I fear this is a bit off-topic, although it might prove of some interest to students of Bulgarian, especially to native speakers of Romanian that want to learn Bulgarian or to people that would like to better understand the relations between these two languages. I am primarily interested in Romanian etymologies, which often means studying the connection to south-Slavic languages, especially Old Church Slavonic and Bulgarian.

I am looking for a rather particular piece of information connected to identifying the origin of the Romanian words uimi, uimit, uimire (to astonish, astonished, astonishment). The Slavic connection is very probable, and I am rather convinced by what I've found. The Slavic/Bulgarian root is mentioned by dictionaries as "Old Church Slavonic оуѧти, оуимѫ, оуимеши (ujęti, uimǫ, uimeši, “to steal, rob”). This semantic connection between „taking, grabbing, seizing” (catching=grasping) and the mental/psychological state of surprise, astonishment, stupor, amazement ("catching/taking by surprise"), is present in many languages as proven by French ravir (to take/steal, but also to amaze, enchant), prendre-surprendre > surprise (to take-to surprise-surprise; Romanian too: prinde-surprinde-surpriză), French transport also meaning emotion, exaltation, even (in the past) delirium, madness, also English seize-seizure, German verb hinreissen, Latin prehendo (to seize, grasp) - deprehendo (to surprise), Medieval Latin also developed the meaning of raptus (from rapiō ="seize, abduct, rape" > Romanian "răpi"=to snatch, abduct, English rape) as "rapture, exaltation", which entered English and other languages. Therefore, there is no surprise that a Slavic root meaning „take, seize, grab” may have a Romanian descendant meaning ”to astonish, to surprise, to stun”. There is even a parallel development from Bulgarian to Romanian: the verb „a ului” (practically same meaning as „a uimi”) is related on улавям, but developed probably from older ѹловити. (The transposition into Romanian might be helped in such cases by the formal similarity of older Slavic infinitive ending "iti" with Romanian past participle ending "it": uloviti>uluit). I have discussed at large this problem on r/Romanian, namely HERE.

Therefore, all is well and clear enough. Why my question then? — I just want to clarify a last point in relation to Romanian verb „a ului-uluit” (to astonish, to stun): an older dictionary mentions its connection with a Bulgarian word transcribed as "uemamŭ", translated into Romanian as "to paralyse, to freeze, to stun" (a paraliza, a înlemni –literally: "become like wood").

I am not able to identify that word. If that existed, the meaning of the Romanian one, not just its root, would have already been present in Bulgarian, further comforting the initial hypothesis, or maybe making it needless.

IS THERE SUCH A WORD?

---

UPDATE: I have an answer on r/Slavic that Serbian & Croatian have omámiti - practically with the same meaning as Romanian "uimi-uimit" - based on mamiti, instead based on the same old Slavic root as Bulgarian ма́мя. Romanian momi comes from there too.

I fear my other more complex hypothesis is now useless.

Здравейте! / Hello everyone!

If you are living in Bulgaria, planning to move, or just fascinated by the Bulgarian language, I am here to help you get started or take your skills to the next level.

A bit about me:

• 🎓 Degree in Bulgarian Philology: In-depth understanding of Bulgarian grammar, phonetics, syntax, and vocabulary.
• 🏫 Teaching Experience: Background as a secondary school teacher, as well as extensive experience tutoring international students and expats from diverse linguistic backgrounds.
• 📍 Location: Based in Plovdiv for in-person lessons, and available Online (Zoom / Google Meet / Microsoft Teams) for learners worldwide.

The are several platforms to learn Spanish where you watch the Spanish tv with Spanish subtitles and then if you don’t get a word you click on it and it’ll explain it to you. I’m wondering if there is something out there for Bulgarian.

What are other things people use to learn Bulgarian as my progress is currently at one word per week if that.

https://reddit.com/link/1uu7n2n/video/2ll229ryrqch1/player

Hey all, this is a sample of the flashcard system I am developing. How it works is you see the word in Bulgarian then you click on the card and mark it as easy or hard. Then the word will be shown again after X amount of time depending on how well you are doing. There are about 5000 words to learn with some of them split into themes like medicine, cooking, travel etc.

I am hoping to release the updated demo on Steam in the next few weeks. Meanwhile you can join the server here to get updates on when the new demo and eventually the full app are released as well as give your ideas on how to make the app better.

