زبان بلغاری
نویسه گردانی:
ZBAN BLḠARY
زبان بُلغاری (به بلغاری: Български език، تلفظ: بَلگارسکی اِزیک) یک زبان هند و اروپایی و هموند شاخه جنوبی زبان‌های اسلاوی می‌باشد. بلغاری دارای ویژگی‌هایی زبانشناسانه -همانند زدودن صرف واژگان؛ گسترش حرف تعریف پسوندی؛ بی‌نیازی کارواژگان به مصدر و نگهداری و پیشبرد سامانه فعلی نیااسلاوی- می‌باشد که این زبان را از دیگر زبان‌های خانواده اسلاوی جدا می‌نماید.
بلغاری بخشی از پیوند زبانشناسی بالکان است. به جز بلغاری زبان‌های یونانی، مقدونی، رومانیایی، آلبانیایی و گویش تورلاکیایی که بخشی از زبان صربی است نیز عضو این پیوند می‌باشند که بیشتر اینان در داشتن ویژگی‌هایی که در بالا گفته‌شد یکسانند. (مانند حرف تعریف، نداشتن مصدر، دستگاه پیچیده فعلی و ...)
این زبان در کشورهای بلغارستان، اوکراین، باختر صربستان، رومانی، مقدونیه، یونان و ترکیه گویشورانی دارد. همچنین از راه کوچ انجمن‌های بلغاری زبان در سراسر جهان یافت‌می شوند. شمار گویشوران این زبان را تا ۱۲ میلیون تقریب می‌زنند.
محتویات [نمایش]
تاریخچه [ویرایش]
گسترش زبان بلغاری در چند دوره تاریخی بخش‌بندی شده‌است. دوره پیش از تاریخ که میان تاخت و تاز اسلاوونیک به بخش‌های خاوری بالکان تا ماموریت دینی سنت‌کوریل و سنت‌متودیوس در دهه ۸۶۰ (میلادی) بازمی‌گردد. در این زمان قدیسان یادشده و پیروانشان انجیل و دیگر نوشته‌های آیینی از یونانی را به اسلاوونیک کلیسایی کهن برگرداندند. زبان بلغاری کهن از دل زبان یاد شده بیرون آمد. بلغاری میانه(سده‌های ۱۲ تا ۱۵ میلادی) زبان ادبی بُرنا و نوآورانه‌ای بود. بلغاری نوین از سده ۱۶ (میلادی) تا امروز تاریخگذاری می‌شود. این زبان در سده ۱۹ (میلادی) به عنوان زبان بومی بلغارستان تثبیت‌شد. گسترش تاریخی زبان بلغاری از بلغاری کهن تا بلغاری نوین گذاری از یک زبان ترکیبی به یک زبان تحلیلی بوده‌است.
از زبان بلغارها تنها کمتر از بیست واژه در زبان کنونی بلغاری به جای مانده‌است. بلغارها که در اصل به زبان بلغار -که زبانی از خانواده زبان‌های ترکی بوده- سخن می‌راندند. اینان پس از اینکه از سرزمین اصلی خود به بلغارستان کوچیدند زبان اسلاوی بومی آن سامان را پذیرفتند.
الفبا [ویرایش]
در ۸۸۶ (میلادی) بلغارستان الفبای گلاگولیتیک را که سنت‌کوریل و سنت‌متودیوس ساخته‌بودند را پذیرفت. رفته‌رفته با گذشت سده‌های گلاگولیتیک جای خود را سیریلیک داد که در آغاز سده ۱۰ (میلادی) در آموزشگاه ادبی پرسلاو گسترش یافته‌بود. بسیاری از الفبای سیریلیک از الفبای یونانی وام گرفته‌شده بود. ولی واج‌هایی که هم‌ارز یونانی نبودند ساده‌شده گلاگولیتیک بودند.
در پایان سده ۱۸ (میلادی) و با نفوذ کتاب‌های چاپی روس، الفبای شهری پتر یکم جایگزین سامانه نوشتاری پیشین شد. از آغاز تا میانه سده نوزدهم و در کوشش برای یافتن قانون‌گذاری نویسه شیوه‌های نگارش سیریلیک که در برگیرنده ۲۸ تا ۴۴ حرف بود به کار گرفته‌شد تا سرانجام شیوه نگارش پیشنهادی مارین درینوف که دارای ۳۲ حرف بود در دهه ۱۸۷۰ پذیرفته‌شد. تا ۱۹۴۵ که بهسازی نوشتاری رخ‌داد از شیوه کرینوف بهره‌برداری می‌شد. پس از این شمار الفبای بلغاری به ۳۰تا کاهش یافت.
الفبای کنونی بلغاری و آوای هرکدام در زیر آورده‌شده‌است:
А а
/a/ Б б
/b/ В в
/v/ Г г
/g/ Д д
/d/ Е е
/ɛ/ Ж ж
/ʒ/ З з
/z/ И и
|/i/ Й й
/j/
К к
/k/ Л л
/l/ М м
/m/ Н н
/n/ О о
/ɔ/ П п
/p/ Р р
/r/ С с
/s/ Т т
/t/ У у
/u/
Ф ф
/f/ Х х
/x/ Ц ц
/ʦ/ Ч ч
/tʃ/ Ш ш
/ʃ/ Щ щ
/ʃt/ Ъ ъ
/ɤ/ ь
/ʲ/ Ю ю
/ju/ Я я
/ja/
پیوستن بلغارستان به اتحادیه اروپا در ۱ ژانویه۲۰۰۷ سیریلیک را سومین دبیره رسمی این اتحادیه قرارداد.
چند واژه و جمله روزمره بلغاری [ویرایش]
Здравей (زدراوِی): درود
Добър ден (دُبَر دِن): روزخوش
Лека нощ (لِکا نُشت): شب‌خوش
Довиждане (دُویژدانه): بدرود
Кой си ти? (کُی سی تی؟): تو کی هستی؟(نرینه)
Коя си ти? (کُیا سی تی؟): تو کی هستی؟(مادینه)
Да (دا): آره
Не (نه): نه
Добре съм (دُبره سَم): من خوبم
Ще се видим утре (شته سه ویدیم اوتره): هم دیگر را فردا خواهیم‌دید.
منبع [ویرایش]
Wikipedia contributors, "Bulgarian language," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bulgarian_language&oldid=184094873 (accessed January 17, 2008).
[نمایش]
ن • ب • و
زبان‌های رسمی اتحادیه اروپا
[نمایش]
ن • ب • و
زبان‌ها و گویش‌های اسلاوی
رده‌های صفحه: زبان‌های اسلاوی جنوبی زبان‌های اسلاوی زبان‌های بلغارستان زبان‌های ترکیه زبان‌های رومانی زبان‌های صربستان زبان‌های مقدونیه زبان‌های یونان زبان‌ها
قس عربی
اللغة البلغاریة هی لغة هندوأوروبیة، وعضو الفرع الجنوبی للغات السلافیة.
محتویات [اعرض]
[عدل]تاریخ
تعتبر اللغة البلغاریة أول لغة صلافیة موثقة ویمتد تطورها التاریخی على أربع مراحل أساسیة:
فترة اللغة البلغاریة الغیر مؤرخة أو فترة اللغة البلغاریة غیر المکتوبة : وتمتد حتى القرن التاسع المیلادی وبالتحدید العام 862 میلادی حیث وضع الإخوان کیریل ومتودی "Saints Cyril and Methodius" أقدم أبجدیة صلافیة معروفة، الغلاغولیتسا "Glagolitic alphabet "
فترة اللغة البلغاریة القدیمة : وتعرف أیضاً باسم الصلافیة الکنسیة القدیمة وتمتد من القرن التاسع المیلادی (حیث تم اعتمادها کأول لغة صلافیة) وحتى القرن الحادی عشر وبالتحدید العام 1018 المیلادی (المؤرخ لنهایة حقبة الإمبراطوریة البلغاریة الأولى). تعتبر البلغاریة القدیمة أول لغة صلافیة مشتقة ومکتوبة حالها حال اللغات التاریخیة القدیمة الأخرى مثل اللاتینیة والیونانیة القدیمة.
فترة اللغة البلغاریة الوسطى : وتمتد من مرحلة تأسیس الدولة البلغاریة وحتى مرحلة السقوط تحت الاحتلال العثمانی (القرن 12 حتى القرن 14 المیلادی).تعتبر لغة الإمبراطوریة البلغاریة الثانیة القاعدة التی استخدمت فی تأسیس الکتابة الروسیة والصربیة والمولدوفیة لتتحول بذلک إلى ما یعرف باللغة الصلافیة المکتوبة والموحدة.
فترة اللغة البلغاریة الحدیثة : وتمتد من بدایة القرن السادس عشر حتى الآن. خضعت لتغییر عام فی القواعد والنحو خلال القرنین الثامن عشر والتاسع عشر المیلادیین واللغة البلغاریة المستخدمة والمعتمدة حالیاً مبنیة على اللهجات البلغاریة الشائعة فی القرن التاسع عشر فی المناطق الشمالیة الشرقیة من بلغاریا.
[عدل]الأبجدیة
فی العام 866 المیلادی إعتمدت الغالولیتسا کأبجدیة للغة البلغاریة. وضع الجالولیتسا القدیسان کیریل ومتودی ذوی الأصول البیزنطیة فی منتصف القرن التاسع المیلادی. تباعا، تم استبدال الأبجدیة الغالولیتسیة بالتدریج بالأبجدیة الکیریلیة (المنسوبة اسما للقدیس کیریل) التی تم وضعها فی بدایة القرن العاشر. یعتبر کلیمنت أوخریدسکی مؤسسا للأبجدیة الکیریلیة. إن معظم الأحرف المستخدمة فی الأبجدیة الکیریلیة (أو السیریلیة) تم استعارتها من الأبجدیة الیونانیة على أنه لتلک الصوتیات التی لم تجد لها فی الأبجدیة الیونانیة ردیفاً تم استنباط أشکال مبسطة لحروفها من الأبجدیة الغلاغولولیتسیة. تضم الأبجدیة الکیریلیة 30 حرفا.
فی الجدول التالی الحروف الأبجدیة البلغاریة:
А а
/a/ Б б
/b/ В в
/v/ Г г
/g/ Д д
/d/ Е е
/ɛ/ Ж ж
/ʒ/ З з
/z/ И и
/i/ Й й
/j/
К к
/k/ Л л
/l/ М м
/m/ Н н
/n/ О о
/ɔ/ П п
/p/ Р р
/r/ С с
/s/ Т т
/t/ У у
/u/
Ф ф
/f/ Х х
/x/ Ц ц
/ʦ/ Ч ч
/tʃ/ Ш ш
/ʃ/ Щ щ
/ʃt/ Ъ ъ
/ɤ̞/, /ə/ Ь ь
/ʲ/ Ю ю
/ju/ Я я
/ja/
الأبجدیة المستخدمة للغة البلغاریة فی المنطقة الباناتیة (منطقة جغرافیة مجزأة ما بین جمهوریات رومانیا وصلوفینیا) تعتمد على الأبجدیة اللاتینیة المبنیة على نسختها الکرواتیة (نسبة إلى جمهوریة کرواتیا - أحد جمهوریات الإتحاد الیوغوسلافی سابقاً). فی جمهوریة مقدونیا (أحد جمهوریات الإتحاد الیوغوسلافی سابقاً)تستخدم الأبجدیة الکیریلیة الأقرب إلى الأبجدیة الصربیة.
[عدل]النحو والقواعد
یقسم المحتوى اللغوی فی للغة البلغاریة إلى عشرة أقسام لغویة یمکن إدراجها ضمن فئتین واسعتین تصنفهما على أساس التأثر (أو عدم التأثر) کنتیجة للقواعد اللغویة التی تحکم اللغة وموقع المفردة فی الجملة .
الفئة الأولى " المتغیرة أو الخاضعة للصرف " تشمل : الأسماء، الصفات، الأعداد، الضمائر والأفعال.
الفئة الثانیة " الثابتة أو الممنوعة من الصرف " تشمل : " صیغ الحال أو الظرف " ، "صیغ أو حروف الجر "، " صیغ أو حروف العطف "، " صیغ أو حروف الوصل "، " صیغ أو حروف التعجب والنداء ".
من جهة أخرى،
تتشکل مجموعة الأسماء من الأقسام اللغویة : الأسماء، الصفات، الأعداد والضمائر
کما تتشکل مجموعة الأفعال من الأقسام اللغویة : الأفعال وصیغ الحال أو الظرف
[عدل]المحتوى اللغوی ومعجم المفردات
فی إطار تطورها التاریخی الناتج عن اتصالها مع مناطق بلاد البلقان المحیطة وغیر الناطقة بالصلافیة، تأثرت اللغة البلغاریة بشکل أحدث بها تغیرات هامه قیاساً على باقی اللغات الصلافیة. تشمل هذه التغییرات کل من الشکل والنحو مما أدى إلى تخلص اللغة الکثیر من قواعد الصرف "падежните форми" " case declension" (سمة أساسیة واضحة فی بعض اللغات الصلافیة مثل الروسیة وسمة أساسیة فی اللغة العربیة)، ظهور واستخدام قواعد التعریف(ما یشبه "ل" التعریف فی اللغة العربیة), التوسع فی استخدام الأفعال الصلافیة البسیطة : "الماضی"، "الماضی المنتهی" و"الماضی غیر المنتهی وظهورأفعال أخرى جدیدة وغیر ذلک من التطورات اللغویة.
على الرغم من صعوبة حصر تأثر اللغة البلغاریة باللغة الروسیة إلا أن اللغة البلغاریة قد تأثرت وبشکل کبیر باللغة الروسیة وخصوصاً فی عصر النهضة وتأسیس الدولة البلغاریة الثالثة. إن کماً کبیراً من المفردات المتبناة من اللغة الروسیة فی ذلک الوقت هی من مصادر "البلغاریة القدیمة" أعیدت للاستخدام فی بناء اللغة البلغاریة المطبوعة على أنه وبالتوازی مع ذلک دخل فی اللغة البلغاریة کماً هائلاً من المفردات ذات الأصل الروسی الصرف وخصوصا تلک المتعلقة بشؤون المجتمعات والسیاسة.
کل تلک المؤثرات وغیرها مما لم یرد ذکره أسهمت فی بناء اللغة البلغاریة الحدیثة.
المحتوى ذو المصدر العربی فی معجم المفردات البلغاریة
[عدل]الصوتیات
معظم الأحرف فی اللغه البلغاریة تمثل صوتا واحداً ومحدداً، على أن أربعة أحرف تمثل مرکبا صوتیاً وهی :" Ц - تسَ - Ts " و" щ - شتَ - sht " و" ю - یو - yu " و" я - یا - ya " کما هنالک صوتان غیر ممثلان بأحرف وفی الاستخدام یتم تمثیل کل منهما بحرفان من الأبجدیة وهما : " дж - دجَ - Dj " و" дз - دزَ - dz ".الحرف Ь ь یستخدم لتخفیف أی حرف ساکن یسبقه.
[أظهر] ع • ن • تلغات سلافیة
[أظهر] ع • ن • تاللغات الرسمیة للاتحاد الأوروبی
بوابة اللغة
تصنیفات: لغات سلافیة جنوبیةلغات بلغاریالغات مقدونیالغة بلغاریة
قس ترکی
Bulgarca, Hint-Avrupa dilleri ailesinden, Güney Slav dillerine bağlı dil. Bulgaristan'ın resmi dilidir.
Yazı dili IX. yüzyılda oluşmaya başlayan Bulgarca, Selanikli Aziz Kiril ve kardeşi Metodiy'in tarafından 862 yılında Bulgaristanın Preslav kasabasında oluşturulan Kiril alfabesi kullanılarak yazılır. Harflerin çoğu Yunan alfabesinden alınmıştır.
Bulgarca, yazıya dökülen ilk Slavik dildir. (Yapılan son araştırmalara göre aynı alfabe zaten bölgede bulunmaktaydı, fakat bir düzen içerisinde değildi, alfabe birliği yoktu).
Eski Bulgarca (9.yüzyıl-11.yüzyıl), Orta Bulgarca (11.yüzyıl-15.yüzyıl) ve Modern Bulgarca (16.yüzyıldan günümüze) olmak üzere üç temel aşamadan geçmiştir.
Kuzey hazar bölgesinden göç ederek, bugünkü Bulgaristan topraklarına yerleşen Proto Bulgarlar'dan bugün sadece 20-30 tane kelime kalmıştır.
Konu başlıkları [gizle]
1 Bulgarca cümle örnekleri
2 Bulgar Alfabesi
3 Dış bağlantılar
4 Ayrıca bakınız
Bulgarca cümle örnekleri [değiştir]
Здравей [zdravey] — merhaba, selam
Здрасти [zdrasti] — merhaba, selam
Добро утро [dobro utro] — Günaydın
Добър ден [dobăr den] — İyi günler
Добър вечер [dobăr veçer] — İyi akşamlar
Лека нощ [leka noşt] — İyi geceler (sadece yatarken söylenir)
Довиждане [dovizhdane] — Görüşmek üzere, Hoşça kal
Как си? [kak si] — Nasılsın?
Какво правиш? [kakvo praviş] — Ne yapıyorsun?
(К'во правиш? [k'vo praviş] — N'apıyorsun?)
Как е? [kak e?] — Nasıl?, Nasıl gidiyor?
Добре [dobre] — İyi
Добре ли cи? [dobre li si ?] - İyi misin?
Добре съм [dobre sım] — İyiyim
Всичко най-хубаво [vsiçko nay-hubavo] — Her şey çok güzel(iyi dilek olarak söylenir)
Поздрави [pozdravi] — Selamlar
Благодаря [blagodarya] — Teşekkürler
Моля [molya] — Lütfen
Извинете! [izvinete] — Afedersiniz!
Извинявай! [izvinyavay] — Afedersin!
Колко е часът? (kolko e çasăt) — Saat kaç?
Обичам те (obiçam te) - Seni seviyorum
Говорите ли ...? (govorite li...) — ...ca konuşuyor musunuz?
...турски (turski) — Türkçe
...български (bălgarski) — Bulgarca
...английски (angliyski) — İngilizce
...немски (nemski) — Almanca
...италиански (italianski) — İtalyanca
...испански (ispanski) — İspanyolca
Zamanlar Tarihler:
Ocak - yanuari (януари)
Şubat - fevruari (февруари)
Mart - mart (март)
Nisan - april (април)
Mayıs - may (май)
Haziran - yuni (юни)
Temmuz - yuli (юли)
Ağustos - avgust (август)
Eylül - septemvri(септември)
Ekim - oktomvri (октомври)
Kasım - noemvri (ноември)
Aralık - dekemvri(декември)
Bugün - dnes (днес)
Dün - vçera (вчера)
Yarın - utre (утре)
Gün - den (ден)
Hafta - sedmitsa (седмица)
Ay - mesets (месец)
Yıl - godina (година)
Pazartesi - ponedelnik (понеделник)
Salı - vtornik (вторник)
Çarşamba - sryada (сряда)
Perşembe - çetvırtık (четвъртък)
Cuma - petık (петък)
Cumartesi - sıbota (събота)
Pazar - nedelya (неделя)
İlkbahar - prolet (пролет)
Yaz - lyato (лято)
Sonbahar - esen (есен)
Kış - zima (зима)
Bulgar Alfabesi [değiştir]
Ayrıca bakınız: Bulgar Alfabesi
А а
/a/ Б б
/b/ В в
/v/ Г г
/g/ Д д
/d/ Е е
/ɛ/ Ж ж
/j/ З з
/z/ И и
/i/ Й й
/y/
К к
/k/ Л л
/l/ М м
/m/ Н н
/n/ О о
/o/ П п
/p/ Р р
/r/ С с
/s/ Т т
/t/ У у
/u/
Ф ф
/f/ Х х
/h/ Ц ц
/ts;/ Ч ч
/ç;/ Ш ш
/ş;/ Щ щ
/şt/ Ъ ъ
/ă/ Ь ь
/ermalık;y/ Ю ю
/yu/ Я я
/ya/
Dış bağlantılar [değiştir]
Bulgarca Türkçe Sözlük
Ayrıca bakınız [değiştir]
Türkçe-Bulgarca ortak kelime hazinesi
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قس انگلیسی
Bulgarian (български език, pronounced: [ˈbɤ̞ɫɡɐrski ɛˈzik]) is an Indo-European language, a member of the Southern branch of the Slavic language family.
