Banat Bulgarians in Romania (in brown)

The Banat Bulgarians (Bulgarian: банатски българи, banatski balgari, endonym palćene and banátsći balgare) are a Bulgarian minority group living mostly in the Romanian part of the historical region of the Banat. They are Roman Catholic by confession and stem from groups of Paulicians and Roman Catholics from northern and northwestern Bulgaria (around Nikopol, Chiprovtsi, Svishtov). The Banat Bulgarians have been inhabiting the region since the 17th century and speak a distinctive codified form of the Eastern Bulgarian vernacular with German, Hungarian, Romanian and Serbo-Croatian lexical influences. Banat (Romanian: Banat; Serbian: Банат or Banat; German: Banat; Hungarian: Bánát or Bánság; Slovak: Banát) is a geographical and historical region in Southeastern Europe divided among three countries: the eastern part belongs to Romania (the counties of TimiÅŸ, CaraÅŸ-Severin, Arad, and MehedinÅ£i), the western... The Roman Catholic Church, most often spoken of simply as the Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with over one billion members. ... Bogomils was the name of an ancient Gnostic religious community which is thought to have originated in Bulgaria. ... Nikopol is a town in North Bulgaria, Pleven Province, on the Danube river. ... Chiprovtsi (Чипровци) is a town in Montana Province of northwestern Bulgaria, about 30 km from Montana, on the shores of the river Ogosta at the foot of western Stara Planina. ... Svishtov is a Bulgarian town at Danube river, nearly 235 km north-east from Sofia. ... Serbo-Croatian (srpskohrvatski or hrvatskosrpski) is a name for a language of the Western group of the South Slavic languages. ...

According to unofficial data, there are about 12,000 Bulgarians living in the Romanian and 3,000 in the Serbian Banat. The official Romanian censuses state that 6,500 people of Bulgarian origin inhabit the Romanian part of the region and the 2002 Serbia and Montenegro census recognized 1,658 Bulgarians in Vojvodina, the autonomous province covering the Serbian part of the region. Centres of the Banat Bulgarian population are Dudeştii Vechi (Stár Bišnov) and Vinga, as well as Sânnicolau Mare (Smikluš), Breştea (Bréšća) and the city of Timişoara (Timišvár) in Romania and Ivanovo in Serbia, but also villages like Belo Blato and to a lesser extent today Skorenovac, Konak and Jaša Tomić (Modoš). Republic of Serbia   â€“Vojvodina   â€“Kosovo (UN admin. ... Vinga is a small town in Arad county, Romania. ... Sânnicolau Mare (-Romanian, Hungarian: Nagyszentmiklós, German: Groß Sankt Nikolaus) is the westernmost town in Romania. ... County TimiÅŸ County Status County Capital Mayor Gheorghe Ciuhandu, Christian-Democratic Peoples Party, since 1996 Area 130,5 km² Population (2002) 325,997 Density 2,345 inh/km² Geographical coordinates Web site http://www. ... map of Pančevo municipality, showing the location of Ivanovo Ivanovo (Serbian: Ivanovo or Иваново, Hungarian: Sándoregyháza) is a village located in the Pančevo municipality, in the South Banat District of Serbia, Serbia and Montenegro. ... The Catholic and the Evangelical Church Belo Blato (Бело Блато, Hungarian: Nagyerzsébetlak) is a village located in the Zrenjanin municipality, in the Central Banat District of Serbia, Serbia and Montenegro. ... Skorenovac Székelykeve Székelykeve Village in Banat, Vojvodina todays (2005) Serbia and Montenegro. ... Also see: JaÅ¡a Tomić (disambiguation) Flood in JaÅ¡a Tomić in 2005 JaÅ¡a Tomić (Serbian: JaÅ¡a Tomić or Јаша Томић, German: Modosch, Hungarian: Módos) is a settlement located in the Sečanj municipality, in the Central Banat District of Serbia, Serbia and Montenegro. ...

The Banat Bulgarians in Romania are represented by the Bulgarian Union of the Banat - Romania, which issues the newspaper Náša glás and the magazine Literaturna miselj. The Romanian constitution reserves 18 seats in the Senate for parties and cultural associations of the ethnic minorities in Romania. ...

