition to this, Karlovo is the birthplace of Vasil Levski , the most distinguished Bulgarian to start preparing the national liberation from the Ottoman rule in the late 19th century. There is a museum and large monument dedicated to him. Karlovo is also a popular location for tourism in the region. During the 2000s, Bulgarian archaeologists made discoveries in Central Bulgaria which were summarized as 'The Valley of
3024-491: Is key for the protection of the eastern imperial eagle , saker falcon , Eurasian eagle-owl , Eurasian pygmy owl , Ural owl , boreal owl , white-backed woodpecker , semicollared flycatcher and the corn crake . The park's herpetofauna includes 15 reptile and nine amphibian species. It hosts vital populations of common European adder ( Vipera berus ), European toad , grass snake ( Natrix natrix ), legless lizard , tessellated water snake , viviparous lizard and
3136-515: Is located 140 kilometres (87 miles) east from the Bulgarian capital — Sofia , and 60 km (37 mi) north from Plovdiv , the second biggest Bulgarian city and the capital of the Plovdiv Province . The climate of the region is temperate continental, with mild and warm summers, refreshed by the wind coming down the Balkan Mountain, and snowy winters. The average January temperature
3248-800: Is mainly split into two broad dialect areas, based on the different reflexes of the Proto-Slavic yat vowel (Ѣ). This split, which occurred at some point during the Middle Ages, led to the development of Bulgaria's: The literary language norm, which is generally based on the Eastern dialects, also has the Eastern alternating reflex of yat . However, it has not incorporated the general Eastern umlaut of all synchronic or even historic "ya" sounds into "e" before front vowels – e.g. поляна ( polyana ) vs. полени ( poleni ) "meadow – meadows" or even жаба ( zhaba ) vs. жеби ( zhebi ) "frog – frogs", even though it co-occurs with
3360-471: Is not represented in standard Bulgarian speech or writing. Even where /jɛ/ occurs in other Slavic words, in Standard Bulgarian it is usually transcribed and pronounced as pure /ɛ/ – e.g. Boris Yeltsin is "Eltsin" ( Борис Елцин ), Yekaterinburg is "Ekaterinburg" ( Екатеринбург ) and Sarajevo is "Saraevo" ( Сараево ), although – because of the stress and the beginning of the word – Jelena Janković
3472-478: Is one more to describe a general category of unwitnessed events – the inferential (преизказно /prɛˈiskɐzno/ ) mood. However, most contemporary Bulgarian linguists usually exclude the subjunctive mood and the inferential mood from the list of Bulgarian moods (thus placing the number of Bulgarian moods at a total of 3: indicative, imperative and conditional) and do not consider them to be moods but view them as verbial morphosyntactic constructs or separate gramemes of
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3584-450: Is only 50 km (31 mi) away from the most important road in Bulgaria - Trakiya motorway , which is actually the main road between Sofia and Istanbul. The international road to Bucharest is also just 50 km (31 mi) away. Karlovo is the seat of Karlovo municipality (part of Plovdiv Province). The population of the Karlovo municipality is approximately 73,000 people. It includes
3696-760: Is only found within the park's boundaries, Аlchemilla аchtarowii , Alchemilla jumrukczalica , Betonica bulgarica , Centaurea davidovii , as well as another 75 Balkan endemics. The vertebrate fauna of Central Balkan National Park consists of over 300 species. The number of mammal species is around 60, including animals of high conservation concern, such as the: Balkan chamois ( R. rupicapra balcanica ), Eurasian brown bear , Eurasian otter , Eurasian wolf , European ground squirrel , European snow vole , European wild boar , European wildcat , Lesser mole-rat , Marbled polecat , Pine marten , Red deer , Red fox , Western roe deer . The avifauna includes some 220 species, of which 123 are resident/nesting. The park
3808-401: Is perceived as more correct than двама/трима ученика , while the distinction is retained in cases such as два/три молива ('two/three pencils') versus тези моливи ('these pencils'). Cases exist only in the personal and some other pronouns (as they do in many other modern Indo-European languages ), with nominative , accusative , dative and vocative forms. Vestiges are present in
3920-688: Is still preserved in Central Asia with the Balkan Daglary (Balkan Mountains) and the Balkan Province of Turkmenistan . In Antiquity and the Middle Ages the mountains were known by their Thracian name: the Haemus Mons . Scholars consider that the name Haemus (Αἷμος) is derived from a Thracian word *saimon , 'mountain ridge'. The name of the place where the range meets the Black Sea, Cape Emine ,
4032-418: Is that mutable parts of speech vary grammatically, whereas the immutable ones do not change, regardless of their use. The five classes of mutables are: nouns , adjectives , numerals , pronouns and verbs . Syntactically, the first four of these form the group of the noun or the nominal group. The immutables are: adverbs , prepositions , conjunctions , particles and interjections . Verbs and adverbs form
