The phrase Bulgarian Language in the Early Middle Ages
Elka Mircheva
Institute for Bulgarian Language, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Bulgaria
Abstract
The article analyzes a case of using the phrase „Bulgarian language“ in one of the earliest translations of Old Bulgarian literature in Preslav – Dialogs of Saint Gregory the Great. Comparative material is given from the small number of similar cases offered by the Byzantine sources and the old Bulgarian epigraphic monuments. As with them, the „Bulgarian language“ in the period up to the XI–XII centuries was used as the language of the Proto-Bulgarians.
Keywords: Bulgarian language, Proto-Bulgarians, Old Bulgarian literature