post-positive definite article dates from the early 13th century with the Dobreyshevo Gospel (Добрейшево Евангелие) where the construction "злыотъ рабъ" ("the evil person") was used. Old Bulgarian relative pronouns иже, яже and еже ("which," masculine, feminine, neuter) were at that time replaced by interrogative pronouns with the suffix -то: който, която, което. A new class of verbs developed with stems in -a-, conjugating like the old athematic verbs, e.g. имам, имаш, etc., (to have). Another characteristic of this period is the emergence of a shortened form of the future tense marker - "ще" in modern literary language and "че," "ке," and "ше" in dialect forms. The marker originates from the 3rd person singular present tense form of the verb "hotjeti" - to want). The Renarrative verb form possibly appeared around the end of the Second Bulgarian Empire, though it could also be attributed to subsequent Turkish influence. Modern Bulgarian Modern Bulgarian dates from developments beginning after the 16th century; particularly grammar and syntax changes in the 18th and 19th centuries. Present-day written Bulgarian language was standardized on the basis of the 19th-century Bulgarian vernacular from Central Eastern Bulgaria. Bulgarian, along with the closely related Macedonian language (collectively forming the Eastern group of South Slavic), has several characteristics that set it apart from all other Slavic languages: changes include the elimination of case declension, the development of a suffixed definite article (see Balkan language area), and the lack of a verb infinitive, but it retains and has further developed the Proto-Slavic verb system. Various evidential verb forms exist to express unwitnessed, retold, and doubtful action. See also Bulgarian language Macedonian language Bulgarian dialects Bulgarian lexis Bulgarian grammar Torlakian dialect Slavic dialects of Greece List of language histories References