Directions of migration from the earliest times to the present time; today‘s Bulgarian emigrants in the most distant place from us

Katya Issa
University of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Geodesy

Abstract

The directions and problems of migration from and to Bulgaria during different historical periods are analyzed in this text. Emphasis is placed on the interpenetration of different languages. The processes of adaptation on the part of the Bulgarian emigrants around the world to the new country, of integration with its population, lead to an increasingly intensified use of the foreign language, while the functions of the first (native Bulgarian) are encapsulated only in a domestic environment. For a certain period of time, an intermediate speech state, mixed speech, is created, and after a while, entire constructions from the first language are gradually replaced by foreign ones, until the foreign language becomes the only one in the emigrants‘ communication. This leads to “de-Bulgarianization”, “identity vacillation”, retreat from national values. The algorithm of the process is related not only to the time, but also to the place where our compatriots are. The examples in the text are from Australia – the “farthest place”, whose location influences both ethnic self-determination and (mostly) the degree of mastery of the Bulgarian language.

Keywords: migration, diachrony and synchrony, contactology, emigrantology