BULGARIAN LESSONS
Abstract:This is a try to provide English reading people all around the world (yet basically without Europe and also without native English speaking people from USA etc., because they will hardly care much about this, as I suppose), what is reduced mainly to, Arabs, Hindus, some Asian people, and even Chinese, with an easy and simple
introduction to Bulgarian language. Being this the material contains the following parts: the way how the Slavonic alphabet looks, together with one method to mark in Latin the exact pronunciation, then phonetical explanations coupled with author's ideas about the types of vowels and consonants, after this some simple grammar, without going into much details, and to the end is placed a super-short (which is not really very short) dictionary of Bulgarian words by categories together with their nearest relations with other Western languages (German, English, Latin, Greek, etc, yet also Russian in places as another Slavonic one). The last means that here is performed comparative analysis of Bulgarian language, and such comparisons are done also in the previous parts, what is important feature of the material and such things are not given in usual lessons. In short, this is not a series of lessons in Bulgarian but a
unique review and solid basis for further rich on consequences evolvement in the next materials to one crucial for the whole world idea.
0. Introduction
My dear readers, I hurry in the very beginning to tell you that this is
not a textbook of Bulgarian language and can not substitute such necessary tool for learning of this language, if you have decided to learn it. Yeah, but if you don't cherish much such ideas then somebody has to convince you that this is necessary, what I intend to do not only in this, but also in the next materials. And this one thing is not a textbook, no, it is
more than this, it is a try to provide you with a popular, although for that matter superficial,
introduction to this language, to make you a bit acquainted with it, not to be frightened by it, because this is not some rare language with no or just a few other similar family members around (like, say, Hungarian, or also Estonian), but is first of all Slavonic language, then European one, what means that we have many common roots and words with the Teutons, the English, the French and Latin people, but also with the Greeks, and even with the Turks and Persians. In contrast with these and many other languages, though, the Bulgarian is very simple, nice sounding, and worth learning it, especially on the background of contemporary, I would say, mess and deadlock in linguistical aspect, because you know that for the last about a century several languages have come down from the world stage, namely: before a century the French, then the German, then after the collapse of Communist block also the Russian, and remained only the English, which is ... well, bad, of course, unsuitable for many nations (on what I will dwell in the third material here).
So that if you know English good enough to read and understand it, then you better read these papers, more so because here I will compare different languages, will make comparative analysis of Bulgarian and at least English, and will do this in quite untraditional and unorthodox way, using some new ideas of mine about standardization of the alphabets for the whole world, and about the kinds of vowels and consonants in all languages, and this should be interesting, I suppose. So, for example, in the first chapter I will give Bulgarian alphabet, yet only to see it, to know that it is not something twisted like Hebrew or Arabic or Sanskrit, or even Greek alphabet, but is not much different from the Latin, and then will make use of one latest invention of mine to use only the 26 (and even minus 3) standard Latin letters for writing of all words, and so how they are
pronounced, not in the crazy -- ah, sorry, -- English way. Then in the next chapter I will discuss the various
possible sounds in all languages and show you that the Bulgarian has the simplest phonetic
at all, even better than that of the Italian, which is proverbial language in the sense of clear and simple vowels (yet it is pretty restricted, over simplified -- just to give an example: they don't say bible but say
bibbia --, and, hence, poor), where the Bulgarian phonetic is
all-comprising, there are present many old sounds, from Sanskrit, through Arabic, and to the English. Further we will come to the grammar, which is again the simplest possible, we have no cases, only present, future, and past tenses (and, say, the Italians have
14 tenses), all genders are easily recognizable by the endings, though there are some peculiar (yet not difficult) moments which will be explained. And at the end will be given some super-short dictionary but with
explanations, why we use this or that word, to which other contemporary or ancient roots it is related, what is part of my etymological researches given in my enormous and inimitable book about my God
Urrh.
So that, when I say: "Dear reader, it's for you/ Arab, Chinese, or Hindu/ or from other nation, too", then this is the real situation, I don't just attract gullible readers, I am telling important things, and you'll do better to pay them the necessary attention. My only common advice is:
don't try to read everything at once, the things are easily explained and in clear English (my relatively limited English vocabulary is this time of advantage for foreign readers), but the material is difficult, my explanations are highly informative, so that you better read by
a chapter a day (or even a section sometimes), and then go to have some coffee (or some ... hmm, refreshing sex, ah?).
Ouch, let me include in the beginning also some shortenings, because some words I will repeat often, and it is well accepted in scientific literature to use abbreviations. My short signs will be the following: lang. for language, char for character, V. for vowel, C. for consonant, M. for Modifier, w. for word, r. for root, let. for letter, alph. for alphabet, bc. for because (it turns that I use it quite often), m. for means, s. for see, comp. for compare (with), sim. for similar, smt. for something, smb. for somebody, smw. for somewhere, and maybe smt. more will be added later. Then all langs I will shorten to 2 or 3 chars, like: Eng. (for English), Bul. (Bulgarian), Rus. (Russian), Fr. (French), Ger. (German), Teu. (Teutonic), It. (Italian), Am. (American), Lat. (Latin), Gr. (Greek), Ar. (Arabic), Per. (Persian), Tur. (Turkish), Skr. (Sanskrit), Chi. (Chinese), and possibly others; also with "s" this will m. the people speaking this lang., say, Lats, or Ams, or Ars. et cetera (even Frs or Engs, end you read it if you want as -men). And also "" are for usual quoting of ws, '' are for the pronunciation, where also It. font may denote some foreign w. or may just stress on the meaning.
1. Bulgarian alphabet
I will tell you the Bul. alph. but before this is necessary to have settled some way for explaining of pronunciation, which things I discuss in my maybe oldest work in this field "An Illiterate World" (further as "Ill.W."), but so far as I have made my latest invention of "Myrski's English Transliteration" (further "Eng.Trlit."), where are used only the lets from Lat. alph. and without whatever points, stresses, or other "chicks" above or below, I will paste here one fragment from the short user's guide for the latter proposition. It is not so universal, yet it is good enough, and for Bul. lang. it is more than enough.
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Firstly the Latin (Lat. for shot) alphabet is purified using each letter for only one sound, what means that "c" becomes 'c' and 'k', "g" becomes 'g' and 'zh', "y" is freed (with using of the "i"), as also "q" (substituted with the 'k'), "x" (changed to 'ks'), and "w" (it isn't used in the Lat.). In addition are introduced "h" and "j" as modifiers (M. /Ms), where "h" is M. for the vowels (Vs), used for prolongation (to 1.5 sounds approximately), and also for consonants (Cs), used to harden their sounding (like 'th', 'gh', etc.) , and "j" is M. for Vs, used to build diphthongs (shorten to diph., usually written as "ai" or "io" etc.), and of Cs, used for softening of their sounding (like in the Sp. for Spanish
cañon); when there is a necessity to write "h" as readable char then 'hh' is to be used (if in the given lang. for language may arise confusion). As you have seen, the double quotes are used for direct quotation of chars, and the single ones for this new transliteration, and in this manner it also shows how the chars are to be pronounced.
Then is introduced one new basic V., in addition to the usual "a", "e", "i", "o", and "u", which is coded with 'y' and sounds like in Eng. (for English) "girl". In addition to the basic Vs we may have also Md (for modified) what means that one begins to tell one sound but ends with saying another one; examples for this are: the Lat. "ae" (like in "back") and "oe" (used mainly in the Fr. for French), but also many others, like: 'ya' as in "but", "yi" (this is Rus. for Russian
eri, as in
myi-we etc.), Fr. 'uo', 'io', Fr. and Rus. etc. 'ie', and whatever you want; mark though that here can't be used "j" bc. it isn't V. Then there can be also diphs, mainly with "j", like 'jo', 'ja', aj', uj', etc. (the examples are obvious and in other langs they are usually written using "i"), but also how one wishes, like in: 'iy' (as in 'niy'-near), 'aey' (as in 'paey'-pear), 'ou', 'au', etc.; there can be triphthongs, too, like 'auy' (as in 'tauy'-tower), 'aiy', etc., but they are better to be thought as two syllables (like in Ger. for German 'bau|y'-
Bauer). As the basic, so also the Md Vs, as well as the diphs, can be prolonged adding "h" after them (like in 'gyhl'-girl, 'fah'-far, 'suhn'-soon, 'mjuhzik'-music', etc.). If one wants to make the way of combining the Vs indisputable one has to use subscripts for the Md Vs (like in 'by
at'-but, 'bla
ek'-black, 'my
i'-Rus.-we, 'pa
ey'-pear, etc.), and /or superscripts for the diphs (like in 'bo
j'-boy, Ger. name '
Johanes', 'gr
ou'-grow, 't
aun'-town, 't
auy'-tower, etc.), and /or put between the Cs "|" or "-" to signify that they are not to be joined (say, like in
Lat. pi|ano), but usually this is rarely necessary because every lang. permits, either simple combining of Vs read separately,
or modifying or making of diphs.
As to the Cs, there are used all usual ones, with the following remarks: 'c' is like in Caesar, or Ger.
Zahn-toot), "h" is written like 'hh' when read (with exception of beginning but still somehow read "h" like in Ger. 'haben'-
haben-have), "k" is 'k', hence "ck" is 'kk', "q" is written with 'k', "r" may be sometimes given as 'rh' or even 'rj' (but if it is equally read in the given lang. only 'r' suffices), "v" is 'v' (so Ger. "w" is changed to 'v'), the Eng. "w" is written as 'vh', "x" is 'ks', 'z' is like in "zero", then 'sh' is like in "shop", 'ch' is like in "church, 'zh' is like in "measure" or Fr.
jour-day, 'th' and 'dh' are the same like in the Eng., "ph" is not used in new langs and changed to 'f', in some langs may be met also 'bh', 'gh', etc., the Eng. "j" is 'dzh', and is added usage of "j" as softening sign after Cs (like in Sp. 'kanj|on').
