Bulgarian language

Morphology

Nominal morphology

Nouns, adjectives and pronouns are inflected for grammatical gender, number, case (to a very limited extent) and definiteness in Bulgarian. Adjectives and adjectival pronouns agree with nouns in number and gender.

Related Topics:
Grammatical gender - Number - Case - Definiteness

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Gender

There are three grammatical genders in Bulgarian: masculine, feminine and neuter. The gender of the noun can largely be determined according to its ending. The vast majority of Bulgarian nouns ending in a consonant (zero ending) are masculine (for example, ???? ?city?, ??? ?son?, ??? ?man?). Feminine nouns include almost all nouns that have the endings ??/?? (???? ?woman?, ?????? ?daughter?, ????? ?street?), a large group of nouns with zero ending expressing quality, degree or an abstraction, including all nouns ending on ????/???? (??????? ?wisdom?, ?????? ?vileness?, ??????? "loveliness", ?????? "sickness", ????? ?love?), and another, much smaller group of irregular nouns with zero ending which define tangible objects or concepts (???? ?blood?, ???? ?bone?, ????? ?evening?). Nouns ending in ??, ?? are almost exclusively neuter (???? ?child?, ????? ?lake?). The same regards a limited number of loan words ending in ??, ??, and ?? (?????? "tsunami", ???? "taboo", ???? "menu"). Plural nouns do not have gender.

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Number

Two numbers are distinguished in Bulgarian ? singular and plural. Masculine nouns use a separate count form with cardinal numbers, which stems from the proto-Slavonic dual: ?????/????? ??????? (two/three students) versus ???? ??????? (these students); cf. feminine ???/???/???? ???? (two/three/these women) and neuter ???/???/???? ???? (two/three/these children). However, a recently developed language norm requires that count forms should only be used with masculine nouns that do not denote persons. Thus, ?????/????? ??????? is perceived as more correct than ?????/????? ???????, while the distinction is retained in cases such as ???/??? ?????? (two/three pencils) versus ???? ?????? (these pencils).

Related Topics:
Singular - Plural - Cardinal number - Dual

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Plurals are formed with a variety of suffixes; exceptions, irregular declension and alternative plural forms are very common.

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Case

The complex proto-Slavonic case system is almost completely dissolved in modern Bulgarian. Vestiges are well preserved only in the personal pronouns and the masculine personal interrogative pronoun ??? (?who?), which have nominative, accusative and dative forms. Vocative forms are still in use for masculine and feminine nouns (however, not for neuter ones), but endings in masculine nouns are determined solely according to the stem-final consonant of the noun. In all other cases, the proto-Slavonic case system has been replaced by prepositional and other syntactic constructions.

Related Topics:
Personal pronoun - Nominative - Accusative - Dative - Vocative

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Definiteness (article)

The disappearance of the case declension might be connected with the development of the category of definiteness in Bulgarian. Definiteness is expressed by a definite article which is postfixed to the noun (indefinite: ?????, ?man?; definite: ???????, ?the man?) or the first nominal constituent of definite noun phrases (indefinite: ????? ?????, ?a good man?; definite: ??????? ?????, ?the good man?), much like in the Scandinavian languages or Romanian. There are four singular definite articles: ???/??? (??{{IPA|?t}}

Related Topics:
Definite article - Scandinavian languages - Romanian

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/?{{IPA|j?t}}?) for masculine nouns that are grammatical subjects, ??/?? for masculine nouns that are grammatical objects, ??? for feminine nouns, and ??? for neuter nouns. The two masculine definite articles may also be considered as two grammatical forms of the same article.

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The plural definite articles are ??? for masculine and feminine nouns, and ??a for neuter nouns. When postfixed to adjectives the definite articles are ???/?? for masculine, ??? for feminine, ??? for neuter, and ??? for plural nouns.

