Abstract: The article deals with two phenomena in Modern Bulgarian that definitely demonstrate its further development toward analyticity. The first phenomenon is the so-called ‘full definite article’ which is compulsory for masculine nouns in subject position in written language (but not in speech) and the second – the accusative from of the relative pronoun кой (who), which is falling out of use both in speech and in writing. On the basis of theoretical arguments as well as examples from actual usage and a psycholinguistic experiment the authors argue that the time has come for the respective authorities and language planners to officially change the rigid grammatical rules so that they reflect more precisely the natural development of the language. The social consequences of these processes have also been considered.
Key words: Bulgarian, analyticity, full definite article, case of the pronoun, language planning
Rhetoric and Communications E-journal, Issue 4, April 2012, http://rhetoric.bg/, ISSN 1314-4464