The dialect's name derives from the Paulicians, believed to be the ancestors of the Catholic Banat Bulgarians.
It keeps many archaic characteristics and thus represents an older stage of development of the Rhodopean dialects.
Other ex-Paulicians - the "Lovech Pomaks" in northern Bulgaria speak the Galata dialect, which covers the regiolects of the villages: Galata, Gradeshnitsa, Bulgarski Izvor, Kirchevo (Pomashka Leshnitsa), Dobrevtsi, and Rumyantsevo (Blasnichevo).
[2] In the past, this dialect had covered areas of the Pleven, Lukovit, Byala Slatina, and Teteven regions.
[3] For other phonological and morphological characteristics typical for all Rup or Rhodopean dialects, cf.