Abstract:
The article treats the presence of the specific sound wide ê (æ) in the place of the Old Bulgarian big yus and big yer in two Bessarabian Bulgarian dialects – those of the villages of Kalchevo and of Vinogradnoe, Bolgrad region. So far, the phenomenon has not been noticed by the researchers of the Bulgarian dialects in Ukraine, including the authors of Атлас болгарских говоров в СССР (Atlas of the Bulgarian Dialects in USSR) and S. Topalova, who wrote a monograph on the Kalchevo dialect. In the article we show many examples of the use of the sound ê (æ).