Data on the Changes in the Unstressed Broad Vowels in the Bulgarian Territorial Dialects

The paper examines data from the main types of Bulgarian dialects on the reduction of wide vowels into narrow ones. Information from written sources and from own field research on speech within and beyond modern state borders is used. Attention is paid to the reduction о > у (u), а > ъ (ə) of vowels in Eastern and Western dialects as well as of the differences in the reduction of the vowel e. The cases of so-called akavism (о > а), the manifestations of which are also associated with the presence of an accent and with his influence of the opposition broad ~ narrow vowels are considered. The relationship between stressed quantity, which is recorded in some dialects, and reduction is discussed.