The Probert Encyclopaedia of People

BULGARIANS

The Bulgarians are a race of Finnish origin, whose original seat was the banks of the Volga, and who subdued the old Moesian population and established a kingdom in the present Bulgaria in the 7th century. They soon became blended with the conquered Slavs, whose language they adopted. In the 14th century the country was conquered by the Turks, and until 1908 remained part of the Ottoman Empire. The Bulgarian language is divided into two dialects, the old and the new; the former is the richest and best of the Slavonic tongues, and although extinct as a living tongue is still used as the sacred language of the Greek Church. The Bulgarians are now spread over many parts of the Balkan peninsula.
Research Bulgarians