Bulgarian (български език, pronounced: [ˈbɤ̞ɫɡɐrski ɛˈzik]) is an Indo-European language, a member of the Southern branch of the Slavic language family.

Bulgarian, along with the closely related Macedonian language, has several characteristics that set it apart from all other Slavic languages such as the elimination of case declension, the development of a suffixed definite article (see Balkan linguistic union), the lack of a verb infinitive, and the retention and further development of the Proto-Slavic verb system. Various evidential verb forms exist to express unwitnessed, retold, and doubtful action. Estimates of the number of people around the world who speak Bulgarian fluently range from about 9 million to 12 million.

The development of the Bulgarian language may be divided into several periods.

Bulgarian was the first "Slavic" language attested in writing. As Slavic linguistic unity lasted into late antiquity, in the oldest manuscripts this language was initially referred to as языкъ словяньскъ, "the Slavic language". In the Middle Bulgarian period this name was gradually replaced by the name языкъ блъгарьскъ, the "Bulgarian language". In some cases, the name языкъ блъгарьскъ was used not only with regard to the contemporary Middle Bulgarian language of the copyist but also to the period of Old Bulgarian. A most notable example of anachronism is the Service of St. Cyril from Skopje (Скопски миней), a 13th-century Middle Bulgarian manuscript from northern Macedonia according to which St. Cyril preached with "Bulgarian" books among the Moravian Slavs. The first mention of the language as the "Bulgarian language" instead of the "Slavonic language" comes in the work of the Greek clergy of the Bulgarian Archbishopric of Ohrid in the 11th century, for example in the Greek hagiography of Saint Clement of Ohrid by Theophylact of Ohrid (late 11th century).

Thomas Jeffrey "Tom" Hanks (born July 9, 1956) is an American actor, producer, writer, and director. Hanks is known for his roles in Philadelphia and as the title character in Forrest Gump, roles which won him two consecutive Academy Awards for Best Actor. Hanks is also known for his Oscar nominated roles in Big, Saving Private Ryan and Cast Away.

Hanks' other acting roles include Apollo 13 as Jim Lovell, The Green Mile as Paul Edgecomb, Toy Story as Woody and Charlie Wilson's War as Charlie Wilson.

Hanks was born in Concord, California. His father, Amos Mefford Hanks (born in Glenn County, California, on March 9, 1924 – died in Alameda, California, on January 31, 1992), was an itinerant cook. His mother, Janet Marylyn (née Frager; born in Alameda County, California, on January 18, 1932), was a hospital worker. Hanks' mother is of Portuguese ancestry, while two of his paternal great-grandparents immigrated from Britain. Hanks's parents divorced in 1960. The family's three oldest children, Sandra (now Sandra Hanks Benoiton, a writer)^{[citation needed]}, Larry (now Lawrence M. Hanks, PhD, an entomology professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) and Tom, went with their father, while the youngest, Jim, now an actor and film maker, remained with his mother in Red Bluff, California.^{[citation needed]}

Victor A. Friedman (born 18 October, 1949, Chicago, USA) is an American linguist. He is currently Andrew W. Carnegie Professor in the humanities at the University of Chicago. He holds a joint appointment in linguistics and Slavic languages and literatures with an associated appointment in anthropology. He has published numerous articles in English, Macedonian and Albanian.

Victor A. Friedman received his B.A. in Russian language and literature at Reed College in 1970. Friedman's PhD was in Slavic languages and literatures in General linguistics at the University of Chicago in 1975. His dissertation, "The Grammatical categories of the Macedonian Indicative", was the first publication about the modern Macedonian language in the USA and won the Mark Perry Galler prize for best dissertation.

From 1975 until 1993 Friedman lectured at the University of North Carolina. In 1993 he was appointed to a professorship at the University of Chicago. He has held visiting positions at Cornell University, the University of Skopje, the Central European University in Budapest, Kyoto University, the University of Helsinki, the University of Pristina, the National University of Malaysia and Latrobe University. His expertise extends over all languages of the Balkans and the Caucasus, including Albanian, Aromanian, Azeri, Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian, Bulgarian, Georgian, Greek, Judezmo, Lak, Macedonian, Romani, Romanian, Russian, Tadjik and Turkish. His research has been multidisciplinary and has involved extensive fieldwork in the Balkans.