Bulgarian language policy

Abstract

ABSTRACT The paper presents some general facts about Bulgarian, which is spoken by over 8 million people all over the world and is the official language of the Republic of Bulgaria. It is shown that language diversity within the country has been relatively constant and modest over the last 90 years (with a clear dominance of Bulgarian). The focus of the paper is the presentation of the legislation in Bulgaria that regulates language teaching and use in different spheres of life, the main activities of the national institute of language, and the role of language education. The main findings are as follows: There is no dedicated Bulgarian Language Act. Instead, over 100 legislative acts govern issues concerning the usage and study of the Bulgarian language. The Institute for Bulgarian Language at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences supports the Bulgarian state’s language policy through: researching the present state, history, and dialect variety of the Bulgarian language; monitoring changes in written and spoken language; publishing grammars and dictionaries; and developing language resources and technologies. The key factors that influence language education in Bulgaria include early childhood education and care, equity in education and educational outcomes, and the rise of new learning styles.