Bulgarian vs Serbian language! How similar?

Third video in our language series comparing the Bulgarian language to other European ones.

[lizlearnsserbian]

It's so amazing how much similarities there are. I once had a fully functioning conversation with a Bulgarian guy who didn't know any English, and so I was speaking to him in Serbian and he in Bulgarian and it somehow worked hahaha... plus it gets easier the more drinks you have lol 😂 Actually, maybe that's the secret... more rakija.

[alex_x]

It's clear she hasn't been exposed to serbian.With a little exposure from both sides communication between serbians and bulgarians is relatively easy.

[markopizurica]

I spent a few days in Bulgaria and first day it was a nightmare.. Words and the accent being so similar but not understanding anything strained my brain so much that I felt exhausted in the evening. But by the end of the third day I had full conversions with people with no mayor problems. Languages being similar, It just takes a day or 2 for your brain to adjust and pick up a few things..

[georgimihov]

Speaking Bulgarian I can freely read wikipedia in Serbian but once I tried to have a conversation with a cab driver in Belgrade and honestly I had very little idea what he was saying. I think the accent was the biggest problem - makes it impossible to comprehend the words.
Then I was in Croatia for a week and at the end of it I was noticing that I am understanding more and also I could change my words to help them understand better. The languages are so close that if you lived in any of these countries for a few months you could probably have a normal communication at least for the basic stuff - directions, shopping, ordering at restaurant etc.

[starton]

Bulgarian from western Bulgaria is more understandable to Serbians than Bulgarian from eastern Bulgaria.

[voyagersquaremuzika]

Great video! "Ovde je baš prijatno "it can be said just like in Bulgarian "Tu je mnogo prijatno"
In slavic languages this is an advantage because we can say something in more ways because there are many synonyms.

[sonyastefanova]

Listening phrases is not like you have a conversation. Ive been many times in Serbia, so 80-90% we can understand each other.

[tokaihto]

99% of Bulgarians will answer better than her. Such a shame.

[Pero-zljp]

People hating on her for not being versed kinda don’t see the point. I’d rather a normal person who isn’t versed on every language than someone who knows every root word. It’s more realistic this way honestly.

[veronikajoyphotography]

Wow, I wouldn't expect that I could understand any words in Bulgarian or Serbian thank to my Czech and Russian knowledge 😀 it's crazy how all these languages are related

[sickpilot]

At 0:50 she is misled, because "kazemo" probably is put in a case and sounds similar to "kazvam mu (казвам му) or "kazhi mu (кажи му) ". Another instance of this is observed further in the video.

[fesd]

1:43 you can say that in Serbo-Croatian as well. In fact I'm pretty sure that is used more often then what is said in the video. It's just another way of saying it

[colinafobe]

in Serbian it can be both way do you speak...? da li govorite...? or govorite li...?
Maybe Serbian is just more flexible language, not so many strict rules with word order in a sentence, it has many synonymous, loan words and Slavic words to say something, different ways to say something. so it might be easier for us to understand Bulgarian than vice versa? for example here in Serbian can be "ovde" as in video or "tu" while in BG is "tuka"
and kompot is same but with different accent kom-pooot vs kom-POT unless you are from the eastern Serbia then you will say as she did :) I am sure she would understand more if she heard eastern Serbian accent

[denisfedailov]

Very nice video! I come from Bulgaria and this video is so interesting about the Balkan countries. Love the content!

[TheExtremeCube]

Nema na čemu means you're welcome, but the literal translation means something like "theres nothing for it to be on" which in the context of someone saying thank you beforehand, translates to "theres no reason to thank me"

[vladimirkalinov]

Serbian and Bulgarian are very close languages but a normal conversation is not possible for two people who did not have exposure to the other language. Unless you speak some dialects you will understand each other at around 50-60%.
However within a week of exposure with some additional word learning of say 30-50 basic words that are just different you can have a small conversation. This is the best value for time. If you want to be fluent or close to, then you need concentrated study for months because vocab and especially grammar is not all that close. The two languages started slowly diverging maybe around the 12th century from OCS is my estimate

[xujmrfk]

I am Serbian and I can have a fully blown conversation with Bulgarians without major problems. Maybe because I grew up in Yugoslavia alongside Macedonians (similar to Bulgarian). This lady is not exactly trying hard to understand it or is not very knowledgeable. At the same time some of the examples were hard to understand since taken out of their logical context.

[eugenymalo]

With respect to the end of the video I don't believe English is a latin language but a Germanic one. So that experiment of tryinf to understand French or Italian if you haven't had any exposure to these languages will probably bomb. I as a Bulgarian thought that Serbian was very close to Bulgarian but after warching this video I think Russian might be closer. Maybe do a video with Bulgarian and Russian if you haven't done one already

[tervelyurukov]

"Compote" is a French word borrowed from French in Bulgarian among many other words like "cauchemar" - кошмар (nightmere), or "trottoir" - тротоар (sidewalk), or "portefeuille" - портофейл (wallet). Romanian being a Romance language derived from the Latin Language Group bears far more commonalities with French rather than "just borrowed" words evident in Bulgarian and many other languages, of course at a different scale.

[salar]

The bugar girl acting like she dont understand serbian bcs she want bulgarians to look unique