Bulgarian, along with the closely related Macedonian language, has several characteristics that set it apart from all other Slavic languages such as the elimination of case declension, the development of a suffixed definite article (see Balkan linguistic union), the lack of a verb infinitive, and the retention and further development of the Proto-Slavic verb system. Various evidential verb forms exist to express unwitnessed, retold, and doubtful action. Estimates of the number of people around the world who speak Bulgarian fluently range from about 9 million[1] to 12 million.[2][3][4][5][6][7]
Contents [show]
[edit]History
Main article: History of Bulgarian
The development of the Bulgarian language may be divided into several periods.
Prehistoric period – occurred between the Slavonic migration to eastern Balkans and the mission of Saints Cyril and Methodius to Great Moravia in the 860s.
Old Bulgarian (9th to 11th century, also referred to as Old Church Slavonic) – a literary norm of the early southern dialect of the Common Slavic language from which Bulgarian evolved. It was used by Saints Cyril and Methodius and their disciples to translate the Bible and other liturgical literature from Greek into Slavic.
Middle Bulgarian (12th to 15th century) – a literary norm that evolved from the earlier Old Bulgarian, after major innovations were accepted. It was a language of rich literary activity and the official administration language of the Second Bulgarian Empire.
Modern Bulgarian – dates from the 16th century onwards, undergoing general 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. The historical development of the Bulgarian language can be described as a transition from a highly synthetic language (Old Bulgarian) to a typical analytic language (Modern Bulgarian) with Middle Bulgarian as a midpoint in this transition.
The Codex Zographensis is one of the oldest manuscripts in the Old Bulgarian language dated from the late 10th or early 11th century
Bulgarian was the first "Slavic" language attested in writing. As Slavic linguistic unity lasted into late antiquity, in the oldest manuscripts this language was initially referred to as языкъ словяньскъ, "the Slavic language". In the Middle Bulgarian period this name was gradually replaced by the name языкъ блъгарьскъ, the "Bulgarian language". In some cases, the name языкъ блъгарьскъ was used not only with regard to the contemporary Middle Bulgarian language of the copyist but also to the period of Old Bulgarian. A most notable example of anachronism is the Service of St. Cyril from Skopje (Скопски миней), a 13th-century Middle Bulgarian manuscript from northern Macedonia according to which St. Cyril preached with "Bulgarian" books among the Moravian Slavs. The first mention of the language as the "Bulgarian language" instead of the "Slavonic language" comes in the work of the Greek clergy of the Bulgarian Archbishopric of Ohrid in the 11th century, for example in the Greek hagiography of Saint Clement of Ohrid by Theophylact of Ohrid (late 11th century).
During the Middle Bulgarian period, the language underwent dramatic changes, losing the Slavonic case system, but preserving the rich verb system (while the development was exactly the opposite in other Slavic languages) and developing a definite article. Consequently, modern Bulgarian is about as far from Russian as Swedish is from German.[citation needed] It was influenced by proto-Bulgar and its non-Slavic neighbors in the Balkan linguistic union (mostly grammatically) and later also by Turkish, which was the official language of the Ottoman Empire, in the form of the Ottoman Turkish language, mostly lexically. As a national revival occurred towards the end of the period of Ottoman rule (mostly during the 19th century), a modern Bulgarian literary language gradually emerged which drew heavily on Church Slavonic/Old Bulgarian (and to some extent on literary Russian, which had preserved many lexical items from Church Slavonic) and later reduced the number of Turkish and other Balkanic loans. Today one difference between Bulgarian dialects in the country and literary spoken Bulgarian is the significant presence of Old Bulgarian words and even word forms in the latter. Russian loans are distinguished from Old Bulgarian ones on the basis of the presence of specifically Russian phonetic changes, as in оборот (turnover, rev), непонятен (incomprehensible), ядро (nucleus) and others. As usual in such cases, many other loans from French, English and the classical languages have subsequently entered the language as well.
Modern Bulgarian was based essentially on the Eastern dialects of the language, but its pronunciation is in many respects a compromise between East and West Bulgarian (see especially the phonetic sections below). Following the efforts of some figures of the National awakening of Bulgaria (the most notable among them being Neofit Rilski and Ivan Bogorov),[8] there had been many attempts to codify a standard Bulgarian language; however, there was much argument surrounding the choice of norms. Between 1835–1878 more than 25 proposals were put forward and "linguistic chaos" ensued.[9] Eventually the Eastern dialects prevailed[10] and in 1899 the Ministry of Education officially codified[9] a standard Bulgarian language based on the Drinov-Ivanchev orthography.[10]
[edit]Dialects
Main article: Bulgarian dialects
Map of the Bulgarian dialects within Bulgaria
The language is mainly split into two broad dialect areas, based on the different reflexes of the Common Slavic yat vowel (Ѣ). This split, which occurred at some point during the Middle Ages, led to the development of Bulgaria's:
Western dialects (informally called твърд говор/tvurd govor – "hard speech")
the former yat is pronounced "e" in all positions. e.g. млеко (mlekò) – milk, хлеб (hleb) – bread.[11]
Eastern dialects (informally called мек говор/mek govor – "soft speech")
the former yat alternates between "ya" and "e": it is pronounced "ya" if it is under stress and the next syllable does not contain a front vowel (e or i) – e.g. мляко (mlyàko), хляб (hlyab), and "e" otherwise – e.g. млекар (mlekàr) – milkman, хлебар (hlebàr) – baker. This rule obtains in most Eastern dialects, although some have "ya", or a special "open e" sound, in all positions.
The literary language norm, which is generally based on the Eastern dialects, also has the Eastern alternating reflex of yat. However, it has not incorporated the general Eastern umlaut of all synchronic or even historic "ya" sounds into "e" before front vowels – e.g. поляна (polyana) vs полени (poleni) "meadow – meadows" or even жаба (zhaba) vs жеби (zhebi) "frog – frogs", even though it co-occurs with the yat alternation in almost all Eastern dialects that have it (except a few dialects along the yat border, e.g. in the Pleven region).[12]
More examples of the yat umlaut in the literary language are:
mlyàko (milk) [n.] → mlekàr (milkman); mlèchen (milky), etc.
syàdam (sit) [vb.] → sedàlka (seat); sedàlishte (seat, e.g. of government), etc.
svyat (holy) [adj.] → svetètz (saint); svetìlishte (sanctuary), etc.
Until 1945, Bulgarian orthography did not reveal this alternation and used the original Old Slavic Cyrillic letter yat (Ѣ), which was commonly called двойно е (dvoyno e) at the time, to express the historical yat vowel or at least root vowels displaying the ya – e alternation. The letter was used in each occurrence of such a root, regardless of the actual pronunciation of the vowel: thus, both mlyako and mlekar were spelled with (Ѣ). Among other things, this was seen as a way to "reconcile" the Western and the Eastern dialects and maintain language unity at a time when much of Bulgaria's Western dialect area was controlled by Serbia and Greece, but there were still hopes and occasional attempts to recover it. With the 1945 orthographic reform, this letter was abolished and the present spelling was introduced, reflecting the alternation in pronunciation.
This had implications for some grammatical constructions:
The third person plural pronoun and its derivatives. Before 1945 the pronoun "they" was spelled тѣ (tě), and its derivatives took this as the root. After the orthographic change, the pronoun and its derivatives were given an equal share of soft and hard spellings:
"they" – те (te) → "them" – тях (tyah);
"their(s)" – tehen (masc.); tyahna (fem.); tyahno (neut.); tehni (plur.)
adjectives received the same treatment as тѢ:
"whole" – tsyal → "the whole...": tseliyat (masc.); tsyalata (fem.); tsyaloto (neut.); tselite (plur.)
Sometimes, with the changes, words began to be spelled as other words with different meanings, e.g.:
свѣт (svět) – "holy" became свят (svyat), spelt and pronounced the same as свят – "world".
тѣ (tě) – "they" became те (te),
In spite of the literary norm regarding the yat vowel, many people living in Western Bulgaria, including the capital Sofia, will fail to observe its rules. While the norm requires the realizations vidyal vs videli (he has seen; they have seen), some natives of Western Bulgaria will preserve their local dialect pronunciation with "e" for all instances of "yat" (e.g. videl, videli). Others, attempting to adhere to the norm, will actually use the "ya" sound even in cases where the standard language has "e" (e.g. vidyal, vidyali). The latter hypercorrection is called свръхякане (svrah-yakane ≈"over-softening").
[edit]Relationship to Macedonian
Most sources in and out of Bulgaria before the Second World War referred to the southern Slavonic dialect continuum covering the area of modern Bulgaria and Republic of Macedonia as a group of Bulgarian dialects.[13][14][15][16][17][18] The local variants of the name of the language are balgàrtski, bolgàrtski, bulgàrtski,[19] bògartski, bogàrtski, bùgarski or bugàrski. However, the Bulgarian codifiers did not want to make any allowances for a pluricentric Bulgarian language, which might have included the Macedonian dialects.[20] After WWII, the question about the Bulgarian character of the language in the territory of the Republic of Macedonia was put aside in the name of Bulgarian-Yugoslavian friendship under the pressure of the Soviet Union. After 1958 when the pressure from Moscow decreased, Sofia turned back to the view that the Macedonian language did not exist as a separate language. Many modern linguists consider Macedonian dialects still as Bulgarian.[21][22][23]
[edit]Alphabet
In 886 AD, the Bulgarian Empire introduced the Glagolitic alphabet which was devised by the Saints Cyril and Methodius in the 850s. The Glagolitic alphabet was gradually superseded in later centuries by the Cyrillic script, developed around the Preslav Literary School, Bulgaria in the beginning of the 10th century.
Several Cyrillic alphabets with 28 to 44 letters were used in the beginning and the middle of the 19th century during the efforts on the codification of Modern Bulgarian until an alphabet with 32 letters, proposed by Marin Drinov, gained prominence in the 1870s. The alphabet of Marin Drinov was used until the orthographic reform of 1945 when the letters yat (Ѣ, ѣ, called "double e"), and yus (Ѫ, ѫ, called "big yus" or "ъ кръстато") were removed from the alphabet, reducing the number of letters to 30.
With the accession of Bulgaria to the European Union on January 1, 2007, Cyrillic became the third official alphabet of the EU.
The following table gives the letters of the Bulgarian alphabet, along with the IPA values for the sound of each letter:
Bulgarian alphabet ISO 9 Official transliteration IPA* Name of Letter English equivalent
А а A a A a /a/ or /ɐ/ a a as in "adorable"
Б б B b B b /b/ or /p/ бъ b as in "bug"
В в V v V v /v/ or /f/ въ v as in "vet"
Г г G g G g /ɡ/ or /k/ гъ g as in "god"
Д д D d D d /d/ or /t/ дъ d as in "dog"
Е е E e E e /ɛ/ е e as in "best"
Ж ж Ž ž Zh zh /ʒ/ or /ʃ/ жъ s as in "treasure"
З з Z z Z z /z/ or /s/ зъ z as in "zoo"
И и I i I i /i/ и i as in "igloo"
Й й J j Y y /j/ и кратко y as in "yes" or "yoyo"
К к K k K k /k/ or /g/ къ
c as in "cat"
Л л L l L l /l/ or /ɫ/ лъ
l as in "call" or "lend"
М м M m M m /m/ мъ m as in "man"
Н н N n N n /n/ нъ n as in "normal"
О о O o O o /ɔ/ or /o/ о o as in "order"
П п P p P p /p/ пъ p as in "pet"
Р р R r R r /r/ ръ r as in "restaurant"
С с S s S s /s/ or /z/ съ s as in "sound"
Т т T t T t /t/ or /d/ тъ t as in "top"
У у U u U u /u/ or /o/ y оо as in "tool"
Ф ф F f F f /f/ фъ f as in "food"
Х х H h H h /x/ хъ ch as in Scottish "loch"
Ц ц C c Ts ts /t͡s/ цъ ts as in "fits"
Ч ч Č č Ch ch /t͡ʃ/ чъ ch as in "chip"
Ш ш Š š Sh sh /ʃ/ шъ sh as in "shot"
Щ щ Št št1 Sht sht /ʃt/ щъ sht as in "shtick"
Ъ ъ Ă ă1 A a /ɤ/ or /ɐ/ ер голям u as in "turn"
Ь ь J j1 Y y /j/ or not pronounced ер малък soft sign: y as in canyon
Ю ю Ju ju1 Yu yu /ju/, /jo/, /u/ or /o/ ю u as in "menu"
Я я Ja ja1 Ya ya /ja/, /jɐ/, /a/ or /ɐ/ я ya as in "yarn"
* See Wikipedia:IPA for Bulgarian and Macedonian for details.
1 The romanizations of these characters differ from the current version, ISO 9:1995, as it was never officially adopted as a Bulgarian standard.
Most letters in the Bulgarian alphabet stand for just one specific sound. Three letters stand for the single expression of combinations of sounds, namely щ (sht), ю (yu), and я (ya). Two sounds do not correspond to separate letters, but are expressed as the combination of two letters, namely дж (/dʒ/) and дз (/dz/). The letter ь marks the palatal approximant before о and е [24]. A letter that represents a voiced consonant can represent its voiceless counterpart and vice versa when adjacent to a voiceless or voiced consonant, respectively, or when a voiced consonant is syllable final, for example - вторник /ftornik/ - Tuesday, нож /nɔʃ/ - knife, сграда /zgradɐ/ - building, сватба /svadbɐ/ - wedding.
The names of most letters are simple representations of their phonetic values, with consonants being followed by /ɤ/ – thus the alphabet goes: /a/ – /bɤ/ – /vɤ/, etc. However, the name of the letter Й is "и-kratko" (short /i/), the name of Ъ is "er-golyam" (large Er), and the name of Ь is "er-malak" (small Er). People often refer to Ъ simply as /ɤ/.
For the transliteration of Bulgarian into the Latin script (romanization), see Romanization of Bulgarian.
[edit]Phonology
[edit]Vowels
Standard Bulgarian vowels. From Ternes & Vladimirova-Buhtz (1999).
Front Central Back
High и /i/ у /u/, /o/
Mid е /ɛ/ ъ /ɤ/, /ɐ/[note 1] о /ɔ/, /o/
Low а /a/, /ɐ/
Bulgarian's eight vowels may be grouped in three pairs according to their backness: front, central and back. All vowels are relatively lax, as in most other Slavic languages, and unlike the tense vowels, for example, in the Germanic languages[citation needed]. Unstressed vowels tend to be shorter and weaker compared to their stressed counterparts, and the corresponding pairs of open and closed vowels approach each other with a tendency to merge, above all as low (open and open-mid) vowels are raised and shift towards the high (close and close-mid) ones. However, the coalescence is not always complete. The vowels are often distinguished in emphatic or deliberately distinct pronunciation, and reduction is strongest in colloquial speech. Besides that, some linguists distinguish two degrees of reduction, as they have found that a clearer distinction tends to be maintained in the syllable immediately preceding the stressed one. The complete merger of the pair /a/ – /ɤ/ is regarded as most common, while the status of /ɔ/ vs /u/ is less clear. A coalescence of /ɛ/ and /i/ is not allowed in formal speech and is regarded as a provincial (East Bulgarian) dialect feature; instead, unstressed /ɛ/ is both raised and centralized, approaching [ɤ].[25] The /ɤ/ vowel itself does not exist as a phoneme in other Slavic languages, though a similar reduced vowel transcribed as [ə] does occur.
[edit]Semivowels
The Bulgarian language possesses one semivowel: /j/, being equivalent to y in English like in yes. It is expressed graphically with the letter й, as in най /naj/ ("most"), тролей /troˈlɛj/ ("trolleybus"), except when it precedes /a/ or /u/, in which case the combination of two phonemes is expressed with a single letter, respectively я or ю: (e.g. ютия /jutˈija/ "(flat) iron").
[edit]Consonants
Bulgarian has a total of 35 consonant phonemes (see table below). According to the criterion of sonority, the Bulgarian consonants may be divided into 12 pairs (voiced""voiceless). The only consonant without a counterpart is the voiceless velar fricative /x/. The contrast 'voiced vs. voiceless' is neutralized in word-final position, where all obstruents are voiceless (as in most Slavic languages); this neutralization is, however, not reflected in the spelling.
[edit]Characteristics of the Bulgarian consonants
The Bulgarian consonants б /b/, в /v/, г /ɡ/, д /d/, з /z/, к /k/, л /l//ɫ/, м /m/, н /n/, п /p/, р /r/, с /s/, т /t/, ф /f/, ц /t͡s/ aren't palatalized.[26][27]
Among some Eastern Bulgarian speakers, consonants are sometimes palatalized before the vowels /i/ and /ɛ/. This is not the case in Standard Bulgarian. The realization of the phoneme л /l/ varies along the same principles: one of its allophones, involving a raising of the back of the tongue and a lowering of its middle part in a way identical to the velarized lateral,[26] occurs in all positions, except before the vowels /i/ and /ɛ/, where a more "clear" version with a slight raising of the middle part of the tongue occurs. The latter pre-front realization is traditionally (and incorrectly) called "soft l", even though it is not palatalized. In some Western Bulgarian dialects, this allophonic variation does not exist. Some sources claim the existence of palatalized phonemes in Bulgarian.
Furthermore, in the speech of many young people the more common and arguably velarized allophone of /l/ is often realized as a labiovelar approximant [w].[28] This phenomenon, colloquially known as мързеливо "л" (lazy "l") in Bulgaria, was first registered in the 1970s and isn't connected to original dialects. Similar developments, termed L-vocalization, have occurred in many languages, including Polish, Serbo-Croatian, Brazilian Portuguese and certain dialects of English such as Cockney and AAVE.
[edit]Table
Consonants of Bulgarian language [26]
Bilabial Labio-
Dental Dental Alveolar Post-
Alveolar Palatal Velar
Nasal m n
Plosive p b t d k ɡ
Affricate t͡s d͡z t͡ʃ d͡ʒ
Fricative f v s z ʃ ʒ x
Approximant j
Trill r
Lateral ɫ l
[edit]Word stress
Bulgarian word stress is dynamic. Stressed syllables are louder and longer than unstressed ones. Stress, like Russian and other East Slavic languages, is also lexical rather than fixed as in French, Latin or the West Slavic ones, i.e. it may fall on any syllable of a polysyllabic word and its position may vary in inflection and derivation, for example, мъж /mɤʃ/ ('man'), мъжът /mɤˈʒɤt/ ('the man'). Bulgarian stress is also distinctive: for example, в'ълна /ˈvɤɫnɐ/ ('wool') and вълн'а /vɤɫˈna/ ('wave') are only differentiated by stress. Stress usually isn't signified in written text, though it may be indicated in cases with minimal pairs (e.g. ѝ 'to her', vs. и, 'and'), or in order to signify the dialectal deviation from the standard pronunciation. In such cases, stress is signified by placing a grave accent on the vowel of the stressed syllable.[note 2]
[edit]Grammar
Main article: Bulgarian grammar
The parts of speech in Bulgarian are divided in 10 different types, which are categorized in two broad classes: mutable and immutable. The difference is that mutable parts of speech vary grammatically, whereas the immutable ones do not change, regardless of their use. The five classes of mutables are: nouns, adjectives, numerals, pronouns and verbs. Syntactically, the first four of these form the group of the noun or the nominal group. The immutables are: adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, particles and interjections. Verbs and adverbs form the group of the verb or the verbal group.
