Theophylactus of Ohrid letters verify the inhabitants of Ohrid are Bulgarians and speak Bulgarian

Theophylactus of Ohrid writes that the inhabitants of Ohrid are Bulgarians and speak Bulgarian
 

11th-12th c.

 

(a) from a letter to Anem: 
When you say that you have become a complete barbarian among the Bulgarians, you, my dearest, are saying what I dream /in my sleep/. Because just think how much I have drunk from the cup of vulgarity, being so far away from the countries of wisdom, and how much I have drunk from the lack of culture … Since we have been living for a long time in the land of the Bulgarians, vulgarity has become our close companion and fellow-inhabitant. 
 

 

 

 
 

Gr. CXXVI, Theophylacti epistola XXI, ed. Meursio; cf. Letters of Theophylactus of Ohrid, translated by metropolitan Symeon from Greek, Сб. БАН, кн. XXVII, Hist.-Philol. and Philos.-Polit. Branch, 15, Sofia, 1931, pp.71-72; the original is in Greek
 

 

(b)  from a letter to the Empress Maria:
Since I went from Ohrid to the Queen of Towns, my holy Lady, I have encountered many sorrows, because of my numerous sins … And so I come among the Bulgarians, I, a true citizen of Constantinople, a Bulgarian by some miracle. 
 

 
 

 
 

Ibidem, ep. I, ed. Laraio; cf. Letters, op. cit., pp.180 181; the original is in Greek
 

 

(c)  from a letter to the Bishop of Vidin:
And so, do not despair, do not lose heart, as though you were the only one to suffer … So you have Kumans invading your land? What are they, however, in comparison with the people of Ohrid, who come from the city to at­tack us? So you have cunning citizens? They are children in comparison with our Bulgarian citizens …
 

 

Ibidem, ep. XV, ed. Finetti, cf. Letters, op. cit., p. 18; the original is in Greek
 

 

(d) from a letter to the royal son-in-law, Bruiennius:
Because the clerics have paid twice as much as the laymen, both for the mills and for the strugi, as they are called in Bulgarian, which a Hellene would call brooklets, and which facilitate fishing, and for them too the clerics have been subjected to much greater payments than the others …
Allegedly so as not to put my high rank to shame, he collected from me personally so much, that, for mills which have long since been destroyed, he asked the full price, while for those in good condition – twice as much as from the Bulgarians. 
 

 
 

 
 
 

Ibidem, ep. XLI, ed. Finetti; cf. Letters, op. cit., p. 128; the original is in Greek