So that is it. Don't forget that this is method for writing of the words how they are read, so that if there are several ways for writing of one phoneme then confusions may happen, the responsibility for which take the very lang. It is lang. specific, but except of this it is still universal for every lang., and the Lat. alphabet is well known.
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And now there are no problems to cite for you our Cyrillic (Cyr. for short) alph., which has 30 lets, but 3 of them are combinations (щ, ю, я), so this gives 27 in number, not really more than in Lat., yet with 'sh', 'ch', and 'zh' included as single lets, and with the most important sound 'y' (like in girl), which is missing from all Western alphs.
А ('a'), Б ('b'), В ('v'), Г ('g'), Д ('d'),
Е ('e'), Ж ('zh'), З ('z'), И ('i'), Й ('j' as semi-V.),
К ('k'), Л ('l'), М ('m'), Н ('n'), О ('o'),
П ('p'), Р ('r'), С ('s'), Т ('t'), У ('u'),
Ф ('f'), Х ('h' as let.), Ц ('c'), Ч ('ch'), Ш ('sh'),
Щ ('sh|t'), Ъ ('y'), Ь ('j' as M.), Ю ('ju'), Я('ja'),
As simple as that. Where you can see that roughly half of the lets are from the good old Lat., with some mixing here and there bc. of the Gr. alph. If we start from 'a' then our "в" looks like Lat. "b" bc of the Grs (they just never have together 'b' and 'v', either this or that, and their β-'beta' is now read 'vita'), then our "г"-'g' is more like Gr. γ, "ж" is a new sign, "з"-'z' is like ζ, our "р"-'r' looks like Lat. "p" bc. the Lats have messed the things, this is Gr. ρ (and "п"-'p' is Gr. π, and the image of the last, according to Myrski is ... a chicken or hen), then our "с"-'s' is nearer to Gr. σ, then "у"-'u' looks like Lat. "y" also bc of misunderstandings between the Grs and the Lats (this is the image of Gr. υ, which has given both Lat. "u" and "v"), then "ф"-'f' is made symmetrical, "х"-'h' is Gr. χ and it is pronounced also in Sp. in this way, and the other lets are new inventions of Cyril and Methodius (who made our alph. back in 9th century).
So this alph. is called Cyr., but it is rather Bul., not only bc. we make
perfect use of it and it suffices for us, whether other nations add smt., at least Lat. "i", but also bc. we pronounce everything as we write (and v.v.) while even the Russ have some exceptions, don't say pure 'e' but 'i
e', for example (and have also that "donkey" sound 'y
i'), the Serbs also have additions, and the Czechs and Poles have surely problems with Lat. alph. (and the Turks, too). So that this alph. is pretty good for all langs, it is quite near to what is given in "Ill.W." yet I will not use it here, I will use my way for transliteration with Lat. chars in single quotes bc. you can't learn it so quickly. But let me again stress that we read everything exactly, we have no exceptions of reading of some sound according to the environment, i.e. what is after the char., yet sometimes also what is before it (like with "-gn-" m-ing 'nj', say, It
signore); neither we write one sound in several ways (like the Frs write the nasal sound 'oq' in 4 different ways; or take also the "traditional" from old Gr. "-ai-" m-ing simple 'e', like in Fr.
paire which has become "pair" in the Eng.). It is really amazing how we, the Buls, being such ... barbarous people in many other aspects, have managed to use the alph. so straightforwardly and correct, but that's it.
And one more moment, the alph. is not smt. unavoidable there can be used another one with some tricks, many nations use this approach (say, the Turks) but it is always good to have an adequate with the lang. alph., like our is (at least bc. it is a relatively later invention), not such
utterly inadequate like with the Fr. and the Eng., and from this we can elementary transfer to whatever new standard for world-wide alph. there emerges, so that, in the end, the alph.
also is very important element, and it is now one of the European alphs (and langs), mark this!
Ah, maybe it will be interesting to you to perceive why some people use unsuitable alph., and not only do this trying somehow to cope with the difficulties using several chars to mark their sounds (like the Its, the Sps for Spaniards, or the Gers), what is decent behaviour, but try to differ maximally from the (Lat., usually) original, and read everything topsy-turvy (like, e.g., Fr. "oi" as 'uo', or, Eng. "i" as 'aj', etc.). Well, I have come to the conclusion that here, in addition to the normal (but if in some measure, not overdone) wish to differ from the others, to express oneself, hides also mere ... hypocrisy, for they have understood pretty formally the bible words that in the beginning was the word. Id est they have
pretended that they don't change the ws, yet reading them in different way
is a changing, this is not real faith, this is hypocritical behaviour. The surest way out is to use different alph., and the more universal it is the better.
So, and now let us come to smt. more lang. specific, to the
2. Bulgarian phonetics.
2.1. Vowels
The Vs in the whole
world, in my opinion, are of three categories: basic, modified (M.), and combined (comb-d) or diphthongs (and triphthongs). I am sorry if this will make some literary men or linguists indignant, bc they may not use this terminology, but I am not to be blamed that there is not an unified view to such things, and even the Indo-European langs (I.-E. for short) are called by the Gers Indo-German, or, say, the Engs write "a" and read 'ej' (as also the well known Tur. ... coffee is called in Greece Gr. one). Such things often happen (that one finds that -- I beg to be excused -- the own sh## does not smell) and I like to have universal and unbiased approach for every nation, so that I have thought about this even in my "Ill.W.". And I am telling this bc., as you will see just now, the basic Vs are all present in Bul. lang., but I have come to the conclusion which exactly are they not bc they are from the Bul., but bc. they are basic ones.
a) I count for
basic vowels (or main, pure) the following 6 Vs:
'a', 'e', 'i', 'o', 'u', and
'y' (in Cyr.: 'а, е, и, о, у, ъ'). And this exactly in Bul. pronunciation, not in Rus., for example (who have our "ъ" but
don't pronounce it at all, think that this is smt. like apostrophe), or in Ger. (who have not the 'y' sound but use it in some endings, e.g. their
Lehrer-teacher is pronounced 'lehry'), or also in It. (they don't even dream about such beautiful 'y' sound), not to mention the severe cases like Fr. or Eng. (it turns out that the latter don't have simple 'a' -- they have 'ah', have 'a
e', etc, but not the purest V., i.e. they have confused all ideas about what is basic and what is derivative in some way). Well, in the Rus. variant of this paper I explained to them what they don't pronounce correct (and they have paid no attention at all to me, you can bet about this), and that their usual "е" is 'i
e', but their "back 'e' (э in their Cyr.) is the right 'e', but will not indulge here in such deviations (it is enough for you to learn Bul, there is no need to come to Rus. or Ukr. for Ukrainian, these langs, in fact
all other Sl. for Slavonic langs are, in one or another aspect, severe cases). So, these differences come often from old Gr., and there, really, are two 'e'-s, ε and η. But let me mention also, as a bad example, the Frs, who use three kinds of stress signs,
neither one of which is real stressing, and when they put two points above some V. this means
not its modification, but exactly on the contrary (like, e.g. their
Citroën).
b) The
modified vowels (Md), as we have already said, are such where we want to say one thing but until we say it we change our intention and say smt. else, yet this is
one sound, not a comb-n. When there are 6 basic Vs then there can be maximum 6*6 Md Vs, each with each, yet you may count them for 30, bc. modification with the same V. are meaningless, and with 'y' the possible are as if only 'y
a' and Rus. 'y
i' (you try so say smt. like 'y
e' or 'y
u.' -- but maybe the Chis will use them). There are many such Md Vs in Ger. or Fr., or Eng. (where the right way is the Lat. one, their "-ae-" and "-oe-", what is accepted also by the Gers, say, their
böse-angry, etc) but in Bul. there are no such sounds (we write rarely our "ьо" as 'i
o', but it may be taken also for the diphthong 'jo' without making of big error). Well, we often substitute more open Vs ('a', 'o', 'e') with their more closed pairs ('y', 'u', 'i'), and may pronounce the known on the East 'boza' like 'buzy', but this is taken as uneducated, and it is another thing. And, as already said, in Bul. when we write, say, 'a' we read it exactly, not like the Russ, who pronounce their unstressed "о"-'o' as Md 'y
a' (as in Eng. "but", however strange this may seem).
c) The
combined vowels (double and triple "thongs") are now a comb-ns of several sounds which are spoken joined, in one breath, as one syl. for syllable, yet this is not one sound; they can consist of basic as well also of Md Vs. ( There is used the w. diphthong also for some cases where are used 2 chars but is read only one, like in the mentioned Fr.
paire-'per', but for me this is not correct use of this term. ) Such comb-d Vs we have, yet in the simplest and everywhere spread variants, with the semi-V. 'j', either before, or after the V., like: 'jo', 'ju' (written with one let., "ю"), 'ja' (also one let., "я"), as well also 'aj', 'oj', etc., but as far as we have our "й"-'j' char, there are no problems at all (as also in Ger. with their "j"). Ah, there may be some problems with the let 'j' in general, bc. it may associate with the previous or with the next V. (like in the example of Fr.
mayonnaise, where I always have thought that it is 'ma-jo-nez', and it turned that it is 'maj-o-nez'), but with our 'ju' and 'ja' lets there are no problems in Bul. (yet in Rus., and maybe some other Sl. langs, there are long endings for adjectives, like '-aja', '-juja', '-yij', where, if there were not these last 2 char in the alph., there might have been problems, and we would have been forced to give them here as '-a|ja', '-ju|ja', '-y
ij'). I suppose that 'j' as semi-V. can be observed as 'i
i', and when it is joined with some V. it remains only one of its parts, i.e. either the basic 'i' or the modifying 'i', but this is not of principal importance.