[edit]Nominal morphology
Main article: Bulgarian nouns
Nouns and adjectives have the categories grammatical gender, number, case (only vocative) and definiteness in Bulgarian. Adjectives and adjectival pronouns agree with nouns in number and gender. Pronouns have gender and number and retain (as in nearly all Indo-European languages) a more significant part of the case system.
[edit]Nominal inflection
[edit]Gender
There are three grammatical genders in Bulgarian: masculine, feminine and neuter. The gender of the noun can largely be inferred from its ending: nouns ending in a consonant ("zero ending") are generally masculine (for example, град /ɡrat/ 'city', син /sin/ 'son', мъж /mɤʃ/ 'man'; those ending in –а/–я (-a/-ya) (жена /ʒɛˈna/ 'woman', дъщеря /dɐʃtɛrˈja/ 'daughter', улица /ˈulitsɐ/ 'street') are normally feminine; and nouns ending in –е, –о are almost always neuter (дете /dɛtɛ/ 'child', езеро /ˈɛzɛro/ 'lake'), as are those rare words (usually loanwords) that end in –и, –у, and –ю (цунами /tsoˈnami/ 'tsunami', табу /tɐˈbu/ 'taboo', меню /mɛˈnju/ 'menu'). Perhaps the most significant exception from the above are the relatively numerous nouns that end in a consonant and yet are feminine: these comprise, firstly, a large group of nouns with zero ending expressing quality, degree or an abstraction, including all nouns ending on –ост/–ест -{ost/est} (мъдрост /ˈmɤdrost/ 'wisdom', низост /ˈnizost/ 'vileness', прелест /ˈprɛlɛst/ 'loveliness', болест /ˈbɔlɛst/ 'sickness', любов /ljoˈbɔf/ 'love'), and secondly, a much smaller group of irregular nouns with zero ending which define tangible objects or concepts (кръв /krɤf/ 'blood', кост /kɔst/ 'bone', вечер /ˈvɛtʃɛr/ 'evening', нoщ /nɔʃt/ 'night'). There are also some commonly used words that end in a vowel and yet are masculine: баща 'father', дядо 'grandfather', чичо / вуйчо 'uncle', and others.
The plural forms of the nouns do not express their gender as clearly as the singular ones, but may also provide some clues to it: the ending –и (-i) is more likely to be used with a masculine or feminine noun (факти /ˈfakti/ 'facts', болести /ˈbɔlɛsti/ 'sicknesses'), while one in –а/–я belongs more often to a neuter noun (езера /ɛzɛˈra/ 'lakes'). Also, the plural ending –ове /-ɔvɛ/ occurs only in masculine nouns.
[edit]Number
Two numbers are distinguished in Bulgarian – singular and plural. A variety of plural suffixes is used, and the choice between them is partly determined by their ending in singular and partly influenced by gender; in addition, irregular declension and alternative plural forms are common. Words ending in –а/–я (which are usually feminine) generally have the plural ending –и, upon dropping of the singular ending. Of nouns ending in a consonant, the feminine ones also use –и, whereas the masculine ones usually have –и for polysyllables and –ове for monosyllables (however, exceptions are especially common in this group). Nouns ending in –о/–е (most of which are neuter) mostly use the suffixes –а, –я (both of which require the dropping of the singular endings) and –та.
With cardinal numbers and related words such as няколко ('several'), masculine nouns use a special count form in –а/–я, which stems from the Proto-Slavonic dual: двама/трима ученика ('two/three students') versus тези ученици ('these students'); cf. feminine две/три/тези жени ('two/three/these women') and neuter две/три/тези деца ('two/three/these children'). However, a recently developed language norm requires that count forms should only be used with masculine nouns that do not denote persons. Thus, двама/трима ученици is perceived as more correct than двама/трима ученика, while the distinction is retained in cases such as два/три молива ('two/three pencils') versus тези моливи ('these pencils').
[edit]Case
See also: Bulgarian grammar – Case System
Cases exist only in the personal pronouns (as they do in many other modern Indo-European languages), with nominative, accusative, dative and vocative forms. Vestiges are present in the masculine personal interrogative pronoun кой ("who") and in a number of phraseological units and sayings. The major exception are vocative forms, which are still in use for masculine (with the endings -e, -o and -ю) and feminine nouns (-[ь/й]o and -e) in the singular. However, there is a tendency to avoid them in many personal names, as the use of feminine name forms in -[ь/й]o[29] and of the potential vocative forms of foreign names has come to be considered rude or rustic. Thus, Иване means 'hey, Ivan', while the corresponding feminine forms Елено ('hey, Elena'), Маргарито ('hey, Margarita') are today seen as rude[29] or, at best, unceremonious, and declining foreign names as in *Джоне ('hey, John') or *Саймъне ('hey, Simon') could only be considered humorous. Interestingly, the prohibition on constructing vocative forms for foreign names does not apply to names from Classical Antiquity, with the source languages having the vocative case as well: cf Цезаре' ('Oh Caesar'), Перикле ('Oh Pericles'), Зевсе ('Oh Zeus'), etc.
Case remnants
Some key words do retain their cases, which today are no longer considered nominative, accusative and dative, but rather as being subject, direct object and indirect object parts of speech:
All personal pronouns – e.g. masculine singular:
той, /tɔj/ ('he') – него, /ˈnɛɡo/ ('him') – нему, /ˈnɛmo/ ('to him' [archaic]).[note 3]
The masculine interrogative pronoun кой, /kɔj/ ('who') and all of its derivatives – these, however, are not declined for all masculine nouns, but only when they refer to men:
кой /kɔj/ ('who') – кого /koˈɡɔ/ ('whom') – кому /koˈmu/ ('to whom' [very rarely used]).[note 4]
the words някой /njakoj/ ('someone') and никой /nikoj/ ('no one') follow the same pattern as кой;
всеки /vsɛki/ ('everyone') and друг /druk/ ('someone else') are similar (-иго; -иму), but extremely rare.
the relative clauses който /kɔjto/ ('who/that'), когото /koɡɔto/ ('whom/that') and комуто /komuto/ ('to whom/that') – again, only declined when referring to men – i.e.
човекът с когото говоря /tʃovɛkɤt, s koɡɔto ɡovorja/ ('the man that I'm talking to')
столът, на който седя /stɔɫɐt, na kɔjto sɛdjɐ/ ('the chair that I'm sitting on')
[edit]Definiteness (article)
In modern Bulgarian, definiteness is expressed by a definite article which is postfixed to the noun, much like in the Scandinavian languages or Romanian (indefinite: човек, 'person'; definite: човекът, "the person") or to the first nominal constituent of definite noun phrases (indefinite: добър човек, 'a good person'; definite: добрият човек, "the good person"). There are four singular definite articles. Again, the choice between them is largely determined by the noun's ending in the singular.[30] Nouns that end in a consonant and are masculine use –ът/–ят, when they are grammatical subjects, and –а/–я elsewhere. Nouns that end in a consonant and are feminine, as well as nouns that end in –а/–я (most of which are feminine, too) use –та. Nouns that end in –е/–о use –то.
The plural definite article is –те for all nouns except for those, whose plural form ends in –а/–я; these get –тa instead. When postfixed to adjectives the definite articles are –ят/–я for masculine gender (again, with the longer form being reserved for grammatical subjects), –та for feminine gender, –то for neuter gender, and –те for plural.
[edit]Adjective and numeral inflection
Both groups agree in gender and number with the noun they are appended to. They may also take the definite article as explained above.
[edit]Pronouns
Main article: Bulgarian pronouns
Pronouns may vary in gender, number, definiteness and are the only parts of speech that have retained case inflexions. Three cases are exhibited by some groups of pronouns – nominative, accusative and dative. The distinguishable types of pronouns include the following: personal, relative, reflexive, interrogative, negative, indefinitive, summative and possessive.
[edit]Verbal morphology and grammar
Main article: Bulgarian verbs
The Bulgarian verb can take up to 3,000[31][dubious – discuss] distinct forms, as it varies in person, number, voice, aspect, mood, tense and even gender.
[edit]Finite verbal forms
Finite verbal forms are simple or compound and agree with subjects in person (first, second and third) and number (singular, plural) in Bulgarian. In addition to that, past compound forms using participles vary in gender (masculine, feminine, neuter) and voice (active and passive) as well as aspect (perfective/aorist and imperfective).
[edit]Aspect
Bulgarian verbs express lexical aspect: perfective verbs signify the completion of the action of the verb and form past perfective (aorist) forms; imperfective ones are neutral with regard to it and form past imperfective forms. Most Bulgarian verbs can be grouped in perfective-imperfective pairs (imperfective""perfective: идвам""дойда "come", пристигам""пристигна “arrive”). Perfective verbs can be usually formed from imperfective ones by suffixation or prefixation, but the resultant verb often deviates in meaning from the original. In the pair examples above, aspect is stem-specific and therefore there is no difference in meaning.
In Bulgarian, there is also grammatical aspect. Three grammatical aspects are distinguishable: neutral, perfect and pluperfect. The neutral aspect comprises the three simple tenses and the future tense. The pluperfect is manifest in tenses that use double or triple auxiliary "be" participles like the past pluperfect subjunctive. Perfect constructions use a single auxiliary "be".
[edit]Mood
The traditional interpretation is that in addition to the four moods (наклонения /naklonenija/) shared by most other European languages – indicative (изявително, /izʲavitelno/) imperative (повелително /povelitelno/), subjunctive (подчинително /podtʃinitelno/) and conditional (условно, /uslovno/) – in Bulgarian there is one more to describe a generalistic category of unwitnessed events – the inferential (преизказно /preˈizkazno/) mood.
[edit]Tense
There are three grammatically distinctive positions in time – present, past and future – which combine with aspect and mood to produce a number of formations. Normally, in grammar books these formations are viewed as separate tenses – i. e. "past imperfect" would mean that the verb is in past tense, in the imperfective aspect, and in the indicative mood (since no other mood is shown). There are more than 40 different tenses across Bulgarian's two aspects and five moods.
In the indicative mood, there are three simple tenses:
Present tense is a temporally unmarked simple form made up of the verbal stem and a complex suffix composed of the thematic vowel /e/, /i/ or /a/ and the person/number ending (пристигам, pristigam, "I arrive/I am arriving"); only imperfective verbs can stand in the present indicative tense independently;
Past imperfect is a simple verb form used to express an action which is contemporaneous or subordinate to other past actions; it is made up of an imperfective or a perfective verbal stem and the person/number ending (пристигаx /pristiɡax/, пристигнеx /pristiɡnex/, 'I was arriving');
Past aorist is a simple form used to express a temporarily independent, specific past action; it is made up of a perfective or an imperfective verbal stem and the person/number ending (пристигнах, /pristiɡnax/, 'I arrived', четох, /tʃetox/, 'I read');
In the indicative there are also the following compound tenses:
Future tense is a compound form made of the particle ще /ʃte/ and present tense (ще уча /ʃte utʃa/, 'I will study'); negation is expressed by the construction няма да /ɲama da/ and present tense (няма да уча /ɲama da utʃa/, or the old-fashioned form не ще уча, /ne ʃte utʃa/ 'I will not study');
Past future tense is a compound form used to express an action which was to be completed in the past but was future as regards another past action; it is made up of the past imperfect of the verb ща /ʃta/ ('will'), the particle да /da/ ('to') and the present tense of the verb (e.g. щях да уча, /ʃtʲax da utʃa/, 'I was going to study');
Present perfect is a compound form used to express an action which was completed in the past but is relevant for or related to the present; it is made up of the present tense of the verb съм /sɤm/ ('be') and the past participle (e.g. съм учил /sɤm utʃil/, 'I have studied');
Past perfect is a compound form used to express an action which was completed in the past and is relative to another past action; it is made up of the past tense of the verb съм and the past participle (e.g. бях учил /bʲax utʃil/, 'I had studied');
Future perfect is a compound form used to express an action which is to take place in the future before another future action; it is made up of the future tense of the verb съм and the past participle (e.g. ще съм учил /ʃte sɤm utʃil/, 'I will have studied');
Past future perfect is a compound form used to express a past action which is future with respect to a past action which itself is prior to another past action; it is made up of the past imperfect of ща, the particle да the present tense of the verb съм and the past participle of the verb (e.g. щях да съм учил, /ʃtʲax da sɤm utʃil/, 'I would have studied').
The four perfect constructions above can vary in aspect depending on the aspect of the main-verb participle; they are in fact pairs of imperfective and perfective aspects. Verbs in forms using past participles also vary in voice and gender.
There is only one simple tense in the imperative mood – the present – and there are simple forms only for the second person using the suffixes -и/-й (-i, -y/i) for singular and -ете/-йте (-ete, -yte) for plural; e.g., уча /utʃa/ ('to study'): учи /utʃi/, sg., учете /utʃete/, pl.; играя /iɡraja/ 'to play': играй /iɡraj/, играйте /iɡrajte/. There are compound imperative forms for all persons and numbers in the present compound imperative (да играе, da iɡrae/), the present perfect compound imperative (да е играл, /da e iɡral/) and the rarely used present pluperfect compound imperative (да е бил играл, /da e bil iɡral/).
The conditional mood consists of five compound tenses, most of which are not grammatically distinguishable. The present, future and past conditional use a special past form of the stem би- (bi – "be") and the past participle (бих учил, /bix utʃil/, 'I would study'). The past future conditional and the past future perfect conditional coincide in form with the respective indicative tenses.
The subjunctive mood is rarely documented as a separate verb form in Bulgarian, (being, morphologically, a sub-instance of the quasi-infinitive construction with the particle да and a normal finite verb form), but nevertheless it is used regularly. The most common form, often mistaken for the present tense, is the present subjunctive ([пo-добре] да отидa (po-dobre) da otida/, 'I had better go'). The difference between the present indicative and the present subjunctive tense is that the subjunctive can be formed by both perfective and imperfective verbs. It has completely replaced the infinitive and the supine from complex expressions (see below). It is also employed to express opinion about possible future events. The past perfect subjunctive ([пo-добре] да бях отишъл (po-dobre) da bʲax otiʃɤl/, 'I'd had better be gone') refers to possible events in the past, which did not take place, and the present pluperfect subjunctive (да съм бил отишъл /da sɤm bil otiʃɤl/), which may be used about both past and future events arousing feelings of incontinence, suspicion, etc. and has no perfect to English translation.
The inferential mood has five pure tenses. Two of them are simple – past aorist inferential and past imperfect inferential – and are formed by the past participles of perfective and imperfective verbs, respectively. There are also three compound tenses – past future inferential, past future perfect inferential and past perfect inferential. All these tenses' forms are gender-specific in the singular. There are also conditional and compound-imperative crossovers. The existence of inferential forms has been attributed to Turkic influences by most Bulgarian linguists. Morphologically, they are derived from the perfect.
[edit]Non-finite verbal forms
Bulgarian has the following participles:
Present active participle (сегашно деятелно причастие) is formed from imperfective stems with the addition of the suffixes –ащ/–ещ/–ящ (четящ, 'reading') and is used only attributively;
Present passive participle (сегашно страдателно причастие) is formed by the addition of the suffixes -им/аем/уем (четим, 'that can be read, readable');
Past active aorist participle (минало свършено деятелно причастие) is formed by the addition of the suffix –л– to perfective stems (чел, '[have] read');
Past active imperfect participle (минало несвършено деятелно причастие) is formed by the addition of the suffixes –ел/–ал/–ял to imperfective stems (четял, '[have been] reading');
Past passive aorist participle' (минало свършено страдателно причастие) is formed from aorist/perfective stems with the addition of the suffixes -н/–т (прочетен, 'read'; убит, 'killed'); it is used predicatively and attributively;
Past passive imperfect participle' (минало несвършено страдателно причастие) is formed from imperfective stems with the addition of the suffix –н (прочитан, '[been] read'); убивaн, '[been] being killed'); it is used predicatively and attributively;
Adverbial participle (деепричастие) is usually formed from imperfective present stems with the suffix –(е)йки (четейки, 'while reading'), relates an action contemporaneous with and subordinate to the main verb and is originally a Western Bulgarian form.
The participles are inflected by gender, number, and definiteness, and are coordinated with the subject when forming compound tenses (see tenses above). When used in attributive role the inflection attributes are coordinated with the noun that is being attributed.
[edit]Adverbs
The most productive way to form adverbs is to derive them from the neuter singular form of the corresponding adjective (бързо (fast), силно (hard), странно (strange), although adjectives ending in -ки use the masculine singular form, also in -ки, instead: юнашки (heroically), мъжки (bravely, like a man), майсторски (skilfully). The same pattern is used to form adverbs from the (adjective-like) ordinal numerals, e.g. първо (firstly), второ (secondly), трето (thirdly), and in some cases from (adjective-like) cardinal numerals, e.g. двойно (twice as/double), тройно (three times as), петорно (five times as).
The remaining adverbs are formed in ways that are no longer productive in the language. A small number are original (not derived from other words), for example: тук (here), там (there), вътре (inside), вън (outside), много (very/much) etc. The rest are mostly fossilized case forms, such as:
archaic locative forms of some adjectives, e.g. добре (well), зле (badly), твърде (too, rather), and nouns горе (up), утре (tomorrow), лете (in the summer);
archaic instrumental forms of some adjectives, e.g. тихом (quietly), скришом (furtively), слепешком (blindly), and nouns, e.g. денем (during the day), нощем (during the night), редом (one next to the other), духом (spiritually), цифром (in figures), словом (with words); or verbs: тичешком (while running), лежешком (while lying), стоешком (while standing).
archaic accusative forms of some nouns: днес (today), нощес (tonight), сутрин (in the morning), зиме/зимъс (in winter);
archaic genitive forms of some nouns: довечера (tonight), снощи (last night), вчера (yesterday);
homonymous and etymologically identical to the feminine singular form of the corresponding adjective used with the definite article: здравата (hard), слепешката (gropingly); the same pattern has been applied to some verbs, e.g. тичешката (while running), лежешката (while lying), стоешката (while standing).
derived from cardinal numerals by means of a non-productive suffix: веднъж (once), дваж (twice), триж (thrice);
Adverbs can sometimes be reduplicated to emphasize the qualitative or quantitative properties of actions, moods or relations as performed by the subject of the sentence: "бавно-бавно" ("rather slowly"), "едва-едва" ("with great difficulty"), "съвсем-съвсем" ("quite", "thoroughly").
[edit]Lexis
Main article: Bulgarian lexis
Most of the word-stock of modern Bulgarian consists of derivations of some 2,000 words inherited from proto-Slavic through the mediation of Old and Middle Bulgarian. Thus, the native lexical terms in Bulgarian account for 70% to 75% of the lexicon.
The remaining 25% to 30% are loanwords from a number of languages, as well as derivations of such words. The languages which have contributed most to Bulgarian are Russian and Turkish, and to a lesser extent French. Latin and Greek are the source of many words, used mostly in international terminology. Many of the numerous loanwords from Turkish (and, via Turkish, from Arabic and Persian) which were adopted into Bulgarian during the long period of Ottoman rule, have been replaced with native terms. In addition, both specialized (usually coming from the field of science) and commonplace English words (notably abstract, commodity/service-related or technical terms) have also penetrated Bulgarian since the second half of the 20th century, especially since 1989. A noteworthy portion of this English-derived terminology has attained some unique features in the process of its introduction to native speakers and this has resulted in peculiar derivations that slightly set the newly formed loanwords apart from the original words (mainly in pronunciation), although many loanwords are completely identical to the source words. A growing number of international neologisms are also being widely adopted.
