Learn some common noun prefixes in Bulgarian
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Intro |
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| Michael: What are some noun prefixes in Bulgarian? |
| Yana: And why are they useful to know? |
| Michael: At BulgarianPod101.com, we hear these questions often. Imagine the following situation: Sasha and Sofiya are studying together. Sasha sees an unknown word and asks, |
| Yana: "What does "pradyado" mean?" |
| Sasha Lee: Какво означава прадядо? (Kakvo oznachava pradyado?) |
| Dialogue |
| Sasha Lee: Какво означава прадядо? (Kakvo oznachava pradyado?) |
| Sofiya Stefanova: Това е бащата на моя дядо. (Tova e bashtata na moya dyado.) |
| Michael: Once more with the English translation. |
| Sasha Lee: Какво означава прадядо? (Kakvo oznachava pradyado?) |
| Michael: "What does "pradyado" mean?" |
| Sofiya Stefanova: Това е бащата на моя дядо. (Tova e bashtata na moya dyado.) |
| Michael: "It means "the father of my grandfather."" |
Lesson focus |
| Michael: In this lesson, we will be studying noun prefixes, or |
| Yana: представки (predstavki) |
| Michael: To begin with, let’s talk about what a prefix is exactly. |
| A prefix is a kind of affix, and affixes are small elements of language that attach to words and modify their meanings. Prefixes attach to the beginnings of words. |
| Often, by breaking a word up into its prefix and root word, it becomes a lot easier to understand. You can do this with new words that you might not have encountered previously. This is because prefixes tend to have stable meanings that can be transferred to any word they modify. |
| [Recall] |
| Michael: Let’s take a closer look at the dialogue. |
| Do you remember what word Sasha was asking about? |
| (pause 3 seconds) |
| Yana: прадядо (pradyado) |
| Michael: As an example of how knowing the meaning of a prefix can help us understand a word we have not yet encountered, let’s break this word down into its component language elements. It consists of the word |
| Yana: дядо (dyado) |
| Michael: which means "grandfather," and the prefix |
| Yana: пра (pra) |
| Michael: which means "great." Once you know that this prefix means "great," it becomes easier to understand other words that are prefixed with it as well. Let’s try attaching it to another word, like this one |
| Yana: баба (baba) |
| Michael: which, many people already know, means "grandmother." Add to this the same prefix |
| Yana: пра (pra) |
| Michael: and you will form the word |
| Yana: прабаба (prababa) |
| Michael: As you’ve probably already guessed, this means "great-grandmother." This prefix can also be found in |
| Yana: праисторически (praistoricheski) |
| Michael: which means "prehistoric." In all the examples above, the prefix carries the meaning of something that preceded or went before the thing that the root word refers to. This means that, whenever you see a word beginning with this prefix, you can safely assume that it is modifying the root word in the same way. |
| [Summary] |
| Michael: So far, you learned that a prefix is a small element of the language that is attached to the beginning of a root word. The prefix has a consistent meaning and modifies the meaning of any root word to which it is attached in a consistent way. Now, let’s have a look at some more examples of noun prefixes in Bulgarian. |
| The first word is |
| Yana: килогра́м (kilogram) |
| Michael: It means "kilogram," and, similarly to English, it consists of the root word |
| Yana: грам (gram) |
| Michael: meaning "gram" and the prefix |
| Yana: кило (kilo) |
| Michael: which, of course, means "kilo." This is a good example of a prefix which always means the same thing and is consistent in the way it modifies the meaning of the root word to which it is attached. Consider the Bulgarian word for "kilometer" for instance: |
| Yana: километър (kilometar) |
| Michael: Just as in English, this prefix amplifies the measurement that the root word refers to by one thousand. A kilometer is one thousand meters, for instance. |
| On the other hand, like in English, there are prefixes which denote a reduction of the measurement that the root word refers to by one thousand. Consider the word |
| Yana: милиграм (miligram) |
| Michael: which means "milligrams." Here the prefix |
| Yana: мили (mili) |
| Michael: which, of course, means "milli." The Bulgarian equivalent of the word "millimeters" is |
| Yana: милиметри (milimetri) |
| Michael: and, as you can hear, the same prefix is used as in the word for "milligrams." In both cases, the meaning that the prefix transfers to the root word is consistent; it reduces, by one thousand, the measurement that the root word refers to. |
| Michael: Another prefix that serves the same semantic function in both English and Bulgarian is: |
| Yana: авто (avto) |
| Michael: This means "auto" in English, and, as in English, it can relate either to the self, as in the word |
| Yana: автобиография (avtobiografiya) |
| Michael: which means "autobiography," or to something automatic, as in the Bulgarian word for "automatic," which is |
| Yana: автоматичноor (avtomatichnost) |
| Expansion |
| Michael: Here’s an interesting word. The meaning of this word arises from the combination of the prefix and the root, so let’s try guessing its meaning. First, let’s look at the prefix |
| Yana: фото (foto) |
| Michael: which comes from ancient Greek and indicates "light." If we take this prefix and attach it to the root word |
| Yana: апара́т (aparat) |
| Michael: which means, "apparatus," we end up with the word |
| Yana: фотоапара́т (fotoaparat) |
| Michael: which translates, literally, to "light apparatus." Have you guessed what it refers to? That’s right, it is referring to a camera. You will find the same prefix in a word like |
| Yana: фотография (fotografiya) |
| Michael: which means "photograph." Just as with the other prefixes in this lesson, you can see that this prefix almost always transfers the same meaning to the root word. |
Outro |
| Michael: Do you have any more questions? We’re here to answer them! |
| Yana: До скоро! |
| Michael: See you soon! |
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