Rup dialects
The range of the Rup dialects includes the southern part of Thrace, i.e. Strandzha, the region of Haskovo, the Rhodopes and the eastern half of Pirin Macedonia.Before the Balkan wars and World War I, the Rup dialects covered a much larger territory, including vast areas of Eastern Thrace, Western Thrace and the eastern part of Greek Macedonia.Following the wars, most of the Bulgarian population in these areas fled or resettled to Bulgaria and nowadays, the Rup dialects outside Bulgaria are spoken only by the Muslim Bulgarians (Pomaks) in Western Thrace in Greece.What brings them together is the vast array of reflexes of Old Church Slavonic ѣ (yat).Due to the mountainous terrain and the relative isolation the speakers which lasted well into the beginning of the 20th century, the Rhodopean dialects are both very well preserved and extremely idiosyncratic with regard to the other Bulgarian dialects.
BulgariansLanguage familyIndo-EuropeanBalto-SlavicSlavicSouth SlavicBulgarianStrandzhaThracianSmolyanHvoynaChepinoPaulicianZlatogradBabyakRazlogSerres-NevrokopISO 639-3romanizedBulgarian dialectsThraceHaskovoRhodopesPirin MacedoniaBalkan warsWorld War IEastern ThraceWestern ThraceGreek MacedoniaBulgariaMuslim BulgariansNorthwesternBalkan dialectsSubbalkan dialectStrandzha dialectThracian dialectSerres-Nevrokop dialectRazlog dialectsChepino dialectZlatograd dialectRazlog dialectSouthwestern Bulgarian dialectsSamokovIhtiman dialectCentral Balkan dialectlittle yusDialectsBulgarian languageEasternMoesianShumenBalkanCentral BalkanKotel-Elena-DryanovoPanagyurishtePirdopTetevenErkechSubbalkanWesternByala Slatina-PlevenVidin-LomSouthwesternBotevgradVratsaIhtimanElin PelinDupnitsaKyustendilMaleshevo-PirinSolun-KukushTransitionalBreznikBelogradchikMacedonian