4144-581: Is the Service of Saint Cyril from Skopje (Скопски миней), a 13th-century Middle Bulgarian manuscript from northern Macedonia according to which St. Cyril preached with "Bulgarian" books among the Moravian Slavs. The first mention of the language as the "Bulgarian language" instead of the "Slavonic language" comes in the work of the Greek clergy of the Archbishopric of Ohrid in the 11th century, for example in
4256-425: Is the oldest surviving building in the town, although today it is not in use. There was once a longstanding dispute on town limits between Karlıova and nearby Sopot . Matters came to a head in 1633, when Sultan Murad IV had to personally issue a firman (imperial decree) and dispatched officials from Eski Zağra ( Stara Zagora ) and Istanbul to determine the borders between the two towns. The territorial dispute
4368-399: Is used, and the choice between them is partly determined by their ending in singular and partly influenced by gender; in addition, irregular declension and alternative plural forms are common. Words ending in –а/–я (which are usually feminine) generally have the plural ending –и , upon dropping of the singular ending. Of nouns ending in a consonant, the feminine ones also use –и , whereas
4480-481: The Balkan language area (mostly grammatically) and later also by Turkish , which was the official language of the Ottoman Empire , in the form of the Ottoman Turkish language , mostly lexically. The damaskin texts mark the transition from Middle Bulgarian to New Bulgarian, which was standardized in the 19th century. As a national revival occurred toward the end of the period of Ottoman rule (mostly during
4592-679: The Bulgarian Empire introduced the Glagolitic alphabet which was devised by the Saints Cyril and Methodius in the 850s. The Glagolitic alphabet was gradually superseded in later centuries by the Cyrillic script , developed around the Preslav Literary School , Bulgaria in the late 9th century. Several Cyrillic alphabets with 28 to 44 letters were used in the beginning and the middle of
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4704-558: The Greek hagiography of Clement of Ohrid by Theophylact of Ohrid (late 11th century). During the Middle Bulgarian period, the language underwent dramatic changes, losing the Slavonic case system , but preserving the rich verb system (while the development was exactly the opposite in other Slavic languages) and developing a definite article. It was influenced by its non-Slavic neighbors in
4816-562: The Ottoman rule , many haiduks found refuge in the Balkan Mountains. Close to the highest summit, Botev Peak , is Kalofer , the birthplace of Hristo Botev , a Bulgarian poet and national hero who died in the western Balkan Mountains near Vratsa in 1876 in the struggle against the Ottoman Empire . Also close to Botev is Shipka Pass , the scene of the four battles in the Russo-Turkish War, 1877-78 , which ended Turkish rule in
4928-622: The Paleozoic to the Cenozoic eras. Limestone terrain is known for the short losing streams and tufaceous waterfalls. There are canyons and gorges, like those of the Toplodolska reka and Rosomačka reka rivers. The Rosomača canyon ( Rosomački lonci or Slavinjsko grlo ), with its 60 metres (200 ft) tall, cascade limestone walls, is known for its resemblance of the Colorado's Grand Canyon, but on
5040-491: The Roman period and late mediaeval monastic complexes. Some of those older monuments are fragmentary and relocated from their original locations. There are numerous examples of the ethnic edifices characteristic for the architecture of the region in the late 19th and early 20th century (houses, barns, etc.) Serbian section of the mountain is seen as a location for dozens of micro hydros , mini power plants which caused problem with
5152-595: The Thracian Kings'. On 19 August 2005, some archaeologists announced they had found the first Thracian capital, which was situated near Karlovo in Bulgaria. Many polished ceramic artifacts (pieces of roof-tiles and Greek-like vases) were discovered revealing the fortune of the town. The Bulgarian Ministry of Culture declared its support to the excavations. Karlovo is a successor of the medieval fortress of Kopsis (Копсис in Bulgarian, Kωψίς or Κόψη in Byzantine Greek ),
5264-779: The accession of Bulgaria to the European Union on 1 January 2007, Cyrillic became the third official script of the European Union , following the Latin and Greek scripts . Bulgarian possesses a phonology similar to that of the rest of the South Slavic languages, notably lacking Serbo-Croatian's phonemic vowel length and tones and alveo-palatal affricates. There is a general dichotomy between Eastern and Western dialects, with Eastern ones featuring consonant palatalization before front vowels ( / ɛ / and / i / ) and substantial vowel reduction of
