(no subject)

[ysobel]

So one of my goals right now is to learn Bulgarian. And as there are no classes around here, and no audio or book resources in the library, and sources such as this and this are not things I can really afford, I will be basically studying by internet. Which I'm sure means my pronunciation will be slightly wonky but that doesn't really matter.

I also want to keep a record of what I'm doing, both so I can go back and look things up and so I can prove to myself that I'm actually making progress. I expect it to be of little interest to anyone else, but. It might be. *shrug* So, poll!

Poll #815 Fred

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 22

View Respondents

Want to be in the filter of bulgarian nubletness?

View Answers

yes
18 (81.8%)

no, but I need to click things in polls
4 (18.2%)

Comments

Wow!

[elke_tanzer]

That's a very cool project! Maybe http://www.livemocha.com/ will have some free resources for you?

[afuna]

Not much help but -- Bulgarian! Interesting!

[threeplusfire]

Are you comfortable giving me your mailing address? I promise not to send anything explodey or creepy or weird.. or if you have an Amazon wishlist. I would love to send you language learning things!

Re: Wow!

[rainbow]

Oooh, what a neat site!!

[rainbow]

That sounds so exciting!

Forvo

[pne]

Try out http://www.forvo.com/languages/bg/ as well if you want pronunciation samples.

Re: Wow!

[ysobel]

Doesn't have bulgarian as one of the class options; I checked. :( (Also, I've been a bit wary of using LM ever since I tried using it as a German refresher course and found mistakes.)

[ysobel]

eeee language learny things <333

You're on my flist on LJ, right? http://isabeau.livejournal.com/583807.html has mailing address. (If not I can send you my address.)

Re: Forvo

[ysobel]

*bookmarks* Thanks!

... I'm not going to be totally at sea wrt pronunciation, because I've sung stuff in bulgarian, but ... yeah. :D

[threeplusfire]

Books and cds coming your way! :D

Re: Wow!

[pthalo]

you can probably find native speakers though to practice with there. I still recommend ATL (All the lyrics forum) though. :)

[pthalo]

да, искам да бъдам во твойот български филтер :)

(probably made mistakes though)

[ysobel]

(Like I'd notice any mistakes *snicker*)

The awesome thing is that I could get about 70% of that. (да, obviously, and the last three words.) And given the context could guess at the other two (искам is even something that's appeared in the songs I've sung!), which was confirmed by looking up on an online dictionary, but yay me \o/

[pthalo]

actually, I think the second да should have been че. Today I learned that ще means ќе (future tense marker) and че means дека (that). I'm used to using дека and да for "that".

искам, харесвам, обичам (possibly latter two misspelled), mean I want, I like, and I love. In Macedonian, those three are сакам, which is less words to remember, but of course more confusion for foreigners used to distinguishing between the three. (Though really, how many times when you say "I love you" do you really mean "I want you"?)

If I write something and you can't find it in a bulgarian dictionary, it's probably because I didn't know the Macedonian word was different, so you should check http://www.idividi.com.mk/recnik :) (and possibly delete the last letter or two to get the base form, since сакам won't be in the dictionary, but сака (he wants/loves) is the base form. (there's no infinitive!)

meanwhile, google "bulgarian phonetic keyboard" and download that. it's much much easier to type on than the default windows bulgarian keyboard, which has all the letters in weird positions. The phonetic keyboard looks like this:

ч 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 - =
я в е р т ъ у и о п ш щ ю
а с д ф г х й к л ; '
з ь ц ж б н м , . /

Ч ! @ # $ % ^ & * ( ) _ +
Я В Е Р Т Ъ У И О П Ш Щ Ю
А С Д Ф Г Х Й К Л : "
З Ь Ц Ж Б Н М < > ?

and right alt with some keys gives:
` € ‰ ∞ ÷ ≈
ы ё ® ™ ° [ ] \
ø
© э № µ ≤ ≥

:)

[ysobel]

Wait, сакам is Macedonian?

*blinks*

(There's a song we're currently working on that's labeled as bulgarian but ... well, if I give you the transliterated lyrics, can you tell me which language it is? *G*)

[pthalo]

absolutely :) that is one thing that would be easy for me to do :)

[ysobel]

hee yay \o/

(This is one that I do have cyrillic for but it's blurry enough to be pretty much useless.)


Reche mama da me zheni (hej, ix mori nane - this occurs repeatedly; filler?)
vchera reche dneska neche
Pa me dava na gyulgerche
Ya gyulgerche nechem

Che gyulger e kato pepel (this is petel in the cyrillic but got corrected in rehearsal)
Ot greda na greda
Pa me dava na bakalche
Ya bakalche nechem

Che bakal e kato mishka
Ot sanduk na sanduk (this is the ъ vowel, not proper u)
Sedi mama pa se chudi
komu da me dade

Pa me dava na gajdarche
Ya gajdarche sakam
On che sviri ya che igram
Pa che si se pogodime

[pthalo]

hmm. is the "ch" in "ch"e pronounced like in English or is more like a ky sound?

[ysobel]

We've been doing it as in English. (cyrillic, for whatever it's worth, has чe)

[pthalo]

Google's saying Bulgarian for „рече мама да ме жени“

but they're so close... I can understand most of it..

The first bit would be the same in Macedonian, but днеска is Bulgarian and денеска is Macedonian (for today)

and нечем is also Bulgarian, and so is като, which means for.

от is "from" in Bulgarian, the Macedonian would be од. Macedonian doesn't have ъ in writing, though some vowels are reduced to it in colloquial speech.

сакам isn't in the Bulgarian online dictionary I've been using, and it is a Macedonian word, but it might be used in some parts of Bulgarian, near the border I guess. I don't know.


And yeah, "hej ih mori nane" is filler :)

But with my knowledge of Macedonian I understand:

My mom said she'll marry me off
yesterday she said it, but today she won't (I'm guessing нече is won't. It's не ќе in macedonian, and ne će in Serbian)
But she'll give me to gyulgerche
I don't want gyulgerche

that gyulger is like ash
from ___ to ____
but she'll give me to bakalche
I don't want bakalche

that bakal is like a mouse
from ____ to ____
mom sits down and wonders
who to give me to

well she give me to gajdarche
I love gajdarche
he will play and i will dance
and we'll guess? somethingsomething :)

[pthalo]

okay, i asked a Bulgarian friend and this is her answer:

Драга моја другарице Птало лол тази песен вероятно е от Шопска област или Пиринско, където в местния диалект също ползват "сакам", просто защото Пирин например е много близо до Македония... но "сакам" не е официално българска дума.Българските думи за всички значения на "сакам" са:

искам - to want
харесвам - to like
обичам - to love

My dear friend Pthalo lol that song is likely from Shopska region or Pirinsko, where there is a mixing of dialects similarly using "sakam", simply because Pirin for example is very close to Macedonija... but "sakam" isn't an official Bulgarian word. Bulgarian words with similar meaning to "sakam" are:

iskam - i want
haresvam - i like
obicham - i love