This document provides an introduction to pronouncing consonant sounds in the Bulgarian language. It discusses the Bulgarian alphabet which contains 30 letters including 20 consonants and 6 vowels. It notes Bulgarian words can have clusters of up to 3 consonants in a syllable. Examples are given of different syllable types like CCVC and CCVCCC. A table lists the consonant sounds and their equivalent English pronunciation. It emphasizes the importance of stress in Bulgarian words and notes the stress can change for different word forms and affect meaning. However, there is no rule for stress placement so each word must be learned individually.

1. LESSON 1
PRONUNCIATION - 1
BASIC BULGARIAN CONSONANT SOUNDS
HEY,
LETS
LEARN!

2. INTRODUCTION
The Focus of This Lesson is Syllables and Native Consonant Sounds That
Make Up the Bulgarian Language
Let's first take a look at how Bulgarian sounds work. In Bulgarian, we use the Cyrillic alphabet. The
Bulgarian alphabet consists of twenty consonant sounds
([б], [в], [г], [д], [ж], [з], [к], [л], [м], [н], [п], [р], [с], [т], [ф], [х], [ц], [ч], [ш], [щ], and there are also
composed sounds like [дж], which are not part of the alphabet, formed by two consonants in some words
like "join" or "edge"), and six vowels ([а], [е], [и], [о], [у], [ъ]). There are also two semivowels, [й] and
[ь], which are usually combined with vowels.

3. INTRODUCTION
 Bulgarian has two compound sounds that are also included in the letters of the alphabet. They are [ю]
and [я]. Altogether, we have thirty letters of the alphabet. In Bulgarian, there are words like the English
word "strength," which have clusters of three or more consonants. But in Bulgarian the maximum
phonological structure of the syllable can be summarized as CCCVCCC. There are various syllable
types; the more complex ones are, for example, CCVC, CCCVC, and CCVCCC. The simple ones are of
the CVC type, for example.

4. Examples of Bulgarian Words
C=consonant V=vowel
 Bulgarian
Romanization
"English"
Syllable
Combination
 бряг
bryag
"shore"
CCVC
 страх
strah
"fear"
CCCVC
 сфинкс
sfinks
"sphinx"
CCVCCC
 дом
dom
"home"
CVC

5. CONSONANTS
 1. [б] (b) as in "bus“
 8. [л] (l) as in "love"
 2. [в] (v) as in "very"
 9. [м] (m) as in "many"
 3. [г] (g) as in "good"
 10. [н] (n) as in "no"
 4. [д] (d) as in "dog"
 11. [п] (p) as in "pot"
 5. [ж] (j) as s in "leisure"  12. [р] (r) as in "red"
 6. [з] (z) as in "zoo"
 13. [с] (s) as in "sit"
 7. [к] (k) as in "kick"
 14. [т] (t) as in "tea"
 15. [ф] (f) as in "foot"
 16. [х] (h) as in "heart"

21. [дж] (dj) as in "job" or
"John"

22. [й] (i) as in "instant" or
"yes," shorter than the vowel
[и]

23. [ь] (i) consonant
softening sound, combined
with [о] to make "yo" as in
"yoyo"

24. [ю] (yu) as in "you"

25. [я] (ya) as in "yarn"
 17. [ц] (ts) as in "fits"
 18. [ч] (ch) as in
"check"
 19. [ш] (sh) as in "shut"
 20. [щ] (sht) as in
"shtick" or the "-shed" in
"pushed"

6. PRONUNCIATION
Every Bulgarian letter has an English equivalent close enough to give you a clue as to its pronunciation.
If you use the phonetic transcription of the pronunciation as given above, you can memorize how to
pronounce every letter. The stress is very important not only for the pronunciation, but for the meaning
as well.

7. PRONUNCIATION
The bad news is that there is no rule for the position of the stress in Bulgarian. Every word should be
memorized separately. In some words the stress can change its position when changing the form from
singular to plural or when adding a definite article. Also there are words that change their meaning
depending on the stress. But don't worry! In these pronunciation lessons we are going to give you tips on
how to learn and master Bulgarian pronunciation.