Yet mark, please, that there is a difference between 'jo' and 'i
o', as well also between these Vs. and the usual consequence of Vs. (like in It. piano, what the Its pronounce as 'pj|ano', the Sls as 'pi|ano', and the Engs as 'pja
e|no
u'). But these are not problems for the Bul., as said, our lang. has the simplest phonetics, like in the It. and even better with the Cs. We even have not long Vs, which can be signified here with adding of "h" as M. (say, like in Eng. "ah"), there may happen sometimes 'aa' or 'ii' but these are just by 2 Vs ('a|a' or 'i|i'), they can be split on two lines, and in some langs, like in Lat. and It., there is not so much stressing than is slight prolongation, and in the Lat. they are usually marked with horizontal line above the let. (but such elongation existed in the Skr., and it exists in the Gypsy lang., so that they will say, for example, 'mahngo' for their beloved jargon 'mango' m-ing simply a man, or 'bahte' for Bul. 'bate'-older-brother).
2.2. Consonants
Here, too, exist no problems at all, especially with our special lets 'sh', 'ch', 'zh', and even 'sh|t' (with this peculiarity that in Rus. the last let, is read 'sh|ch'). Despite of this I will explain here the things properly again by types of Cs, how this is given in "Ill.W.".
a) The
basic consonants are the following (19), according to me, and they go in doubles and triples, namely: 'b-p, v-f, d-t, m-n, r-l, g-k-h, z-c-s, zh-ch-sh', and they all are present in the Sl. langs, and we don't need more than them. It can be said that the Rus. 'shch' or Bul. (what is the beloved Gypsy sound) 'dzh' must also be added (like the latter is added in Eng. with "j" or in It. with "g" sometimes), but this is unnecessary luxury, and then the Poles can require also 'psh', 'ndr', and others), and such comb-s are split at the end of the line, where you try to split 'sh' or 'zh' (which not only in this transliteration are written with 2 chars, but usually on the West, where the most severe case are the Gers, who write our 'ch' as "tsch"). Some of these Cs, in general from the triples above, may not be present on the West, but they exist in all Sl. langs.
b) Modified consonants in Bul. lang. do not exist, but they are present in many Western, as well also in old and Eastern langs, like, for example: "ph" and "th" for Gr. φ and θ, the Eng. 'd
h' , like in "this /that", their notorious "w", which even becomes a V., and many aspirated consonants in the old Eastern langs (like 'bh' or 'gh' -- which sounds I prefer to call choking sounds, if you'll excuse me, my dear Ars, Pers, and Hindus), and so on; even our usual 'r' on the West is not heard in many cases (like in the classical case of the "car" pronounced as 'kah'). We don't use even our "ь"-'j' as M. where the Russ use it quite often (e.g.: 'my
ishj' is a mouse, 'rechj' is a speech, etc.), and not only they, this is often met sound in It., Sp., or even in Ger. and Eng. like 'rj'; I personally don't think that this lack of using of one good M. in Bul. lang. is a good think, bc. it gives melody to the ws, but that's it, we like "it" to be hard (m-ing here mainly that "ь" is called "soft sign", where "ъ" is "hard sign").
c) There can be various
combined consonants, like our "щ"-'sht', or the mentioned 'dzh', or even Srb. for Serbian 'srp' (like in 'srpski' m-ing exactly Srb. -- and in such cases we insert our beloved "ъ"-'y'), and so on, but there is nothing difficult here. I repeat, in Bul. the phonetics is the simplest possible, like It. and even better, and bc. of this we speak relatively good Eng. (not like the Chis, Negroes, and even Its, or also Russ -- who, for example, can't pronounce the w. "girl", they say smt. like 'gi
orl').
3. Simplified Bulgarian grammar
Well, even the simplified Bul. grammar for Eng. speaking Ars. etc., has to take some 50 or so pages, yet the great Myrski will try to do this on a pair of pages (how? -- obviously only perfunctory, there is no other way, but I have explained that my goal is to introduce you in Bul., not to teach you it).
3.0. Main verbs and pronouns
The main verbs, naturally, are to be and to have, but I may add a pair more verbs (like must, will, can, etc.). Let me tell you though that we have even not an infinitive form, we use the 1st person sing. for singular (resp., pl. for plural). So that to be is 'sym' with forms in present tense: 'sym, si, e; sme, ste, sa', then for the future tense is used particle (like in the Eng.), 'shte' m-mg "will", and the forms are: 'shte byda, shte bydesh, shte byde; shte bydem, shte bydete, shte bydat'. In the past tense there are some variants, the simple past tense is called in Bul. 'svyrsheno'-finished 'vreme'-tense with forms: 'bjah, beshe, beshe; bjahme, bjahte, bjaha' (yet have in mind that we read the 'h', this is not M., maybe it has to be given here as 'bjahh', ... 'bjahhme', etc. but I said that we have not prolonged Vs.), then there can be said also 'bil / bila, bilo /bili' when we are not sure about the action, and some other more complicated forms like 'sym bil, si bil, ...', 'bil sym bil, ...', 'shtjal sym da sym bil, ...' but such things are rarely used. It is also interesting to comp. our present tense with the It. one, where they say:
sono, sei, e, siamo, siete, sono, which are very similar.
Then the verb to have is 'imam' with present tense: 'imam, imash, ima; imame, imate, imat', the future is 'shte imam, sthe imash, ...', simple past tense is 'imah (имах), imashe, imashe; imahme, imahte, imaha', and also variants like 'bjah imal', 'bil imal', bil sym bil imal', and others (we will look at this mole closely later). Though, exactly in Bul., 'imam' isn't main verb, we don't use it for building of past tenses, only 'sym' is used, I cited it by tradition. So that let us add also the verb "must", which is of the r. of Eng. "try" or rather "thrive", i.e. some pushing forward with force, and there is even one form, we take this as particle, and say just 'trjabva' in present tense, 'shte trjabva' in future, and 'trjabvashe' or trjabvalo' in past tense. The verb "will' we already gave, this is 'shte', also in one form, but to can is full-rights verb with forms, in the present: 'moga, mozhesh, mozhe, mozhem, mozhete, mogat', then in the past is 'mozheh, mozheshe, mozheshe, mozhehme, mozhehte, mozheha', also one more past tense as finished action, 'mozhàh, mozhà, mozhà, mozhàhme, mozhàhte, mozhàha', and in future 'shte moga, shte mozhesh, ...'.. We have no modal verbs (like the Gers who have 6 such), and the passive is expressed in third person sing. (e.g. "this material is written by me" will be '... e napisan ...', where 'napisan' is participle from 'napisha'-to-write.
Now about the pronouns, which are a mixture of Lat, Ger., Gr., and maybe even Skr. words. The main forms are: 'az, ti, toj, tja, to; nie, vie, te', what means, by the way, that we have 3 genders, and are more or less similar with the Ger. (
ich-'ih',
du, er, sie, es;
wir, ihr, sie; or then with the Eng. forms but the Eng. lang. is said to be Teu. one), or It. (
io, tu, egli-'elji',
essa, esso,
noi, voi, essi). Then in Accusative they are: 'men, teb, nego, neja, nego; nas, vas, tjah'; further in Dative are the same preceded by the particle 'na', i.e. 'na men, na teb, ...' or shorter: 'mi, ti, mu, `i' (stressed in order to differ from 'i' as "and"), 'mu; ni, vi, im'; then the possessive forms (for mas. for masculine; where fem. will be for feminine, and it is built with adding of an '-a') are: 'moj, tvoj, negov, nejn, negov; nash, vash, tehen'; and reflexive form is 'se' or 'si'. Ah, and I mentioned the Skr. bc. "your own" is 'svoj', and a farther in law is 'svekyr', what in Ger. is
Schwieger (read 'shvihgy'), and in It. it is
suocero (read 'suochero'), and smt. similar is in the Skr., with the m-ing of smt. own, added to you.