[edit]Syntax
Bulgarian employs clitic doubling, mostly for emphatic purposes. For example, the following constructions are common in colloquial Bulgarian:
Аз (го) дадох подаръка на Мария.
(lit. "I gave it the present to Maria.")
Аз (ѝ го) дадох подаръка на Мария.
(lit. "I gave her it the present to Maria.")
The phenomenon is practically obligatory in the spoken language in the case of inversion signalling information structure (in writing, clitic doubling may be skipped in such instances, with a somewhat bookish effect):
Подаръка (ѝ) го дадох на Мария.
(lit. "The present [to her] it I-gave to Maria.")
На Мария ѝ (го) дадох подаръка.
(lit. "To Maria to her [it] I-gave the present.")
Sometimes, the doubling signals syntactic relations, thus:
Петър и Иван ги изядоха вълците.
(lit. "Petar and Ivan them ate the wolves.")
Transl.: "Petar and Ivan were eaten by the wolves".
This is contrasted with:
Петър и Иван изядоха вълците.
(lit. "Petar and Ivan ate the wolves")
Transl.: "Petar and Ivan ate the wolves".
In this case, clitic doubling can be a colloquial alternative of the more formal or bookish passive voice, which would be constructed as follows:
Петър и Иван бяха изядени от вълците.
(lit. "Petar and Ivan were eaten by the wolves.")
Clitic doubling is also fully obligatory, both in the spoken and in the written norm, in clauses including several special expressions that use the short accusative and dative pronouns, like играе ми се (I feel like playing), студено ми е (I am cold), боли ме ръката (my arm hurts):
На мен ми се спи, а на Иван му се играе.
(lit. "To me to me it-feels-like-sleeping, and to Ivan to him it-feels-like-playing")
Transl.: "I feel like sleeping, and Ivan feels like playing."
На нас ни е студено, а на вас ви е топло.
(lit. "To us to us it-is cold, and to you-plur. to you-plur. it-is warm"
Transl.: "We are cold, and you are warm."
Иван го боли гърлото, а мене ме боли главата.
(lit. Ivan him aches the throat, and me me aches the head)
Transl.: Ivan has sore throat, and I have a headache.
Except the above examples, clitic doubling is considered inappropriate in a formal context. Bulgarian grammars usually do not treat this phenomenon extensively.
This section requires expansion.
[edit]Other features
[edit]Questions
Questions in Bulgarian which do not use a question word (such as who? what? etc.) are formed with the particle ли after the verb; a subject is not necessary, as the verbal conjugation suggests who is performing the action:
Идваш – 'you are coming'; Идваш ли? – 'are you coming?'
While the particle ли generally goes after the verb, it can go after a noun or adjective if a contrast is needed:
Идваш ли с нас? – 'are you coming with us?';
С нас ли идваш? – 'are you coming with us'?
A verb is not always necessary, e.g. when presenting a choice:
Той ли? – 'him?'; Жълтият ли? – 'the yellow one?'[note 5]
Rhetorical questions can be formed by adding ли to a question word, thus forming a "double interrogative" –
Кой? – 'Who?'; Кой ли?! – 'I wonder who(?)'
The same construction +не ('no') is an emphasised positive –
Кой беше там? – 'Who was there?' – Кой ли не! – 'Nearly everyone! (lit. 'I wonder who wasn't there')
[edit]Significant verbs
Съм
The verb съм /sɤm/[note 6] – 'to be' is also used as an auxiliary for forming the perfect, the passive and the conditional:
past tense – /udaril sɤm/ – 'I have hit'
passive – /udaren sɤm/ – 'I am hit'
past passive – /bʲax udaren/ – 'I was hit'
conditional – /bix udaril/ – 'I would hit'
Two alternate forms of съм exist:
бъда /ˈbɤda/ – interchangeable with съм in most tenses and moods, but never in the present indicative – e.g. /iskam da bɤda/ ('I want to be'), /ʃte bɤda tuk/ ('I will be here'); in the imperative, only бъда is used – /bɤda tuk/ ('be here');
бивам /ˈbivam/ – slightly archaic, imperfective form of бъда – e.g. /bivaʃe zaplaʃen/ ('he used to get threats'); in contemporary usage, it is mostly used in the negative to mean "ought not", e.g. /ne biva da puʃiʃ/ ('you shouldn't smoke').[note 7]
Ще
The impersonal verb щe (lit. 'it wants')[note 8] is used to for forming the (positive) future tense:
/otivam/ – 'I am going'
/ʃte otivam/ – 'I will be going'
The negative future is formed with the invariable construction няма да /ɲama da/ (see няма below) [note 9] :
/ɲama da otivam/ – 'I will not be going'
The past tense of this verb – щях /ʃtʲax/ is conjugated to form the past conditional ('would have' – again, with да, since it is irrealis):
/ʃtʲax da otida/ – 'I would have gone;' /ʃteʃe da otideʃ/ 'you would have gone'
Имам and нямам
The verbs имам /imam/ ('to have') and нямам /ɲamam/ ('to not have'):
the third person singular of these two can be used impersonally to mean 'there is/there are' or 'there isn't/aren't any,'[note 10] e.g.,
/ima vreme/ ('there is still time' – compare Spanish hay);
/ɲama nikoɡo/ ('there is no one there').
The impersonal form няма is used in the negative future – (see ще above).
няма used on its own can mean simply 'I won't' – a simple refusal to a suggestion or instruction.
[edit]Diminutives and augmentatives
Diminutive
See also: Diminutive#Bulgarian
Usually done by adding -че, -це or -(ч)ка. The gender of the word is thus changed, usually to the neuter:
/koˈla/ ('car') → /koˈlitʃka/ ('baby's buggy')
/kotka or /kote/ ('cat') → /kotentse/ ('kitten')
Affectionate Form
Sometimes proper nouns and words referring to friends or family members can have a diminutive ending added to show affection. These constructions are all referred to as "na galeno" (lit. "caressing" form):
mayka (mother) → maychitse; tatko (father) → tatentse
Such words can be used both from parent to child, and vice-versa, as can:
batko (big brother) → batentse; priyatel (friend) → priyatelche.
Personal names are shortened and made neuter:
Georgi → Gosho/Gotse, Mihail → Misho, Angel → Gele/Acho, Ivan → Vanko, Vasil → Vasko
Anna → Ani, Irina → Reni
There is an interesting trend (which is comparatively modern, although it might well have deeper, dormant roots) where the feminine ending "-ka" and the definite article suffix "-ta" ("the") are added to male names – note that this is affectionate and not at all insulting (in fact, the endings are not even really considered as being "feminine"):
Ivan → Vànkata, Acho → Àchkata.
The female equivalent would be to add the neuter ending "-to" to the diminutive form:
Nadia → Nadeto, Sonia → Soncheto
Augmentative
This is to present words to sound larger – usually by adding "-shte":
chovek (person) → chovechishte (huge person) (note the root change k→ch)
Some words only exist in an augmentative form – e.g.
zrelishte "(awesome) spectacle" (from the old Slavic root "to see")
svlachishte "landslide" – from svlicham "to drag down"
[edit]Conjunctions and particles
"But"
In Bulgarian, there are several conjunctions all translating into English as "but", which are all used in distinct situations. They are но (no), ама (amà), а (a), ами (amì), and ала (alà) (and обаче (obache) – "however", identical in use to но).
While there is some overlapping between their uses, in many cases they are specific. For example, ami is used for a choice – ne tova, ami onova – "not this one, but that one" (comp. Spanish sino), while ama is often used to provide extra information or an opinion – kazah go, ama sgreshih – "I said it, but I was wrong". Meanwhile, a provides contrast between two situations, and in some sentences can even be translated as "although", "while" or even "and" – az rabotya, a toy blee – "I'm working, and he's daydreaming".
Very often, different words can be used to alter the emphasis of a sentence – e.g. while "pusha, no ne tryabva" and "pusha, a ne tryabva" both mean "I smoke, but I shouldn't", the first sounds more like a statement of fact ("...but I mustn't"), while the second feels more like a judgement ("...but I oughtn't"). Similarly, az ne iskam, ama toy iska and az ne iskam, a toy iska both mean "I don't want to, but he does", however the first emphasises the fact that he wants to, while the second emphaseses the wanting rather than the person.
Ala is interesting in that, while it feels archaic, it is often used in poetry and frequently in children's stories, since it has quite a moral/ominous feel to it.
Some common expressions use these words, and some can be used alone as interjections:
da, ama ne (lit. "yes, but no") – means "you're wrong to think so".
ama can be tagged onto a sentence to express surprise: ama toy spi! – "he's sleeping!"
ами! – "you don't say!", "really!"
Vocative particles
Bulgarian has several abstract particles which are used to strengthen a statement. These have no precise translation in English.[note 11] The particles are strictly informal and can even be considered rude by some people and in some situations. They are mostly used at the end of questions or instructions.
бе (be) – the most common particle. It can be used to strengthen a statement or, sometimes, to indicate derision of an opinion, aided by the tone of voice. (Originally purely masculine, it can now be used towards both men and women.)
kazhi mi, be – tell me (insistence); taka li, be? – is that so? (derisive); vyarno li, be? – you don't say!.
де (de) – expresses urgency, sometimes pleading.
stavay, de! – come on, get up!
ма (ma) (feminine only) – originally simply the feminine counterpart of be, but today perceived as rude and derisive (compare the similar evolution of the vocative forms of feminine names).
бре (bre, masculine), мари(mari, feminine) – similar to be and ma, but archaic. Although informal, can sometimes be heard being used by older people.
Modal Particles
These are "tagged" on to the beginning or end of a sentence to express the mood of the speaker in relation to the situation. They are mostly interrogative or slightly imperative in nature. There is no change in the grammatical mood when these are used (although they may be expressed through different grammatical moods in other languages).
нали (nalì) – is a universal affirmative tag, like "isn't it"/"won't you", etc. (it is invariable, like the French n'est-ce pas). It can be placed almost anywhere in the sentence, and does not always require a verb:
shte doydesh, nali? – you are coming, aren't you?; nali iskaha? – didn't they want to?; nali onzi? – that one, right?;
it can express quite complex thoughts through simple constructions – nali nyamashe? – "I thought you weren't going to!" or "I thought there weren't any!" (depending on context – the verb nyama presents general negation/lacking, see "nyama", above).
дали (dalì) – expresses uncertainty (if in the middle of a clause, can be translated as "whether") – e.g. dali shte doyde? – "do you think he will come?"
нима (nimà) – presents disbelief ~"don't tell me that..." – e.g. nima iskash?! – "don't tell me you want to!". It is slightly archaic, but still in use. Can be used on its own as an interjection – nima!
дано (danò) – expresses hope – shte doyde – "he will come"; dano doyde – "I hope he comes" (comp. Spanish ojalá). Grammatically, dano is entirely separate from the verb nadyavam se – "to hope".
нека (nèka) – means "let('s)" – e.g. neka doyde – "let him come"; when used in the first person, it expresses extreme politeness: neka da otidem... – "let us go" (in colloquial situations, haide, below, is used instead).
neka, as an interjection, can also be used to express judgement or even Schadenfreude – neka mu! – "he deserves it!".
Intentional particles
These express intent or desire, perhaps even pleading. They can be seen as a sort of cohortative side to the language. (Since they can be used by themselves, they could even be considered as verbs in their own right.) They are also highly informal.
хайде (hàide) – "come on", "let's"
e.g. haide, po-burzo – "faster!"
я (ya) – "let me" – exclusively when asking someone else for something. It can even be used on its own as a request or instruction (depending on the tone used), indicating that the speaker wants to partake in or try whatever the listener is doing.
ya da vidya – let me see; ya? or ya! – "let me.../give me..."
недей (nedèi) (plur. nedèyte) – can be used to issue a negative instruction – e.g. nedey da idvash – "don't come" (nedey + subjunctive). In some dialects, the construction nedey idva (nedey + preterite) is used instead. As an interjection – nedei! – "don't!" (See section on imperative mood).
These particles can be combined with the vocative particles for greater effect, e.g. ya da vidya, be (let me see), or even exclusively in combinations with them, with no other elements, e.g. haide, de! (come on!); nedey, de! (I told you not to!).
[edit]Pronouns of Quality
Bulgarian has several pronouns of quality which have no direct parallels in English – kakuv (what sort of); takuv (this sort of); onakuv (that sort of – colloq.); nyakakuv (some sort of); nikakuv (no sort of); vsyakakuv (every sort of); and the relative pronoun kakuvto (the sort of...that...). The adjective ednakuv ("the same") derives from the same radical.[note 12]
Example phrases include:
kakuv chovek?! – "what person?!"; kakuv chovek e toy? – what sort of person is he?
ne poznavam takuv – "I don't know any (people like that)" (lit. "I don't know this sort of (person)")
nyakakvi hora – lit. "some type of people", but the understood meaning is "a bunch of people I don't know"
vsyakakvi hora – "all sorts of people"
kakuv iskash? – "which type do you want?"; nikakuv! – "I don't want any!"/"none!"
An interesting phenomenon is that these can be strung along one after another in quite long constructions, e.g.,
word literal meaning sentence meaning of sentence as a whole
– – edna kola a car
takava this sort of edna takava kola... this car (that i'm trying to describe)
nikakva no sort of edna takava nikakva kola this worthless car (that i'm trying to describe)
nyakakva some sort of edna takava nyakakva nikakva kola this sort of worthless car (that I'm trying to describe)
An extreme (colloquial) sentence, with almost no physical meaning in it whatsoever – yet which does have perfect meaning to the Bulgarian ear – would be :
"kakva e taya takava edna nyakakva nikakva?!"
inferred translation – "what kind of no-good person is she?"
literal translation: "what kind of – is – this one here (she) – this sort of – one – some sort of – no sort of"
—Note: the subject of the sentence is simply the pronoun "taya" (lit. "this one here"; colloq. "she").
Similar "meaningless" expressions are extremely common in spoken Bulgarian, especially when the speaker is finding it difficult to describe something.
[edit]Miscellaneous
The commonly cited phenomenon of Bulgarian people shaking their head for "yes" and nodding for "no" is true but, with the influence of Western culture, ever rarer, and almost non-existent among the younger generation.[citation needed] (It should be noted, however, that the shaking and nodding are not identical to the Western gestures. The "nod" for no is actually an upward movement of the head rather than a downward one, while the shaking of the head for yes is not completely horizontal, but also has a slight "wavy" aspect to it.)
A dental click [ǀ] (similar to the English "tsk") also means "no" (informal), as does ъ-ъ [ʔə-ʔə] (the only occurrence in Bulgarian of the glottal stop). The two are often said with the upward 'nod'.
Bulgarian has an extensive vocabulary covering family relationships. The biggest range of words is for uncles and aunts – e.g. chicho (your father's brother), vuicho (your mother's brother), svako (your aunt's husband); an even larger amount of synonyms for these three exists in the various dialects of Bulgarian, including kaleko, lelincho, tetin, etc. The words do not only refer to the closest members of the family (such as brat – brother, but batko/bate – older brother, sestra – sister, but kaka – older sister), but extend to its furthest reaches, e.g. badzhanak from Old Bulgarian pashenog (the relationship of the husbands of two sisters to each other) and etarva (the relationships of two brothers' wives to each other). For all in-laws, there are specific names, e.g. a woman's husband's brother is her dever and his husband's sister is her zalva. In the traditional rural extended family before 1900, there existed separate subcategories for different brothers-in-law/sisters-in-law of a woman with regard to their age relative to hers, e.g. instead of simply a dever there could be a braino (older), a draginko (younger), or an ubavenkyo (who is still a child).
As with many Slavic languages, the double negative in Bulgarian is grammatically correct, while some forms of it, when used instead of a single negative form, are grammatically incorrect. The following are literal translations of grammatically correct Bulgarian sentences that utilize a double or multiple negation: "Никой никъде никога нищо не е направил." (multiple negation without the use of a compound double negative form, i.e. using a listing of several successive single negation words) – "Nobody never nowhere nothing did not do." (translated as "nobody has ever done anything, anywhere"); "Никога не съм бил там." (double negation without the use of a compound double negative form, i.e. using a listing of several successive single negation words) – I never did not go there ("[I] have never been there"); Никога никакви чувства не съм имал! – I never no feelings had not have! (I have never had any feelings!). The same applies for Macedonian.
[edit]Vocabulary
[edit]Comparison with other Slavic languages
Nouns
Bulgarian (Български) Macedonian (Македонски) Serbian (Српски/Srpski) Russian (Русский) Polish (Polski) English
дърво дрво дрво/drvo дерево drzewo tree
картоф/компир/барабой компир кромпир/krompir картофель ziemniak, kartofel potato
котка мачка мачка/mačka кошка kot cat
куче, пес куче, пес пас/pas собака, пёс pies dog
къща, дом куќа, дом кућа, дом / kuća, dom дом dom house, home
маса маса сто/sto стол stół table (furniture)
мляко млеко млеко/mleko молоко mleko milk
стол стол столица/stolica стул krzesło chair
Verbs
Bulgarian (Български) Macedonian (Македонски) Serbian (Српски/Srpski) Russian (Русский) Polish (Polski) English
имам имам имам/imam имею mam I have
искам, желая сакам желим, хоћу/želim, hoću хочу, желаю chcę I want
правя,върша правам, вршам вршим/vršim делаю robię I do
ходя, вървя одам, врвам ходам/hodam хожу chodzę I walk
говоря, думам, приказвам, казвам зборувам, говорам говорим/govorim говорю mówię I talk
намирам наоѓам налазим/nalazim нахожу znajduję I find
ям јадам, ручам једем/jedem ем jem I eat
пия пијам пијем/pijem пью piję I drink
[edit]Common expressions
Здравей (zdravéy) – Hello
Здрасти (zdrásti) – Hi [note 13]
Добро утро (dobró útro) – Good morning
Добър ден (dóbər dén) – Good day
Добър вечер (dóbər vécher) – Good evening
Лека нощ (léka nósht) – Good night
Довиждане (dovízhdane) – Good-bye
Как се казваш? (kak se kazvash) – What is your name (informal)?
Кой си ти? (kóy si ti) [informal, masculine] – Who are you?
Коя си ти? (kоyá si ti) [informal, feminine] – Who are you?
Кой сте вие? (kóy ste víe) [formal, masculine]
Коя сте вие? (kоyá ste víe) [formal, feminine] – Who are you?
(In the above two examples, the formal expression uses a plural verb but a singular pronoun, which allows speakers to distinguish the two grammatical forms.)
Кои сте вие? (kоí ste víe) [plural form] – Who are you?
Как си? (kák si) [informal] – How are you?
Как сте? (kák sté) [formal, and also plural form] – How are you?
Да (dá) – Yes
Не (né) – No
Може би (mózhe bí) – Maybe
Какво правиш? (kakvó právish) [informal] – What are you doing?
Какво правите? (kakvó právite) [formal, and also plural form] – What are you doing?
Добре съм (dobré səm) – I’m fine
Всичко [най-]хубаво (vsíchko [nay-]húbavo) – All the best
Поздрави (pózdravi) – Regards
Благодаря (blagodaryə́) [formal and informal] – Thank you
Моля (mólya) – Please
Моля (mólia) – You're welcome
Извинете! (izvinéte) [formal] – Excuse me!
Извинявай! (izvinyávai) [informal] – Sorry!
Обичам те! (obícham te) – I love you!
