Papers of BAS

Papers of BAS. Humanities and Social Sciences

Vol. 6, 2019, No. 2

Some aspects of the Bulgarian standard language codification

as a continuous process

Tatyana Aleksandrova, Milen Tomov

Abstract. The article describes, in historical perspective, the process of the Bulgarian standard language codification in two consecutive periods: 1) from the first grammars in the 1830s to Bulgaria’s Liberation in 1878; 2) from Bulgaria’s Liberation to the present day. A comparison is made between the two periods by highlighting the common and specific features. It is demonstrated that codification is a continuous process that involves the performance of different tasks depending on specific conditions. With a standard language under development, the task is to establish the structural model of the uniform standard language, its basic phonetic, grammatical and orthographic norms. With a developed standard language, the aim is to maintain the unity, stability and functional adequacy of the already established standard language, as well as its social prestige.

Keywords: Bulgarian standard language, codification, extralinguistic and linguistic codification factors, codification in the context of a developing and developed standard language