3.1. Prepositions
Well, this point is left from the Rus. variant, bc. they have 6 cases and we have not a single one (although there is a rudiment of one -- the vocative case, when addressing smb., say, if he is 'Ivan' we say 'Ivan
e', if she is 'Penka' we say 'Penk
e', etc, though 'Pencho' remains unchanged), and without cases are used simply more prepositions. This is so, but in regard of the frequency of use, not of their numbers, and the main are the following: 'na' as of, possession, for, at, on, etc. (like in "bettering of the rules of working of this appliance" will be 'podobrjavane
na pravilata na rabota na ustrojstvoto', and we try somehow to drop some of them, like the marked in It. first occurrence), 'za' as for, about, 'po' as on, through, via, by, etc., 'ot' as from, out of, 'kym' as to, toward, 'v /vyv' as in, into, 'pri' as to, by, 'do' as next to, adjacent, but also others, like: 'nad'-above, 'pod'-below, 'otpred'-at-the-front, 'otzad'-at-the-back, 'vyn'-outside, 'okolo'-around, and others
( If you are interested I may give you some hints about these prepositions, which ideas a hidden behind them. So 'na' is variant of "on" but the m-ing of possession may come from the particle "now" in Eng. or
nah in Ger. in the sense of smt. obvious, or to attract attention, and we use illiterately the particle 'na' as "take it". Then 'za' has to stay smw. around Ger.
zu as to, for; 'po' must be akin with old Gr. πεδον as earth, ground, where are also the pedestals; 'ot' might be related with a Skr r. 'ud' as smt. raised above, or also comes from our 'otivam' as "go to"; 'kym' is Lat.
cum as with; 'v' is inserting, fusion, some 'fi'; 'pri' is like Lat.
per, which is also old Gr.; 'do' is after in the Lat. view of the things, where in It.
dopo means after (and I have strong suspicion that this is related with the hole in form of our 'dupe' what is ... an ass-hole); 'nad' is above and here is our 'nadezhda'-hope, so that we maybe hope in some god; 'pod' is somehow like 'po' and especially 'pod' in Bul. is a floor; 'okolo' is the circle, and around this 'o' stays also the Rus. 'u'-around; and so on; these are very fuzzy ideas, but for one-syllabic ws this suffices. )
3.2. Articles
Ah, here are new moment. Bc. what is this article you know but you think that it has to walk all by itself before the noun, yet it turns out that there can be exceptions. And for the Russ, by the way, these exceptions seem enormously big bc. they don't use
at all articles (somehow manage, around their 6 cases, to do without these parts of speech, say, when they say "good book" in Rus. they understand that "this is
a good book" and when they say "book good" -- they have the habit to
miss the verb to be, what came smw. from the old Lats --, they understand that "
the book is good"). So what I wanted to say is that the article in this sense in the Sl. langs is called 'chlen', which word means also a member, and you know that every man has some special "member", called sometimes "cock", and to say that the Russ have no "cocks" seems wrong, the more so bc. the 'chlen' stays usually before, yeah, but the Buls put it ... ha, ha, they put it behind and even glue it to the noun! And this is the strange moment here, that we don't say, e.g., "the table", but, this w. being 'masa' in Bul., say 'masa
ta'; or also the chair is 'stol' and "the chair" will be 'stol
a' or even 'stol
yt'; or also the mentioned quite recently 'dupe'-bottom with definite article will be 'dupe
to'; similarly also in pl.: 'masi
te, stolove
te, dupeta
ta'. Not that this is smt. difficult, but it is pretty strange.
Though, on the other hand, there is nothing shocking in this and I will give you now some similar examples of gluing of some words together in different langs. I mean not only ws like businessman or landowner or foreword and similar things, but in Ger. all numbers till 1
million are written as one word -- could you imagine this? --, and the very Russ glue the reflexive particle 'sja' ('se' in Bul, -self in Eng.) with the verb (e.g. to bathe is 'kupatj' and bathe oneself is 'kupatjsja'; though in Bul. this is not glued). Yet the most similar to the Bul. case exists in It, where they join not only the reflexive particle, but also the pronoun or article, and for example, say
smettetela ('zmettetela') for "you stop with this" (to stop is
smettere,
smettete is for 2nd person pl. and
la is article m-ing here this or that or with that). So that we are not really perverse in this sense, we are more or less like the Lats, and if one gives a thought to the matter it will turn out that the Bul. way is even
more justified, and not we are perverse in this regard but all other nations, bc: what is more important from the combination "the table"? I suppose this is "table", not "the" (or
der, die, la, il, al, etc.), so that we put the more important thing first, this is the American tendency in ordering of the documents (the last is on the head), or also the date, the month goes before the day. All is a matter of habit. Well, there is difference for mas. like 'stol
a' what we call "unfull member" (or, then, maybe, empty one, ah?), while 'stol
yt' is "full member", where the latter is used only for the subject in the sentence, but these are things to which nobody pays any attention, and if you use always the form with '-a' everything will be correct (yet for the Russ this remains a kind of nightmare, they may live by ten years in Bulgaria and still forget the 'chlen').
3.3. Genders
The genders are three, mas., fem., and neu. for neutral, what is the most spread case around the world (but in the Lat. langs, like It. or Fr. etc., not counting the very Lat., for your information, they don't have neu., what seems to me quite a radical approach, i.e. you either have a "baton", or have an orifice, and I indulge in such reflections bc. I suppose that this has forced the old Engs to apply their even bolder decision, to take away all genders for unanimated things). So, but I have opened this subsection bc. our genders are just a pleasure to have them, they can be guessed almost always by the endings, and if the w. end on consonant then it is mas., if it ends on '-a' is fem., and if ends on '-o' or '-e' is neu.; there are as if no nouns ending on 'u', then 'i' is used for pl., and ending in 'y' does not exist now but earlier this, or similar let., was used like the Fr. dumb "e", i.e. as sign for the end of the w. but that is not read. There surely may happen exceptions (we are humans, not robots, we can't live without exceptions, even the very ... life is an exception, if you ask me), but they are quite rare, say, the classical case is 'bashta' as father, or in children lang. 'tati', or Rus. 'papa', what are all variation of Lat.
papa, or then Tur.
baba (you maybe recall a fairy tale about some Ali-baba) what comes from smt. sim. in the Skr. (like their
deva-god, from which on the West has left only the Lat.
diva as a kind of goddess).
In the same moment in the other langs are much more exceptions (say, in Rus. ws ending on their "ь"-'j' may be mas. or fem., also in It. are exceptions for Lat. and especially old Gr. ws), and there are langs, like Ger., where is just necessary always to learn the gender. For the Gers I usually give the following example: the spoon is
der Löffel ('lo
efel'), where "
der" is for mas., and the fork is
die Gabel, where "
die" is for fem., and I have invented nearly a poem (in prose) about the reason why this is so, bc. a normal person will take that the spoon is some hole, and the fork is, well, not one, usually 3 or 4 spikes, but still smt. pricking, isn't it? So I have tried to penetrate in the soul of Gers and maybe even ancient Aryans, and have come to the conclusion that the spoon in merely ugly, disgusting, while the fork is just beautiful, slim! This has to be so (or else you find other explanation), and in my old age learning It. I have met the same idea there, where the spoon is
il cucchiaio ('kukkjaio', and
il is for mas.), and the fork is
la forchetta ('forketta', and
la is for fem.), and not only the genders are the same, but
forketta is smt. small and fine (it is diminutive from their
forca), but the most important consideration here is that the spoon is smt. wry, ugly, bc. the bitch-dog there is
la cuccia, there is Bul. 'kuka' what is your hook, and there is Lat.
coccus /
cocci, as bacillus /bacilli.
And one more remark, bc. in the Eng. there are no genders for things, that the genders are not rudiments, they are good idea, they provide ways for distinguishing of the ws when pronouns are used, and there are many cases where they are simply necessary. You know that even names are not qualitative enough, and if you don't make differences also in professions (like our 'profesor /profesorka', or 'uchenik /uchenichka' for school-children, etc.), and don't use (in the Eng.) diminutive forms (and not only the Slavs use such things, the Gers too, and the Its are the top), then the lang. becomes poorer, where what it (and the life in general) needs is diversity, these are important moments. So that in this regard, too, the Bul. lang. is very simple and good.
3.4. Verbs and tenses
Like we have given above examples with the main verbs we will give here with some others, say, with to "work", what is 'rabotja' in Bul. But let me tell you in the beginning here that the point is not in the number, but in the difficulty (say, the Eng. tenses are 4*4 = 16, yet half of them are continuous, there is added suffix "-ing", these are simple things, and in many cases are used some equal particles for all persons, and the forms are nearly the same -- what is even not good, if you ask me --, etc.), and I have looked
now (I am going up to 70 years and I have never needed to know how many tenses we really have -- do you imagine this? -- bc. I know that there are a pair of tenses and that's all), so we have had 9 tenses. Well, according to me, there are about
2.5 tenses, with full forms I mean, and the other variants give some kind of modality and are built with adding of some particle (w.) so that can't be counted for "full-rights" tenses; besides, the problem for the foreigners in Bul. lang. are not the very tenses, but this 'bjah' or 'bil' difference, and the type of the verb, i.e. is it finished or not. Because we don't have continuous tenses (all Slavs don't have, and the Gers, too) but have these two types of verbs which we call 'svyrsheno' and nesvyrsheno' 'vreme'-tense (and let me shorten them to 'svyr.' / 'nesvyr.'), and when it is 'svyr.' it can't continue more, while 'nesvyr.' is
imitation of continuous tense.
So, now to the 'rabotja'-to-work:
present tense is 'rabotja, rabotish, raboti, rabotim, rabotite, rabotjat';
past 'svyr.' (call "aorist" what I don't know what m-s, smt. Lat.) is 'pabotih, raboti, raboti, rabotihme, rabotihte, rabotiha';
past 'nesvyr.' is 'raboteh, raboteshe, raboteshe, rabotehme, rabotehte, raboteha';
past indefinite is 'sym rabotil, si rabotil, e rabotil, sme rabotili, ste rabotili, sa rabotili' (and this is for mas., for fem. in sing. is added '-a', and in neu. is added '-o');
past preceding is 'bjah rabotil, beshe rabotil, beshe rabotil, bjahme rabotili, bjahte rabotili, bjaha rabotili';
future tense is 'shte rabotja, shte rabotish, shte raboti, shte rabotim, shte rabotite, shte rabotjat';
future preceding is 'shte sym rabotil, shte si rabotil, shte e rabotil, shte sme rabotili, shte ste rabotili, shte sa rabotili';
future in the past is 'shtjah da rabotja, shteshe da rabotish, shteshe da rabotish, shtjahme da rabotim, shtjahte da rabotite, shtjaha da rabotjat'; and
future preceding in the past is 'shtjah da sym rabotil, shteshe da si rabotil, shteshe da e rabotil, shtjahme da sme rabotili, shtjahte da ste rabotili, shtjaha da sa rabotili'; what now makes 9.
