History of Bulgarian language
The Department carries out research on the lexicographic representation of the Bulgarian language in various periods from the Medieval period until the beginning of the Bulgarian Revival. Key periods have been selected to serve as reference points in the 11-century long Bulgarian language history. The historical dictionaries are used in different types of linguistic surveys and other dictionaries in the field of dialectology, etymology, toponymy, and for developing dictionaries of the modern standard Bulgarian language.
The Department also works on studying and publishing critical editions of manuscripts datable to different periods, with different genre characteristics, revealing language and cultural issues of the written tradition from the 9th to the 19th centuries. The studies in the field of historical dialectology in the late Pre-Renaissance stage give an answer to a number of questions about the language in the Medieval times and in the Renaissance.
The Department in the only scientific body which performs elaborate studies on epigraphy, as well as in the interdisciplinary field of historical dialectology.
Founded in 1951 by Corresponding Member Prof. Kiril Mirchev, the Department is one of the oldest departments of the Institute.