Колко е часът? (kólko e chasə́t) – What’s the time?
Говорите ли…? (govórite li…) – Do you speak…?
…английски (anglíyski) – English
…български (bə́lgarski) – Bulgarian
…немски (némski) – German
…полски (polski) – Polish
…руски (ruski) – Russian
…холандски (holándski) – Dutch
…гръцки (grə́tski) – Greek
…сръбски (srə́bski) – Serbian
…италиански (italiánski) – Italian
…испански (ispánski) – Spanish
…френски (frénski) – French
…японски (yapónski) – Japanese
…китайски (kitáyski) – Chinese
…корейски (koréyski) – Korean
…арабски (arabski) – Arabic
Ще се видим скоро (shté sé vídim skóro) – We'll see each other soon
Ще се видим утре (shté sé vídim útre) – We'll see each other tomorrow
Also, some very frequent expressions have been borrowed from other languages. Most of them are somewhat informal.
Мерси (mersí) – Thank you; from French (although this word is probably even more common than native "Благодаря", it is inappropriate in very official or solemn contexts)
Чао (cháo) – Bye; from Italian (the informal counterpart of native "Довиждане", this word is more common than the native)
Cупep (súper) – Super; (from English, colloquial; note – "Super" remains the same regardless of quantity or gender, although an even more colloquial adjective суперски (súperski) does decline as usual)
Aло (álo) – Hello on the phone; from French (unlike the above, this word is stylistically neutral).
Здраве да е! (zdràve da e) – lit. "may there (at least) be health" (used when things have not gone as well as the speaker might have hoped.)
[edit]See also
Ausbausprache – Abstandsprache – Dachsprache
Balkan sprachbund
Macedonian language
Romanization of Bulgarian
Slavic language (Greece)
Torlakian dialect
Banat Bulgarian language
Swadesh list of Bulgarian words
Bulgarian name
[edit]Notes
^ Sometimes transcribed as /ə/.
^ For practical purposes, the grave accent can be combined with letters by pasting the symbol "̀" directly after the designated letter. An alternative is to use the keyboard shortcut Alt + 0300 (if working under a Windows operating system), or to add the decimal HTML code "̀" after the targeted stressed vowel if editing HTML source code. See "Accute accent" diacritic character in Unicode, Unicode character "Cyrillic small letter i with grave" and Unicode character "Cyrillic capital letter i with grave" for the exact Unicode characters that utilize the grave accent. Retrieved 2010-06-21.
^ These last two are similar to their opposites не го, /nɛ ˈɡo/ and не му, /nɛ ˈmu/ ('not...(to) him'). The issue is similar with the feminine forms: нея, /ˈnɛjɐ/ ('to her') vs. не я /nɛ ˈja/ ('not...her')
^ All of these are becoming ever rarer in modern Bulgarian, especially кому and its derivatives. Instead of this, people often say на кого /na koɡɔ/ or even на кой /na kɔj/; the latter even beginning to replace the former, although this usage is currently frowned upon.
^ The word или ('either') has a similar etymological root: и + ли ('and') – e.g. (или) Жълтият или червеният – '(either) the yellow one or the red one.' wiktionary
^ съм is pronounced similar to English "sum".
^ It is a common reply to the question Kak e? 'How are things?' (lit. 'how is it?') – /biva/ 'alright' (lit. 'it [repetitively] is') or /kak si/ 'How are you?' -/ˈbivam/ 'I'm OK'.
^ ще – from the verb щa – 'to want.' The present tense of this verb in the sense of 'to want' is archaic and only used colloquially. Instead, искам /iskam/ is used.
^ Formed from the impersonal verb няма (lit. 'it does not have') and the subjunctive particle да /da/ ('that')
^ They can also be used on their own as a reply, with no object following: има – 'there are some'; /ɲama/ – 'there aren't any' – compare German keine.
^ Perhaps most similar in use is the tag "man", but the Bulgarian particles are more abstract still.
^ Like the demonstratives, these take the same form as pronouns as they do as adjectives – ie. takuv means both "this kind of..." (adj.) and this kind of person/thing (pron., depending on the context).
^ This is a more informal form of Здравей In polite conversation, the "Vi" form is used by both parties: zdraveyte.
[edit]References
^ Lewis, M. Paul (ed.) (1986–2009). "Bulgarian". Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Sixteenth edition. SIL International. Retrieved 10 march 2010.
^ "Bulgarian language". Omniglot-Writing systems&Languages of the World. Retrieved 17 октомври 2010.
^ "The Bulgarian language". Kwintessential. Retrieved 17 октомври 2010.
^ "The languages spoken in Bulgaria". Spainexchange. Retrieved 17 октомври 2010.
^ "Language of Bulgaria". Europecities. Retrieved 17 октомври 2010.
^ "English to Bulgarian Translation". Bulgarian translation. Retrieved 18 октомври 2010.
^ "Bulgarian for beginners". Bulgarian is a Southern Slavic language with approximately 12 million speakers in many countries.. Retrieved 18 октомври 2010.
^ Michal Kopeček. Discourses of collective identity in Central and Southeast Europe (1770–1945): texts and commentaries, Volume 1 (Central European University Press, 2006), p. 248
^ a b Glanville Price. Encyclopedia of the languages of Europe (Wiley-Blackwell, 2000), p.45
^ a b Victor Roudometof. Collective memory, national identity, and ethnic conflict: Greece, Bulgaria, and the Macedonian question (Greenwood Publishing Group, 2002), p. 92
^ "Стойков, Стойко. 2002 (1962) Българска диалектология. Стр. 101". Promacedonia.org. Retrieved 2010-04-17.
^ "Стойков, Стойко. 2002 (1962) Българска диалектология. Стр. 99". Promacedonia.org. Retrieved 2010-04-17.
^ Mazon, Andre. Contes Slaves de la Macédoine Sud-Occidentale: Etude linguistique; textes et traduction; Notes de Folklore, Paris 1923, p. 4.
^ Селищев, Афанасий. Избранные труды, Москва 1968.
^ Die Slaven in Griechenland von Max Vasmer. Verlag der Akademie der Wissenschaften, Berlin 1941. Kap. VI: Allgemeines und sprachliche Stellung der Slaven Griechenlands.
^ K. Sandfeld, Balkanfilologien (København, 1926, MCMXXVI).
^ Konstantin Josef Jireček, Die Balkanvölker und ihre kulturellen und politischen Bestrebungen, Urania, II, Jg. 13, 27. März 1909, p. 195.
^ Stefan Verković, Описание быта македонских болгар; Топографическо-этнографический очерк Македонии (Петербург, 1889).
^ Шклифов, Благой and Екатерина Шклифова, Български деалектни текстове от Егейска Македония, София 2003, с. 28-36 (Shklifov, Blagoy and Ekaterina Shklifova. Bulgarian dialect texts from Aegean Macedonia Sofia 2003, p. 28–33)
^ Pluricentric languages: differing norms in different nations, Michael G. Clyne, Walter de Gruyter, 1992, SBN 3110128551, p. 440.
^ Language profile Macedonian, UCLA International Institute
^ Who are the Macedonians?, Hugh Poulton, C. Hurst & Co. Publishers, 2000, ISBN 1-85065-534-0,p. 116.
^ When languages collide: perspectives on language conflict, language competition, and language coexistence, Brian D. Joseph, Ohio State University Press, 2003, p. 281, ISBN 0-8142-0913-0.
^ Правопис и пунктуация на българския език. (Orthography and punctuation of the Bulgarian language). Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. 2011.
^ Жобов, Владимир (2004) Звуковете в българския език. Стр. 44-45.
^ a b c Handbook of the International Phonetic Association (1999). http://books.google.com/books?id=33BSkFV_8PEC&printsec=frontcover&dq=handbook+of+the+international+phonetic+association&hl=en&ei=YdmxTb-aIIvqObXNjfMI&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCcQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Bulgarian&f=false
^ Куон Джин Чой (1998). Фонологичността на признака мекост в съвременния български език. http://liternet.bg/publish1/choi/mekost.htm
^ Жобов, Владимир (2004) Звуковете в българския език. Стр. 65-66.
^ a b Кръстев, Боримир, 1992. Граматика за всички. Стр.61.
^ Пашов, Петър (1999) Българска граматика. Стр.73-74.
^ The Bulgarian Verb Elementary On-Line Bulgarian Grammar by Katina Bontcheva, retrieved in 08/21/2011
[edit]Bibliography
Comrie, Bernard and Corbett, Greville G. (1993) The Slavonic Languages, London and New York: Routledge ISBN 0-415-04755-2
Ternes, Elmer; Vladimirova-Buhtz, Tatjana (1999), "Bulgarian", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association, Cambridge University Press, pp. 55–57, ISBN 0-521-63751-1
Бояджиев и др. (1998) Граматика на съвременния български книжовен език. Том 1. Фонетика
Жобов, Владимир (2004) Звуковете в българския език
Кръстев, Боримир (1992) Граматика за всички
Пашов, Петър (1999) Българска граматика
[edit]External links
Bulgarian language edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Wikibooks has a book on the topic of
Bulgarian
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Bulgarian language
Linguistic reports
Ethnologue report for Bulgarian
Bulgarian at Omniglot
Bulgarian phrasebook at Wikitravel
Bulgarian Swadesh list of basic vocabulary words (from Wiktionary's Swadesh list appendix)
The Bulgarian Language – Website with material to learn Bulgarian
Dictionaries
Bulgarian–English–Bulgarian Online dictionary from SA Dictionary
Online Dual English–Bulgarian dictionary
Online automatic translation between Bulgarian, English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish
Bulgarian Dictionary: from Webster’s Dictionary
Bulgarian bilingual dictionaries
Englisch-Bulgarian (Cyrillic) Dictionary
Courses
USA Foreign Service Institute Bulgarian basic course
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Categories: Bulgarian languageLanguages of BulgariaLanguages of GreeceLanguages of RomaniaLanguages of SerbiaLanguages of the Republic of MacedoniaLanguages of TurkeySouth Slavic languagesSubject–verb–object languages
قس انگلیسی
Bulgarian (български език, pronounced: [ˈbɤ̞ɫɡɐrski ɛˈzik]) is an Indo-European language, a member of the Southern branch of the Slavic language family.
Bulgarian, along with the closely related Macedonian language, has several characteristics that set it apart from all other Slavic languages such as the elimination of case declension, the development of a suffixed definite article (see Balkan linguistic union), the lack of a verb infinitive, and the retention and further development of the Proto-Slavic verb system. Various evidential verb forms exist to express unwitnessed, retold, and doubtful action. Estimates of the number of people around the world who speak Bulgarian fluently range from about 9 million[1] to 12 million.[2][3][4][5][6][7]
Contents [show]
[edit]History
Main article: History of Bulgarian
The development of the Bulgarian language may be divided into several periods.
Prehistoric period – occurred between the Slavonic migration to eastern Balkans and the mission of Saints Cyril and Methodius to Great Moravia in the 860s.
Old Bulgarian (9th to 11th century, also referred to as Old Church Slavonic) – a literary norm of the early southern dialect of the Common Slavic language from which Bulgarian evolved. It was used by Saints Cyril and Methodius and their disciples to translate the Bible and other liturgical literature from Greek into Slavic.
Middle Bulgarian (12th to 15th century) – a literary norm that evolved from the earlier Old Bulgarian, after major innovations were accepted. It was a language of rich literary activity and the official administration language of the Second Bulgarian Empire.
Modern Bulgarian – dates from the 16th century onwards, undergoing general 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. The historical development of the Bulgarian language can be described as a transition from a highly synthetic language (Old Bulgarian) to a typical analytic language (Modern Bulgarian) with Middle Bulgarian as a midpoint in this transition.
The Codex Zographensis is one of the oldest manuscripts in the Old Bulgarian language dated from the late 10th or early 11th century
Bulgarian was the first "Slavic" language attested in writing. As Slavic linguistic unity lasted into late antiquity, in the oldest manuscripts this language was initially referred to as языкъ словяньскъ, "the Slavic language". In the Middle Bulgarian period this name was gradually replaced by the name языкъ блъгарьскъ, the "Bulgarian language". In some cases, the name языкъ блъгарьскъ was used not only with regard to the contemporary Middle Bulgarian language of the copyist but also to the period of Old Bulgarian. A most notable example of anachronism is the Service of St. Cyril from Skopje (Скопски миней), a 13th-century Middle Bulgarian manuscript from northern Macedonia according to which St. Cyril preached with "Bulgarian" books among the Moravian Slavs. The first mention of the language as the "Bulgarian language" instead of the "Slavonic language" comes in the work of the Greek clergy of the Bulgarian Archbishopric of Ohrid in the 11th century, for example in the Greek hagiography of Saint Clement of Ohrid by Theophylact of Ohrid (late 11th century).
During the Middle Bulgarian period, the language underwent dramatic changes, losing the Slavonic case system, but preserving the rich verb system (while the development was exactly the opposite in other Slavic languages) and developing a definite article. Consequently, modern Bulgarian is about as far from Russian as Swedish is from German.[citation needed] It was influenced by proto-Bulgar and its non-Slavic neighbors in the Balkan linguistic union (mostly grammatically) and later also by Turkish, which was the official language of the Ottoman Empire, in the form of the Ottoman Turkish language, mostly lexically. As a national revival occurred towards the end of the period of Ottoman rule (mostly during the 19th century), a modern Bulgarian literary language gradually emerged which drew heavily on Church Slavonic/Old Bulgarian (and to some extent on literary Russian, which had preserved many lexical items from Church Slavonic) and later reduced the number of Turkish and other Balkanic loans. Today one difference between Bulgarian dialects in the country and literary spoken Bulgarian is the significant presence of Old Bulgarian words and even word forms in the latter. Russian loans are distinguished from Old Bulgarian ones on the basis of the presence of specifically Russian phonetic changes, as in оборот (turnover, rev), непонятен (incomprehensible), ядро (nucleus) and others. As usual in such cases, many other loans from French, English and the classical languages have subsequently entered the language as well.
Modern Bulgarian was based essentially on the Eastern dialects of the language, but its pronunciation is in many respects a compromise between East and West Bulgarian (see especially the phonetic sections below). Following the efforts of some figures of the National awakening of Bulgaria (the most notable among them being Neofit Rilski and Ivan Bogorov),[8] there had been many attempts to codify a standard Bulgarian language; however, there was much argument surrounding the choice of norms. Between 1835–1878 more than 25 proposals were put forward and "linguistic chaos" ensued.[9] Eventually the Eastern dialects prevailed[10] and in 1899 the Ministry of Education officially codified[9] a standard Bulgarian language based on the Drinov-Ivanchev orthography.[10]
[edit]Dialects
Main article: Bulgarian dialects
Map of the Bulgarian dialects within Bulgaria
The language is mainly split into two broad dialect areas, based on the different reflexes of the Common Slavic yat vowel (Ѣ). This split, which occurred at some point during the Middle Ages, led to the development of Bulgaria's:
Western dialects (informally called твърд говор/tvurd govor – "hard speech")
the former yat is pronounced "e" in all positions. e.g. млеко (mlekò) – milk, хлеб (hleb) – bread.[11]
Eastern dialects (informally called мек говор/mek govor – "soft speech")
the former yat alternates between "ya" and "e": it is pronounced "ya" if it is under stress and the next syllable does not contain a front vowel (e or i) – e.g. мляко (mlyàko), хляб (hlyab), and "e" otherwise – e.g. млекар (mlekàr) – milkman, хлебар (hlebàr) – baker. This rule obtains in most Eastern dialects, although some have "ya", or a special "open e" sound, in all positions.
The literary language norm, which is generally based on the Eastern dialects, also has the Eastern alternating reflex of yat. However, it has not incorporated the general Eastern umlaut of all synchronic or even historic "ya" sounds into "e" before front vowels – e.g. поляна (polyana) vs полени (poleni) "meadow – meadows" or even жаба (zhaba) vs жеби (zhebi) "frog – frogs", even though it co-occurs with the yat alternation in almost all Eastern dialects that have it (except a few dialects along the yat border, e.g. in the Pleven region).[12]
More examples of the yat umlaut in the literary language are:
mlyàko (milk) [n.] → mlekàr (milkman); mlèchen (milky), etc.
syàdam (sit) [vb.] → sedàlka (seat); sedàlishte (seat, e.g. of government), etc.
svyat (holy) [adj.] → svetètz (saint); svetìlishte (sanctuary), etc.
Until 1945, Bulgarian orthography did not reveal this alternation and used the original Old Slavic Cyrillic letter yat (Ѣ), which was commonly called двойно е (dvoyno e) at the time, to express the historical yat vowel or at least root vowels displaying the ya – e alternation. The letter was used in each occurrence of such a root, regardless of the actual pronunciation of the vowel: thus, both mlyako and mlekar were spelled with (Ѣ). Among other things, this was seen as a way to "reconcile" the Western and the Eastern dialects and maintain language unity at a time when much of Bulgaria's Western dialect area was controlled by Serbia and Greece, but there were still hopes and occasional attempts to recover it. With the 1945 orthographic reform, this letter was abolished and the present spelling was introduced, reflecting the alternation in pronunciation.
This had implications for some grammatical constructions:
The third person plural pronoun and its derivatives. Before 1945 the pronoun "they" was spelled тѣ (tě), and its derivatives took this as the root. After the orthographic change, the pronoun and its derivatives were given an equal share of soft and hard spellings:
"they" – те (te) → "them" – тях (tyah);
"their(s)" – tehen (masc.); tyahna (fem.); tyahno (neut.); tehni (plur.)
adjectives received the same treatment as тѢ:
"whole" – tsyal → "the whole...": tseliyat (masc.); tsyalata (fem.); tsyaloto (neut.); tselite (plur.)
Sometimes, with the changes, words began to be spelled as other words with different meanings, e.g.:
свѣт (svět) – "holy" became свят (svyat), spelt and pronounced the same as свят – "world".
тѣ (tě) – "they" became те (te),
In spite of the literary norm regarding the yat vowel, many people living in Western Bulgaria, including the capital Sofia, will fail to observe its rules. While the norm requires the realizations vidyal vs videli (he has seen; they have seen), some natives of Western Bulgaria will preserve their local dialect pronunciation with "e" for all instances of "yat" (e.g. videl, videli). Others, attempting to adhere to the norm, will actually use the "ya" sound even in cases where the standard language has "e" (e.g. vidyal, vidyali). The latter hypercorrection is called свръхякане (svrah-yakane ≈"over-softening").
[edit]Relationship to Macedonian
Most sources in and out of Bulgaria before the Second World War referred to the southern Slavonic dialect continuum covering the area of modern Bulgaria and Republic of Macedonia as a group of Bulgarian dialects.[13][14][15][16][17][18] The local variants of the name of the language are balgàrtski, bolgàrtski, bulgàrtski,[19] bògartski, bogàrtski, bùgarski or bugàrski. However, the Bulgarian codifiers did not want to make any allowances for a pluricentric Bulgarian language, which might have included the Macedonian dialects.[20] After WWII, the question about the Bulgarian character of the language in the territory of the Republic of Macedonia was put aside in the name of Bulgarian-Yugoslavian friendship under the pressure of the Soviet Union. After 1958 when the pressure from Moscow decreased, Sofia turned back to the view that the Macedonian language did not exist as a separate language. Many modern linguists consider Macedonian dialects still as Bulgarian.[21][22][23]
[edit]Alphabet
In 886 AD, the Bulgarian Empire introduced the Glagolitic alphabet which was devised by the Saints Cyril and Methodius in the 850s. The Glagolitic alphabet was gradually superseded in later centuries by the Cyrillic script, developed around the Preslav Literary School, Bulgaria in the beginning of the 10th century.
