Българска езикова история от южните родопи. Историческа антропонимия и диалектни особености от говора на с. Чалъба (грц. Σμιγαδα), гюмюрджинско

• Published in: Bŭlgarski ezik 2023, Vol.70 (4), p.55-67
• Main Author: Mitrinov, Georgi
• Format: Article
• Language: Bulgarian
• Subjects: 16th century; Anthroponyms; Applied Linguistics; Bulgarian language; Dialects; Historical Linguistics; Language and Literature Studies; Language history; Language studies; Philology; Regional dialects
• ISSN: 0005-4283; 2603-3372
• DOI: 10.47810/BL.70.23.04.05

The Bulgarian Southern Rhodope dialects spoken in the region of Komotini (Greece) have not yet been properly studied. Not much is known about the history of the old local Bulgarian-speaking villages. This article presents historical and anthroponymic data from the village of Chalaba (Greek: Smigadа) in the Komotini region, Greece. According to these data, its population was exclusively Bulgarian Christian in the 16th century. The paper provides an analysis of the historical anthroponymy of the village. Such a study is particularly important with a view to the peripheral regions of the Bulgarian linguistic area, such as the Rhodopes and Western Thrace, whose local Bulgarian population was assimilated after a large part of it had been forced to adopt the Muslim faith. The comparison with 16th-century anthroponymic data from other regions of Western Thrace and the Southern Rhodopes, provided in the article, helps to reconstruct the anthroponymic picture of the Bulgarian population in this part of the Bulgarian linguistic territory. In addition, the paper presents the main features of the local Bulgarian dialect.