Dubious number of speakers
PrintDubious number of speakers
See this discussion: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Bulgarian_language#Number_of_speakers
Especially this part: "The same page gives the speakers in Bulgaria as 6,840,000, citing "European Commission 2012". Again, it's not clear what document this is, but I'd assume it's this Eurobarometer survey report. It was conducted at more or less the same time as the 2011 Census, but it reports about a million more speakers. Given that it's based on an inevitably small sample size, it can safely be discarded in favour of the census figure"
We will update the country population for Bulgaria, and then update the L1 speaker population for Bulgarian [bul] in Bulgaria, adding an L2 speaker population as well, for inclusion in the next edition of the Ethnologue.
Comments
Could you please also confirm that "6,840,000" is L1+L2? (I assume it is given the country's population and usually you specifically mention when L1 figures)
For Turkey you have "395,000 in Turkey (2019). 98% Pomak (Leclerc 2014c)."
However, I assume Bulgarian speakers in Turkey are largely ethnic Turks originally from Bulgaria who speak Bulgarian as an L2. 360k + 240k ethnic Turks from Bulgaria who moved to Turkey between 1989 and 1997. 30–40% then moved back. See:
https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9781351062701/ethnic-cl...
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12134-014-0411-z
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/362061120_Religion_and_Identifi...
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/imig.12381
Dear Antoine,
First, the number of Bulgarian [bul] speakers in Bulgaria:
You are correct: the number of speakers at 6,840,000 is way too high. That is almost equal to the entire population that we show right now for the next edition. The country population also needs to be changed (from 6,967,000 to 6,520,00). 95% of this number would be about 6,200,000). However, even this number (6.2M) is too high. I would take this number to be L1 + L2.
To get the L1 population, I would probably take the percentage of speakers from the 2011 census (5,659,000 out of a total population of 7,365,000 = 76.8%), to bring the current L1 population in Bulgaria to 5 million.
Secondly, the number of Bulgarian [bul] speakers in Turkey. Here, I got most of my information from Jacques Leclerc (https://www.axl.cefan.ulaval.ca/asie/turquie_1general.htm) where he calculates that 98% of the Bulgarian speakers in Turkey are Pomaks (Pomaques). Leclerc states that the Pomaks were a Muslim group speaking a Bulgarian dialect. Other Bulgarian speakers in Turkey would come to only 7,000 - 8,000. Leclerc also makes this comment: La Turquie affirme que ces populations seraient des «Turcs pur sang» arrivés en Bulgarie et en Grèce avant l’occupation ottomane et qu’ils auraient apporté leur religion (l'islam) avec eux (https://www.axl.cefan.ulaval.ca/europe/Pomaques.htm).
So, is Leclerc wrong about the identity of the Bulgarian speakers in Turkey? The Wikipedia article on Pomaks in Turkey says this:
"Most Pomaks today live in Turkey where they have settled as muhacirs as a result of escaping previous ethnic cleansing in Bulgaria. Bulgaria recognizes their language as a Bulgarian dialect whereas in Greece and Turkey they self-declare their language as the Pomak language."
Would Turkey then recognize the Pomaks as ethnic Turks?
Thank you for looking into this.
Best wishes,
Chuck Fennig
Managing Editor, Ethnologue
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