THE STATUS OF THE BULGARIAN LANGUAGE IN SERBIA IN A SOCIO-LINGUISTIC AND LINGUO-CULTURAL ASPECT

For more than a century political and social factors lead to changes in the numbers of the population preserving Bulgarian ethnic self-consciousness in Serbia (in the border area, in towns and villages in Eastern Serbia and in the Banat Region) and in the status of the Bulgarian language. As a language of the education it competes with the official state language - the Serbian, which gradually displaces it, the usage of the two literary languages or of their variants on a different level leads to specific interference manifestations and to departures from the norm; the local dialect is firmly present in the daily Communication; the Bulgarian and the Serbian are not equally used by the media. The linguo-cultural knowledge which is bound by the sense of nationality, marks variables among the various social groups and changes in the course Or time. Except by field work observations and analysis of the language or the media, the contemporary status of the language practice has been ascertained by three types of inquiries. The exposition is a part of a more extensive paper the purpose of which is to present a topical analysis pragmatically orientated towards proven and working European practices instead of using the prevailingly historical and to sonic extend sentimental aspect of interpretation of the linguistic situation.