One of the priorities of VLACH is the support of the dialectological diversity of the Bulgarian language. The following activities and measures were carried out during the first activity period of the VLACH Commission (2016-2021):

Field research conducted by Thede Kahl and Andreea Pascaru

  • in Bulgaria and in Greece in 2013, 2015, 2017 and from 2022 also among the Pomak speaking population in Turkey.

  • on other Bulgarian varieties outside Bulgaria that include Wallachian Bulgarian (collected by Thede Kahl between 2013-2015), Banat Bulgarian (Romania, Serbia, collected between 2016-2018 by Thede Kahl and Andreea Pascaru), and Anatolian Bulgarian (Turkey) as well as "Trakatrukika" (Thessaloniki, Kilkis, Komotini) collected since 2014 (ongoing).

This basic project includes also the the editing and transcription of Banat Bulgarian video and photo collection launched in 2017 and the editing and transcription of Walachian Bulgarian video and photo collection (ongoing).

Other processing and editing of existing research material included

  • incorporation of audio, photo and video collection on Bessarabian Bulgarian, conducted by Tanya Dimitrova, Thede Kahl, Anna Kuzmina and Ioana Aminian (2013)

  • editing and transcription of Walachian Bulgarian video and photo collection, provided by Thede Kahl (2013-2015)

  • support of the translation of the "Little Prince" into Banat Bulgarian, translated by Ana-Maria Bodor Calapiș

  • presentation of the Banat Bulgarian translation of the "Little Prince" in Deta, Romania

  • cooperation with the Democritus University in Komotini about the collection made by Prof. Kristina Markova in different Pomak villages in Greece

  • publication and popularization of audio tracks, photo collection and video clips within the VLACH Bulgarian collection until 2021

This ongoing ethnographic and sociolinguistic research aims to document a wide range of language practices, speaker attitudes, and processes of language shift among these communities, with particular attention to issues of minority language maintenance and transnational identity.