Непознат български буквар (Загреб, 1904)
An Unknown Bulgarian Primer (Zagreb, 1904)

Summary/Abstract: Bulgarian Primer with Reader was published in 1904 in Zagreb — quite a good short textbook for learning Bulgarian which was the work of Janko (Ivan) Benigar, a student who was to become a world-famous linguist and ethnologist. The article answers the question what were the reasons that made a barely twenty-year-old Croat to travel absolutely alone in 1903 the distance between Zagreb and Sofia, and from there to the Black Sea in order to acquaint himself with the language, everyday life and spirituality of Bulgarians. And why, when he returned to Croatia, he used his own meager funds to publish his Bulgarian Primer about which we, Bulgarians, knew nothing until now. The author analyses the separate parts of the primer: Introduction, The Bulgarian Alphabet, Bulgarian Grammar, Reader, Short Bulgarian-Croat Glossary and Attachments. On the basis of this analysis she judges the places and significance of this little beneficial book — both as a first attempt of the future outstanding linguist and expert on Indian and American anthropology to touch upon his future scientific studies, and as a gesture of sympathy on his part to “our fraternal tribe of the same blood — the Bulgarians” and their national aspirations.

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