Bulgarians

Bulgarians (, ) are a South Slavic ethnic group and nation native to Bulgaria and its neighbouring regions. They share a common culture, ancestry, history, and speak the Bulgarian language. Bulgarians form the majority of the population in Bulgaria and exist as historical communities in North Macedonia, Ukraine, Moldova, Serbia, Albania, Romania, Hungary and Greece.

Etymology

Bulgarians derive their ethnonym from the Bulgars. Their name is not completely understood and difficult to trace back earlier than the 4th century AD, but it is possibly derived from the Proto-Turkic word *bulģha ("to mix", "shake", "stir") and its derivative *bulgak ("revolt", "disorder").Bowersock, Glen W. & al. Late Antiquity: a Guide to the Postclassical World , p. 354. Harvard University Press, 1999. . Alternative etymologies include derivation from a compound of Proto-Turkic (Oghuric) *bel ("five") and *gur ("arrow" in the sense of "tribe"), a proposed division within the Utigurs or Onogurs ("ten tribes").Karataty, Osman. In Search of the Lost Tribe: the Origins and Making of the Croatian Nation , p. 28.

Ethnogenesis Modern-day Bulgarians descend from peoples of vastly different origins and numbers, and are thus the result of a melting pot effect. The main ethnic elements which blended to produce the modern Bulgarian ethnicity are: Thracians – a native ancient Balkan Indo-European people who left a cultural and genetic legacy."Many Thracian survivals have been detected in the sphere of Bulgarian national costume and folk tradition." The Bulgarians: from pagan times to the Ottoman conquest, David Marshall Lang, Westview Press, 1976, , p. 27."A detailed analysis is made of the assimilation process which took place between Slavs and Thracians. It ended in the triumph of the Slav element and in the ultimate disappearance of the Thracian ethnos ... Attention is drawn to the fact that even though assimilated, the Thracian ethnicon left behind traces of its existence (in toponymy, the lexical wealth of the Bulgarian language, religious beliefs, material culture, etc.) which should be extensively studied in all their aspects in the future ..." Dimitŭr Angelov (1971), [Formation of the Bulgarian nation], Sofia: Издателство Наука и изкуство, "Векове", pp. 409–410. (Summary in English ). Approximately 40-45% of Bulgarian autosomal genetic legacy is of Paleo-Balkan and Mediterranean origin and can be attributed to the indigenous Balkan and ancient Roman populations;Axel Kristinsson (2010), Expansions: Competition and Conquest in Europe Since the Bronze Age, Reykjavíkur Akademían, , p. 194. Early Slavs – an Indo-European group of tribes that migrated from Eastern Europe into the Balkans in the 6th–7th century CE and imposed their language and culture on the local Thracian, Roman and Greek communities. Approximately 51-56% of Bulgarian autosomal make-up comes from a northeastern European population that admixed with the native population in the period between 400 and 1000 CE as determined by the latest study on the genome of Bulgarians;Sarno S, Piccini F, Abondio P, Cilli E, Kuyumdjian EM, Dimitrov NA, Dilov CD, De Fanti S, Ciani G, Gentilini D, Boattini A, Sazzini M, Pettener D, Luiselli D. The Genetic Variability of Present-Day Bulgarians Captures Ancient and Recent Ancestral Contributions. Am J Biol Anthropol. 2025 Apr;186(4):e70037. doi: 10.1002/ajpa.70037. PMID 40202136; PMCID: PMC11980028. Bulgars – a semi-nomadic Turkic tribal federation, possibly from Central Asia, which settled in the northeast of the Balkans in the 7th century CE, federated with the local Slavic and Slavicized population, organised early-medieval Bulgarian statehood and bequeathed their ethnonym to the modern Bulgarian ethnicity, while eventually assimilating into the Slavic population. East Eurasian ancestry calculated on the base of autosomal, paternal and maternal DNA, converge on about 1% of Bulgarian genetic pool.Karachanak, S., Grugni, V., Fornarino, S. et al. 2013, Y-Chromosome Diversity in Modern Bulgarians: New Clues about Their Ancestry. PLoS ONE 8(3): e56779.Karachanak, S., Carossa, V., Nesheva, D. et al. 2012, Bulgarians vs the other European populations: a mitochondrial DNA perspective. International Journal of Legal Medicine 126(4): 497-503. This contribution is attributed to the Bulgars, Avars, Cumans and others Turkic tribes, which settled on the Balkans during the Middle ages, with admixture peaking in the 9th century CE;Garrett Hellenthal et al. (14 February 2014). "A Genetic Atlas of Human Admixture History". Science, Vol. 343 no. 6172, p. 751. "CIs. for the admixture time(s) overlap but predate the Mongol empire, with estimates from 440 to 1080 CE". (Fig.3. )

The indigenous Thracians left a cultural and genetic legacy."The so-called Bulgar inscriptions are, with few exceptions, written in Greek rather than in Turkic runes; they mention officials with late antique titles, and use late Antique terminology and indictional dating. Contemporary Byzantine inscriptions are not obviously similar, implying that this (Bulgar) epigraphic habit was not imported from Constantinople but was a local Bulgar development, or rather, it was an indigenous 'Roman' inheritance." M. Whittow, Nicopolis ad Istrium: Backward and Balkan. Other pre-Slavic Indo-European peoples, including Dacians (if distinct from Thracians), Celts, Goths, Romans, ancient Greeks, Sarmatians, Paeonians and Illyrians also settled in what later became the Bulgarian lands. The Thracian language was still spoken in the 6th century, probably becoming extinct afterwards,Bulgarian historical review, Publishing House of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, pp. 53The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome, 7th edition, p. 57Elemér Illyés, Ethnic Continuity in the Carpatho-Danubian Area In a later period the Bulgarians replaced long-established Greek/Latin toponyms with Thracian ones, which might suggest that Thracian had not been completely obliterated then.