5376-444: The common frog . Due to the park's high altitude, the ichthyofauna consists of six fish species, with brown trout being the dominant one. Vrachanski Balkan Nature Park is situated in the western section of the mountain range and spans an area of 301.29 km . Its territory includes some of the most extensive karst areas in Bulgaria with over 600 caves, such as Ledenika , the gorge Vratsata whose 400 m vertical cliffs are
5488-415: The golden eagle , long-legged buzzard , peregrine falcon , Eurasian eagle-owl, Alpine chough , Alpine swift , Eurasian crag martin , red-rumped swallow , wallcreeper , etc. There are 15 reptile and 11 amphibian species; of them important populations exist of the meadow lizard , European copper skink , Balkan crested newt , as well as the only habitat in Bulgaria of the northern crested newt , which
5600-445: The person") or to the first nominal constituent of definite noun phrases (indefinite: добър човек , 'a good person'; definite: добри ят човек , " the good person"). There are four singular definite articles. Again, the choice between them is largely determined by the noun's ending in the singular. Nouns that end in a consonant and are masculine use –ът/–ят, when they are grammatical subjects , and –а/–я elsewhere. Nouns that end in
5712-623: The " Big Excursion " of 1989. The language is also represented among the diaspora in Western Europe and North America, which has been steadily growing since the 1990s. Countries with significant numbers of speakers include Germany , Spain , Italy , the United Kingdom (38,500 speakers in England and Wales as of 2011), France , the United States , and Canada (19,100 in 2011). The language
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#17328520700055824-430: The 1940s, in a number of localities along the Balkan Mountains. First group of trees was protected in 1966, followed by the creation of 7 special nature reserves and 3 natural monuments in the 1980s. Nature park Stara Planina was established in 1997 and since 2009 is in its present borders, covering an area of 1,143.22 km (441.40 sq mi). The protected area was expanded in 2020. The sediments extend from
5936-549: The 1960s. However, its reception abroad has been lukewarm, with a number of authors either calling the model into question or outright rejecting it. Thus, the Handbook of the International Phonetic Association only lists 22 consonants in Bulgarian's consonant inventory . The parts of speech in Bulgarian are divided in ten types, which are categorized in two broad classes: mutable and immutable. The difference
6048-460: The 19th century during the efforts on the codification of Modern Bulgarian until an alphabet with 32 letters, proposed by Marin Drinov , gained prominence in the 1870s. The alphabet of Marin Drinov was used until the orthographic reform of 1945, when the letters yat (uppercase Ѣ, lowercase ѣ) and yus (uppercase Ѫ, lowercase ѫ) were removed from its alphabet, reducing the number of letters to 30. With
6160-461: The 19th century), a modern Bulgarian literary language gradually emerged that drew heavily on Church Slavonic/Old Bulgarian (and to some extent on literary Russian , which had preserved many lexical items from Church Slavonic) and later reduced the number of Turkish and other Balkan loans. Today one difference between Bulgarian dialects in the country and literary spoken Bulgarian is the significant presence of Old Bulgarian words and even word forms in
6272-417: The Balkan Mountains at the following passes (listed from west to east): The Balkan Mountains have had a significant and special place in the history of Bulgaria since its founding in 681. It was a natural fortress of the Bulgarian Empire for centuries and formed an effective barrier to Moesia where most of the medieval capitals were located. The Balkan mountains were the site of numerous battles between
6384-461: The Balkans. Significant areas of the Balkan mountains are under protection by Bulgarian law, including one national park — Central Balkan National Park ; three nature parks — Vrachanski Balkan Nature Park , Bulgarka Nature Park and Sinite Kamani Nature Park, over 20 nature reserves, as well as numerous natural landmarks. Central Balkan National Park is among the largest and most valuable of
6496-594: The Biosphere Programme and for the world list of geoparks , while over tens of thousands of citizens signed petitions against the micro hydros and numerous protests have been organized by the local population. This prompted similar protests in other parts of Serbia and the association "Defend the rivers of Stara Planina" was founded, which expanded its base of operations outside of the Stara Planina region. The activism resulted in various physical altercation between
6608-654: The Bulgarian and Byzantine Empires including the Battle of the Rishki Pass (759), Battle of the Varbitsa Pass (811), the Battle of Tryavna (1190) and the Battle of Devina (1279). In the battle of the Varbitsa Pass, Khan Krum decisively defeated an enormous Byzantine army, killing Emperor Nikephoros I . For many centuries, the Byzantines feared these mountains, their armies reportedly retreating upon approaching them. During
