Sociolinguistic view on the soft plosives

Studies in Phonetics, Dialectology and Sociolinguistics state a difference between soft consonants of eastern and western Bulgarian type, which also manifests itself at the auditory level. In the present study, we present the results of an experiment with an object of study – the soft plosive bilabial consonants with eastern and western types of articulation. The perceptual experiment aims to check whether modern speakers of the Bulgarian language perceive a difference between the articulation of soft consonants of both types. A gender division was also included in the experiment to determine whether such a difference was perceived equally in terms of articulation by women and men.