Some pre-Slavic linguistic and cultural traces might have been preserved among modern Bulgarians (and Macedonians).Mercia MacDermott (1998), Bulgarian Folk Customs, Jessica Kingsley, , pp. 18–19. Radoslav Katicic (1976), Ancient Languages of the Balkans, Walter de Gruyter, , pp. 9–10; 71. Scythia Minor and Moesia Inferior appear to have been Romanized, though the region became a focus of barbarian re-settlements (various Goths and Huns) during the 4th and early 5th centuries AD, before a further "Romanization" episode during the early 6th century. According to archeological evidence from the late periods of Roman rule, the Romans did not decrease the number of Thracians significantly in major cities. By the 4th century the major city of Serdica had predominantly Thracian populace based on epigraphic evidence, which shows prevailing Latino-Thracian given names, but thereafter the names were completely replaced by Christian ones.Sofia – 127 years capital. Sofia Municipality

The early Slavs emerged from their original homeland in the early 6th century, and spread to most of the eastern Central Europe, Eastern Europe and the Balkans, thus forming three main branches: the West Slavs in eastern Central Europe, the East Slavs in Eastern Europe, and the South Slavs in Southeastern Europe (Balkans). The latter gradually inflicted total linguistic replacement of Thracian, if the Thracians had not already been Romanized or Hellenized.Douglas Q. Adams, Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture, p. 576 Most scholars accept that they began large-scale settling of the Balkans in the 580s based on the statement of the 6th century historian Menander speaking of 100,000 Slavs in Thrace and consecutive attacks of Greece in 582.Fine, John Van Antwerp Jr. (1983), The Early Medieval Balkans, University of Michigan Press, , p. 31 They continued coming to the Balkans in many waves, but also leaving, most notably Justinian II (685–695) settled as many as 30,000 Slavs from Thrace in Asia Minor. The Byzantines grouped the numerous Slavic tribes into two groups: the Sclaveni and Antes. Some Bulgarian scholars suggest that the Antes became one of the ancestors of the modern Bulgarians.

The Bulgars are first mentioned in the 4th century in the vicinity of the North Caucasian steppe. Scholars often suggest that the ultimate origins of the Bulgar is Turkic and can be traced to the Central Asian nomadic confederations,Petar Petrov (1981). [Formation of the Bulgarian State]. Sofia: Издателство Наука и изкуство. specifically as part of loosely related Oghuric tribes which spanned from the Pontic steppe to central Asia.Rasho Rashev, , Sofia: Orbel, 2005. (in Bulgarian, German summary) However, any direct connection between the Bulgars and postulated Asian counterparts rest on little more than speculative and "contorted etymologies". Some Bulgarian historians question the identification of the Bulgars as a Turkic tribe and suggest an Iranian origin.Dobrev, Petar (1995). . 1995. Bakalov, Georgi. . Part 1 & Part 2 . Other Bulgarian scholars actively oppose the "Iranian hypothesis".Yordanov, Stefan (2002). [Slavs, Turks and Indo-Iranians in the Early Middle Ages: Linguistic Problems of Bulgarian Ethnogenesis]. In: . [Bulgarian Studies. 8. Current Problems of Bulgarian and Slavic Studies. Seventh International Scientific Session]. Veliko Tarnovo, 22–23 August 2001. pp. 275–295.Ivan Kalchev Dobrev (2005). [Inscription No. 21 from the Bulgarian gold treasure 'Nagy Saint-Miklós']. [Collection of materials from the Scientific Conference of the Academy of Sciences "G. S. Rakovski"]. Sofia. According to Raymond Detrez, the Iranian theory is rooted in the periods of anti-Turkish sentiment in Bulgaria and is ideologically motivated. Since 1989, anti-Turkish rhetoric is now reflected in the theories that challenge the thesis of the Bulgars' Turkic origin. Alongside the Iranian or Aryan theory, there appeared arguments favoring an autochthonous origin.

In the 670s, some Bulgar tribes, the Danube Bulgars led by Asparuh and the Bulgars, led by Kuber, crossed the Danube river and settled in the Balkans with a single migration wave, the former of which Michael the Syrian described as numbering 10,000. The Bulgars are often not thought to have been numerous, becoming a ruling elite in the areas they controlled. However, according to Steven Runciman a tribe that was able to defeat an Emperor-lead Byzantine army, must have been of considerable dimensions.Steven Runciman, A history of the First Bulgarian Empire, page 28 Asparuh's Bulgars made a tribal union with the Severians and the "Seven clans", who were re-settled to protect the flanks of the Bulgar settlements in Scythia Minor, as the capital Pliska was built on the site of a former Slavic settlement.