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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| sheetz Senior Member United States Joined 6375 days ago 270 posts - 356 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, French, Mandarin | Message 17 of 26 29 October 2007 at 9:47pm | IP Logged | ||
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Is Russian really that far removed linguistically from Bulgarian? According to various articles I've read, including this website's transparency chart,
http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/e/languages/similaritie s/russian/index.html it appears to be close enough that you certainly could use it as a springboard to Bulgarian if you wished. I don't suppose your wife's family speak any Russian, do they? Edited by sheetz on 29 October 2007 at 9:49pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| jody Senior Member United States Joined 6236 days ago 242 posts - 252 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Russian, Bulgarian | Message 18 of 26 29 October 2007 at 10:25pm | IP Logged | ||
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Considering I don't yet speak either Russian or Bulgarian, I can't exactly know how close they are. I just know that they're not as close as I thought. Say, for example, not as close as Bulgarian and Serbian. They share a lot of words. But it seems to me that their grammars are quite different.
I do agree, however, that knowing Russian would help in learning Bulgarian later. As another member learned in a related thread regarding Russian and Ukrainian:
But insert Bulgarian instead of Ukrainian. As for my wife's family speaking Russian. None of them really speak Russian. But most everybody had to study Russian during communism, so they can understand it to some extent. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Julie Heptaglot Senior Member PolandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6901 days ago 1251 posts - 1733 votes 5 sounds Speaks: Polish*, EnglishB2, GermanC2, SpanishB2, Dutch, Swedish, French | Message 19 of 26 30 October 2007 at 5:40am | IP Logged | ||
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As far as the similarities between languages are concerned, it's important to remember that there're three groups of Slavic languages: West, East and South. Russian is a East Slavic language and Ukrainian as well so they're not so different. Bulgarian is a South Slavic language and the difference is here bigger. The Bulgarian grammar differs from other Slavic languages' grammars: there are articles (which usually don't exist in Slavic languages), four past tenses (such distinction disappeared in most of Slavic languages), there's no declination (that is a typical feature of Slavic languages). I have no experience with learning Bulgarian but I guess it should be easier than Russian for an average native speaker of Germanic or Romance languages - specially because of the lack of declination.
As far as I know Bulgarians are able to understand Russian pretty well because of the language similarities (which doesn't mean you're going to be able to understand Bulgarian with knowledge of Russian). However, I wouldn't overestimate the obligatory studying Russian - in most of countries where there was such an obligation many people have a strong aversion to this language and sometimes even pretend not to understand it. On the other hand, the young generation doesn't learn Russian anymore, and the older generations have forgotten most of what they had learnt. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| jody Senior Member United States Joined 6236 days ago 242 posts - 252 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Russian, Bulgarian | Message 20 of 26 30 October 2007 at 11:16am | IP Logged | ||
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I agree, Bulgarian seems to be a bit easier. The declination is particularly difficult in Russian. And I don't think that it's obligitory to study Russian before Bulgarian. But if i stopped there, I'd at least have a more useful and widespread language.
Several people here have mentioned the hostility toward Russian, mainly because of the oppression that many countries faced during communism. This is not so marked in Bulgaria as, say, Poland or Lithuania. But how important is this idea of the hostility or aversion to the Russian language nowadays? All in all, I think I'll go with Russian. I have more materials and help from the online communities, and the language will be more widespread. From there I will probably tackle Bulgarian. Or Thai. Or Icelandic. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 7154 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes 20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish | Message 21 of 26 30 October 2007 at 11:53am | IP Logged | ||
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I'd be careful about considering Bulgarian being easier than Russian as it depends on what your strengths and weaknesses are, as well as what interests you more.
If we look strictly at features, here are some that stand out: Bulgarian - virtually no declension outside a few words and some pronouns (similar to English and French) - elaborate conjugations as modern Bulgarian has more tenses and moods than other Slavonic languages. - variable stress (the stress of a word may vary from one inflection/conjugation to the next and is not marked in spelling - you'll need to learn it by "feel" or lots of practice) Russian - declension is relatively elaborate as there are between 6 and 8 cases, depending on how you analyze the language - conjugations have simplified compared to Old Russian, as most of the old tenses have fallen out of use or reanalyzed to a certain extent by the use of verbal aspect. - variable stress (the stress of a word may vary from one inflection/conjugation to the next and is not marked in spelling - you'll need to learn it by "feel" or lots of practice). A related matter in Russian is vowel reduction which means that unstressed vowels aren't pronounced as they're written, but as I have stated in another thread, Russian spelling doesn't indicate the position of stress unless you consult specialized dictionaries or certain textbooks. In my experience, the idea of hostility toward Russian depends on location and has been fading a bit because of the end of the Cold War. Bulgaria and Serbia have been traditional allies of Russia, and generally most people there feel less animosity towards Russia than do most Poles (because of the long rivalry between Poles and Russians) and some Ukrainians (again because of a rivalry with the Russians - especially from people living in western Ukraine.). I think that part of the reason is that Bulgaria and Serbia were never victim to Russian foreign policy in the same way as Poland and Ukraine. Nevertheless, I've met some Poles who don't mind using Russian or at least will draw on their knowledge of it (no matter how rusty) if necessary. (BTW "Declination" in English is a term in astronomy while "declension" is the inflection of nouns and adjectives to reflect relations of grammatical cases. Other European languages use a form such as "deklinacja", "Deklination" for the English "declension") Edited by Chung on 30 October 2007 at 11:56am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| teddo Diglot Newbie South Africa Joined 6408 days ago 22 posts - 22 votes Speaks: English, Polish Studies: French | Message 22 of 26 19 January 2008 at 4:58pm | IP Logged | ||
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hi,
Do you mind Jody if I ask you, why your wife is so stubborn in this language affair??? I am very curious about that. For me, it is very strange to have so much reluctance in teaching housband/wife/children/relatives her native language!!! She should be glad that you want to raise your children bilingual, esspecially with Bulgarian language (which isn't important and widespread language in Europe, even after joining Bulgaria EU, or all the more in USA). 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| jody Senior Member United States Joined 6236 days ago 242 posts - 252 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Russian, Bulgarian | Message 23 of 26 20 January 2008 at 10:44am | IP Logged | ||
Good question, Teddo. To clarify, it's not that my wife DOESN'T want me to learn her language. It's just that she doesn't know how to teach it. And since she's been in America for 9 years with speaking ONLY English, she's very rusty in her own native tongue. She just has no interest in speaking Bulgarian or teaching it. And when you have no interest...it's hard to get motivated. I think if I start learning on my own, maybe she'll change her mind and speak it with me. But for now it's just a pain in the neck for her to speak Bulgarian. Now all of her thoughts are in English, so everything has to be translated as if it were her second language. Anyway, it's not s stubbornness or any ill-feelings. It's just a disinterest. Sorry if I gave the wrong impression. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| teddo Diglot Newbie South Africa Joined 6408 days ago 22 posts - 22 votes Speaks: English, Polish Studies: French | Message 24 of 26 20 January 2008 at 5:30pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thank you for your response. Now situation is as clear as crystal.
Good luck with Bulgarian and Russian, and don't forget to raise your children bilingual - it is one of the best gifts which you can give to your kids.... 1 person has voted this message useful |
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