site.btaFirst Bulgarian Digital Vocabulary Launched

A Platform for Bulgarian Language Resources Online (BERON) was presented at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS) on Friday. BERON's first product is the very first Bulgarian digital vocabulary, available on beron.mon.bg.

The vocabulary includes rich information about the grammatical characteristics of the words, doublets and homonyms in literary language. Included are around 2,400 forms. One can hear the correct pronunciation of the words, voiced by actress Gergana Stoyanova.

The BERON project is headed by Prof Ruska Stancheva of the BAS Institute for Bulgarian Language. The content has been developed by linguists from the Institute's Modern Bulgarian Language Department.

During the platform's presentation on Friday, Prof Stancheva said that it was named BERON to honour Petar Beron, author of the legendary Fish Primer of 1824. Part of the rules in Bulgarian literary language originate from the Fish Primer, she noted. To develop the orthography on BERON, artificial intelligence was used developed by the BAS Institute of Information and Communication Technologies. The platform also has a Question of the Day section that provides answers to questions received daily at the BAS Institute for Bulgarian Language's Service for Language Checks and Consultations. 

Speaking at the event, Deputy Education and Science Minister Nataliya Miteva said that functional literacy in Bulgarian is a national priority. "For us it is extremely important to develop the language skills of pupils and young people," she noted.

BAS Vice President Stefan Hadjitodorov congratulated the team behind BERON, which he described as a platform meeting the public interest and important for the Bulgarian communities around the world.

The platform will continue to be upgraded and enriched with new functions and content.