Yeah, but with full forms are only present and past, usually 'svyr.' or 'nesvyr.', they are sim. and nobody bothers to make the difference (and if, then adding some explanatory ws that the person has worked but has ceased), they are smt. like the imperfect (I worked); then the past indefinite (with 'sym, si, e, ...') is like the present perfect (I have worked) and there are not new forms; and then past preceding (with 'bjah, beshe, ...') is like past perfect (I had worked) and again has no new forms, so that till here we have 2 and a half tenses. The simple future tense is like in Eng. with adding of one w. before, there is nothing to learn here (yet in the Lat. langs there
is what to learn), the other future tenses are not used, maybe only future in the past, 'shtjah da rabotja, shteshe da rabotish, ...'. Still, I don't say that the tenses are very simple, they are the most difficult part in Bul. lang. (together with the phonetics for some people, bc. a lang. learned in old days is never spoken like that learned with one's mothers milk), but from my experience with hearing how the foreigners speak Bul. the major errors with the times are to confuse past tenses of 'bjah rabotil' with 'bil rabotil', where 'bil' form is a modal thing, that smb. has done smt. but I am not sure about (and this usually in 3 person); also we have different
types of verbs, 'svyr.' and 'nesvyr.', what I will try to explain now.
In plain ws, and not how the grammarians will explain this, the situation is such: the basic words, like 'rabotja', 'ucha'-to-study, and others, are 'nesvyr.' (i.e. continuous), but when you build derivative with prefix, say, 'izrabotja' (to do, make) or 'naucha' (to learn well), this now becomes 'svyr.' type, yet we can make them to be 'nesvyr.' adding a suffix, usually '-vam', what here will be 'izrabotvam' or 'nauchavam'. Here can be various difficulties, also for the Buls, but the rule of the thumb is that the 'svyr.' tense can't be pronounced by itself, one has to add before it the particle 'da' with m-ing of "to"; here one can't say 'izrabotja' (in a sentence, like "I want to make this") but has to say "I want 'da izrabotja' this", or 'da naucha', but 'izuchavam' or 'prepodavam' (this is to teach smb.), etc. can be used alone. And there is also the mnemonic rule that if the verb is longer then the action continues, where by the shorter verbs they are as if truncated somehow, they are 'svyr.'-finished. Yeah, and to recompense these problem we have one auxiliary verb, 'sym', we make no difference between transitive or not verbs (they exist, but we don't care about them), and we have no strong or irregular verbs, which usually are about a hundred in a lang.; well, some r. Cs can change if it is difficult to pronounce some form (like 'moga, mozhesh, ...') but such things happen also in the best "families".
And now, in order to check what we have understood (also for the author, bc. native-speaking people don't think about grammar things when speaking) let me
invent one verb with Eng. rs meaning this activity which one having a "prick" can do with it, which verb in Bul. will be 'da prikna' as 'svyr.' and 'prikvam' as nesvyr.' So we will have: present 'da prikna, da priknesh, da prikne, da priknem, da priknete, da priknat', past ('svyr.' or not I can't make the difference) 'priknah, prikna, prikna, priknahme, priknahte, priknaha' ('prikneh' somehow does not sound good to me, neither I can see where is the continuation), then (roughly like perfect) 'sym priknal, si priknal, e priknal, ...', then (like past perfect, or Ger.
Plusquamperfekt) 'bjah priknal, beshe priknal, ...' (where if you are not sure about then 'bil priknal, ...') , and simple future 'shte prikna, shte priknesh, ...', what is quite enough and like in Ger., or in rough strokes (not counting the continuous tenses) like in Eng., and without this something will be missing. So, and as to 'nesvyr.'-continuous forms we will have: present 'prikvam, prikvash, ...', resp. future 'shte prikvam, shte prikvash, ...', simple past 'prikvah, prikvashe, ...', like present perfect 'sym prikval, si prikval, ...' and like past perfect 'bjah prikval, beshe prikval, ...', what gives another five continuous forms (if we don't count 'shtjah da prikvam, ... shtjah da sym bil prikval, ... shtjal sym bil da prikvam, ...'). You try alone with 'demokratiziram' or, if you like, 'onaniram' which are 'nesvyr.', or with 'da prestana' and 'prestavam, what is to stop, or also 'da propileja' (here the endings will be different) and 'propiljavam', what is to waste (time or money), or even with one jargon w. 'da izkrejzja' and 'izkrejzvam' built from Eng. "crazy".
3.5. Other grammatical moments
This point is not especially necessary, here I indulge in some reflections bc. of the Russ, but as far as such things happen also in other langs, and I don't know (and have no idea about) Ar. or Hindu or Chi. etc., so that such things may exist in some of those langs, too, and for this reason I decided to leave it in its place.
First of all about movement and still standing, or
Akkusativ and
Dativ in Ger. (resp. accusative and prepositional case in Rus.), I said already that we make no difference here, but I would like to give you my version about
why this difference exists from very ancient times and in all ancient langs, bc. I have met nowhere such explanations and they might be interesting for some of my readers. I have though about this and have come to the conclusion that the point here is related with the Eastern philosophy, or rather
theosophy (divine explanation of the world, scientific in as much as this was possible in those times, but presupposing the existence of some gods), which views are expressed mainly in old Gr. slogan "Everything flows, everything changes" (Παντα ρει, παντα κινεται). And when everything changes it is important to know whether we are moving or not, yet not only this but also the assertion that the
movement is more spread and universal than the stillness, and for this reason for it is chosen
the simpler case (accusative is the nearest to nominative case, I suppose, in all langs with cases) than for the stillness (the prepositional case in Rus. is not of the difficult, yet there are necessary prepositions, but in Ger. the
Dativ is unquestionably more difficult then Akk.). So that this difference is rudimentary in the contemporary langs but in the ancient ones it existed (and in the Skr. there were 7 cases, and even the main forms of the verbs to be and to have, as well also the pronouns, are similar, so that this is an old thing). In Rus. exist not only this, they make difference in the periods of time, and when they speak about hours and days of the week they use accusative (for the movement, there the things change fast), but from the weeks, then months and years, they use prepositional case (for one can stay still in a longer period). It is not at all easy to make this difference in Ger., too, with all their articles and adjectives etc., and also the existence of transitive verbs or not is a mystery nowadays (I still don't
feel these things, have to think about and make errors), and from here whether has to be used
haben-to-have or
sein-to-be causes problems, while in Bul. such problems are left behind (for we are living in such times that people not only not like to look philosophically at the things, they even
don't like to think at all).
Further there are langs where the numbers are far away from the strict decimal positional system like in Eng. and Bul., in many other langs there happen some exceptions. For example, the Russ make difference for numbers ending on one, then 2 to four, and then from five and up (here they use pl.), there are exceptions also for the years, they have two different
ws for pl. of the w. year. The Gers, on their part, not only write big numbers in one w., they pronounce up to 100 (!) first the ones and then the tens (say, my age of 65 in the moment will be "five and sixty"), and other moments (I discuss these things in "Reflections About The Numbers"). Yet this can be accepted somehow, but the really crazy Fr. way to pronounce numbers (by 20-s) is total confusion. So that it is full with rudiments all around the world, but not in Bul. lang., we are democrats in regard of the numbers (and if there are problems with the tenses then they also can be simplified further). For example, we have had earlier nasal sounds, but don't have anymore, have abandoned the cases, from roughly the middle of the last century have rejected one dumb 'y' in the end of the ws if they end on C., and one char. that once is read so, but other times in another way, too, and now we don't need to look even one char. forward, to say nothing about several or the whole word.
So this is the Bul. lang. and now we move to the last chapter about some ws and rs in Bul. in order to allow you a little more closer look at it, to convince you that we are Europeans.
4. Very succinct list of Bulgarian words
Here I will use
the same examples (with maybe slight changes here and there) which I have used in the Rus. variant with the purpose to show how near Bul. lang. stays to the Rus. On one hand this is wrong approach, bc. the so called Ars, Chis, and Hindus surely don't know Rus., but I have used nearly arbitrary set of ws, and why should I now choose another one? But not only this, I think, standing on my enormously big
Urrh, that I will succeed to prove here how European (m-ing: Sl., Teu., Eng, Fr., Lat., Gr., Ar., Per, and so on I.-E. langs) the rs and ws of Bul. lang. are, so that studying it you will lose nothing but only get to know more I.-E. rs. This is so bc. our ws are on about 90% Sl. but on about 10% old Bul., what means chiefly Tur., Per., Gypsy, even Mongolian; then the Sl. rs are, quite approximately, in 60% Latin, in 25% Teu., and in 15% also smt. Eastern but come to them directly, not via the Lats; then the Lat. ws are, again very roughly and in my opinion, on 90% Gr. and on 10% also smt. Eastern (Per., directly Skr., smt. like this); then the Teu. ws are on 70% Lat. and Gr., but on about 30% again Eastern (this time Aryan, Per., etc); and the Gr. ws are not exactly their own, surely (they have not fallen in the Adriatic from the blue), they have just carried over old Per., Ar., and Heb. (for Hebrew) ws, say, in 85% and have
mutilated them bc. of their pretty poor phonetics. In short, everything is mixed, but don't forget that Bulgaria is placed next to Greece, and ancient Greece was though for navel of the ancient world so that we may be on the border of Europe, but we are still in the middle of ancient world, we unite all these and many other langs. Just to give an example for old Bul. w.: nice in Rus. (as chief Sl. lang.) is 'krasivy
ij', and we have the w. 'krasiv', but we have for synonym also 'hubav', what surely (at least for me) is related with Ger.
hübsch ('hu
ebsh') m-ing the same, but we have not taken it from the Gers, this is old Bul. word.