Several Cyrillic alphabets with 28 to 44 letters were used in the beginning and the middle of the 19th century during the efforts on the codification of Modern Bulgarian until an alphabet with 32 letters, proposed by Marin Drinov, gained prominence in the 1870s. The alphabet of Marin Drinov was used until the orthographic reform of 1945 when the letters yat (Ѣ, ѣ, called "double e"), and yus (Ѫ, ѫ, called "big yus" or "ъ кръстато") were removed from the alphabet, reducing the number of letters to 30.
With the accession of Bulgaria to the European Union on January 1, 2007, Cyrillic became the third official alphabet of the EU.
The following table gives the letters of the Bulgarian alphabet, along with the IPA values for the sound of each letter:
Bulgarian alphabet ISO 9 Official transliteration IPA* Name of Letter English equivalent
А а A a A a /a/ or /ɐ/ a a as in "adorable"
Б б B b B b /b/ or /p/ бъ b as in "bug"
В в V v V v /v/ or /f/ въ v as in "vet"
Г г G g G g /ɡ/ or /k/ гъ g as in "god"
Д д D d D d /d/ or /t/ дъ d as in "dog"
Е е E e E e /ɛ/ е e as in "best"
Ж ж Ž ž Zh zh /ʒ/ or /ʃ/ жъ s as in "treasure"
З з Z z Z z /z/ or /s/ зъ z as in "zoo"
И и I i I i /i/ и i as in "igloo"
Й й J j Y y /j/ и кратко y as in "yes" or "yoyo"
К к K k K k /k/ or /g/ къ
c as in "cat"
Л л L l L l /l/ or /ɫ/ лъ
l as in "call" or "lend"
М м M m M m /m/ мъ m as in "man"
Н н N n N n /n/ нъ n as in "normal"
О о O o O o /ɔ/ or /o/ о o as in "order"
П п P p P p /p/ пъ p as in "pet"
Р р R r R r /r/ ръ r as in "restaurant"
С с S s S s /s/ or /z/ съ s as in "sound"
Т т T t T t /t/ or /d/ тъ t as in "top"
У у U u U u /u/ or /o/ y оо as in "tool"
Ф ф F f F f /f/ фъ f as in "food"
Х х H h H h /x/ хъ ch as in Scottish "loch"
Ц ц C c Ts ts /t͡s/ цъ ts as in "fits"
Ч ч Č č Ch ch /t͡ʃ/ чъ ch as in "chip"
Ш ш Š š Sh sh /ʃ/ шъ sh as in "shot"
Щ щ Št št1 Sht sht /ʃt/ щъ sht as in "shtick"
Ъ ъ Ă ă1 A a /ɤ/ or /ɐ/ ер голям u as in "turn"
Ь ь J j1 Y y /j/ or not pronounced ер малък soft sign: y as in canyon
Ю ю Ju ju1 Yu yu /ju/, /jo/, /u/ or /o/ ю u as in "menu"
Я я Ja ja1 Ya ya /ja/, /jɐ/, /a/ or /ɐ/ я ya as in "yarn"
* See Wikipedia:IPA for Bulgarian and Macedonian for details.
1 The romanizations of these characters differ from the current version, ISO 9:1995, as it was never officially adopted as a Bulgarian standard.
Most letters in the Bulgarian alphabet stand for just one specific sound. Three letters stand for the single expression of combinations of sounds, namely щ (sht), ю (yu), and я (ya). Two sounds do not correspond to separate letters, but are expressed as the combination of two letters, namely дж (/dʒ/) and дз (/dz/). The letter ь marks the palatal approximant before о and е [24]. A letter that represents a voiced consonant can represent its voiceless counterpart and vice versa when adjacent to a voiceless or voiced consonant, respectively, or when a voiced consonant is syllable final, for example - вторник /ftornik/ - Tuesday, нож /nɔʃ/ - knife, сграда /zgradɐ/ - building, сватба /svadbɐ/ - wedding.
The names of most letters are simple representations of their phonetic values, with consonants being followed by /ɤ/ – thus the alphabet goes: /a/ – /bɤ/ – /vɤ/, etc. However, the name of the letter Й is "и-kratko" (short /i/), the name of Ъ is "er-golyam" (large Er), and the name of Ь is "er-malak" (small Er). People often refer to Ъ simply as /ɤ/.
For the transliteration of Bulgarian into the Latin script (romanization), see Romanization of Bulgarian.
[edit]Phonology
[edit]Vowels
Standard Bulgarian vowels. From Ternes & Vladimirova-Buhtz (1999).
Front Central Back
High и /i/ у /u/, /o/
Mid е /ɛ/ ъ /ɤ/, /ɐ/[note 1] о /ɔ/, /o/
Low а /a/, /ɐ/
Bulgarian's eight vowels may be grouped in three pairs according to their backness: front, central and back. All vowels are relatively lax, as in most other Slavic languages, and unlike the tense vowels, for example, in the Germanic languages[citation needed]. Unstressed vowels tend to be shorter and weaker compared to their stressed counterparts, and the corresponding pairs of open and closed vowels approach each other with a tendency to merge, above all as low (open and open-mid) vowels are raised and shift towards the high (close and close-mid) ones. However, the coalescence is not always complete. The vowels are often distinguished in emphatic or deliberately distinct pronunciation, and reduction is strongest in colloquial speech. Besides that, some linguists distinguish two degrees of reduction, as they have found that a clearer distinction tends to be maintained in the syllable immediately preceding the stressed one. The complete merger of the pair /a/ – /ɤ/ is regarded as most common, while the status of /ɔ/ vs /u/ is less clear. A coalescence of /ɛ/ and /i/ is not allowed in formal speech and is regarded as a provincial (East Bulgarian) dialect feature; instead, unstressed /ɛ/ is both raised and centralized, approaching [ɤ].[25] The /ɤ/ vowel itself does not exist as a phoneme in other Slavic languages, though a similar reduced vowel transcribed as [ə] does occur.
[edit]Semivowels
The Bulgarian language possesses one semivowel: /j/, being equivalent to y in English like in yes. It is expressed graphically with the letter й, as in най /naj/ ("most"), тролей /troˈlɛj/ ("trolleybus"), except when it precedes /a/ or /u/, in which case the combination of two phonemes is expressed with a single letter, respectively я or ю: (e.g. ютия /jutˈija/ "(flat) iron").
[edit]Consonants
Bulgarian has a total of 35 consonant phonemes (see table below). According to the criterion of sonority, the Bulgarian consonants may be divided into 12 pairs (voiced""voiceless). The only consonant without a counterpart is the voiceless velar fricative /x/. The contrast 'voiced vs. voiceless' is neutralized in word-final position, where all obstruents are voiceless (as in most Slavic languages); this neutralization is, however, not reflected in the spelling.
[edit]Characteristics of the Bulgarian consonants
The Bulgarian consonants б /b/, в /v/, г /ɡ/, д /d/, з /z/, к /k/, л /l//ɫ/, м /m/, н /n/, п /p/, р /r/, с /s/, т /t/, ф /f/, ц /t͡s/ aren't palatalized.[26][27]
Among some Eastern Bulgarian speakers, consonants are sometimes palatalized before the vowels /i/ and /ɛ/. This is not the case in Standard Bulgarian. The realization of the phoneme л /l/ varies along the same principles: one of its allophones, involving a raising of the back of the tongue and a lowering of its middle part in a way identical to the velarized lateral,[26] occurs in all positions, except before the vowels /i/ and /ɛ/, where a more "clear" version with a slight raising of the middle part of the tongue occurs. The latter pre-front realization is traditionally (and incorrectly) called "soft l", even though it is not palatalized. In some Western Bulgarian dialects, this allophonic variation does not exist. Some sources claim the existence of palatalized phonemes in Bulgarian.
Furthermore, in the speech of many young people the more common and arguably velarized allophone of /l/ is often realized as a labiovelar approximant [w].[28] This phenomenon, colloquially known as мързеливо "л" (lazy "l") in Bulgaria, was first registered in the 1970s and isn't connected to original dialects. Similar developments, termed L-vocalization, have occurred in many languages, including Polish, Serbo-Croatian, Brazilian Portuguese and certain dialects of English such as Cockney and AAVE.
[edit]Table
Consonants of Bulgarian language [26]
Bilabial Labio-
Dental Dental Alveolar Post-
Alveolar Palatal Velar
Nasal m n
Plosive p b t d k ɡ
Affricate t͡s d͡z t͡ʃ d͡ʒ
Fricative f v s z ʃ ʒ x
Approximant j
Trill r
Lateral ɫ l
[edit]Word stress
Bulgarian word stress is dynamic. Stressed syllables are louder and longer than unstressed ones. Stress, like Russian and other East Slavic languages, is also lexical rather than fixed as in French, Latin or the West Slavic ones, i.e. it may fall on any syllable of a polysyllabic word and its position may vary in inflection and derivation, for example, мъж /mɤʃ/ ('man'), мъжът /mɤˈʒɤt/ ('the man'). Bulgarian stress is also distinctive: for example, в'ълна /ˈvɤɫnɐ/ ('wool') and вълн'а /vɤɫˈna/ ('wave') are only differentiated by stress. Stress usually isn't signified in written text, though it may be indicated in cases with minimal pairs (e.g. ѝ 'to her', vs. и, 'and'), or in order to signify the dialectal deviation from the standard pronunciation. In such cases, stress is signified by placing a grave accent on the vowel of the stressed syllable.[note 2]
[edit]Grammar
Main article: Bulgarian grammar
The parts of speech in Bulgarian are divided in 10 different types, which are categorized in two broad classes: mutable and immutable. The difference is that mutable parts of speech vary grammatically, whereas the immutable ones do not change, regardless of their use. The five classes of mutables are: nouns, adjectives, numerals, pronouns and verbs. Syntactically, the first four of these form the group of the noun or the nominal group. The immutables are: adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, particles and interjections. Verbs and adverbs form the group of the verb or the verbal group.
[edit]Nominal morphology
Main article: Bulgarian nouns
Nouns and adjectives have the categories grammatical gender, number, case (only vocative) and definiteness in Bulgarian. Adjectives and adjectival pronouns agree with nouns in number and gender. Pronouns have gender and number and retain (as in nearly all Indo-European languages) a more significant part of the case system.
[edit]Nominal inflection
[edit]Gender
There are three grammatical genders in Bulgarian: masculine, feminine and neuter. The gender of the noun can largely be inferred from its ending: nouns ending in a consonant ("zero ending") are generally masculine (for example, град /ɡrat/ 'city', син /sin/ 'son', мъж /mɤʃ/ 'man'; those ending in –а/–я (-a/-ya) (жена /ʒɛˈna/ 'woman', дъщеря /dɐʃtɛrˈja/ 'daughter', улица /ˈulitsɐ/ 'street') are normally feminine; and nouns ending in –е, –о are almost always neuter (дете /dɛtɛ/ 'child', езеро /ˈɛzɛro/ 'lake'), as are those rare words (usually loanwords) that end in –и, –у, and –ю (цунами /tsoˈnami/ 'tsunami', табу /tɐˈbu/ 'taboo', меню /mɛˈnju/ 'menu'). Perhaps the most significant exception from the above are the relatively numerous nouns that end in a consonant and yet are feminine: these comprise, firstly, a large group of nouns with zero ending expressing quality, degree or an abstraction, including all nouns ending on –ост/–ест -{ost/est} (мъдрост /ˈmɤdrost/ 'wisdom', низост /ˈnizost/ 'vileness', прелест /ˈprɛlɛst/ 'loveliness', болест /ˈbɔlɛst/ 'sickness', любов /ljoˈbɔf/ 'love'), and secondly, a much smaller group of irregular nouns with zero ending which define tangible objects or concepts (кръв /krɤf/ 'blood', кост /kɔst/ 'bone', вечер /ˈvɛtʃɛr/ 'evening', нoщ /nɔʃt/ 'night'). There are also some commonly used words that end in a vowel and yet are masculine: баща 'father', дядо 'grandfather', чичо / вуйчо 'uncle', and others.
The plural forms of the nouns do not express their gender as clearly as the singular ones, but may also provide some clues to it: the ending –и (-i) is more likely to be used with a masculine or feminine noun (факти /ˈfakti/ 'facts', болести /ˈbɔlɛsti/ 'sicknesses'), while one in –а/–я belongs more often to a neuter noun (езера /ɛzɛˈra/ 'lakes'). Also, the plural ending –ове /-ɔvɛ/ occurs only in masculine nouns.
[edit]Number
Two numbers are distinguished in Bulgarian – singular and plural. A variety of plural suffixes is used, and the choice between them is partly determined by their ending in singular and partly influenced by gender; in addition, irregular declension and alternative plural forms are common. Words ending in –а/–я (which are usually feminine) generally have the plural ending –и, upon dropping of the singular ending. Of nouns ending in a consonant, the feminine ones also use –и, whereas the masculine ones usually have –и for polysyllables and –ове for monosyllables (however, exceptions are especially common in this group). Nouns ending in –о/–е (most of which are neuter) mostly use the suffixes –а, –я (both of which require the dropping of the singular endings) and –та.
With cardinal numbers and related words such as няколко ('several'), masculine nouns use a special count form in –а/–я, which stems from the Proto-Slavonic dual: двама/трима ученика ('two/three students') versus тези ученици ('these students'); cf. feminine две/три/тези жени ('two/three/these women') and neuter две/три/тези деца ('two/three/these children'). However, a recently developed language norm requires that count forms should only be used with masculine nouns that do not denote persons. Thus, двама/трима ученици is perceived as more correct than двама/трима ученика, while the distinction is retained in cases such as два/три молива ('two/three pencils') versus тези моливи ('these pencils').
[edit]Case
See also: Bulgarian grammar – Case System
Cases exist only in the personal pronouns (as they do in many other modern Indo-European languages), with nominative, accusative, dative and vocative forms. Vestiges are present in the masculine personal interrogative pronoun кой ("who") and in a number of phraseological units and sayings. The major exception are vocative forms, which are still in use for masculine (with the endings -e, -o and -ю) and feminine nouns (-[ь/й]o and -e) in the singular. However, there is a tendency to avoid them in many personal names, as the use of feminine name forms in -[ь/й]o[29] and of the potential vocative forms of foreign names has come to be considered rude or rustic. Thus, Иване means 'hey, Ivan', while the corresponding feminine forms Елено ('hey, Elena'), Маргарито ('hey, Margarita') are today seen as rude[29] or, at best, unceremonious, and declining foreign names as in *Джоне ('hey, John') or *Саймъне ('hey, Simon') could only be considered humorous. Interestingly, the prohibition on constructing vocative forms for foreign names does not apply to names from Classical Antiquity, with the source languages having the vocative case as well: cf Цезаре' ('Oh Caesar'), Перикле ('Oh Pericles'), Зевсе ('Oh Zeus'), etc.
Case remnants
Some key words do retain their cases, which today are no longer considered nominative, accusative and dative, but rather as being subject, direct object and indirect object parts of speech:
All personal pronouns – e.g. masculine singular:
той, /tɔj/ ('he') – него, /ˈnɛɡo/ ('him') – нему, /ˈnɛmo/ ('to him' [archaic]).[note 3]
The masculine interrogative pronoun кой, /kɔj/ ('who') and all of its derivatives – these, however, are not declined for all masculine nouns, but only when they refer to men:
кой /kɔj/ ('who') – кого /koˈɡɔ/ ('whom') – кому /koˈmu/ ('to whom' [very rarely used]).[note 4]
the words някой /njakoj/ ('someone') and никой /nikoj/ ('no one') follow the same pattern as кой;
всеки /vsɛki/ ('everyone') and друг /druk/ ('someone else') are similar (-иго; -иму), but extremely rare.
the relative clauses който /kɔjto/ ('who/that'), когото /koɡɔto/ ('whom/that') and комуто /komuto/ ('to whom/that') – again, only declined when referring to men – i.e.
човекът с когото говоря /tʃovɛkɤt, s koɡɔto ɡovorja/ ('the man that I'm talking to')
столът, на който седя /stɔɫɐt, na kɔjto sɛdjɐ/ ('the chair that I'm sitting on')
[edit]Definiteness (article)
In modern Bulgarian, definiteness is expressed by a definite article which is postfixed to the noun, much like in the Scandinavian languages or Romanian (indefinite: човек, 'person'; definite: човекът, "the person") or to the first nominal constituent of definite noun phrases (indefinite: добър човек, 'a good person'; definite: добрият човек, "the good person"). There are four singular definite articles. Again, the choice between them is largely determined by the noun's ending in the singular.[30] Nouns that end in a consonant and are masculine use –ът/–ят, when they are grammatical subjects, and –а/–я elsewhere. Nouns that end in a consonant and are feminine, as well as nouns that end in –а/–я (most of which are feminine, too) use –та. Nouns that end in –е/–о use –то.
The plural definite article is –те for all nouns except for those, whose plural form ends in –а/–я; these get –тa instead. When postfixed to adjectives the definite articles are –ят/–я for masculine gender (again, with the longer form being reserved for grammatical subjects), –та for feminine gender, –то for neuter gender, and –те for plural.
[edit]Adjective and numeral inflection
Both groups agree in gender and number with the noun they are appended to. They may also take the definite article as explained above.
[edit]Pronouns
Main article: Bulgarian pronouns
Pronouns may vary in gender, number, definiteness and are the only parts of speech that have retained case inflexions. Three cases are exhibited by some groups of pronouns – nominative, accusative and dative. The distinguishable types of pronouns include the following: personal, relative, reflexive, interrogative, negative, indefinitive, summative and possessive.
[edit]Verbal morphology and grammar
Main article: Bulgarian verbs
The Bulgarian verb can take up to 3,000[31][dubious – discuss] distinct forms, as it varies in person, number, voice, aspect, mood, tense and even gender.
[edit]Finite verbal forms
Finite verbal forms are simple or compound and agree with subjects in person (first, second and third) and number (singular, plural) in Bulgarian. In addition to that, past compound forms using participles vary in gender (masculine, feminine, neuter) and voice (active and passive) as well as aspect (perfective/aorist and imperfective).
[edit]Aspect
Bulgarian verbs express lexical aspect: perfective verbs signify the completion of the action of the verb and form past perfective (aorist) forms; imperfective ones are neutral with regard to it and form past imperfective forms. Most Bulgarian verbs can be grouped in perfective-imperfective pairs (imperfective""perfective: идвам""дойда "come", пристигам""пристигна “arrive”). Perfective verbs can be usually formed from imperfective ones by suffixation or prefixation, but the resultant verb often deviates in meaning from the original. In the pair examples above, aspect is stem-specific and therefore there is no difference in meaning.
In Bulgarian, there is also grammatical aspect. Three grammatical aspects are distinguishable: neutral, perfect and pluperfect. The neutral aspect comprises the three simple tenses and the future tense. The pluperfect is manifest in tenses that use double or triple auxiliary "be" participles like the past pluperfect subjunctive. Perfect constructions use a single auxiliary "be".
[edit]Mood
The traditional interpretation is that in addition to the four moods (наклонения /naklonenija/) shared by most other European languages – indicative (изявително, /izʲavitelno/) imperative (повелително /povelitelno/), subjunctive (подчинително /podtʃinitelno/) and conditional (условно, /uslovno/) – in Bulgarian there is one more to describe a generalistic category of unwitnessed events – the inferential (преизказно /preˈizkazno/) mood.
[edit]Tense
There are three grammatically distinctive positions in time – present, past and future – which combine with aspect and mood to produce a number of formations. Normally, in grammar books these formations are viewed as separate tenses – i. e. "past imperfect" would mean that the verb is in past tense, in the imperfective aspect, and in the indicative mood (since no other mood is shown). There are more than 40 different tenses across Bulgarian's two aspects and five moods.
