Bulgarians - History of Ethnogenesis

History of Ethnogenesis

The Bulgarians have descended from three main tribal groups, which mixed themselves and formed a Slavic-speaking nation and ethnicity in the First Bulgarian Empire: 1) the Slavs, who gave their language to the Bulgarians; 2) the Bulgars, from whom the ethnonym and the early statehood were inherited; as well as 3) the 'indigenous' late Roman provincial peoples: Thraco-Romans and Thraco-Byzantines, from whom certain cultural elements were taken.

The ethnonym Bulgars is first attested by an anonymous Roman chronograph of 354 A.D. (Latin: Vulgares). Between the 7th and the 10th centuries, the local population, the Bulgars and the other tribes in the empire, which were outnumbered by the Slavs gradually became absorbed by them, adopting a South Slav language. Since the late 10th century, the names "Bulgarians" and "Bulgarian" got prevalence and became permanent designations for the local population, both in the literature and in the spoken language.

The ancient languages of the local people had gone nearly extinct before the arrival of the Slavs, mostly due to Hellenization since antiquity and to a lesser degree to Romanization during Roman rule, accompanied by Christianisation. Their cultural influence was also highly reduced due to the repeated barbaric invasions on the Balkans during the early Middle Ages by Goths, Celts, Huns and Sarmatians and later slavicisation. However, some of their linguistic and cultural traces are nevertheless present in modern Bulgarians (and Macedonians).

The Slavs emerged from their original homeland in the early 6th century, and spread to most of the eastern Central Europe, Eastern Europe and the Balkans, thus forming three main branches – the West Slavs, the East Slavs and the South Slavs. The Slavs became the largest part of the ancestors of the Bulgarians.

The Bulgars are first mentioned in the 4th century in the vicinity of the North Caucasian steppe, although scholars speculate that their history may go back to the Central Asian nomadic confederations. Many scholars posit the origins of the Bulgars as a Turkic tribe of Central Asia (perhaps with Iranian elements). In the late 7th century, some Bulgar tribes, led by Asparukh and others, led by Kouber, permanently settled in the Balkans, and formed the ruling class of the First Bulgarian Empire in 680–681. It is assumed, that because Balkan Bulgars were not numerous, only a cultural, and low genetic influence was brought into the region, since the genetic background of the local populations was not detectably modified.