# Bulgarian: но, ама, ала



## Kartof

Where did these different words come from (dialect-wise or loan word-wise)?  Of course 'но' is most formal but I still find it unusual that there are three words that hold the same role as a conjunction with the same meaning.


----------



## Vulcho

'Но' is Church Slavonic/Russian borrowing.  It used to be written as 'нъ'.
'Ама' is from Turkish. It is the most common word in spoken language.
'Ала' is from Greek, although it is similar to Slavic 'али/але'. I think it was used mainly in the east or southeast.


----------



## osemnais

I havent heard ала being used in speech - infact I have only stumbled upon it in old fairy tales.
To me ама and но have somewhat different meaning, as if the latter presents strong contrast or something.


----------



## Kartof

So there is no native term for 'but' in Bulgarian?  I've only heard ала in folklore as well.


----------



## osemnais

Id say но is close enough to the old word нъ. If it survived, itd probably be нън, by analogy of със, във and in some dialects кък, which means към.
May be we didnt have a word for but since па and та did the job, although neither has a direct translation in English. Eurodict says па means both _and _and _but_.
Еdit: forgot to mention _а_, which also brings some opposition, but more in the meaning of and:
Аз казах едно, а той - друго. I said one thing, and he - another.


----------



## Gnoj

Isn't there another one - "обаче"?


----------



## Vulcho

Yes, and it is quite often used in both written and spoken language. It is from Church Slavonic too I think, but I have to check that.

Edit: Checked, and indeed 'обаче' was not part of the vernacular. I find it somewhat strange that Russian apparently doesn't have that word.


----------



## Gnoj

I speak and write standard Bulgarian myself and I always switch between "но" and "обаче" by intuition or for diversity only:
Ходил съм там, *но* сега съм тук, *обаче* това не означава, че тук ми харесва повече.


----------



## chifladoporlosidiomas

Would you guys mind telling the difference between them? That is: но (разбирам, че тази и обаче са същи), ами, ама, а (разбирам и тази) и ала. На английски, моля, защото бих желал да го разбрa всичко.

Благодаря ви.


----------



## osemnais

но is equivalent to english but. Ами means something more like well and is also used as a filer word; ама is a colloquial variant of но and sometimes implies less opposition between the two statements; а corresponds to english and when it doesnt mean conjunction: Аз казах едно, а той - друго. I said one thing, and he - another.
Chances are you'll only ever find in ала old books and tales.


----------



## cherville1632

Also, ама, ами are not used in formal speech. Но and обаче are more or less the same but обаче is often used for changing the rhythm of a sentence and underlining an opposition, something like "however". Eg.: Аз обаче не смятам така. - However I don't think like this.


----------



## yankok

I would suggest все пак, with some other meaning.


----------



## Kartof

"Все пак" is closer in meaning to "then again" in English.  The phrase "но все пак" (but then again) really points to the fact that the phrase isn't equal in meaning to "but" if it can be repeated after the word like that.


----------

