First topic message reminder :

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Following on from Netsniper's list of useful words, I thought we could take a look at learning the alphabet along with a bit of reading and writing practice.

Not only is Bulgarian a new language to learn for foreigners but for most it is a new alphabet too! Strange symbols appear before your eyes and to add to the confusion, shops and road signs use a mix of Latin and Cyrillic alphabets.

If any Bulgaria Forum member intends to learn the Bulgarian language, then my advice would be to first learn the Cyrillic alphabet. This alphabet is also used in Belaruse, Macedonia, Russia, Serbia and Ukraine.

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It is widely believed that the alphabet was 'invented' by the brothers Saint Cyril and Saint Methodius (pictured above) in the early part of the 9th century - however, much controversy still exists with regards the exact origins. It is more likely that it was developed in northeastern Bulgaria, where the oldest Cyrillic inscriptions have been found, some dating back to the 940's.

Try and make the time to study the alphabet and sounds ... it will make every trip to Bulgaria so much easier! After some practice with the table below you may be surprised to learn that you can read, write and speak a few Bulgarian words ... try it out in the exercises later on ... good luck!

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Bulgarian is a phonetic language. The sounds of the letters are at the same time the names of the letters. Do not try and 'remember' letters as "
the backwards R"
, or "
the weird P"
as this will really result in great confusion later! Unlike English, the sounds of "
yu"
and "
ya"
are represented by a single letter each. The same applies for "
sh"
and "
sht"
.

The Bulgarian "
E"
is always pronounced as in "
Elephant"
, never be tempted to pronounce it like an English "
e"
as in "
eel"
.

The "
R"
sound is a rolling "
R"
and distinctly pronounced.

Don't be intimidated by this strange looking alphabet! Once you get over this barrier, you'll discover you can read signs, menus and understand some words).

If you have spent some time studying the appearance and sounds of the cyrillic alphabet as pictured above, you should be able to read, write and even understand the following words:

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And now, try and read the following Bulgarian words?:

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How did you do?

You should have read them as:
lev (the national currency of Bulgaria), zima (winter), tuk (here), tam (there), tatko (dad), mama (mum), dzhena (woman), mudzh (man), kola (car), bira (beer), vino (wine), ivan (a Man's name), georgi (a Man's name), ivanka (a Woman's name), milena (a Woman's name).

Please continue to practice these basic exercises until you are confident you can read and understand all the words ... then move on to some useful basic phrases.


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How did you do?

You should have read them as:
Dobur Den (Good Day)
Dobur Vecher (Good Evening)
Leka Nosht (Good Night)
Kak Ste? (How are you?)
Az sum dobre, i vie? (I'm fine, and you?)
Kak se kazvash? (What is your name?)
Kazvam se ... (My name is ...)
Pryatno mi e (Pleased to meet you)
Otkude si? (Where are you from?)
Az sum ot ... (I am from ...)
Angliya (England)
Uels (Wales)
Shotlandia (Scotland)
Irlandia (Ireland)
Velikobritania (Great Britain)
Nie sme ot ... (We are from ...)
Blagodarya (Thank You)
Molya (Please)
Ciao (Ciao!)
Doskoro! (See you soon!)

Congratulations ... you can now read, write, speak and understand some Bulgarian!

Here are the numbers one to ten, try and read them in cyrillic and say them out loud:

едно / две / три / четири / пет / шест / седем / осем / девет / десет

edno / dve / tri / chetiri / pet / shest / sedem / osem / devet / deset 

Now ... this will take some time to practice, however, once you feel confident with the alphabet and you can read the words here, let me know and I'll post some more advanced words and phrases along with an introduction to gender, tenses, etc.

DoSkoro!
Chris

mechta wrote:

where do u get the christams icons from?

If you look at the icons on the right you will see some text at the bottom that says "
View more smilies"
click that and you will see there are 4 pages hope this helps you :Xmas1: :Xmas2: :Snow window: :Xmas3: :Xmas4:

mickhev wrote:

There is an easy way to learn the alphabet remember how you learned at school

hahahaha no no noooo i don't even know the english alphabet from that song, i have no idea if m or n comes first

the bulgarian alphabet is learned with many writing and reading. Just open a random bulgarian site and start reading and re-writing the texts. Try to do that 2-3 days and you`ll learn it :)

I've tried that in the past and it didn't work for me I think maybe I'm too old now

Nikolay wrote:

the bulgarian alphabet is learned with many writing and reading. Just open a random bulgarian site and start reading and re-writing the texts. Try to do that 2-3 days and you`ll learn it :)

No, I have to know what I am writing about so it does not work for me either.

Oddy

Hi Chris, thanks for the lessons, it was a very good starter. I see that it is now discontinued? It will be very helpful if you can come up with more phrases or basic information about the tenses. Thank you for this post.

neo.bg wrote:

Hi Chris, thanks for the lessons, it was a very good starter. I see that it is now discontinued? It will be very helpful if you can come up with more phrases or basic information about the tenses. Thank you for this post.

I will create a series of lessons just bare with me :)

You have many mistakes in this:сЪм,not сУм;
Януари,not Яануари;
мЪж,not муж [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

АзСъмОтБългария wrote:

You have many mistakes in this:сЪм,not сУм;
Януари,not Яануари;
мЪж,not муж [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Be nice, I'm English [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

I wouldn't dream of pointing out mistakes in your English!

I say, it's better to make an effort and try, than not to try at all.

Besides, now we have all you Bulgarian's on the forum, then I don't need to worry, as I'm sure you'll all take over the language lessons from me.

It's o.ok!And I know,that i make many mistakes in english

mechta wrote:

neo.bg wrote:

Hi Chris, thanks for the lessons, it was a very good starter. I see that it is now discontinued? It will be very helpful if you can come up with more phrases or basic information about the tenses. Thank you for this post.

I will create a series of lessons just bare with me :)

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] Looking forward to it.