In the indicative mood, there are three simple tenses:
Present tense is a temporally unmarked simple form made up of the verbal stem and a complex suffix composed of the thematic vowel /e/, /i/ or /a/ and the person/number ending (пристигам, pristigam, "I arrive/I am arriving"); only imperfective verbs can stand in the present indicative tense independently;
Past imperfect is a simple verb form used to express an action which is contemporaneous or subordinate to other past actions; it is made up of an imperfective or a perfective verbal stem and the person/number ending (пристигаx /pristiɡax/, пристигнеx /pristiɡnex/, 'I was arriving');
Past aorist is a simple form used to express a temporarily independent, specific past action; it is made up of a perfective or an imperfective verbal stem and the person/number ending (пристигнах, /pristiɡnax/, 'I arrived', четох, /tʃetox/, 'I read');
In the indicative there are also the following compound tenses:
Future tense is a compound form made of the particle ще /ʃte/ and present tense (ще уча /ʃte utʃa/, 'I will study'); negation is expressed by the construction няма да /ɲama da/ and present tense (няма да уча /ɲama da utʃa/, or the old-fashioned form не ще уча, /ne ʃte utʃa/ 'I will not study');
Past future tense is a compound form used to express an action which was to be completed in the past but was future as regards another past action; it is made up of the past imperfect of the verb ща /ʃta/ ('will'), the particle да /da/ ('to') and the present tense of the verb (e.g. щях да уча, /ʃtʲax da utʃa/, 'I was going to study');
Present perfect is a compound form used to express an action which was completed in the past but is relevant for or related to the present; it is made up of the present tense of the verb съм /sɤm/ ('be') and the past participle (e.g. съм учил /sɤm utʃil/, 'I have studied');
Past perfect is a compound form used to express an action which was completed in the past and is relative to another past action; it is made up of the past tense of the verb съм and the past participle (e.g. бях учил /bʲax utʃil/, 'I had studied');
Future perfect is a compound form used to express an action which is to take place in the future before another future action; it is made up of the future tense of the verb съм and the past participle (e.g. ще съм учил /ʃte sɤm utʃil/, 'I will have studied');
Past future perfect is a compound form used to express a past action which is future with respect to a past action which itself is prior to another past action; it is made up of the past imperfect of ща, the particle да the present tense of the verb съм and the past participle of the verb (e.g. щях да съм учил, /ʃtʲax da sɤm utʃil/, 'I would have studied').
The four perfect constructions above can vary in aspect depending on the aspect of the main-verb participle; they are in fact pairs of imperfective and perfective aspects. Verbs in forms using past participles also vary in voice and gender.
There is only one simple tense in the imperative mood – the present – and there are simple forms only for the second person using the suffixes -и/-й (-i, -y/i) for singular and -ете/-йте (-ete, -yte) for plural; e.g., уча /utʃa/ ('to study'): учи /utʃi/, sg., учете /utʃete/, pl.; играя /iɡraja/ 'to play': играй /iɡraj/, играйте /iɡrajte/. There are compound imperative forms for all persons and numbers in the present compound imperative (да играе, da iɡrae/), the present perfect compound imperative (да е играл, /da e iɡral/) and the rarely used present pluperfect compound imperative (да е бил играл, /da e bil iɡral/).
The conditional mood consists of five compound tenses, most of which are not grammatically distinguishable. The present, future and past conditional use a special past form of the stem би- (bi – "be") and the past participle (бих учил, /bix utʃil/, 'I would study'). The past future conditional and the past future perfect conditional coincide in form with the respective indicative tenses.
The subjunctive mood is rarely documented as a separate verb form in Bulgarian, (being, morphologically, a sub-instance of the quasi-infinitive construction with the particle да and a normal finite verb form), but nevertheless it is used regularly. The most common form, often mistaken for the present tense, is the present subjunctive ([пo-добре] да отидa (po-dobre) da otida/, 'I had better go'). The difference between the present indicative and the present subjunctive tense is that the subjunctive can be formed by both perfective and imperfective verbs. It has completely replaced the infinitive and the supine from complex expressions (see below). It is also employed to express opinion about possible future events. The past perfect subjunctive ([пo-добре] да бях отишъл (po-dobre) da bʲax otiʃɤl/, 'I'd had better be gone') refers to possible events in the past, which did not take place, and the present pluperfect subjunctive (да съм бил отишъл /da sɤm bil otiʃɤl/), which may be used about both past and future events arousing feelings of incontinence, suspicion, etc. and has no perfect to English translation.
The inferential mood has five pure tenses. Two of them are simple – past aorist inferential and past imperfect inferential – and are formed by the past participles of perfective and imperfective verbs, respectively. There are also three compound tenses – past future inferential, past future perfect inferential and past perfect inferential. All these tenses' forms are gender-specific in the singular. There are also conditional and compound-imperative crossovers. The existence of inferential forms has been attributed to Turkic influences by most Bulgarian linguists. Morphologically, they are derived from the perfect.
[edit]Non-finite verbal forms
Bulgarian has the following participles:
Present active participle (сегашно деятелно причастие) is formed from imperfective stems with the addition of the suffixes –ащ/–ещ/–ящ (четящ, 'reading') and is used only attributively;
Present passive participle (сегашно страдателно причастие) is formed by the addition of the suffixes -им/аем/уем (четим, 'that can be read, readable');
Past active aorist participle (минало свършено деятелно причастие) is formed by the addition of the suffix –л– to perfective stems (чел, '[have] read');
Past active imperfect participle (минало несвършено деятелно причастие) is formed by the addition of the suffixes –ел/–ал/–ял to imperfective stems (четял, '[have been] reading');
Past passive aorist participle' (минало свършено страдателно причастие) is formed from aorist/perfective stems with the addition of the suffixes -н/–т (прочетен, 'read'; убит, 'killed'); it is used predicatively and attributively;
Past passive imperfect participle' (минало несвършено страдателно причастие) is formed from imperfective stems with the addition of the suffix –н (прочитан, '[been] read'); убивaн, '[been] being killed'); it is used predicatively and attributively;
Adverbial participle (деепричастие) is usually formed from imperfective present stems with the suffix –(е)йки (четейки, 'while reading'), relates an action contemporaneous with and subordinate to the main verb and is originally a Western Bulgarian form.
The participles are inflected by gender, number, and definiteness, and are coordinated with the subject when forming compound tenses (see tenses above). When used in attributive role the inflection attributes are coordinated with the noun that is being attributed.
[edit]Adverbs
The most productive way to form adverbs is to derive them from the neuter singular form of the corresponding adjective (бързо (fast), силно (hard), странно (strange), although adjectives ending in -ки use the masculine singular form, also in -ки, instead: юнашки (heroically), мъжки (bravely, like a man), майсторски (skilfully). The same pattern is used to form adverbs from the (adjective-like) ordinal numerals, e.g. първо (firstly), второ (secondly), трето (thirdly), and in some cases from (adjective-like) cardinal numerals, e.g. двойно (twice as/double), тройно (three times as), петорно (five times as).
The remaining adverbs are formed in ways that are no longer productive in the language. A small number are original (not derived from other words), for example: тук (here), там (there), вътре (inside), вън (outside), много (very/much) etc. The rest are mostly fossilized case forms, such as:
archaic locative forms of some adjectives, e.g. добре (well), зле (badly), твърде (too, rather), and nouns горе (up), утре (tomorrow), лете (in the summer);
archaic instrumental forms of some adjectives, e.g. тихом (quietly), скришом (furtively), слепешком (blindly), and nouns, e.g. денем (during the day), нощем (during the night), редом (one next to the other), духом (spiritually), цифром (in figures), словом (with words); or verbs: тичешком (while running), лежешком (while lying), стоешком (while standing).
archaic accusative forms of some nouns: днес (today), нощес (tonight), сутрин (in the morning), зиме/зимъс (in winter);
archaic genitive forms of some nouns: довечера (tonight), снощи (last night), вчера (yesterday);
homonymous and etymologically identical to the feminine singular form of the corresponding adjective used with the definite article: здравата (hard), слепешката (gropingly); the same pattern has been applied to some verbs, e.g. тичешката (while running), лежешката (while lying), стоешката (while standing).
derived from cardinal numerals by means of a non-productive suffix: веднъж (once), дваж (twice), триж (thrice);
Adverbs can sometimes be reduplicated to emphasize the qualitative or quantitative properties of actions, moods or relations as performed by the subject of the sentence: "бавно-бавно" ("rather slowly"), "едва-едва" ("with great difficulty"), "съвсем-съвсем" ("quite", "thoroughly").
[edit]Lexis
Main article: Bulgarian lexis
Most of the word-stock of modern Bulgarian consists of derivations of some 2,000 words inherited from proto-Slavic through the mediation of Old and Middle Bulgarian. Thus, the native lexical terms in Bulgarian account for 70% to 75% of the lexicon.
The remaining 25% to 30% are loanwords from a number of languages, as well as derivations of such words. The languages which have contributed most to Bulgarian are Russian and Turkish, and to a lesser extent French. Latin and Greek are the source of many words, used mostly in international terminology. Many of the numerous loanwords from Turkish (and, via Turkish, from Arabic and Persian) which were adopted into Bulgarian during the long period of Ottoman rule, have been replaced with native terms. In addition, both specialized (usually coming from the field of science) and commonplace English words (notably abstract, commodity/service-related or technical terms) have also penetrated Bulgarian since the second half of the 20th century, especially since 1989. A noteworthy portion of this English-derived terminology has attained some unique features in the process of its introduction to native speakers and this has resulted in peculiar derivations that slightly set the newly formed loanwords apart from the original words (mainly in pronunciation), although many loanwords are completely identical to the source words. A growing number of international neologisms are also being widely adopted.
[edit]Syntax
Bulgarian employs clitic doubling, mostly for emphatic purposes. For example, the following constructions are common in colloquial Bulgarian:
Аз (го) дадох подаръка на Мария.
(lit. "I gave it the present to Maria.")
Аз (ѝ го) дадох подаръка на Мария.
(lit. "I gave her it the present to Maria.")
The phenomenon is practically obligatory in the spoken language in the case of inversion signalling information structure (in writing, clitic doubling may be skipped in such instances, with a somewhat bookish effect):
Подаръка (ѝ) го дадох на Мария.
(lit. "The present [to her] it I-gave to Maria.")
На Мария ѝ (го) дадох подаръка.
(lit. "To Maria to her [it] I-gave the present.")
Sometimes, the doubling signals syntactic relations, thus:
Петър и Иван ги изядоха вълците.
(lit. "Petar and Ivan them ate the wolves.")
Transl.: "Petar and Ivan were eaten by the wolves".
This is contrasted with:
Петър и Иван изядоха вълците.
(lit. "Petar and Ivan ate the wolves")
Transl.: "Petar and Ivan ate the wolves".
In this case, clitic doubling can be a colloquial alternative of the more formal or bookish passive voice, which would be constructed as follows:
Петър и Иван бяха изядени от вълците.
(lit. "Petar and Ivan were eaten by the wolves.")
Clitic doubling is also fully obligatory, both in the spoken and in the written norm, in clauses including several special expressions that use the short accusative and dative pronouns, like играе ми се (I feel like playing), студено ми е (I am cold), боли ме ръката (my arm hurts):
На мен ми се спи, а на Иван му се играе.
(lit. "To me to me it-feels-like-sleeping, and to Ivan to him it-feels-like-playing")
Transl.: "I feel like sleeping, and Ivan feels like playing."
На нас ни е студено, а на вас ви е топло.
(lit. "To us to us it-is cold, and to you-plur. to you-plur. it-is warm"
Transl.: "We are cold, and you are warm."
Иван го боли гърлото, а мене ме боли главата.
(lit. Ivan him aches the throat, and me me aches the head)
Transl.: Ivan has sore throat, and I have a headache.
Except the above examples, clitic doubling is considered inappropriate in a formal context. Bulgarian grammars usually do not treat this phenomenon extensively.
This section requires expansion.
[edit]Other features
[edit]Questions
Questions in Bulgarian which do not use a question word (such as who? what? etc.) are formed with the particle ли after the verb; a subject is not necessary, as the verbal conjugation suggests who is performing the action:
Идваш – 'you are coming'; Идваш ли? – 'are you coming?'
While the particle ли generally goes after the verb, it can go after a noun or adjective if a contrast is needed:
Идваш ли с нас? – 'are you coming with us?';
С нас ли идваш? – 'are you coming with us'?
A verb is not always necessary, e.g. when presenting a choice:
Той ли? – 'him?'; Жълтият ли? – 'the yellow one?'[note 5]
Rhetorical questions can be formed by adding ли to a question word, thus forming a "double interrogative" –
Кой? – 'Who?'; Кой ли?! – 'I wonder who(?)'
The same construction +не ('no') is an emphasised positive –
Кой беше там? – 'Who was there?' – Кой ли не! – 'Nearly everyone! (lit. 'I wonder who wasn't there')
[edit]Significant verbs
Съм
The verb съм /sɤm/[note 6] – 'to be' is also used as an auxiliary for forming the perfect, the passive and the conditional:
past tense – /udaril sɤm/ – 'I have hit'
passive – /udaren sɤm/ – 'I am hit'
past passive – /bʲax udaren/ – 'I was hit'
conditional – /bix udaril/ – 'I would hit'
Two alternate forms of съм exist:
бъда /ˈbɤda/ – interchangeable with съм in most tenses and moods, but never in the present indicative – e.g. /iskam da bɤda/ ('I want to be'), /ʃte bɤda tuk/ ('I will be here'); in the imperative, only бъда is used – /bɤda tuk/ ('be here');
бивам /ˈbivam/ – slightly archaic, imperfective form of бъда – e.g. /bivaʃe zaplaʃen/ ('he used to get threats'); in contemporary usage, it is mostly used in the negative to mean "ought not", e.g. /ne biva da puʃiʃ/ ('you shouldn't smoke').[note 7]
Ще
The impersonal verb щe (lit. 'it wants')[note 8] is used to for forming the (positive) future tense:
/otivam/ – 'I am going'
/ʃte otivam/ – 'I will be going'
The negative future is formed with the invariable construction няма да /ɲama da/ (see няма below) [note 9] :
/ɲama da otivam/ – 'I will not be going'
The past tense of this verb – щях /ʃtʲax/ is conjugated to form the past conditional ('would have' – again, with да, since it is irrealis):
/ʃtʲax da otida/ – 'I would have gone;' /ʃteʃe da otideʃ/ 'you would have gone'
Имам and нямам
The verbs имам /imam/ ('to have') and нямам /ɲamam/ ('to not have'):
the third person singular of these two can be used impersonally to mean 'there is/there are' or 'there isn't/aren't any,'[note 10] e.g.,
/ima vreme/ ('there is still time' – compare Spanish hay);
/ɲama nikoɡo/ ('there is no one there').
The impersonal form няма is used in the negative future – (see ще above).
няма used on its own can mean simply 'I won't' – a simple refusal to a suggestion or instruction.
[edit]Diminutives and augmentatives
Diminutive
See also: Diminutive#Bulgarian
Usually done by adding -че, -це or -(ч)ка. The gender of the word is thus changed, usually to the neuter:
/koˈla/ ('car') → /koˈlitʃka/ ('baby's buggy')
/kotka or /kote/ ('cat') → /kotentse/ ('kitten')
Affectionate Form
Sometimes proper nouns and words referring to friends or family members can have a diminutive ending added to show affection. These constructions are all referred to as "na galeno" (lit. "caressing" form):
mayka (mother) → maychitse; tatko (father) → tatentse
Such words can be used both from parent to child, and vice-versa, as can:
batko (big brother) → batentse; priyatel (friend) → priyatelche.
Personal names are shortened and made neuter:
Georgi → Gosho/Gotse, Mihail → Misho, Angel → Gele/Acho, Ivan → Vanko, Vasil → Vasko
Anna → Ani, Irina → Reni
There is an interesting trend (which is comparatively modern, although it might well have deeper, dormant roots) where the feminine ending "-ka" and the definite article suffix "-ta" ("the") are added to male names – note that this is affectionate and not at all insulting (in fact, the endings are not even really considered as being "feminine"):
Ivan → Vànkata, Acho → Àchkata.
The female equivalent would be to add the neuter ending "-to" to the diminutive form:
Nadia → Nadeto, Sonia → Soncheto
Augmentative
This is to present words to sound larger – usually by adding "-shte":
chovek (person) → chovechishte (huge person) (note the root change k→ch)
Some words only exist in an augmentative form – e.g.
zrelishte "(awesome) spectacle" (from the old Slavic root "to see")
svlachishte "landslide" – from svlicham "to drag down"
[edit]Conjunctions and particles
"But"
In Bulgarian, there are several conjunctions all translating into English as "but", which are all used in distinct situations. They are но (no), ама (amà), а (a), ами (amì), and ала (alà) (and обаче (obache) – "however", identical in use to но).
While there is some overlapping between their uses, in many cases they are specific. For example, ami is used for a choice – ne tova, ami onova – "not this one, but that one" (comp. Spanish sino), while ama is often used to provide extra information or an opinion – kazah go, ama sgreshih – "I said it, but I was wrong". Meanwhile, a provides contrast between two situations, and in some sentences can even be translated as "although", "while" or even "and" – az rabotya, a toy blee – "I'm working, and he's daydreaming".
Very often, different words can be used to alter the emphasis of a sentence – e.g. while "pusha, no ne tryabva" and "pusha, a ne tryabva" both mean "I smoke, but I shouldn't", the first sounds more like a statement of fact ("...but I mustn't"), while the second feels more like a judgement ("...but I oughtn't"). Similarly, az ne iskam, ama toy iska and az ne iskam, a toy iska both mean "I don't want to, but he does", however the first emphasises the fact that he wants to, while the second emphaseses the wanting rather than the person.
Ala is interesting in that, while it feels archaic, it is often used in poetry and frequently in children's stories, since it has quite a moral/ominous feel to it.
Some common expressions use these words, and some can be used alone as interjections:
da, ama ne (lit. "yes, but no") – means "you're wrong to think so".
ama can be tagged onto a sentence to express surprise: ama toy spi! – "he's sleeping!"
ами! – "you don't say!", "really!"
Vocative particles
Bulgarian has several abstract particles which are used to strengthen a statement. These have no precise translation in English.[note 11] The particles are strictly informal and can even be considered rude by some people and in some situations. They are mostly used at the end of questions or instructions.
бе (be) – the most common particle. It can be used to strengthen a statement or, sometimes, to indicate derision of an opinion, aided by the tone of voice. (Originally purely masculine, it can now be used towards both men and women.)
kazhi mi, be – tell me (insistence); taka li, be? – is that so? (derisive); vyarno li, be? – you don't say!.
де (de) – expresses urgency, sometimes pleading.
stavay, de! – come on, get up!
ма (ma) (feminine only) – originally simply the feminine counterpart of be, but today perceived as rude and derisive (compare the similar evolution of the vocative forms of feminine names).
бре (bre, masculine), мари(mari, feminine) – similar to be and ma, but archaic. Although informal, can sometimes be heard being used by older people.
Modal Particles
These are "tagged" on to the beginning or end of a sentence to express the mood of the speaker in relation to the situation. They are mostly interrogative or slightly imperative in nature. There is no change in the grammatical mood when these are used (although they may be expressed through different grammatical moods in other languages).
нали (nalì) – is a universal affirmative tag, like "isn't it"/"won't you", etc. (it is invariable, like the French n'est-ce pas). It can be placed almost anywhere in the sentence, and does not always require a verb:
shte doydesh, nali? – you are coming, aren't you?; nali iskaha? – didn't they want to?; nali onzi? – that one, right?;
it can express quite complex thoughts through simple constructions – nali nyamashe? – "I thought you weren't going to!" or "I thought there weren't any!" (depending on context – the verb nyama presents general negation/lacking, see "nyama", above).
