EN
As a point of departure, the article investigates the contribution by B. Tsonev (1863–1926) to the study of Turkish loan words in Bulgarian. They acquired special status in the Bulgarian language because of the vicissitudes of the Bulgarian-Ottoman relationship during the Ottoman rule of Bulgaria in 1396–1878. After Bulgaria acquired independence, the turkisms did not simply gradually lose their significance and went out of use with the passage of time in the Bulgarian language, as a certain subset of them underwent quite unusual metamorphoses both in their meanings and usage. This trend was well pronounced already during the time when B. Tsonev undertook his investigations. After presenting and commenting on B. Tsonev’s research findings, this paper focuses on the most important processes the Turkisms underwent during the last century in a manner that turned out to be quite consistent for their modus in the whole 20th century. They include their growing archaisation, a very large increase in the scope of pejorativisation, to the extent that is unknown in any other European language, and partial support for the maintenance of a specialized set of words and phrases used in highly expressive interactions that B. Tsonev dubbed under the term of неменливи думи и възклици ‘invariable words and exclamations’.