Bulgaria Distribution - Economic Analysis

Bulgaria is located in Southeastern Europe and is surrounded by a few countries and the Black Sea. The countries that surround Bulgaria are Romania which is from the north and Greece which is from the south. Serbia and Macedonia are also neighbors with Bulgaria from the west side. The Black Sea is located on the east side of the country where Bulgaria does not have borders with other countries. Except for the south east where Bulgaria shares a border with Turkey. (Britannica, 2019)

Due to location of Bulgaria, the country has somewhat similar climate as some countries in Europe. There are four full seasons including long winter with a few months of snow. Bulgaria also has mountains in which winter would be colder and more dry with more snow falls during the winter. The temperature in the winter season ranges between 26 and 64°F depending on the area within the country. Also, rain and thunderstorms are more common in the mountains compared to the rest of the country. On the other side of Bulgaria, south and east, summer season can be hotter than the northern side of the country and the temperature ranges between 77 - 86 °F in summer season which also depends on the latitude. This warmer climate is due to the short distance from the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. (Weather Online, 2019)

Social institutions

Family

Family structure in Bulgaria is pretty similar to the U.S family. In general, nuclear family structure is most common. For example, a family consisting of only parents and their children live in one house. On the other hand, extended family style is somewhat rare which mostly exists in rural areas. (Afsusa, 2019)

Bulgarian parents are equally responsible for family and home duties. Whereas both are able to have a job and provide for the family financially as well as participate in responsibilities. In a typical Bulgarian family, parents allow freedom of choice for their kids and teenagers. Usually, parents do not limit their children with few choices. For example, traditionally, teenagers can spend late nights out on the weekends with their friends or other relatives. At the same time, parents make sure that they are aware of their children safety. (Afsusa, 2019).

Marriage in Bulgaria has a lot of traditions and rituals. Some of the traditions and rituals begin one or two days before the marriage. Also, there are two wedding ceremonies. One is the called Civil Marriage which is the only one accepted by law. The other type of marriage is religious which is done at a local church after the official marriage is done. After the religious marriage, rituals and traditions are started. Some of the radiations include the Horo dance, bread breaking and so on. Usually marriages are done on Sundays and last almost the whole day.

Language

Official language(s) - Dialects

The official language of Bulgaria is called Bulgarian. The Bulgarian language is very rich in history and was used in translating the Bible and the Greek literature. According to About World Languages, “Bulgarian belongs to the South Slavic group of the Slavic Branch of the Indo-European language family” and it is spoken by 5.7 million people in Bulgaria. (Thompson 2017). Bulgarian is also used in other countries such as Canada, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Moldova, Romania, Serbia and Montenegro, Turkey, Ukraine and the U.S. It is estimated that the users of this language worldwide is as high as 6.8 million including Bulgarian nation. These statistics clearly indicate that the Bulgarian language is popular in the southeastern side of Europe.  

There are couple other dialects other than the standard Bulgarian. The first one is Ethnologue which is pretty similar to the standard Bulgarian. The second one is the Pomak. This dialect is spoken in Greece and it is a traditional dialect which is  between Bulgarian and Serbian language. (Thompson,2017)

Spoken versus written language(s)

Bulgarian has been through a few changes through centuries. One of the older versions was used  in the 10th century which was mixed of Greek alphabet and the older version which is Glagolitic. Most recent change occurred in 1945 and resulted in elimination of a few alphabet. Current Bulgarian alphabet  consists of 30 letters. The current version is similar to Russian and Serbian as far as spoken and written. Thus, there are similarities in writing and pronunciation of words and phrases. (Thompson,2017)

References