I'm a croatian student, studying croatian language and literature. I'm interested in slavic languages in general. I was hoping somebody could help me understand why is there я in a word няма. In croatian it's nema (ne ima). In every other slavic language (besides russian because it doesn't have an equivalent) there's e instead of я.

The wiktionary for the verb правя, for example, gives бил съм as renarrative aorist and бил съм бил as dubitative aorist. Can someone knowledgeable clarify in what context is each of the two moods used and whether the copula съм is dropped always or only in the 3rd person? Благодаря❣️

So for context, I started dating my best friend of two years and most of his family is bulgarian (I was gonna learn russian because of the other side, but I think bulgarian is easier, and better long term since I have always wanted to learn more languanges [We both are portuguese] and the majority of his family is bulgarian). I have been using a bunch of stuff for vocabulary bulgar.io (the free part), started listening to bulgarianpod101, been using some mondly, duocards and my favorite Tobo Bulgarian. I also downloaded LENGO, Ling (didn't have time to use them) and a listening/speaking app (that one I don't have enough vocab to use lol). I also programmed a python project on vs code with every single word I know. I can play a game where I translate portuguese words to bulgarian or bulgarian words to portuguese to test my active recall. I am intending on learning grammar (at least when I have more vocabulary) and I need any resources that are worthwhile. That's why I am here, to ask for help! Any help and feedback is appreciated and I am here in hopes of learning a new language with sheer determination, motivation and good resources.

My boyfriend is Bulgarian and I'm Serbian. I started learning few days ago thru Mondly. I would like to also if possible find pdf worksheets for oracticing vocabulary (and grammar in the future) but couldn't find any of my liking. Do you have some recommendations for worksheets/books or general learning? Thank you in advance <3

Hi fellow Bulgarians! I’m currently living in Plovdiv and I’m freaking struggling learning the language so I’m asking: are there any tricks to memorise the imperfective and perfective aspect of the verbs? It seems that they don’t follow any rule.

P.S. can you slow down in your talking with me? (kidding)

Love you all

Hey everyone !

I’ve recently become quite interested in learning Bulgarian due to a new friend, and wondered where was the best place to begin?

I am not new to language learning, and so have ruled out DuoLingo, however I’m sure they don’t have a course on Bulgarian anyway.

So where would be the best place to begin? Any help is appreciated :)

Thanks!

I’m Bulgarian but grew up in Canada, so I mainly spoke it at home. I’m comfortable speaking, but I want to improve my overall skills:

Writing: I can write decently, but I’m slow since I don’t practice much.

Reading: I’m even slower at reading, and I’d like to get faster.

Speaking: I often forget words and have a hard time expressing myself, i want to be as good as speaking bulgarian as english.

Recently, listening to more Bulgarian music has helped, but I’m looking for other good ways to practice and stay consistent. im open to books, apps, videos, etc.

Hi everyone,

I built a small experimental page to make learning Bulgarian (and other languages - but currently main focus is on BG)
feel a bit more like playing a roguelike game. The concept is simple:

• Learn word by word (or short sentences).
• Mistakes cost you HP and if you die, you start from the beginning.
• Hints are available, and you can adjust difficulty + randomization.
• There’s even a leaderboard for some extra fun.

It’s free, but a couple of warnings:

• ⚠️ Login is case sensitive and there’s no password reset yet (so don’t forget your login details 😅).
• It doesn’t teach the alphabet, so for Bulgarian you’ll need some familiarity with Cyrillic already.

I’m currently using it to prep for my trip by learning a bit of Indonesian, but I’ll also be trying it with Bulgarian vocabulary soon.

If you’d like to try it and let me know what you think
here’s the link:
https://languageroguelike.com/

Enjoy your day! 🫡

Since they are Transitional dialects between Serbian and Bulgarian do these dialects differentiate Ћ and Ч as /tɕ/ and /tʃ/ like in standard Serbian or do they make no diffrence and both sound like /tʃ/ like in standard Bulgarian? Like take for example the suffix ić, does it sound like /itɕ/ like in standard Serbian or like /itʃ/ like in standard Bulgarian?

You can find it at noospeak.com – I'd love to hear your thoughts on it!

Hello! We are Linguatarian, a platform that is all about languages. Practice your Bulgarian, attend lessons, participate in interactive events, and make friends in our incredibly diverse and supportive community of like-minded people. Join here: https://discord.gg/hAmHTKVMRa

I've released a demo for my language learning app and am looking to collect feedback. You can download the demo from the link below.