дали (dalì) – expresses uncertainty (if in the middle of a clause, can be translated as "whether") – e.g. dali shte doyde? – "do you think he will come?"
нима (nimà) – presents disbelief ~"don't tell me that..." – e.g. nima iskash?! – "don't tell me you want to!". It is slightly archaic, but still in use. Can be used on its own as an interjection – nima!
дано (danò) – expresses hope – shte doyde – "he will come"; dano doyde – "I hope he comes" (comp. Spanish ojalá). Grammatically, dano is entirely separate from the verb nadyavam se – "to hope".
нека (nèka) – means "let('s)" – e.g. neka doyde – "let him come"; when used in the first person, it expresses extreme politeness: neka da otidem... – "let us go" (in colloquial situations, haide, below, is used instead).
neka, as an interjection, can also be used to express judgement or even Schadenfreude – neka mu! – "he deserves it!".
Intentional particles
These express intent or desire, perhaps even pleading. They can be seen as a sort of cohortative side to the language. (Since they can be used by themselves, they could even be considered as verbs in their own right.) They are also highly informal.
хайде (hàide) – "come on", "let's"
e.g. haide, po-burzo – "faster!"
я (ya) – "let me" – exclusively when asking someone else for something. It can even be used on its own as a request or instruction (depending on the tone used), indicating that the speaker wants to partake in or try whatever the listener is doing.
ya da vidya – let me see; ya? or ya! – "let me.../give me..."
недей (nedèi) (plur. nedèyte) – can be used to issue a negative instruction – e.g. nedey da idvash – "don't come" (nedey + subjunctive). In some dialects, the construction nedey idva (nedey + preterite) is used instead. As an interjection – nedei! – "don't!" (See section on imperative mood).
These particles can be combined with the vocative particles for greater effect, e.g. ya da vidya, be (let me see), or even exclusively in combinations with them, with no other elements, e.g. haide, de! (come on!); nedey, de! (I told you not to!).
[edit]Pronouns of Quality
Bulgarian has several pronouns of quality which have no direct parallels in English – kakuv (what sort of); takuv (this sort of); onakuv (that sort of – colloq.); nyakakuv (some sort of); nikakuv (no sort of); vsyakakuv (every sort of); and the relative pronoun kakuvto (the sort of...that...). The adjective ednakuv ("the same") derives from the same radical.[note 12]
Example phrases include:
kakuv chovek?! – "what person?!"; kakuv chovek e toy? – what sort of person is he?
ne poznavam takuv – "I don't know any (people like that)" (lit. "I don't know this sort of (person)")
nyakakvi hora – lit. "some type of people", but the understood meaning is "a bunch of people I don't know"
vsyakakvi hora – "all sorts of people"
kakuv iskash? – "which type do you want?"; nikakuv! – "I don't want any!"/"none!"
An interesting phenomenon is that these can be strung along one after another in quite long constructions, e.g.,
word literal meaning sentence meaning of sentence as a whole
– – edna kola a car
takava this sort of edna takava kola... this car (that i'm trying to describe)
nikakva no sort of edna takava nikakva kola this worthless car (that i'm trying to describe)
nyakakva some sort of edna takava nyakakva nikakva kola this sort of worthless car (that I'm trying to describe)
An extreme (colloquial) sentence, with almost no physical meaning in it whatsoever – yet which does have perfect meaning to the Bulgarian ear – would be :
"kakva e taya takava edna nyakakva nikakva?!"
inferred translation – "what kind of no-good person is she?"
literal translation: "what kind of – is – this one here (she) – this sort of – one – some sort of – no sort of"
—Note: the subject of the sentence is simply the pronoun "taya" (lit. "this one here"; colloq. "she").
Similar "meaningless" expressions are extremely common in spoken Bulgarian, especially when the speaker is finding it difficult to describe something.
[edit]Miscellaneous
The commonly cited phenomenon of Bulgarian people shaking their head for "yes" and nodding for "no" is true but, with the influence of Western culture, ever rarer, and almost non-existent among the younger generation.[citation needed] (It should be noted, however, that the shaking and nodding are not identical to the Western gestures. The "nod" for no is actually an upward movement of the head rather than a downward one, while the shaking of the head for yes is not completely horizontal, but also has a slight "wavy" aspect to it.)
A dental click [ǀ] (similar to the English "tsk") also means "no" (informal), as does ъ-ъ [ʔə-ʔə] (the only occurrence in Bulgarian of the glottal stop). The two are often said with the upward 'nod'.
Bulgarian has an extensive vocabulary covering family relationships. The biggest range of words is for uncles and aunts – e.g. chicho (your father's brother), vuicho (your mother's brother), svako (your aunt's husband); an even larger amount of synonyms for these three exists in the various dialects of Bulgarian, including kaleko, lelincho, tetin, etc. The words do not only refer to the closest members of the family (such as brat – brother, but batko/bate – older brother, sestra – sister, but kaka – older sister), but extend to its furthest reaches, e.g. badzhanak from Old Bulgarian pashenog (the relationship of the husbands of two sisters to each other) and etarva (the relationships of two brothers' wives to each other). For all in-laws, there are specific names, e.g. a woman's husband's brother is her dever and his husband's sister is her zalva. In the traditional rural extended family before 1900, there existed separate subcategories for different brothers-in-law/sisters-in-law of a woman with regard to their age relative to hers, e.g. instead of simply a dever there could be a braino (older), a draginko (younger), or an ubavenkyo (who is still a child).
As with many Slavic languages, the double negative in Bulgarian is grammatically correct, while some forms of it, when used instead of a single negative form, are grammatically incorrect. The following are literal translations of grammatically correct Bulgarian sentences that utilize a double or multiple negation: "Никой никъде никога нищо не е направил." (multiple negation without the use of a compound double negative form, i.e. using a listing of several successive single negation words) – "Nobody never nowhere nothing did not do." (translated as "nobody has ever done anything, anywhere"); "Никога не съм бил там." (double negation without the use of a compound double negative form, i.e. using a listing of several successive single negation words) – I never did not go there ("[I] have never been there"); Никога никакви чувства не съм имал! – I never no feelings had not have! (I have never had any feelings!). The same applies for Macedonian.
[edit]Vocabulary
[edit]Comparison with other Slavic languages
Nouns
Bulgarian (Български) Macedonian (Македонски) Serbian (Српски/Srpski) Russian (Русский) Polish (Polski) English
дърво дрво дрво/drvo дерево drzewo tree
картоф/компир/барабой компир кромпир/krompir картофель ziemniak, kartofel potato
котка мачка мачка/mačka кошка kot cat
куче, пес куче, пес пас/pas собака, пёс pies dog
къща, дом куќа, дом кућа, дом / kuća, dom дом dom house, home
маса маса сто/sto стол stół table (furniture)
мляко млеко млеко/mleko молоко mleko milk
стол стол столица/stolica стул krzesło chair
Verbs
Bulgarian (Български) Macedonian (Македонски) Serbian (Српски/Srpski) Russian (Русский) Polish (Polski) English
имам имам имам/imam имею mam I have
искам, желая сакам желим, хоћу/želim, hoću хочу, желаю chcę I want
правя,върша правам, вршам вршим/vršim делаю robię I do
ходя, вървя одам, врвам ходам/hodam хожу chodzę I walk
говоря, думам, приказвам, казвам зборувам, говорам говорим/govorim говорю mówię I talk
намирам наоѓам налазим/nalazim нахожу znajduję I find
ям јадам, ручам једем/jedem ем jem I eat
пия пијам пијем/pijem пью piję I drink
[edit]Common expressions
Здравей (zdravéy) – Hello
Здрасти (zdrásti) – Hi [note 13]
Добро утро (dobró útro) – Good morning
Добър ден (dóbər dén) – Good day
Добър вечер (dóbər vécher) – Good evening
Лека нощ (léka nósht) – Good night
Довиждане (dovízhdane) – Good-bye
Как се казваш? (kak se kazvash) – What is your name (informal)?
Кой си ти? (kóy si ti) [informal, masculine] – Who are you?
Коя си ти? (kоyá si ti) [informal, feminine] – Who are you?
Кой сте вие? (kóy ste víe) [formal, masculine]
Коя сте вие? (kоyá ste víe) [formal, feminine] – Who are you?
(In the above two examples, the formal expression uses a plural verb but a singular pronoun, which allows speakers to distinguish the two grammatical forms.)
Кои сте вие? (kоí ste víe) [plural form] – Who are you?
Как си? (kák si) [informal] – How are you?
Как сте? (kák sté) [formal, and also plural form] – How are you?
Да (dá) – Yes
Не (né) – No
Може би (mózhe bí) – Maybe
Какво правиш? (kakvó právish) [informal] – What are you doing?
Какво правите? (kakvó právite) [formal, and also plural form] – What are you doing?
Добре съм (dobré səm) – I’m fine
Всичко [най-]хубаво (vsíchko [nay-]húbavo) – All the best
Поздрави (pózdravi) – Regards
Благодаря (blagodaryə́) [formal and informal] – Thank you
Моля (mólya) – Please
Моля (mólia) – You're welcome
Извинете! (izvinéte) [formal] – Excuse me!
Извинявай! (izvinyávai) [informal] – Sorry!
Обичам те! (obícham te) – I love you!
Колко е часът? (kólko e chasə́t) – What’s the time?
Говорите ли…? (govórite li…) – Do you speak…?
…английски (anglíyski) – English
…български (bə́lgarski) – Bulgarian
…немски (némski) – German
…полски (polski) – Polish
…руски (ruski) – Russian
…холандски (holándski) – Dutch
…гръцки (grə́tski) – Greek
…сръбски (srə́bski) – Serbian
…италиански (italiánski) – Italian
…испански (ispánski) – Spanish
…френски (frénski) – French
…японски (yapónski) – Japanese
…китайски (kitáyski) – Chinese
…корейски (koréyski) – Korean
…арабски (arabski) – Arabic
Ще се видим скоро (shté sé vídim skóro) – We'll see each other soon
Ще се видим утре (shté sé vídim útre) – We'll see each other tomorrow
Also, some very frequent expressions have been borrowed from other languages. Most of them are somewhat informal.
Мерси (mersí) – Thank you; from French (although this word is probably even more common than native "Благодаря", it is inappropriate in very official or solemn contexts)
Чао (cháo) – Bye; from Italian (the informal counterpart of native "Довиждане", this word is more common than the native)
Cупep (súper) – Super; (from English, colloquial; note – "Super" remains the same regardless of quantity or gender, although an even more colloquial adjective суперски (súperski) does decline as usual)
Aло (álo) – Hello on the phone; from French (unlike the above, this word is stylistically neutral).
Здраве да е! (zdràve da e) – lit. "may there (at least) be health" (used when things have not gone as well as the speaker might have hoped.)
[edit]See also
Ausbausprache – Abstandsprache – Dachsprache
Balkan sprachbund
Macedonian language
Romanization of Bulgarian
Slavic language (Greece)
Torlakian dialect
Banat Bulgarian language
Swadesh list of Bulgarian words
Bulgarian name
[edit]Notes
^ Sometimes transcribed as /ə/.
^ For practical purposes, the grave accent can be combined with letters by pasting the symbol "̀" directly after the designated letter. An alternative is to use the keyboard shortcut Alt + 0300 (if working under a Windows operating system), or to add the decimal HTML code "̀" after the targeted stressed vowel if editing HTML source code. See "Accute accent" diacritic character in Unicode, Unicode character "Cyrillic small letter i with grave" and Unicode character "Cyrillic capital letter i with grave" for the exact Unicode characters that utilize the grave accent. Retrieved 2010-06-21.
^ These last two are similar to their opposites не го, /nɛ ˈɡo/ and не му, /nɛ ˈmu/ ('not...(to) him'). The issue is similar with the feminine forms: нея, /ˈnɛjɐ/ ('to her') vs. не я /nɛ ˈja/ ('not...her')
^ All of these are becoming ever rarer in modern Bulgarian, especially кому and its derivatives. Instead of this, people often say на кого /na koɡɔ/ or even на кой /na kɔj/; the latter even beginning to replace the former, although this usage is currently frowned upon.
^ The word или ('either') has a similar etymological root: и + ли ('and') – e.g. (или) Жълтият или червеният – '(either) the yellow one or the red one.' wiktionary
^ съм is pronounced similar to English "sum".
^ It is a common reply to the question Kak e? 'How are things?' (lit. 'how is it?') – /biva/ 'alright' (lit. 'it [repetitively] is') or /kak si/ 'How are you?' -/ˈbivam/ 'I'm OK'.
^ ще – from the verb щa – 'to want.' The present tense of this verb in the sense of 'to want' is archaic and only used colloquially. Instead, искам /iskam/ is used.
^ Formed from the impersonal verb няма (lit. 'it does not have') and the subjunctive particle да /da/ ('that')
^ They can also be used on their own as a reply, with no object following: има – 'there are some'; /ɲama/ – 'there aren't any' – compare German keine.
^ Perhaps most similar in use is the tag "man", but the Bulgarian particles are more abstract still.
^ Like the demonstratives, these take the same form as pronouns as they do as adjectives – ie. takuv means both "this kind of..." (adj.) and this kind of person/thing (pron., depending on the context).
^ This is a more informal form of Здравей In polite conversation, the "Vi" form is used by both parties: zdraveyte.
[edit]References
^ Lewis, M. Paul (ed.) (1986–2009). "Bulgarian". Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Sixteenth edition. SIL International. Retrieved 10 march 2010.
^ "Bulgarian language". Omniglot-Writing systems&Languages of the World. Retrieved 17 октомври 2010.
^ "The Bulgarian language". Kwintessential. Retrieved 17 октомври 2010.
^ "The languages spoken in Bulgaria". Spainexchange. Retrieved 17 октомври 2010.
^ "Language of Bulgaria". Europecities. Retrieved 17 октомври 2010.
^ "English to Bulgarian Translation". Bulgarian translation. Retrieved 18 октомври 2010.
^ "Bulgarian for beginners". Bulgarian is a Southern Slavic language with approximately 12 million speakers in many countries.. Retrieved 18 октомври 2010.
^ Michal Kopeček. Discourses of collective identity in Central and Southeast Europe (1770–1945): texts and commentaries, Volume 1 (Central European University Press, 2006), p. 248
^ a b Glanville Price. Encyclopedia of the languages of Europe (Wiley-Blackwell, 2000), p.45
^ a b Victor Roudometof. Collective memory, national identity, and ethnic conflict: Greece, Bulgaria, and the Macedonian question (Greenwood Publishing Group, 2002), p. 92
^ "Стойков, Стойко. 2002 (1962) Българска диалектология. Стр. 101". Promacedonia.org. Retrieved 2010-04-17.
^ "Стойков, Стойко. 2002 (1962) Българска диалектология. Стр. 99". Promacedonia.org. Retrieved 2010-04-17.
^ Mazon, Andre. Contes Slaves de la Macédoine Sud-Occidentale: Etude linguistique; textes et traduction; Notes de Folklore, Paris 1923, p. 4.
^ Селищев, Афанасий. Избранные труды, Москва 1968.
^ Die Slaven in Griechenland von Max Vasmer. Verlag der Akademie der Wissenschaften, Berlin 1941. Kap. VI: Allgemeines und sprachliche Stellung der Slaven Griechenlands.
^ K. Sandfeld, Balkanfilologien (København, 1926, MCMXXVI).
^ Konstantin Josef Jireček, Die Balkanvölker und ihre kulturellen und politischen Bestrebungen, Urania, II, Jg. 13, 27. März 1909, p. 195.
^ Stefan Verković, Описание быта македонских болгар; Топографическо-этнографический очерк Македонии (Петербург, 1889).
^ Шклифов, Благой and Екатерина Шклифова, Български деалектни текстове от Егейска Македония, София 2003, с. 28-36 (Shklifov, Blagoy and Ekaterina Shklifova. Bulgarian dialect texts from Aegean Macedonia Sofia 2003, p. 28–33)
^ Pluricentric languages: differing norms in different nations, Michael G. Clyne, Walter de Gruyter, 1992, SBN 3110128551, p. 440.
^ Language profile Macedonian, UCLA International Institute
^ Who are the Macedonians?, Hugh Poulton, C. Hurst & Co. Publishers, 2000, ISBN 1-85065-534-0,p. 116.
^ When languages collide: perspectives on language conflict, language competition, and language coexistence, Brian D. Joseph, Ohio State University Press, 2003, p. 281, ISBN 0-8142-0913-0.
^ Правопис и пунктуация на българския език. (Orthography and punctuation of the Bulgarian language). Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. 2011.
^ Жобов, Владимир (2004) Звуковете в българския език. Стр. 44-45.
^ a b c Handbook of the International Phonetic Association (1999). http://books.google.com/books?id=33BSkFV_8PEC&printsec=frontcover&dq=handbook+of+the+international+phonetic+association&hl=en&ei=YdmxTb-aIIvqObXNjfMI&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCcQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Bulgarian&f=false
^ Куон Джин Чой (1998). Фонологичността на признака мекост в съвременния български език. http://liternet.bg/publish1/choi/mekost.htm
^ Жобов, Владимир (2004) Звуковете в българския език. Стр. 65-66.
^ a b Кръстев, Боримир, 1992. Граматика за всички. Стр.61.
^ Пашов, Петър (1999) Българска граматика. Стр.73-74.
^ The Bulgarian Verb Elementary On-Line Bulgarian Grammar by Katina Bontcheva, retrieved in 08/21/2011
[edit]Bibliography
Comrie, Bernard and Corbett, Greville G. (1993) The Slavonic Languages, London and New York: Routledge ISBN 0-415-04755-2
Ternes, Elmer; Vladimirova-Buhtz, Tatjana (1999), "Bulgarian", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association, Cambridge University Press, pp. 55–57, ISBN 0-521-63751-1
Бояджиев и др. (1998) Граматика на съвременния български книжовен език. Том 1. Фонетика
Жобов, Владимир (2004) Звуковете в българския език
Кръстев, Боримир (1992) Граматика за всички
Пашов, Петър (1999) Българска граматика
[edit]External links
Bulgarian language edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Wikibooks has a book on the topic of
Bulgarian
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Bulgarian language
Linguistic reports
Ethnologue report for Bulgarian
Bulgarian at Omniglot
Bulgarian phrasebook at Wikitravel
Bulgarian Swadesh list of basic vocabulary words (from Wiktionary's Swadesh list appendix)
The Bulgarian Language – Website with material to learn Bulgarian
Dictionaries
Bulgarian–English–Bulgarian Online dictionary from SA Dictionary
Online Dual English–Bulgarian dictionary
Online automatic translation between Bulgarian, English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish
Bulgarian Dictionary: from Webster’s Dictionary
Bulgarian bilingual dictionaries
Englisch-Bulgarian (Cyrillic) Dictionary
Courses
USA Foreign Service Institute Bulgarian basic course
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Categories: Bulgarian languageLanguages of BulgariaLanguages of GreeceLanguages of RomaniaLanguages of SerbiaLanguages of the Republic of MacedoniaLanguages of TurkeySouth Slavic languagesSubject–verb–object languages
واژه های همانند
۱ مورد، زمان جستجو: ۰.۲۷ ثانیه
زبان بُلغاری (به بلغاری: Български език، تلفظ: بَلگارسکی اِزیک) یک زبان هند و اروپایی و هموند شاخه جنوبی زبان‌های اسلاوی می‌باشد. بلغاری دارای ویژگی‌ه...