Ранноновобългарската падежна система
The Early Modern Bulgarian Case System

Summary/Abstract: The article considers the gradual change from the general Slavic seven-case system to a typically Balkan four-case system in Bulgarian analysing fourteenth, fifteenth and seventeenth century texts that are close to the linguistic structure of the contemporary vernacular. The data allow for the conclusion that the turning-point in the development of the case system is the first half of the fifteenth century which is also a turning-point in the social and demographic development of the Bulgarian lands. The data do not confirm, however, the wide-spread idea that cases like the instrumental and the locative died out before the fourteenth century. Among the curious facts established by the analysis is the seventeenth century Early Modern Bulgarian possessive accusative construction which has its parallels in Old French and in Early Byzantine Greek.

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