So, and now I will write all in lines, where in the beginning will be the Bul. w., then the m-ing in Eng., and then some explanations (I will try for them to be short but am afraid that in places they will be very long), usually on one line I will put several sim. ws, and if occasionally the meaning has to be clear I will put only "=" (in Rus. there are many such signs but here they will be much rare). To the usual shortening like: m. for means, s. for see, comp. for compare (with), I will add rel. for related (with), sup. for suppose, smh. for somehow, ~ for near to, sim., rel-d, / as alternative (or), ? for I don't know, ".." if I find the explanations are too long (and you better look in the
Urrh); s.im. for sound imitation, c.Sl. for common Sl., Ser. For Serbian, Gyp. for Gypsy, East. for Eastern, and also cyn. for cynical, jar. for jargon, conv. for conversational, cult. for cultured.
4.1. Verbs
'rabotja' - work (c.Sl.,~ Ger.
arbeiten); 'dejst(vu)vam' - act (c.Sl., comp. with Lat
deo-god), 'bachkam' (jar.) - work hard (there is smt. Gyp. here, or Tur.; 'bichkija' is a handsaw; 'bicha' is to cut, hatch);
'pravja' - make (this is s.im., to make big noise; also 'proizvezhdam' is to produce, hence 'pravja' ~ produce); 'vyrsha /izvyrshvam /ispylnjavam' - make, accomplish (according to me 'vyrsha', also 'vyrsheja' - to-trash-wheat, is related with ... god Vishnu; the last w. is ~ fulfill bc. 'pylnja' is to fill); 'stroja' - build (~ stretch in the sense of to order, line up; from here 'postrojka' is a building);
'rykovodja' - rule, govern (from 'ryka' - 'hand', sim. in meaning with Lat.
manus); 'upravljavam' - the same (from 'pravja', but maybe the right hand as the strongest is also meant bc. "right" in Rus. is 'pravy
ij'); 'komand(u)vam - = (command, smt. Lat. rel-d with
cum-with);
'jam' - eat (here surely has to be hidden rel-n with the existence, bc. "to be" in Rus. is 'estj', and even one old form 'esmj'; on the other hand this is s.im. -- comp. with Eng. yum ); 'pija' - drink (c.Sl., also smt. Lat., in It.
piovere is to rain, also Po is a river); 'gyltam' - gulp (c.Sl., s.im; 'lapam' as jar., ~ 'lapa' as wrist);
'stoja' - = (stand or stay, and let me not explain so widely spread ws.), 'stavam' - stand up; 'sedja' /'sjadam - = (sit /sit down);
'lezha' / 'ljagam' - lie (horizontally); 'namiram se' - is placed;
'spja' - sleep; 'pochivam (si)' - rest (?, smt. East., not Rus., not Lat.); 'dremja' - =;
'bjagam' - run (c.Sl., smh. rel-d with 'byrz'-fast); skacham' - jump (from 'skok' what is ~ hop); 'ripam' (jar.) - jump;
'kachvam se' - go up (here has to be rel-n with an old East. r. 'kyt /kat /kys /kus); 'slizam' - come down (~ slide);
'letja' - fly (~ light); 'reja se' - soar (from Gr. ρεω, yet comp. with ray what comes smw. from the Skr.); 'pluvam' - swim (smt. Gr., ~ float, comp. plot /plane); 'gmurkam se' - dive, plunge (?, maybe from 'more'-sea);
'hodja' /'vyrvja' - go, walk (c.Sl.); 'pytuvam' /'pyteshest(vu)vam'- travel (from 'pyt'-road-path);
'cheta' - read (c.Sl., rel-d Rus. 'chtitj'-honour); 'pisha' - write (c.Sl., s.im., rel-d ... piss, where the latter is 'pikaja', and in the Rus. the difference is only in the stressing); 'smjatam' - compute (the idea is of 'smilam'-to-grind);
'chertaja' - draw (from 'cherta'-line, c.Sl.); 'risuvam' - paint, picture (c.Sl.); 'bojadisvam' /'ocvetjavam' - paint ('boja' is a paint, Tur.' or Gr.);
'kopaja' - dig (~ cup and /or cap); 'dylbaja' - delve; 'chukam' - knock (Tur. /Per., in Rus. 'stuchatj); 'rezha' - saw (c.Sl);
'probivam' - bore, drill; 'pilja' - cut, saw; 'rendosvam' - shave wood (~ It.
rendere-render-etc.);
'govorja' - speak (c.Sl., smh. rel-d with the governing); 'mylcha' - keep silent (c.Sl.); 'byrborja' /'bryshtolevja' - babble (s.im.);
'vizhdam'- see (Lat.
vidi); 'gledam' - see (~ Ger.
Glass-=, also Rus. 'glaz'-eye); 'chuvam' - hear (Bul., maybe Per.; in Rus. 'sly
ishatj'); 'mirisha' - smell (Gr.; in Rus. is 'njuhatj');
'useshtam' - feel (Bul., ?, in Rus. 'oshchushchatj'); 'pipam'- touch (some palpitation with fingers); 'dokosvam' - touch (Bul., ?);
'bija' - hit (Lat.
batuo-beat-etc.; also 'tupam', 'nalagam' 'byhtja' as jar. -- in a way s.im.); 'nakazvam' - punish (Sl. r. 'kaz- /ukaz /nakaz', ..);
'milvam /galja' - fondle, caress ('mil' is nice; 'galja' ~ glide); 'laskaja' - flatter (comp. lasso, lass);
'mislja' - think (c.Sl., s.im. of some 'ahm', yet rel-d Gr.
mnemo-smt.); 'razsyzhdavam' - ponder, contemplate (the r. is 'syd' m-img also law-court, so it is sim. to judge); 'izmisljam (si)' - invent, imagine (from 'misyl'-thought);
'hvyrljam /mjatam' - throw (the 1st is from 'hvyrkam'-fly, s.im., and the 2nd is old r., smh. rel-d with metaphor /meteor); 'ritam' - kick (~ rhytm and hit); 'blyskam' - jostle, bump;
'streljam' - shoot (c.Sl., 'strela' is arrow, it flies 'stremitelno'-fast); 'srazhavam se' - fight (c.Sl., 'srazen' is hit, 'strazh' is sentinel); 'porazjavam' - hit, smite; 'unishtozhavam' - destroy ('nishto' is nothing, i.e. annihilation);
4.2. Nouns
a) People:
'chovek' - human (c.Sl., Rus. 'chelovek', old 'chlovek', maybe Tur. bc. there 'choluk /chokuk' is child; in pl. 'hora' what is Gr. and older, in Rus. 'ljudi' what ~ Ger.
Leute-'lojte'); 'myzh' - man (in Rus. is 'muzh', in Ser. 'mazh', I insist that is so called bc. ... 'mozhet'-can, to beget a child); 'zhena' - woman (Gr., γιναικα-'gineka'); 'dete' - child (Gr., this is as if a
detail, part of the woman); 'momche' - son / 'momiche' - girl (smt. 'malko'-small.); 'bebe' - =;
'mladezh /'junosha' - young man (c.Sl., 'mlad' is young; the 2nd is Lat.); 'devojka' - girl, young woman (Lat. and Skr.,
diva);
'sreshta' - meeting ('sreshtu' is against), 'razdjala' - parting (from 'delja'-divide); 'guljaj' - spree, blast, jamboree (Ar., ~ ghoul); 'vecherinka' - evening gathering (bc. 'vecher' is evening);
'obich' - love (not Sl., old Bul., smt. Mongolian, though ~ big, bull, etc., ..); 'chuvstvo' - feeling (c.Sl., from 'chuvam'-hear where might be smt. Per.); 'celuvka' - kiss (Ger. in my opinion, from
zu-to-or-near and
Zunge-tongue); 'pregrydka' - hug, embrace (from 'gyrdi'-breast, Lat., ~ guard); 'drugar' - friend (c.Sl., in fact Skr., ..);
'bitka' -battle, combat (Lat.); 'dvuboj' - duel ('dve' is two);
'bog' - god (Per.
baga, and rel-d big-bull); 'angel' - =; 'djavol' - devil (Lat.); 'karacondzhul (jar.) - bogy, demon (Tur., 'cara' is black);
'korem' - belly (~ core; in Rus. is 'zhivot', but the
same w. in Bul. m. life, ..);
b) Fauna, animals:
'kotka'/'kotarak' - fem. /mas. cat; 'kuche' /'kuchka' - fem. /mas. dog (c.Sl. -- bc. curls in a Rus. 'kucha'-heap);
'kon' /'kobila' - mas. /fem. horse (c.Sl., ~ Gr. centaurs and ... dragons); 'krava' - cow (deeply Skr.), 'bik' - bull (big animal, c.Sl.); 'ovca' /'oven' - fem. /mas. sheep (Sl., maybe as disgusting exclamation 'uf'; in Rus. "he" is 'baran' what rel-s with 'barin'-master-owner, in my view); 'koza' - goat (?, maybe bc. jumps and happens in unexpected places, if rel-d with 'koz' /kaz', ..); 'magare' - donkey (I think from Gr.
