The main languages spoken in my town are Bulgarian and Romani.
Bulgarian is the national language of our country, with approximately 10 million people speaking it worldwide. Interestingly, Bulgarians are credited with creating the Cyrillic alphabet. This alphabet is used by many languages, primarily Slavic ones like Russian, Ukrainian, and Serbian, but also by numerous non-Slavic languages across Eastern Europe and Asia. While some letters resemble English letters (A, B, S, M, H, X), they do not make the same sound as they do in English alphabet. One aspect of learning Cyrillic is that it is easier than English because it is phonetic, meaning each letter corresponds to one specific sound.
The Romani language has a different origin. The Romani people immigrated from India, bringing their language with them. Romani is part of the Indo-Aryan language family, meaning its roots lie in the Indian subcontinent. This makes it unique as the only Indo-Aryan language spoken almost exclusively in Europe. Romani is known for its many different dialects that vary significantly by region. Romani spoken in Bulgaria, for example, may sound completely different from Romani spoken in France. Lastly, Romani is historically and primarily an oral language, passed down unwritten. Today, organizations are working towards creating a unified, standardized alphabet, however, no single standard has gained universal acceptance.