History

The resettlement of Bulgarian Paulicians in the Banat began after the unsuccessful Chiprovtsi Uprising against Ottoman rule in 1688 and series of Hungarian-Turkish and Austrian-Turkish wars. They crossed the Danube in a search for better life conditions outside the Ottoman Empire after long negotiations with Austrian rulers, which eventually led to giving them the right to settle in then-Austrian Transylvania and the Banat, where they founded the villages Star Beshenov or Stár Bišnov (1738), which, inhabited by 3,200 and known officially as Dudeştii Vechi, is the modern cultural centre of Banat Bulgarians, and Vinga (1741), located north and northwest of Timişoara. Coat of arms of Bulgarian Roman Catholic bishop and diplomat Petar Parchevich, a key figure in the uprisings early organization The Chiprovtsi Uprising (Bulgarian: Чипровско въстание) was an uprising against Ottoman rule organized in modern northwestern Bulgaria by Roman Catholic Bulgarians, but also involving many Eastern Orthodox Christians. ... Imperial motto (Ottoman Turkish) دولت ابد مدت Devlet-i Ebed-müddet (The Eternal State) The Ottoman Empire at the height of its power (1683) Official language Ottoman Turkish Capital Söğüt (1299-1326), Bursa (1326-1365), Edirne (1365-1453), Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul) (1453-1922) Imperial anthem Ottoman imperial anthem Sovereigns Padishah... The Danube bend at Visegrád is a popular destination of tourists The Danube (ancient Danuvius) is Europes second-longest river (after the Volga). ... Map of Romania with Transylvania in yellow Transylvania (Romanian: or Transilvania; Hungarian: ; German: ; Serbian: or Erdelj / Ердељ) is a historical region in the center of Romania. ... Banat (Romanian: Banat; Serbian: Банат or Banat; German: Banat; Hungarian: Bánát or Bánság; Slovak: Banát) is a geographical and historical region in Southeastern Europe divided among three countries: the eastern part belongs to Romania (the counties of TimiÅŸ, CaraÅŸ-Severin, Arad, and MehedinÅ£i), the western... Vinga is a small town in Arad county, Romania. ... County TimiÅŸ County Status County Capital Mayor Gheorghe Ciuhandu, Christian-Democratic Peoples Party, since 1996 Area 130,5 km² Population (2002) 325,997 Density 2,345 inh/km² Geographical coordinates Web site http://www. ...

The Banat Bulgarians originally inhabited only the parts of the region north of the Danube, but single groups moved south into Serbia in the middle of the 19th century. Motto: none Anthem: Bože Pravde Capital Belgrade Largest city Belgrade Official language(s) Serbian1 Government Republic  - President Boris Tadić  - Prime Minister Vojislav KoÅ¡tunica Formation and independence    - Formation of Serbia 814   - Formation of the Serbian Empire 1345   - Independence from the Ottoman Empire July 13, 1878   - Serbia and Montenegro union...

After the liberation of Bulgaria in 1878 and the formation of the Principality of Bulgaria, many Bulgarians from the Banat decided to move back to Western Bulgaria, founding villages like Bardarski Geran and Voyvodovo. However, the severe consequences of World War I along with other factors forced some of them to once again migrate to the Banat. The Treaty of San Stefano of March 3, 1878 provided for an independent Bulgarian state, which spanned over the geographical regions of Moesia, Thrace and Macedonia. ... Combatants Allied Powers: British Empire France Italy Russian Empire United States Central Powers: Austria-Hungary Bulgaria Germany Ottoman Empire Commanders Douglas Haig John Jellicoe Ferdinand Foch Nicholas II Woodrow Wilson John Pershing Wilhelm II Reinhard Scheer Franz Josef I Oskar Potiorek Ä°smail Enver Ferdinand I Casualties Military dead: 5,520...

