Bulgarian Language Analysis

Bulgarian language is an Eastern European language that consists of six vowels and thirty-five consonant phonemes. The vowels are (i, ɛ, a, ɜ, ɔ, u). On the other hand, American English contains of fifteen vowels and twenty-four consonant phonemes. The contrast between the numbers of vowels in those two quite distinctive languages is not the only dissimilarity. The main problem is the difference between the types of vowels that exist in both phonetic systems. American English consist of lax and tense vowels, while Bulgarian language consists only of lax ones. The distinction between lax and tense vowels is technical and consists mainly in the phonetics. Lax vowels are shorter in sound compared to the tense ones, which are longer in sound. As it can be seen from the English phonetic charts below /i/ and /u/ are tense vowels, and /ɪ/ and /ʊ/ are lax vowels. In Bulgarian phonetic chart, there is no such …show more content…
One of the weaknesses is that the research is based solely on testing proper names, and the contrast that might appear in other words have not been tested. Andreeva et al (2014) and Robinson et al (1987) both focus on vowel reduction in Bulgarian. Both of the articles can contribute to the field of study by focusing on the Bulgarian phonological system with regards to the stressed and unstressed vowels, and the reduction that occurs based on the speaker’s dialect. In the research field, the participants will be from different geographical areas of Bulgaria, thus a vowel reduction might occur. The study filed of the new research focuses specifically on the distinction between lax and tense vowels in English and Bulgarian, and emphasizes on how the lack of tense vowels, affects the pronunciation of Bulgarian native speakers who speak English as a second