Bulgaria slot dana is a country of many contrasts, from the arid plains to the wooded slopes of the Rila Mountains. Its rich history reflects the presence of nearly all the great ancient cultures and civilizations of Europe and Asia. The nation’s current focus is on its economic integration with the West. Images of the peasant, craftsman and entrepreneur, teacher, and nationalist revolutionary vie with each other in literature and folklore to embody the Bulgarian spirit, which is often seen as combining qualities such as industry, honesty, and resourcefulness.

Located at the crossroads of Europe and Asia, Bulgaria has been a major trading hub since antiquity. In addition, it has a natural abundance of resources, including coal and petroleum. Despite these advantages, the country remains among the poorest in the world and is heavily dependent on imports.

The Bulgarian language is a member of the South Slavic branch of the Indo-European family, and uses the Cyrillic alphabet. It is closely related to Macedonian and Serbian, and also has some borrowings from Russian and Greek. Bulgarian is spoken by 86 percent of the population, with the remainder being ethnic Turks and Gypsies.

Linguistic Affiliation

In Bulgarian grammar, there are three grammatically distinct positions in time (present, past, future) which combine with aspect and mood to produce a number of formations. Most school grammars teach that Bulgarian has four moods – indicative, imperative, conditional and subjunctive – plus an inferential (also known as the future perfect) form. However, some linguists have proposed that Bulgarian has only two tenses and three moods, with the subjunctive excluded as an independent form.

A small but growing body of research on Bulgarian has accumulated in recent years, particularly on its sound system. The language has six vowels and 31 consonants, although some phoneticians reduce the number to eight distinct sounds by eliminating palatal consonants as allophones.

In terms of literary traditions, the Bulgarians are especially proud of their unique alphabet, which was invented in the ninth century AD and celebrated as a national holiday each year on May 24. Its inscriptions and ornamental designs are still in widespread use today.

LC has been actively collecting Bulgarian materials for more than a century, starting with the purchase of the Leverkuhn set in 1907. Today the library carries on this collection, and acquisitions continue to be made.

The LC staff involved in this collecting now numbers three: a Bulgarian recommending officer/reference specialist who also works with Russian (this author), a Bulgarian acquisitions specialist/Slavic serials cataloger in the Library’s Acquisitions and Bibliographic Access Division (ABA), and one support staff to help process these acquisitions. The LC’s Bulgarian collection includes monographs, serials, and maps, with a particular strength in ethnographic studies, music, and literature. A comprehensive bibliography is available, arranged by subject and covering the period 1824-1900. Its table of contents explains the arrangement and provides full bibliographic citations. The table of contents also identifies which items are currently available in LC’s holdings and gives a brief description of each work.