6720-565: The Danube include the Timok , Archar , Lom , Tsibritsa , Ogosta , Skat , Vit , Osam , Yantra , and Rusenski Lom . The mountains are also the source of the Kamchiya , which flows directly into the Black Sea. Although not so abundant in mineral waters as other parts of Bulgaria, there are several spas such as Varshets , Shipkovo and Voneshta Voda. Developments in modern times have completely changed
6832-720: The Pre-Balkans (Fore-Balkan) to the north, which extend slightly onto the Danubian Plain . To the south, the mountains border the Sub-Balkan valleys , a row of 11 valleys running from the Bulgarian-Serbian border east to the Black Sea , separating the Balkan Mountains from a chain of other ranges known as Srednogorie (which includes Vitosha and Sredna Gora ). The Balkan Mountains consist of around 30 distinct peaks; within Bulgaria,
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#17328520700056944-654: The Slavonic Matorni gori and the Turkish Kocabalkan . The Balkan Mountains are, technically, a chain of fold mountains —mountains formed by the compression and breaking of layers of rock. On a geological time scale , they are a rather young and recently formed part of the Alp-Himalayan chain which stretches across most of Eurasia . The Balkan Mountains can be divided into two parts—the main Balkan Chain and
7056-426: The area including the brown bear , wolf , boar , chamois and deer . The mountains are the source of the name of the Balkans (sometimes considered as a distinct peninsula or region). In Bulgarian and Serbian the mountains are also known as Стара планина Stara planina (pronounced in Bulgarian as [ˈstarɐ pɫɐniˈna] and in Serbian as [stâːraː planǐna] ), a term whose literal meaning
7168-654: The bubbling and foaming. Montane ecosystems are diverse and include several plant communities: forests, shrubs, meadows, pastures and peatlands . There are six different vegetation zone in the park. Oak , beech , spruce , subalpine zone of the shrub vegetation of common horsetail , blueberry , subalpine spruce and mugo pine . Other plants include shrub alder , steppe pedunculate oak , but also rare and endangered species like European pasqueflower , yellow pheasant's eye , Kosovo peony , common sundew , Heldreich's maple , martagon lily , pygmy iris and marsh orchid . In total, there are 1,190 plant species, including
7280-423: The cinereous vultures were seen flying over the Serbian side, while the population decline of Egyptian vultures was slowed down. Neither griffon nor cinereous vultures are still nesting on Serbian side. The latter has not been nesting since the 1960s, when they were eradicated through the state operated campaign of poisoning wolves. Human heritage spans from the prehistoric remains, Classical antiquity including
7392-412: The completion of the action of the verb and form past perfective (aorist) forms; imperfective ones are neutral with regard to it and form past imperfective forms. Most Bulgarian verbs can be grouped in perfective-imperfective pairs (imperfective/perfective: идвам/дойда "come", пристигам/пристигна "arrive"). Perfective verbs can be usually formed from imperfective ones by suffixation or prefixation, but
7504-549: The eastern dialects prevailed, and in 1899 the Bulgarian Ministry of Education officially codified a standard Bulgarian language based on the Drinov-Ivanchev orthography. Bulgarian is the official language of Bulgaria , where it is used in all spheres of public life. As of 2011, it is spoken as a first language by about 6 million people in the country, or about four out of every five Bulgarian citizens. There
7616-439: The elimination of case declension , the development of a suffixed definite article , and the lack of a verb infinitive . They retain and have further developed the Proto-Slavic verb system (albeit analytically). One such major development is the innovation of evidential verb forms to encode for the source of information: witnessed, inferred, or reported. It is the official language of Bulgaria , and since 2007 has been among
7728-403: The environmentalists and local population. Even the Ministry for environmental protection halted some of the projects and litigated with the investors. They also announced the change of the Nature protection law, which will permanently forbid the construction of plants in protected areas. In order to prevent further degradation, the Nature Park Stara Planina was nominated for the UNESCO 's Man and
7840-468: The following 27 towns and villages (towns in bold): It is located right below the Karlovo water-power station, on the left tributary of Stryama River - Stara Reka, taking its sources from the two tributaries – the Malkata Reka springing South of the peaks of Ambaritsa and Malak Kupen and Golyamata River – springing South below the peak of Zhultets. With its number of rapids, small pools and chutes above Karlovo, Stara Reka descends from 15 metres (49 feet) in
