Learn how to use the narrative mood to talk about changes
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Eric: Hi everyone, and welcome back to BulgarianPod101.com. This is Intermediate Season 1 Lesson 22 - Is Your Bulgarian Friend Being Sneaky? Eric Here. |
| Tina: Здравейте. I'm Tina. |
| Eric: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to discuss changes using the narrative mood. The conversation takes place in a restaurant. |
| Tina: It's between Andrey and Rositsa. |
| Eric: The speakers are friends, so they will use informal Bulgarian. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Андрей: (към сервитьор) Засега това ще бъде всичко, благодаря. |
| Росица: Кажи сега, какво беше това по телефона за Димитър и Гергана. |
| Андрей: Ами, напоследък Димитър нещо все няма време дори за една бира. Започна нещо да ме съмнява... |
| Росица: Дам, и аз, като се чуя с Гергана, все е изморена, работи до късно... |
| Андрей: Не знам до колко късно работи. Дойде при мен в кабинета, имаше малко проблем, нищо сериозно. |
| Росица: Е, добре. Радвам се да го чуя. |
| Андрей: И така съвсем небрежно спомена, че Димитър я бил взел след работа... |
| Росица: А, не ми е споменавала на мен скоро да са се виждали. |
| Андрей: На мен ми звучеше, като че ли не е за първи път, и така, случайно... |
| Росица: Я виж ти, колко интересно... Ще трябва да я видя аз тази работа... |
| Андрей: Е, недей пък сега и ти да вземеш да разпитваш... |
| Eric: Listen to the conversation with the English translation |
| Andrey: (noises from a dining place, to the waiter) This will be all for now, thank you. |
| Rositsa: Tell me now, what was that you mentioned on the phone about Dimitar and Gergana. |
| Andrey: Well, recently, Dimitar does not have time even for a beer. I started to suspect something's going on... |
| Rositsa: Yup, me also, when I call Gergana, she always feels tired, works late... |
| Andrey: I do not know how late she works. She came to me at the office, she had a small problem, nothing to worry about. |
| Rositsa: Okay. I am glad to hear it. |
| Andrey: And quite casually she mentioned, that Dimitar had picked her up after work... |
| Rositsa: Well, she didn’t mention to me that they had seen each other recently. |
| Andrey: It sounded to me as if it were not for the first time, and not by chance... |
| Rositsa: Well, well, how interesting... I should check what is going on... |
| Andrey: Well, you, don't start to ask questions now... |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Eric: Tina, as we mentioned in other lessons, Bulgarians talk readily about personal matters even to strangers or to new acquaintances. Can you tell us more about this? |
| Tina: In general, elderly people and people who live in the countryside are much more ready to ask and to answer personal questions, while people in the bigger cities are growing more distant, but if you discover a common interest, then it’s not difficult to become intimate. |
| Eric: Are there any taboo questions we should be aware of? |
| Tina: The taboo questions are quite limited. Like in other countries, it is rude to ask a woman how old she is; and also, intimate questions or about political affiliation. |
| Eric: So what is something from a foreigner’s perspective that could seem upsetting? |
| Tina: It’s better to know that Bulgarians often make sexual jokes, even at the workplace. |
| Eric: So that means you shouldn’t worry too much about these. |
| Tina: Right, we could say that Bulgarians have a “southern temperament” or южняшки темперамент |
| Eric: Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Eric: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Tina: съмнявам се [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to doubt, to suspect |
| Tina: съмнявам се[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Tina: съмнявам се [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Tina: изморен [natural native speed] |
| Eric: tired |
| Tina: изморен[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Tina: изморен [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Tina: кабинет [natural native speed] |
| Eric: doctor's office, (consulting) room |
| Tina: кабинет[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Tina: кабинет [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Tina: проблем [natural native speed] |
| Eric: problem, issue |
| Tina: проблем[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Tina: проблем [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Tina: сериозен [natural native speed] |
| Eric: serious |
| Tina: сериозен[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Tina: сериозен [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Tina: небрежен [natural native speed] |
| Eric: casual, careless |
| Tina: небрежен[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Tina: небрежен [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Tina: случайно [natural native speed] |
| Eric: accidentally, by chance |
| Tina: случайно[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Tina: случайно [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Tina: трябва да [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to have to, should |
| Tina: трябва да[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Tina: трябва да [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Tina: вземам [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to take |
| Tina: вземам[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Tina: вземам [natural native speed] |
| Eric: And last.. |
| Tina: разпитвам [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to question, to inquire about |
| Tina: разпитвам[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Tina: разпитвам [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Eric: Let's have a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first phrase is.. |
| Tina: все нямам време |
| Eric: meaning "to have no time" |
