Originally Posted by
PAGANE
With few exceptions, the preserved inscriptions that have come down to us are carved in the Greek language spoken in these centuries. The texts, edited as official inscriptions in the state center and in places, were to be read primarily by foreigners, envoys and refugees from Byzantium. For the illiterate Slavic and proto-Bulgarian population, the social and political role of the inscriptions was played by the oral folklore. However, there is no doubt that along with the Turkic inscriptions in Greek letters, the state chancellery and part of the proto-Bulgarian population used a runic script for a long time after the founding of the state. The abandonment of this letter and the transition to Greek texts would probably not have happened suddenly. The two known so far, inscriptions from Preslav and the village of Tsar Krum, written in Turko - Bulgarian language with Greek letters, represent such an intermediate phase of the extinction of the runic script. Such evidence is the innumerable signs on various objects, mainly ceramic vessels, and on building material from the old Bulgarian centers. many of them are either identical with letters from the Turkic runic script, or stand very close to the inscription of such letters. In other words, there is an inseparable connection between the two. And if the signs of the writing have disappeared from the practice of the Bulgarians in the lower Danube lands, then in their production practice and in their way of life they have been preserved with their independent role - the tamgas. This writing had to be abandoned by purely historical necessity. The reason for this is not only the extinction of the Turkic language among the proto-Bulgarians in Danube Bulgaria. The runic script had to disappear due to the state and cultural policy of Bulgaria in the Balkans. The Bulgarian state authorities need a single official official language. Naturally, this language could not be Slavic, although it was the most common because it was illiterate. According to the testimony of Chernorizets Hrabar, the Slavs also had a rudimentary letter, which he, as is well known, called "features and strokes". Perhaps in the bowels of the Slavic society in the Balkans in the VII-IX century a letter was born, based on the Greek and adapted to the Slavic phonetics similar to the corresponding experiments of the proto-Bulgarians, documented with the Turkic inventory inscriptions from Preslav and Tsar Krum. This language could not be Turko-Bulgarian either, because over the years and decades it has become less and less usable and understandable for the masses of the population. Historically, the most justified and natural was the use of the local Greek language, which became a kind of "koine" for the Bulgarian state. All epigraphic documents were written in this language, which, according to the Khan's office, should have had national significance. With this provincial Greek language, a remnant of the Hellenistic koine - Bulgaria became in this area the heir and successor of the old Balkan - Byzantine culture. It seems that this would have been the goal of the khan's power in Bulgaria. Thus, the texts of treaties between Bulgaria and Byzantium, such as the one from the village of Sechishte (Suleiman Kyoi), which addressed the issues of the Bulgarian-Byzantine border, exchange of prisoners, the border Slavic population and some others, appearing in the 30-year peace of 815, could be transmitted in the original on monumental columns. Such is the case with the text of a treaty by Kaspichan, which may be all about this 30-year peace and is probably a second copy of the same state document placed elsewhere in the center of the country.
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