megera-ugly-witch); 'prase' - pig (..); 'swinja' - she-swine;
'kokoshka' - hen (s.im.); 'petel' - cock (Gr.); 'pile' - chicken (s.im. and smt. Lat.); 'patka' - she-duck; 'gyska' - she-goose; 'pujka' /'puek' - fem. /mas. turkey (bc. says 'pu', not Rus.); 'pytpydyk' - quail (s.im.); 'jajce' - egg;
'vylk' - wolf; 'lisica' - fox; 'gligan' - wild boar; 'elen' /'syrna' - mas. /fem. deer;
'lyv' - lion; 'leopard' - =; 'slon' - elephant (Sl., ..); 'zhiraf' - =; 'shtraus' - ostrich; 'hipopotam' - = (Gr. & Lat.); 'krokodil' - =; 'maymuna' - monkey (East.);
'zmija' - snake; 'gushter' - lizard (maybe bc. 'se gushi'-hides);
'riba' - fish (I think bc. lives in rivers; and your w. is Ger. and bc. says 'fyss' and disappears); 'rak' - crab (old r., maybe Skr.); 'kostur' - perch, bass; 'pystyrva' - trout ('pystyr' is motley); 'hajver' - caviar (Ar.);
c) Flora, vegetation:
'dyrvo' - tree (c.Sl., Gr. but sim. turf !); 'treva' - grass (c.Sl., Gr. but sim. tree !); 'hrast' - thicket, bush (some s.im.); 'stryk' - stem, shoot; 'filiz' /'izdynka' - offshoot (the 1st is Tur.); 'kitka' - bunch, nosegay (smt. old, maybe Per., 'kicha se' is make beautiful with flowers; 'kiten' is beautiful, yet not Rus.);
'bor' - pine; 'elha' - fir tree; 'smyrch' - spruce; 'dyb' - oak; 'buk' - beech; 'jasen' - ash; 'bresa' - birch; 'topola' - poplar; 'lipa' - lime tree;
'jabylka' - apple; 'krusha' - pear, 'sliva' /'dzhanka' - plum; 'praskova' - peach; 'zarzala' /'kajsija' - apricot (the 1st is Per.); 'djulja' - quince; 'grozde' - grapes;
'limon' - =; 'portocal' - orange; 'banan', 'kivi' - =; 'ananas' - pineapple;
'dinja' - watermelon; 'pypesh' - melon (Gr.); 'tikva' - pumpkin (I sup. bc. it 'se natikva'-shoves-or-pushes, crawls, everywhere);
'jagoda' - strawberry; 'malina' - raspberry; 'kypina' - bramble; 'borovinka' - blueberry; 'casis' - black currant;
'chushka' - pepper ('ljuta ch.' - hot p.); 'domat' - tomato; 'krastavica' - cucumber (Bul. from 'krastav' as scabby, covered with pimples, and the Eng. w. is Lat.
cucumero); 'kornishon' - gherkin; 'luk' - onion ('praz' - leek); 'chesyn' - garlic; 'tikvichka' - marrow, zucchini; 'patladzhan' - eggplant (Tur.); 'cveklo' - beet; 'kartof' - potato; 'rjapa' /'repichka' - turnip /radish; 'salata' /'marulja' - salad /lettuce;
d) Nature:
'zemja' - Earth, ground (c.Sl., ..); 'nebe' - sky (Ger., Lat., ..), 'slynce' - Sol, 'luna' - moon (Lat.);
'kamyk' - stone (.., but ~ comet); 'pryst' - earth; 'pjasyk' - sand; 'mrysotija' - dirt; 'kal' - mud, slime (where in Rus. the same 'kal' is ... faeces -- the r. is Gr. but ..); 'ruda' - ore;
'voda' - water (the r. is Ar., ..); 'more' - sea (Lat.
mare); 'reka' - river; 'potok /-che /ruchej' - brook, rivulet; 'izvor' - water-spring; 'blato' - bog, swamp;
'skalà' - rock; 'planina' (in Rus 'gora') - mountain; 'gora' (in Rus. 'les') - forest; 'vryh' - peak; 'poljan(k)a' - meadow; 'ezero' - lake; 'nizina' - lowland (the r. is Skr.); 'vyzvishenie' - height, upland; 'urva' - precipice; 'klisura', 'defile',- ravine, valley;
'vyzduh' - air ('duh' is spirit); 'oblak' - cloud (c.Sl.); 'mygla' - fog; 'dyzhd' - rain (c.Sl., ?, maybe by a dose); 'snjag' - snow; 'led' - ice (c.Sl., ?, maybe bc one slides on it); 'skrezh' - frost (Bul., maybe bc. one has to scratch it from the window); 'para' - vapor (Gr. r.);
'den' - day (Lat. & Skr., ..); 'mesec' - month (Lat.); 'godina' ('god' in Russ.) - (I thing ~ Ger.
gut-good as big chunk of time); 'sedmica' - week (from 'sedem'-7);
'sutrin' - morning (smt. East., the sun 'se jurva'-rushes, and comp. Mongolian 'jurta'-tent); 'obed' - lunch (I sup. bc. we like to eat much then, 'obyedatjsja' in Rus. or 'ujadam se', 'prejadam' in Bul.; this is also Lat. view bc. in It. it is
pranzo but 'prysvam se' in Bul., what is s.im., is to burst); 'nosht' -night (Lat.
notte -- and this is bc. there is no sun then);
e) Food:
'hljab' - bread (..); 'mljako' - milk (old East. r.); 'meso' - meat (Lat., ..); 'jajca' - eggs; 'maslo' - butter (Gr.); 'sol' - salt (Lat.); 'zahar' - sugar (East.); 'piper' - pepper; 'ocet' - vinegar (Lat.); 'olio' - oil (from olive, old r.); 'brashno' - flour (Bul., I sup. as smt. grounded to 'prah'-dust); 'fide' - vermicelli (?); 'oriz' - rice (old r., ..); 'jufka' - nuddles (smt. East.);
'sirene' - white cheese (smt. Lat., ..); 'kashkaval' - cheese (Bul., from 'kasha'-mush); 'kremvi(r)shi' - sausages (Bul., from 'krem'-cream); 'salam' - = (It.); 'shpek-salam' - dry salami (also 'lukanka', 'sudzhuk'); 'pastyrma' - biltong (Lat., 'pastir' /
pastor);
'banica /banichka' - Bul. pie (usually with white cheese; I sup. from 'panica' as bowl); 'kifla - bun (?, maybe Heb., in Rus. is 'bulka' but this w. in Bul. m-s ... bride); 'gevrek' - a kind of dough-nut (Bul. & Tur.);
'boza' - traditional East. & Tur. beverage, sugary and slightly fermented;
'skara' - grate, barbecue (East., and smh. rel-d ... scare, ..); 'cheverme' - rotating grill (Tur.); 'shishche' - small skewer but often as the meat on it; 'kebabche' - "fingers" of minced meat, roasted; 'kjufte' - smt. like the last but in form of big lens (the w. is probably Heb. bc. in Rus. are 'tefteli' and there are Heb. 'falafels');
'gjuvech' - our (again Tur.) dish, stew baked in oven; 'tarator' - cold soup chiefly of yogurt and minced cucumbers with spices;
'salata' - =; 'desert' - =; 'predjastie' /'ordjovyr'- hors d'oeuvre; 'meze' - appetizer (Tur., often used w., according. to me is understood as a bite of smt.
messe-
meta-between two swallows); 'shopska /meshana salata' - main sorts of salads; 'ljutenica' - a kind of chutney; 'kjopoolu' (Tur.) - eggplant mash;
'zakuska' - breakfast; 'obed' - lunch; 'vecherja' - dinner;
'vino' - wine; 'vodka - =; 'bira' - beer; 'rakija' - raki, schnapps (Ar.; distilled alcohol of fruits, chiefly out of grapes or plums, but nowadays everything is, as we say, 'mentè'-fake;); 'mastika' - anisette (the name is Gr., and the funny thing is that in Rus. the same w. m-s floor polish); 'menta' - mint-brandy; 'konjak', 'likjor', 'brendi', 'limonada' - =;
f) Products of civilization:
'kyshta' - home, house (East. & Sl., of 'kyt /kat' r., ..); 'mazè' - basement; cellar; 'zdanie' - building (c.Sl., 'sidam' is to build, but I think is ~ old sumerian zikkurat); 'postrojka' - the same (from 'stroja'-build); 'tavan' - ceiling /
mansarde; 'nebostyrgach' - skyscraper (literally);
'vhod' - entrance; 'ishod' - exit; 'asansjor', 'balkon', 'mecanin', 'toaletna' - =; 'banja' - bath, 'kuhnja' - kitchen; 'staja' - room (Bul., from Gr.);
'gradina /-ka' - garden; 'dvor' - yard (c.Sl., ..); 'vila' - holiday home, 'koliba' - hut;
'zavod' /'fabrica' - factory; 'predprijatie' - company, enterprise (Sl.); 'uch(e)rezhdenie' - institution; 'sluzhba' - office; 'ministerstvo' - =;
'masa' - table as furniture; 'stol' - chair; 'taburetka' - stool; 'etazherka' - shelf; 'garnitura' - furniture set; 'krevat'- bed (Sl., I think is rel-d with Rus. 'krov' as roof); 'toaletna chinija' - toilet bowl (and this 'chinija'-bowl always sounds funny to me);
'chinija' - plate, dish, 'kupa /kupichka' - bowl; 'lyzhica' - spoon; 'vilica' - fork; 'nozh' - knife; 'chasha /chashka' - glass, cup;
'stan' - loom, machinery, also camp; 'tezgjah' - bench; 'bjuro' - desk or office; 'gishe' - counter;
'plan' - = or scheme; 'chertezh' - drawing; 'skica' - sketch; drawing (also jar. 'skica' as funny bloke);
'risunka' - drawing, picture; 'snimka' - photo; 'kartina' - painting;
'kniga' - book (c.Sl., of Ar. origin, ..); 'uchebnik' - textbook, manual; 'bukvar' - primer; 'tetradka' - notebook (Gr.); 'moliv' - pencil; 'mastilo' - ink; 'himikalka' - ballpoint;
'cigari' - cigarettes; 'puri' - cigars; 'kibrit' - safety matches; 'zapalka' - lighter;
'televizor' - TV set; 'hladilnik' - refrigerator; 'radio', 'kompjutyr', 'video' - =; 'peralnja' /'mijachna mashina' - washing machine /dishwasher;
4.3. Adjectives
'hubav' - nice, beautiful (old Bul. and East.); 'dobyr' - good (c.Sl.); 'losh' - bad (Bul., rel-d 'lesh'-carrion); 'vreden' - harmful; 'zyl' - vile;
'prav' - right, true (m-t as straight, 'prava' is a line); 'greshen' - erroneous (also 'grjah' is sin);
'mlad' -young (c.Sl., m-t as 'malyk'-small); 'star' (un-cult. 'dyrt') - old;
'krasiv' - beautiful, nice (Sl. r., comp. 'Rus. 'krasny
ij'-red with 'krasivy
ij'-beautiful); 'grozen' - not nice, ugly (this is ~ grand but the things are mixed bc. in Rus. 'grozny
ij' is terrible -- like their Tsar Ivan the Terrible --, and in Bul. 'strashen' is terrible);
'visok' - high (and 'visini' is poetically for the sky, but smh rel-d with It.-Lat.