| Tina: все is an adverb with various meanings like "always,” “still,” and “yet", нямам is the verb "to not have", and време is the noun "time." The adverb все gives this phrase a specific connotation. It might express either regret or slight accusation if the speaker talks about someone else. |
| Eric: Can you give an example for both cases? |
| Tina: Все нямам време да обърна внимание на нещата, които са важни за мен. |
| Eric: which means "I still have no time to pay attention to the things that are important to me." |
| Tina:Те все нямат време да обърнат внимание на детето си. |
| Eric:which means "They never have time to pay attention to their child." |
| Tina: The phrase is colloquial and in a more formal context, it’s better to use: не успявам да намеря време за |
| Eric: ..which means “to not manage to find time to do something” |
| Eric: Okay, what's the next word? |
| Tina: разпитвам |
| Eric: meaning "to make inquiries, to question, to interrogate " |
| Tina: this is an imperfective verb |
| Eric: Can you give us an example using it? |
| Tina: Sure. For example, you can say.. Те го питаха и разпитваха, но не успяха да го накарат да издаде каква е изненадата. |
| Eric: .. which means "They asked him all sorts of questions, but could not make him spill out what the surprise would be." |
| Tina: The verb can be used in a more formal way meaning when someone is asking a lot of questions, for example if a detective is asking questions, like in Прокурорът искаше да разпита повече свидетели. |
| Eric: "The prosecutor wanted to question more witnesses." Okay, now onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Eric: In this lesson, you'll learn how to discuss changes using the narrative mood. |
| Tina: When telling a story or retelling a past event in Bulgarian, there are two possible viewpoints. |
| Eric: The first is as if you witnessed the events themselves, and the other is as if you were not present at the events. The second situation is described using the so-called inferential or renarrative mood, which is typical for the Balkan languages. When translated into English, the difference between the direct and indirect narration is lost. For example, the English statement “He came to pick her up after work yesterday” can be used to translate two narrative sentences from Bulgarian. |
| Tina: Right, the indirect narrative is Той минал да я вземе вчера след работа. |
| Eric: literally “It is said that he came to pick her up after work yesterday.” |
| Tina: The direct narrative way is Той мина да я вземе вчера след работа. |
| Eric: In the dialogue they talk about something that one of the participants has witnessed, so the past tenses are used. |
| Tina: Right, but when the narrator has not witnessed or expresses slight hesitation and doubt, they switch to the renarrative mood. Here is the sentence И така съвсем небрежно спомена, че Димитър я бил взел след работа… |
| Eric: which means “And quite casually she mentioned, that Dimitar had picked her up after work…” Ok, let’s now talk about the L-participle. The L-participle is used to form the perfectum, renarrative and conditional moods in Bulgarian, or as an adjective. |
| Tina: It is generally formed from the first person singular past aorist tensе form by substituting the last letter -x with -л. |
| Eric: Can you give us an example? |
| Tina: минах, which is the aorist and means “I came by/passed by” becomes минал. |
| Eric: Does this form change for the feminine and neuter? |
| Tina: The L-participle endings in feminine, neuter, and plural are respectively: -лa, -лo, -ли. Considering the same example, we can have минал - минала - минало - минали |
| Eric: Can you use it in a sentence? |
| Tina: Той минал покрай магазина, но не забелязал счупения прозорец. |
| Eric: “He passed by the shop, but did not notice the broken window.” Now that we know about the L-participle we can see the renarrative mood for the tenses that we have already introduced in other lessons. |
| Tina: As we have already mentioned in another lesson, there are four past tenses in the Bulgarian language, as well as a fifth one which indicates a past event, the present perfect. |
| Eric: All these tenses can be transferred in renarrative mood by changing the main or auxiliary verbs with their L-participle form. Let’s take a look at how the change happens. |
| Tina: Here is a sentence with the past tense, Той беше в кухнята, когато телефонът иззвъня. |
| Eric: meaning “Не was in the kitchen, when the phone rang.” |
| Tina: With the L-participle in the renarrative mood, it becomes Той бил в кухнята, когато телефонът иззвънял. беше changed into бил and иззвъня into иззвънял |
| Eric: Let’s consider some lines from the dialogue in this lesson, and see how they would be reported if someone would retell the conversation. |
| Tina: In the dialogue we have Ами, напоследък Димитър нещо все няма време дори за една бира. Започна нещо да ме съмнява… |
| Eric: Which means “Well, recently, Dimitar does not have time even for a beer. I started to suspect something's going on…” |
| Tina: in the renarrative mood, it becomes Ами, напоследък Димитър нещо все нямал време дори за една бира. Започнал нещо да го съмнява… |
| Eric: In English the translation doesn’t change. |
| Tina: Notice that we also switched from the 1st person singular to the third person singular. Another example from the dialogue is Не знам до колко късно работи. Дойде при мен в кабинета, имаше малък проблем, нищо сериозно. |
| Eric: which means “I do not know what time she works until. She came to me at the office, she had a small problem, nothing to worry about.” |
| Tina: In the narrated version, it becomes Не знаел до колко късно работи. Дошла при него в кабинета, имала малък проблем, нищо сериозно. |
| Eric: The translation also doesn’t change in this case. |
Outro |
| Eric: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. Thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye! |
| Tina: До скоро! |
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