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Verbal morphology

Finite verbal forms

Finite verbal forms are simple or compound and agree with subjects in person (first, second and third) and number (singular, plural) in Bulgarian. In addition to that, compound forms using participles show gender in the singular (masculine, feminine, neuter). There are three tenses in the indicative mood ? present, past and future ? which, combined with other categories, produce nine formations:

Related Topics:
Tense - Indicative mood

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• present tense is a temporally unmarked simple form made up of the verbal stem and a complex suffix composed of the vowel /e/, /i/ or /a/ and the person/number ending (??? "I study");
• past imperfect tense is a simple verb form used to express an action which is contemporaneous or subordinate to other past actions; it is made up of the present-tense verbal stem and a complex suffix composed of the vowel /e<>ja/ and the person/number ending (???? "I was studying");
• past aorist tense is a simple form used to express a temporarily independent, specific past action; it is made up of the aorist stem and the person/number ending (???? "I studied");
• future tense is a compound form made of the particle ?? and present tense (?? ??? "I will study"); negation is expressed by the construction ???? ?? and present tense (???? ?? ??? "I will not study");
• present perfect tense is a compound form used to express an action which was completed in the past but is relevant for or related to the present; it is made up of the present tense of the verb ??? "be" and the aorist past active participle (??? ???? "I have studied");
• past perfect tense is a compound form used to express an action which was completed in the past and is relative to another past action; it is made up of the past tense of the verb ??? "be" and the aorist past active participle (??? ???? "I had studied");
• future perfect tense is a compound form used to express an action which is to be completed in the future before another future action; it is made up of the future tense of the verb ??? "be" and the aorist past active participle (?? ??? ???? "I will have studied");
• past future tense is a compound form used to express an action which was to be completed in the past but was future as regards another past action; it is made up of the imperfect past tense of the verb ?? "will, want", the particle ?? "to" and present tense of the verb (??? ?? ??? "I was going to study");
• past future perfect tense is a compound form used to express a past action which is future with respect to a past action which itself is prior to another past action; it is made up of the past future of ?? "will, want", the particle ?? "to", the present tense of the verb ??? "be" and the aorist past active participle of the verb (??? ?? ??? ???? "I would have studied").

The conditional mood in Bulgarian is a compound form using the aorist past form of the stem ??- (?be?) and the aorist past active participle (??? ????, ?I would study?). The imperative mood may be expressed by both simple and compound forms. There are simple forms for the second person using the suffixes -?/-? for singular and -???/-??? for plural; e.g., ??? "to study": ???, sg., ?????, pl.; ????? "to play": ?????, ???????. There are compound forms for all persons and numbers. Bulgarian has developed a special mood for nonwitnessed events, the so-called retold (renarrated) mood, which has five tenses.

Related Topics:
Conditional mood - Imperative mood

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Bulgarian verbs express aspect: perfective verbs signify the completion of the action of the verb; imperfective ones are neutral with regard to it. Most Bulgarian verbs have perfective-imperfective pairs (imperfectiveperfective: ?????????? ?come?, ???????? ?study?). Perfective stems are usually formed from imperfective ones by suffixation or prefixation.

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Nonfinite verbal forms

The proto-Slavonic infinitive and supine have been replaced by phrases with ?? (?to?) and present tense (????? ?? ???, ?I want to study?). Bulgarian has the following participles:

Related Topics:
Infinitive - Supine - Participle

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• the present active participle is formed from imperfective present stems with the addition of the suffixes ???/??? (????, ?studying?, also ?a student?); it is used only attributively;
• the imperfect past active participle is formed from imperfective present stems with the addition of the suffixes ????/???? (????, ?studied?); it is used only in retold (renarrated) mood and is a Bulgarian innovation;
• the aorist past active participle is formed from aorist stems with the addition of the suffix ??? (????, ?studied?); it is used attributively and in compound verbs;
• the past passive participle is formed from aorist stems with the addition of the suffixes ?(?)??/??? (????, ?studied?); it is used predicatively and attributively;
• the gerund is formed from imperfective present stems with the suffix ?(?)??? (??????, ? studying?); the gerund relates an action contemporaneous with and subordinate to the main verb and is a Western Bulgarian form.