7952-414: The future, too. By the 2020s, Stara Planina became a popular filmmaking locality. With Serbian productions, the foreign movies were also filmed here, including the 2019 Indian action movie Uri: The Surgical Strike . Its director, Aditya Dhar , expressed surprise with "unremarkable similarity between Stara Planina and Kashmir ". The 2022 Australian Oscar entry You Won't Be Alone was also filmed on
8064-499: The geography of Serbia, especially when it comes to waterfalls. Still, there are a number of waterfalls to be seen, especially in the western and central parts of the range, such as Raysko Praskalo (the highest waterfall in the Balkans), as well as Borov Kamak , Babsko Praskalo , Etropole Waterfall , Karlovsko Praskalo , and Skaklya, among others. The area of the Stara Planina has always been sparsely populated and inaccessible because of
8176-539: The group of the verb or the verbal group. Nouns and adjectives have the categories grammatical gender , number , case (only vocative ) and definiteness in Bulgarian. Adjectives and adjectival pronouns agree with nouns in number and gender. Pronouns have gender and number and retain (as in nearly all Indo-European languages ) a more significant part of the case system. There are three grammatical genders in Bulgarian: masculine , feminine and neuter . The gender of
8288-638: The highest waterfall in the Balkans Raysko Praskalo (124.5 m). The rugged and diverse relief determines the presence of numerous gorges , cliffs , water features and caves, including Raychova Dupka, the second-deepest cave discovered in Bulgaria and in the mountain range, reaching depth of -377 m. The flora of Central Balkan National Park is diverse and consists of 1689 species of vascular plants , 45 species of algae and 238 species of mosses . These include 23 Bulgarian endemic species, such as leafy primrose ( Primula frondosa ), which
8400-739: The highest in the Balkans, and numerous waterfalls, such as Skaklia (141 m drop but unlike Raysko Praskalo it is seasonal) and Borov Kamak (63 m drop). The flora includes 1082 species of vascular plants and 186 species of mosses. The endemism is lowers when compared to the Central Balkan National Park ;— 6 Bulgarian and another 36 Balkan endemic species. The vertebrate fauna encompasses 276 species. The recorded mammal species are 58 and include gray wolf, golden jackal , wildcat, marbled polecat, European polecat , European pine marten and 22 bat species. The birds are 181 species, including 124 nesting ones. Typical species are
8512-484: The historical yat vowel or at least root vowels displaying the ya – e alternation. The letter was used in each occurrence of such a root, regardless of the actual pronunciation of the vowel: thus, both ml ya ko and ml e kar were spelled with (Ѣ). Among other things, this was seen as a way to "reconcile" the Western and the Eastern dialects and maintain language unity at a time when much of Bulgaria's Western dialect area
8624-706: The language), and presumably a significant proportion of the 13,200 ethnic Bulgarians residing in neighbouring Transnistria in 2016. Another community abroad are the Banat Bulgarians , who migrated in the 17th century to the Banat region now split between Romania, Serbia and Hungary. They speak the Banat Bulgarian dialect , which has had its own written standard and a historically important literary tradition. There are Bulgarian speakers in neighbouring countries as well. The regional dialects of Bulgarian and Macedonian form
8736-571: The language, but its pronunciation is in many respects a compromise between East and West Bulgarian (see especially the phonetic sections below). Following the efforts of some figures of the National awakening of Bulgaria (most notably Neofit Rilski and Ivan Bogorov ), there had been many attempts to codify a standard Bulgarian language; however, there was much argument surrounding the choice of norms. Between 1835 and 1878 more than 25 proposals were put forward and "linguistic chaos" ensued. Eventually
8848-409: The latter. Russian loans are distinguished from Old Bulgarian ones on the basis of the presence of specifically Russian phonetic changes, as in оборот (turnover, rev), непонятен (incomprehensible), ядро (nucleus) and others. Many other loans from French, English and the classical languages have subsequently entered the language as well. Modern Bulgarian was based essentially on the Eastern dialects of
8960-473: The literary norm regarding the yat vowel, many people living in Western Bulgaria, including the capital Sofia , will fail to observe its rules. While the norm requires the realizations vidyal vs. videli (he has seen; they have seen), some natives of Western Bulgaria will preserve their local dialect pronunciation with "e" for all instances of "yat" (e.g. videl , videli ). Others, attempting to adhere to