Language

The title page of Náša glás, the newspaper of Banat Bulgarians

The vernacular of the Bulgarians of the Banat can be classified as belonging to the Eastern Bulgarian group. A typical feature is the "ы" vowel, which can either take an etymological place or replace "i". Other characteristic phonological features are the "ê" (wide "e") reflex of the Old Church Slavonic yat and the reduction of "o" into "u" and more seldom of "e" into "i": pule instead of pole ("field"), selu instead of selo ("village"), ugništi instead of ognishte ("fireplace"). Another Eastern Bulgarian sign is the palatalization of final consonants, which is typical for other Slavic languages, but found only in dialects in Bulgarian (Bulgarian Velikden ("Easter") sounds like and is written as Velikdenj). Old Church Slavonic (also called Old Church Slavic, Old Bulgarian, Old Macedonian, and Old Slavonic) is the first literary Slavic language, developed from the Slavonic dialect of Thessaloniki by 9th century Byzantine Greek missionaries, Saints Cyril and Methodius. ... Yat or Jat (, ) is the 32nd letter of the old Cyrillic alphabet and name of the sound represented by it. ... Palatalization means pronouncing a sound nearer to the hard palate, making it more like a palatal consonant; this is towards the front of the mouth for a velar or uvular consonant, but towards the back of the mouth for a front (e. ...  Countries where a West Slavic language is the national language  Countries where an East Slavic language is the national language  Countries where a South Slavic language is the national language The Slavic languages (also called Slavonic languages), a group of closely related languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup...

Lexically, the language of the Banat Bulgarians has borrowed many words from languages such as German (such as drot from Draht, "wire"; gáng from Gang, "anteroom, corridor"), Hungarian (vilánj from villan, "electricity"; mozi, "cinema"), Serbo-Croatian (stvár from stvar, "item, matter"; ráčun from račun, "account") and Romanian (šedinca from şedinţă, "conference") due to the close contacts with the other peoples of the multiethnical Banat and the religious ties with other Roman Catholic peoples. Loanwords constitute 20% of the Banat Bulgarian vocabulary. A Hungarian influence can also be seen in the names of some Banat Bulgarians, as the Hungarian (eastern) name order is sometimes used (the family name coming first and the given one last) and the female ending "-a" is often dropped from family names. Thus, Marija Velčova would become Velčov Marija. Serbo-Croatian (srpskohrvatski or hrvatskosrpski) is a name for a language of the Western group of the South Slavic languages. ... Hungarian (magyar nyelv ) is a Finno-Ugric language, unrelated to the other languages of Central Europe. ... A family name, or surname or last name, is the part of a persons name that indicates to what family he or she belongs. ... A given name is a word which specifies and differentiates between members of a group of individuals, especially a family, all of whose members usually share the same family name. ...

Besides loanwords, the lexis of Banat Bulgarian was also enriched by calques and neologisms such as sfetica ("icon", formerly used ikona and influenced by German Heiligenbild), zarno ("bullet", from the word meaning "grain"), oganbalváč ("volcano", literally "fire belcher") and predhurta ("foreword").

The Banat Bulgarian language uses a script of its own, largely based on the Croatian version of the Latin script, and preserves many features that are archaic in the language spoken in Bulgaria. The language was codified as early as 1866 and is used in literature and press, which distinguishes it from plain dialects. The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world, the standard script of the English language and most of the languages of western and central Europe, and of those areas settled by Europeans. ...

See also

• Krashovani

The Krashovani (Croatian and Serbian: Krašovani, Крашовани, Karašovani or Krašovanje, Karaševci and Koroševci; Romanian: Caraşoveni, Cârşoveni, Cotcoreţi or Cocoşi; also known as Krashovans) are a South Slavic people indigenous to Caraşova and other nearby locations in Caraş-Severin County within...

References

• Ivanova, Tsenka; Nichka Becheva. The speech and literary language practice of the Bulgarian Catholics of the Serbian Banat (in Bulgarian). LiterNet. Retrieved on 2006-08-05.
• Stoykov, Stoyko [1962] (2002). “Banatski govor”, Balgarska dialektologiya, 4th edition (in Bulgarian), Sofia: Prof. Marin Drinov, 195-197.

2006 (MMVI) is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... August 5 is the 217th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (218th in leap years), with 148 days remaining. ...

External links

• The website of Náša glás and Literaturna miselj, offers PDF versions of both publications, as well as information about the Banat Bulgarians. (in Banat Bulgarian)
• The Banat Bulgarians, featuring 1938 publications (in Bulgarian)
• Map of areas in the Romanian Banat inhabited by Banat Bulgarians as of 2002 (in light brown) at the Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania official website