vicino-near, ..); 'nisyk' - low (Skr. r.
ni-); 'slab' - weak (~ slight, but also smh rel-d with the opposite notion as the w. syllable which is strong, also 'sila' is power); 'debel' - thick, obese (Bul., in my opinion m-s not-
belle); 'pylen' - the same (rel-d plenty);
'byrz' - fast (Sl., some s.im.); 'ymeren' - moderate (bc. 'merja' is to measure -- the Gr.-Lat. r.
meta /
messe); 'baven' - slow' (comp. Lat.
bovinus);
'svetyl' - bright, lucid (..); 'tymen' - dark (in a way rel-d with ... teem, temple, etc, but ..); 'bjal /beli' - white (Lat.
bello-nice); 'cheren' - black (I sup. it is from Skr.
cyamas from where is you cyan, the colours are very fuzzy; ~ this is given Rus. 'chi
ort' as devil, but there are other possibilities); 'zhylt' - yellow (old r., yet m-t as gold /-en); 'zelen' - green (c.Sl., mutation of 'zhylt'); 'sin' - blue (also ~ cyan, rel-d senior, ..); 'cherven' - red (the colour of Skr.
carma);
'mek' - mild, soft; 'tvyrd' - hard (c.Sl.); 'gyvkav' - elastic (old r., .., take at least Gr. letter γ which has a hump);
'topyl' - warm (Sl. & older., ~ 'topja' as to melt); 'studen' - cold (c.Sl., maybe the reversed action is m-t bc when a thing solidifies it can stand); 'hladen' - tepid (Sl.); 'goresht' - hot ('gorja' is to burn, ..);
'preden' - at the front; 'zaden' - at the back; 'ljav' - left-wing; 'desen' - right-wing (Gr., not Sl.);
'goren' - upper; 'dolen' - lower;
'umen' - clever, intelligent (old Sl., 'um' is intellect, in a way s.im. of hmm); 'prost' - simple, silly (Gr., but simpleton is 'glupak');
'typ' - blunt (comp. stupid); 'ostyr' - sharp (smt. Lat.); 'plosyk' - flat ('fl-' is ~ 'pl-'); 'kriv' - wry, curved; 'crygul' - circular, round; 'kvadraten' - square;
4.4. Some jargon and vulgar words
Here, or course, I can't do without cynical and obscene ws, but without them a significant part of piquancy of conversation is lost (especially in our "democratic" days and years, while such ws are encountered in millions of copies over the Internet), and also one has to grasp at least the spirit of conversation (whether they praise or curse him), so that I find this subsection for quite important; regretfully is only that I can not spend so much time to explain each of the words (Bul. as well also Eng. and others) but these things are treated smw. in my
Urrh. So let us begin.
'mentè' - fakery, imitation (surely Lat. r.); 'trik' - =;
'dalavera', 'alysh'verish' - mercenary or business machinations (Tur.);
'chalga /-dzhija /-dzijstvo' - Tur., or Gyp. music;
'zadigam', 'svivam' - to pinch smt., carry away;
'izchezvaj', 'chupkata' - get lost, piss off;
'budala, abdal, galfon, typak, typunger' - simpleton, fool, idiot (also 'budalkam' is to fool);
'adash, arkadash, aver, majna' - close friend, buddy (the 1st 3 are Tur., the last is from around town Plovdiv);
'majtap, kudosh' - joke, pun, fun (Tur.); 'tashak'- salty joke as jar. (the direct m-ing is of testicle);
'vagabond, 'huligan' - =, 'nehranimajko' - hooligan, bum;
'myrdà' - bad guy (~ 'smyrt'-death and 'smyrdy'-stinks); 'katil' - murderer (Ar.);
'pederast, pedi, pedal, manaf' - mas. homosexual;
'kopele' - son of a bitch (the "result" of copulation, usual addressing between teenagers);
'mamka mu, mama mu stara' - damn it, cult. f##k (we hide here the witty idea that his /her /it mother is too old, else I would have ...);
'tvojta mama, maicata ti' - you s.o.b., f##k you;
'vyrvi na majnata si' - go to hell or even worse; 'siktir' - f##k you, piss off (Tur.);
'pyrdja' - to fart; 'sera' - to sh## (smh. rel-d with Lat.
sera-evening and serum but ..); 'lajno' - sh## (Gyp.);
'zadnik, gyz, dupe' - bottom, ass (the 2nd is vul., arse, while the 3rd is nearly polite);
'cica /coc|ka' - tit; 'badzhak /badzhaci' - thighs (Tur.);
'mace' - girl, pussy (in Ger. is
Mietze); 'svaljam (njakogo)' - to court, woo smb. (literally m-s to take down; resp. 'svalja mi se' is wants that we become lovers);
'pich, pichaga' - nice guy (of Tur. origin but we put good m-ing in it, not that he is just a good f##ker, this is usual addressing between friends);
'pichka' - a broad, whore, vagina (exactly here the bad m-ing of this Tur. w. -- ~ Lat.
picem as tar -- is shown); 'putka' - vagina (the r. is old, I've found Skr. rel-s but .., well, in fact here is the possibly known Fr.
putain-'pjutaq' m-ing the same); 'kurva' - prostitute (gone awry from the right way);
'kur' - penis (this cyn. w. has to be from Gr. κυριοσ as god, master, i.e. this is my master, but it is smh. rel-d with Lat.
cura-care); 'huj' - the same (the w. is Rus. but we also use it and in my opinion it is just a happy exclamation, smt. like 'aj /uj', but it is smh. rel-d with Ar. and Skr. 'ud' as penis);
'shibam, eba, chukam' - to copulate, f##k ('shibam' literally m-s to whip and is semi-cult., 'eba' is vul. and there are some interesting moments but .., and 'chukam' is quite polite bc. m-s to knock);
'chikija' /'bija ch.' - to jerk (Tur.);
'duham' / 'pravja svirka' - to blow, blow-job (the 2nd is almost polite; yet used as curse will be 'da go duhash').
Conclusion
Well, the conclusion is necessary chiefly in order not to end the material on cynical words, yet we can as well summarize the things about Bul. language. The quintessence is that it has perfect alphabet, where not only is written everything how it is said and v.v., but there are not places where one sound can be written in more than one way, and one should not look ahead in order to understand how the concrete place has to be read. Then it has also the most simple phonetics that is possible to have and it is better even than in It. because they have not our most important vowel which we marked here as "y", and have not all necessary consonants and simplify the word like little children; we have also no modified vowels, yet we have the simplest and necessary combinations of vowels, chiefly with 'j'. Further, we have nearly the simplest possible grammar, with 3 genders (like all decent nations) that are recognizable elementary by their endings, have no cases at all (with a tiny exception to which nobody pays attention), have no long endings of words (like the Russ), neither difficult matching of articles (like the Gers), which are even shorter and glued to the rear of the words; in addition to this we make no difference between moving of not, i.e. transitive or not verbs, although we have them, use one main verb for building of all times (and passive forms), and have the necessary about 5 used tenses with only two tables of endings, even have a way (like other Slavs) for building of continuous verbs instead of tenses with longer or shorter suffixes, as well also can show some modalities in a simple way. According to our words, we have a mixture of nearly all world languages, not only of Sl. (which are in their core Lat.), but also of Teu., Gr., Ar. and East. and with some practice can be well understood by people of all other nations.
And, come to think about, all these amazing results we have reached bc. of our cleverness to move the articles at the end of the words (where they belong being a kind of characteristic of the words), and chiefly because we were not ashamed to include the most important vowel in our alphabet and words (which the other Slavs either not read or miss, heaping up several hardly pronounceable consonants together, and the other nations, like Engs, Gers, Ars, etc., mark each in its strange way but not as usual letter). So, because the Buls like "it" to be hard, and the Bul. girls, too, I'll tell you, everything reduces to this "hard sign" which we marked here as i-Gr., but it was used as i-Bul., i.e. this 'y' written in Bul. as "ъ", this important and big "
Ъ".
Rus. original in Sep. 2011, translated in Eng. and revised. in Feb 2016