The Future of Bulgarian Language from Historical Point of View

This research addresses theoretical and practical questions connected with predictions about language development, and more specifically, considerations connected with Bulgarian. Predictions tend to engender controversy, particularly with regard to areas of contemporary linguistics that are still being elaborated. Better formulated theoretical principles and more fully developed practical results will no doubt lead to better, more valuable linguistic research. The marked growth of prediction as a science during the last few decades and the success of these predictions in a wide range of scientific disciplines offer hope that linguistics will soon find it impossible to slight this important field of research.
An important indication that there has been a change in the general attitude toward linguistic prediction is that prediction has become common practice in socio-linguistic research. While it is still not studied for its own sake, but in connection with the development of language scenarios, the fact that prognosis is now a respected socio-linguistic practice offers hope that it will be studied more seriously, as an independent discipline.
The lack of a theoretical basis for predicting language change to a great extent determines the character of contemporary research, its structure, goals, and problems, its reach and nuance. This book has two major emphases: “Problems connected with linguistic prediction” and “Anticipated changes in Bulgarian morphology.” Part One, which is entirely devoted to theory, consists of an introduction and three chapters. Part Two begins with introductory notes that provide a basis for the next six chapters, in which the book’s general theoretical considerations are tested and verified by practice. The general conclusion is followed by a List of Works Cited in alphabetical order, endnotes, and final clarifications.