9072-451: The local citizens on one, and contractors and their security guards on the other side, amidst the police interventions. In October 2018, Minister of Environmental Protection Goran Trivan , said that the current law allows for the micro hydros to be built in the protected areas. The government allowed the construction of 800 micro hydros, which has been described as "megalomaniacal" by the ecologists, as they would produce less than 1% of
9184-470: The low vowels / ɛ / , / ɔ / and / a / in unstressed position, sometimes leading to neutralisation between / ɛ / and / i / , / ɔ / and / u / , and / a / and / ɤ / . Both patterns have partial parallels in Russian, leading to partially similar sounds. In turn, the Western dialects generally do not have any allophonic palatalization and exhibit minor, if any, vowel reduction. Standard Bulgarian keeps
9296-399: The masculine ones usually have –и for polysyllables and –ове for monosyllables (however, exceptions are especially common in this group). Nouns ending in –о/–е (most of which are neuter) mostly use the suffixes –а, –я (both of which require the dropping of the singular endings) and –та . With cardinal numbers and related words such as няколко ('several'), masculine nouns use
9408-477: The most significant exception from the above are the relatively numerous nouns that end in a consonant and yet are feminine: these comprise, firstly, a large group of nouns with zero ending expressing quality, degree or an abstraction, including all nouns ending on –ост/–ест -{ost/est} ( мъдрост /ˈmɤdrost/ 'wisdom', низост /ˈnizost/ 'vileness', прелест /ˈprɛlɛst/ 'loveliness', болест /ˈbɔlɛst/ 'sickness', любов /ljuˈbɔf/ 'love'), and secondly,
9520-417: The mountain are already transformed into the aromatic herbs plantations, especially the entire slopes of the nearby mountains being planted with lavender . In the 1980s, fossils of Thecodontosaurus were discovered on the mountain. It is one of the oldest recorded species of dinosaurs, and the remains are estimated to be some 250 million years old. Some 190 species of butterflies are recorded. The area
9632-557: The newspaper Makedoniya : "Such an artificial assembly of written language is something impossible, unattainable and never heard of." After 1944 the People's Republic of Bulgaria and the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia began a policy of making Macedonia into the connecting link for the establishment of a new Balkan Federative Republic and stimulating here a development of distinct Macedonian consciousness. With
9744-447: The norm, will actually use the "ya" sound even in cases where the standard language has "e" (e.g. vidyal , vidyali ). The latter hypercorrection is called свръхякане ( svrah-yakane ≈"over- ya -ing"). Bulgarian is the only Slavic language whose literary standard does not naturally contain the iotated e /jɛ/ (or its variant, e after a palatalized consonant /ʲɛ/ , except in non-Slavic foreign-loaned words). This sound combination
9856-659: The noun can largely be inferred from its ending: nouns ending in a consonant ("zero ending") are generally masculine (for example, град /ɡrat/ 'city', син /sin/ 'son', мъж /mɤʃ/ 'man'; those ending in –а/–я (-a/-ya) ( жена /ʒɛˈna/ 'woman', дъщеря /dɐʃtɛrˈja/ 'daughter', улица /ˈulitsɐ/ 'street') are normally feminine; and nouns ending in –е, –о are almost always neuter ( дете /dɛˈtɛ/ 'child', езеро /ˈɛzɛro/ 'lake'), as are those rare words (usually loanwords) that end in –и, –у, and –ю ( цунами /tsuˈnami/ ' tsunami ', табу /tɐˈbu/ 'taboo', меню /mɛˈnju/ 'menu'). Perhaps
9968-994: The noun they are appended to. They may also take the definite article as explained above. Pronouns may vary in gender, number, and definiteness, and are the only parts of speech that have retained case inflections. Three cases are exhibited by some groups of pronouns – nominative, accusative and dative. The distinguishable types of pronouns include the following: personal, relative, reflexive, interrogative, negative, indefinitive, summative and possessive. A Bulgarian verb has many distinct forms, as it varies in person, number, voice, aspect, mood, tense and in some cases gender. Finite verbal forms are simple or compound and agree with subjects in person (first, second and third) and number (singular, plural). In addition to that, past compound forms using participles vary in gender (masculine, feminine, neuter) and voice (active and passive) as well as aspect (perfective/aorist and imperfective). Bulgarian verbs express lexical aspect : perfective verbs signify
10080-466: The official languages of the European Union . It is also spoken by the Bulgarian historical communities in North Macedonia , Ukraine , Moldova , Serbia , Romania , Hungary , Albania and Greece . One can divide the development of the Bulgarian language into several periods. Bulgarian was the first Slavic language attested in writing. As Slavic linguistic unity lasted into late antiquity,
