Learn about some Bulgarian false friends
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Intro |
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| Michael: What are some false friends in Bulgarian? |
| Yana: And what are some words that are often used incorrectly? |
| Michael: At BulgarianPod101.com, we hear these questions often. Imagine the following situation: Lidiya is telling her friend Ben about her family. Ben is surprised to hear one familiar word she uses. Lidiya says |
| "My ‘brother' is very nice." |
| Lidiya Angelova: Брат ми е много добър. (Brat mi e mnogo dobar.) |
| Dialogue |
| Lidiya Angelova: Брат ми е много добър. (Brat mi e mnogo dobar.) |
| Ben Lee: Брат?! (Brat?!) |
| Michael: Once more with the English translation. |
| Lidiya Angelova: Брат ми е много добър. |
| Michael: "My ‘brother' is very nice." |
| Ben Lee: Брат?! |
| Michael: "Brat?!" |
Lesson focus |
| Michael: In this lesson, we will talk about false friends. But, don't worry, we won't give you a lecture on who you should hang out with or not. The term false friends or, in Bulgarian, |
| Yana: фалшиви приятели (falshivi priyateli) |
| Michael: is an informal term in linguistics used to describe words that have a similar sound but convey different meanings. The term itself was used by linguists for the first time in 1928. The origin of such words are sometimes similar, but they ended up conveying different meanings within each language. |
| In the main conversation, Ben Lee seems to confuse the word for "brother" with the English brat, as in "spoiled brat." He gets actually confused by a Bulgarian false friend. Do you remember how Lidiya says "My ‘brother' is very nice." |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Yana: Брат ми е много добър. (Brat mi e mnogo dobar.) [SLOW] Брат ми е много добър. |
| Michael: "brother" in Bulgarian translates as |
| Yana: Брат (brat), |
| Michael: which is very similar to the English word "brat." |
| [Summary] |
| Michael: In this lesson, you've learned that hearing a familiar word in Bulgarian doesn't mean that you will understand the meaning of it, due to the phenomenon of the so-called "false friends"—words that may be written or sound the same way as their English counterparts but have a completely different meaning. |
| Now, let's look at some more examples. |
| Michael: The first is |
| Yana: дай (day) |
| Michael: This sounds similar to the English "die," but it actually means "give me," The Bulgarian word for "die" is |
| Yana: умирам (umiram) |
| Michael: The next false friend is |
| Yana: дроб (drob) |
| Michael: When pronounced, it sounds like "drop." similar to the English "drop," but it actually may refer to "liver" or "lung" The Bulgarian word for "drop" is |
| Yana: изпускам (izpuskam) |
| Michael: Next up is |
| Yana: хол (hol) |
| Michael: This word is similar to the English "hall," but it actually means "living room." The Bulgarian word for "hall" is |
| Yana: зала (zala) |
| Michael: Another false friend is |
| Yana: джоб (dzhob) |
| Michael: This word is similar to the English "job," but it actually means "pocket." The Bulgarian for "job" is |
| Yana: работа (rabota) |
| Michael: Here's the next one: |
| Yana: стол (stol). |
| Michael: This word is similar to the English "stall," but it actually may mean "chair" or "canteen," The Bulgarian for "stall" is |
| Yana: щанд (shtand) |
| Michael: Another false friend is. |
| Yana: роб (rob) |
| Michael: This word is similar to the English "rob," but it actually means "slave." The Bulgarian for "rob" is |
| Yana: ограбвам (ograbvam). |
| Michael: And, the last one is |
| Yana: сит (sit). |
| Michael: This word is similar to the English "sit," but it actually means "full" as in "having eaten too much," The Bulgarian for "sit" is |
| Yana: сядам (syadam). |
| Expansion |
| Michael: Besides false friends, we can observe one more thing in Bulgarian. You might hear many words that definitely have a modern English origin but that might either not make much sense to you or have no meaning at all. That's because Bulgarian adapted some English words, changing their original meanings. |
| Let's have a look at some of those words and their meanings! The first is |
| Yana: плейбек (pleibek). |
| Michael: This word doesn't exist in English, but, in Bulgarian, it indicates "lip-sync." Another example is |
| Yana: смокинг (smoking), |
| Michael: meaning a "tuxedo." That's right, "wearing a smoking" is not a slang term for smoking tobacco in Bulgarian. It's a tuxedo and a pretty common way to dress on formal occasions. |
| Cultural Insight |
| Michael: We've mentioned that the Bulgarian language has a Slavonic origin, as well as other languages such as Russian, Serbian, Polish, and Czech. Although these languages have a common origin, they developed differently, and words that sound exactly the same, may have totally different meanings. Here are a few examples: |
| Yana: майка (mayka) |
| Michael: It means "mother" in Bulgarian and "T-shirt" in Russian; |
| Yana: вреден (vreden) |
| Michael: It means "harmful" in Bulgarian and "worthy" in Serbian; |
| Yana: часовник (chasovnik) |
| Michael: It means "a watch, a clock" in Bulgarian and "a verb" in Polish. |
Outro |
| Michael: Do you have any more questions? We're here to answer them! |
| Yana: До скоро! |
| Michael: See you soon! |
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