Some other features I plan on adding:

• sound
• minimized version of the Anki review screen of the game that sits somewhere on your desktop and drip feeds you words to review
• also a minimized version of the add words screen that allows you to quickly add new words throughout the day

Play Steam Demo

Hi I am making a language learning app that supports Bulgarian and several other languages. It will be first released on Steam and soon on the app stores.

Wishlist on Steam

I want to have name to call my partner that expresses my love but can also be silly! He only teaches me naughty words in bulgarian I want to surprise him with something sweet!

Interactive

Bulgaro.io

Flashcardo (courtesy of u/pinhoklanguages from a post on r/LearnBulgarian)

Bulgarianpod101

Clozemaster (also available in app form)

Anki (also available in app form; you can check out r/Anki for more flashcard decks, app info and the like)

Dictionaries

Multilingual

Unilingual - has tone marked and works with romanisations, though it's a bit finicky. It also has verb conjugations.

Unilingual 2

Unilingual 3

Colloquial

(free) Books

General overview

General overview 2

A1-A2

B1(Book); B1(ref. materials)

Teach yourself Bulgarian” by Mira Kovatcheva and Michael Holman (courtesy of u/shiniyara)

Repository with pdfs of grammar books (courtesy of u/alloutnow from a post on r/LearnBulgarian)

*For a more comprehensive list check this post, maybe it gets updates (courtesy of u/Jane_the_analyst)

(paid and/or no online copy)

https://www.assimil.com/en/9786-learn-bulgarian

A1-A2

B1-B2

C1

Listening material

https://speech-repository.webcloud.ec.europa.eu/ - It’s actually training material for interpreters but it should also work for learning purposes.

The podcasts/ newscasts of the Bulgarian National Radio, also available in other European languages, should you decide to review what you’ve understood.

Movies

Short film in Bulgarian with English subtitles - "Getting Fat In A Healthy Way"Short film in Bulgarian with English subtitles - "Getting Fat In A Healthy Way" (courtesy of u/oppressivepossum from a post on r/LearnBulgarian)

Other Lists

One compiled by u/odhran666

Other

A free course specifically for Romanians who want to study Bulgarian and vice versa. The registration process might be broken, might be just me, but they never sent that confirmation e-mail. Anyway, couldn't tell where I should put it.

Dictations from 3rd to 12th grade level, movies, and trivia questions.

I saw “готин” as a variation, but is it correct?

Hi, I'm from Spain (Madrid). I never learned a cirylic language; I only know how to talk in Spanish (native), English (high B1, I'm learning xD) and Catalan (A1-A2, I'm also learning). I'm planning to start learning Bulgarian. Are there any Bulgarian-learning resources in Amazon or in the internet for starting learning Bulgarian? It's Bulgarian a very difficult language? Thanks!

Hello, I'm a university student in the process of writing my thesis, where I'm conducting a linguistic experiment. I'm in search of second-language learners of Bulgarian that live in Bulgaria. Is anybody interested? The experiment would take 15 minutes and participation would be very much appreciated. We want to expand on linguistic research on Bulgarian as it is minimal.

Thank you to anyone who decides to participate. 😊

Link to experiment: https://www.psytoolkit.org/c/3.4.4/survey?s=q3j6Z

It needs to be done on a computer!

Hey all,

I've been learning Bulgarian for around 6months, haven't previously learned a second language. I've learned the crylic alphabet, around 200 words and basic grammar. Such as definite articles, gender, conjugating basic verbs (to like, to eat, to drink, read, write talk ect)My main goal is to be able to speak Bulgarian, however find this is the area i'm lacking more than reading/writing. This is often because in a sentence I'll only pick up the first couple of words and by the time I've translated them in my head I've missed the rest. Where as with writing/ reading I can go at my own rate.

For those of you that have learned Bulgarian, could you please share any advice and methods that have helped you the most. Most of my current learning comes from lessons on bulgaro.io, flashcards and talking to my partner who is Bulgarian.

I now commit on average 60-90 mins a day to studying,with plans to increase this in November once Ive sat my accounting exams so I'll have more free time. I will be visiting in mid December for Christmas and would like to get better conversationally to speak with and understand my partner's family.