10192-466: The oldest manuscripts initially referred to this language as ѧзꙑкъ словѣньскъ, "the Slavic language". In the Middle Bulgarian period this name was gradually replaced by the name ѧзꙑкъ блъгарьскъ, the "Bulgarian language". In some cases, this name was used not only with regard to the contemporary Middle Bulgarian language of the copyist but also to the period of Old Bulgarian. A most notable example of anachronism
10304-578: The one in north-eastern Greece. In recent years, several breeding pairs of griffon vulture have established themselves in the Vratsa Balkan to the west, as well as in the eastern sections of the Balkan Mountains. The eastern Balkan Mountains are among the priority areas in the reintroduction programme for the bearded vulture . Since the early XXI century there have been several records of the Eurasian lynx , which has been considered extincts in Bulgaria since
10416-429: The past pluperfect subjunctive. Perfect constructions use a single auxiliary "be". The traditional interpretation is that in addition to the four moods (наклонения /nəkloˈnɛnijɐ/ ) shared by most other European languages – indicative (изявително, /izʲəˈvitɛɫno/ ) imperative (повелително /poveˈlitelno/ ), subjunctive ( подчинително /pottʃiˈnitɛɫno/ ) and conditional (условно, /oˈsɫɔvno/ ) – in Bulgarian there
10528-591: The pockets of speakers of the related regional dialects in Albania and in Greece variously identify their language as Macedonian or as Bulgarian. In Serbia , there were 13,300 speakers as of 2011, mainly concentrated in the so-called Western Outlands along the border with Bulgaria. Bulgarian is also spoken in Turkey: natively by Pomaks , and as a second language by many Bulgarian Turks who emigrated from Bulgaria, mostly during
10640-685: The proclamation of the Socialist Republic of Macedonia as part of the Yugoslav federation, the new authorities also started measures that would overcome the pro-Bulgarian feeling among parts of its population and in 1945 a separate Macedonian language was codified. After 1958, when the pressure from Moscow decreased, Sofia reverted to the view that the Macedonian language did not exist as a separate language. Nowadays, Bulgarian and Greek linguists, as well as some linguists from other countries, still consider
10752-594: The protected areas in Europe. Since 2017, its ancient beech forests have been included in the Primeval Beech Forests UNESCO World Heritage Site . It is the third largest protected territory in Bulgaria, spanning an area of 716.69 km with total length of 85 km from the west to the east and an average width of 10 km. Within its territory are located the highest summit of the mountain range, Botev Peak (2376 m), as well as
10864-607: The range can be divided into three sections: In their central and eastern sections, the mountains form a water divide between the rivers flowing to the Danube in the north and those flowing to the Aegean Sea in the south. However, they are crossed by Bulgaria's longest river, the Iskar , which forms the Iskar Gorge . Rivers that take their source from the Balkan Mountains and flow northwards to
10976-466: The resultant verb often deviates in meaning from the original. In the pair examples above, aspect is stem-specific and therefore there is no difference in meaning. In Bulgarian, there is also grammatical aspect . Three grammatical aspects are distinguishable: neutral, perfect and pluperfect. The neutral aspect comprises the three simple tenses and the future tense. The pluperfect is manifest in tenses that use double or triple auxiliary "be" participles like
11088-685: The rugged and forested terrain, but also as a location of the Serbian-Bulgarian border. As armies relinquished the borders, giving control to the border police, civilians were allowed to explore the area. As a result, higher and higher waterfalls have been discovered on the Serbian side of the Stara Planina in the years since, including Čungulj (1996) at 43 m (141 ft); Pilj (2002) at 64 m (210 ft); Kopren (2011) at 103.5 m (340 ft); and Kaluđerski Skokovi (2012) at 232 m (761 ft). The mountains are crossed by 20 passes and two gorges. There are paved roads crossing
11200-520: The singular ones, but may also provide some clues to it: the ending –и (-i) is more likely to be used with a masculine or feminine noun ( факти /ˈfakti/ 'facts', болести /ˈbɔlɛsti/ 'sicknesses'), while one in –а/–я belongs more often to a neuter noun ( езера /ɛzɛˈra/ 'lakes'). Also, the plural ending –ове /ovɛ/ occurs only in masculine nouns. Two numbers are distinguished in Bulgarian– singular and plural . A variety of plural suffixes
11312-428: The standard Bulgarian language, however, did not wish to make any allowances for a pluricentric "Bulgaro-Macedonian" compromise. In 1870 Marin Drinov , who played a decisive role in the standardization of the Bulgarian language, rejected the proposal of Parteniy Zografski and Kuzman Shapkarev for a mixed eastern and western Bulgarian/Macedonian foundation of the standard Bulgarian language, stating in his article in
11424-638: The summer and autumn of 1877, the town was subject to a 5-month reign of terror by the Ottoman authorities and Circassian paramilitaries, which resulted in the death of 288 citizens and the capture and imprisonment of more than 500 additional town notables, many of whom were eventually hanged. In the following year, by virtue of the Treaty of Berlin (1878) , Karlıova was incorporated into the newly-established autonomous province of Eastern Rumelia and renamed Karlovo after five centuries of Ottoman rule. From 1953 until 1962,
11536-469: The total electricity. Environmentalists also accused the government of destroying the plant and animal life using the pretext of renewable energy . In September 2019, Pirot city administration announced it is removing from the spatial plan all 43 existing locations for the micro hydros on the protected area of Stara Planina. There are 15 locations remaining in the unprotected sector of the mountain, but city officials announced abolishing of these locations in
11648-474: The town was called Levskigrad . Karlovo lies at 42°38′N 24°48′E / 42.633°N 24.800°E / 42.633; 24.800 , 386 metres (1,266 feet) above sea level . It is located in the Valley of Roses , known for the large-scale production of roses. Stara Planina mountain lies above the town. The highest peak of this mountain range — Botev , 2376m — is close to Karlovo. The town
11760-405: The two roads which connect the capital Sofia to the southern part of the Black Sea . The town is an important point on the railway between Sofia and the commercially important Black Sea port of Burgas. There are frequent trains to the second biggest railway station in the country — Plovdiv. The total road length on the territory of Karlovo municipality is 301.4 km (187.3 mi). Karlovo
11872-484: The various Macedonian dialects as part of the broader Bulgarian pluricentric dialectal continuum . Outside Bulgaria and Greece, Macedonian is generally considered an autonomous language within the South Slavic dialect continuum. Sociolinguists agree that the question whether Macedonian is a dialect of Bulgarian or a language is a political one and cannot be resolved on a purely linguistic basis, because dialect continua do not allow for either/or judgements. In 886 AD,
11984-535: The verb class. The possible existence of a few other moods has been discussed in the literature. Most Bulgarian school grammars teach the traditional view of 4 Bulgarian moods (as described above, but excluding the subjunctive and including the inferential). There are three grammatically distinctive positions in time – present, past and future – which combine with aspect and mood to produce a number of formations. Normally, in grammar books these formations are viewed as separate tenses – i. e. "past imperfect" would mean that
12096-448: The verb is in past tense, in the imperfective aspect, and in the indicative mood (since no other mood is shown). There are more than 40 different tenses across Bulgarian's two aspects and five moods. Stara Planina In much of the central and eastern sections, the summit forms the watershed between the drainage basins of the Black Sea and the Aegean . A prominent gap in the mountains
12208-457: The yat alternation in almost all Eastern dialects that have it (except a few dialects along the yat border, e.g. in the Pleven region). More examples of the yat umlaut in the literary language are: Until 1945, Bulgarian orthography did not reveal this alternation and used the original Old Slavic Cyrillic letter yat (Ѣ), which was commonly called двойно е ( dvoyno e ) at the time, to express
12320-430: Was controlled by Serbia and Greece , but there were still hopes and occasional attempts to recover it. With the 1945 orthographic reform, this letter was abolished and the present spelling was introduced, reflecting the alternation in pronunciation. This had implications for some grammatical constructions: Sometimes, with the changes, words began to be spelled as other words with different meanings, e.g.: In spite of
12432-549: Was decided in favour of Karlıova. The town grew in importance in the 19th century as a centre of Bulgarian culture and revolutionary activity. In 1869 the first chitalishte was opened. In 1876 Lady Strangford arrived from Britain with relief for the people of Bulgaria following the massacres that followed the April Uprising . She built a hospital at Batak and eventually other hospitals were built at Radilovo , Panagiurishte , Perushtitsa , Petrich and here at Karlovo. In
12544-423: Was declared a European Important Bird Area . The griffon vulture disappeared from the region in the late 1940s. In 2017 a program for their reintroduction began within the scope of a wider European program. Among other things, the feeders will be placed along the vultures' migratory route. By 2023, there were regular sightings of griffon vultures, and, thanks to the efforts of Bulgarian and Spanish ornithologists,
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