# All Slavic languages: aspects of "to say"



## jazyk

In Czech both perfective and imperfective can be used when you refer to something you said, even if it's only once.

Mluvil jsem s tetou. - Co *řekla*? - perfective
I talked to my aunt. - What did she say?

Maminka *říkala*, že zítra nebude pracovat. - imperfective
My mother said that she won't work tomorrow.

I guess _říkala_ is used because it's something she said en passant. 

Would_ Mama mówiła, że jutro nie będzie pracowała _be acceptable in Polish? What about _Мама говорила, что она __завтра __не будет работать _in Russian? What about other Slavic languages? I'd appreciate it if you could illustrate the case using the same examples above.

Thanks.


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## Athaulf

jazyk said:


> In Czech both perfective and imperfective can be used when you refer to something you said, even if it's only once.
> 
> Mluvil jsem s tetou. - Co *řekla*? - perfective
> I talked to my aunt. - What did she say?
> 
> Maminka *říkala*, že zítra nebude pracovat. - imperfective
> My mother said that she won't work tomorrow.
> 
> I guess _říkala_ is used because it's something she said en passant.



Funny - in Croatian, _rikati _means "to roar". 



> Would_ Mama mówiła, że jutro nie będzie pracowała _be acceptable in Polish? What about _Мама говорила, что она __завтра __не будет работать _in Russian? What about other Slavic languages? I'd appreciate it if you could illustrate the case using the same examples above.


In Croatian (and other BCS variants), it's extremely complicated. I can think of at least four different verbs that can mean "to say" or "to talk" in different contexts: imperfective _govoriti _and_ pričati_, perfective _reći_, and biaspectual _kazati_. All of them also have numerous derived perfective and imperfective forms, of which some have totally different meanings, but some can also mean simply "to say" or "to talk" in various contexts. Often there are multiple options that will all sound more or less OK, but one verb still sounds better than another depending on very subtle syntactic and semantic clues.  

As for your examples:

_ I talked to my aunt. - What did she say?
_ _Razgovarao/govorio/pričao sam s tetkom. - Što je rekla?

_Here, I would also consider _kazala_, although _rekla _sounds a bit more natural in this context (and most other similar ones). As for the first sentence, all the verbs I listed are imperfective. You could also use some perfective ones (_porazgovarati_ and _popričati_), and the English translation would still be the same, but using these verbs would subtly hint that the conversation included the discussion of some important, possibly even contentious issues. 

I'd say that this example reflects some deep intuitions behind the verbal aspect: a casual conversation without any particular point is presented with an imperfective verb, as an activity that simply filled up some interval in time, whereas the perfective aspect implies the occurrence of an event that is relevant for something.

_My mother said that she won't work tomorrow.
Majka je rekla/__kazala da sutra neće raditi.

_Here, the verb should definitely be perfective (_kazati_ is biaspectual, but it "feels" perfective here). For what that's worth, my intuition is that the sentence refers to the moment in time when the information was transmitted, not about the actual action of speaking. It's similar to the second sentence from the first example, in which you're asking what information has been transmitted, not about the speaking itself.


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## Kolan

jazyk said:


> In Czech both perfective and imperfective can be used when you refer to something you said, even if it's only once.
> 
> Mluvil jsem s tetou. - Co *řekla*? - perfective
> I talked to my aunt. - What did she say?
> 
> Maminka *říkala*, že zítra nebude pracovat. - imperfective
> My mother said that she won't work tomorrow.
> 
> I guess _říkala_ is used because it's something she said en passant.
> 
> What about *Мама говорила, что она завтра *_*не будет работать* _in Russian?


It's correct in Russian. But _*Мама сказала, что она завтра не будет работать*_ is also correct. An undisputable imperfective example would be with *говаривала*. 

*Toronto Slavic Quarterly: Gender and Narrative Voice in Mariia ...*
Toronto Slavic Quarterly: The Main Page ... In the few critical studies that Mariia Zhukova's ... Наталья Васильевна сперва *говаривала*: "Что нам до того? ...
www.*utoronto.ca*/tsq/22/patrick22.shtml

*Blue Ridge Parkway*
Здесь все еще используется метод перетирания зерен между двумя камнями, и таким ... ли не каждый день она *говаривала* "Благослови, Боже, того человека, кто изобрел ...
*mehras.net*/usa_pages/.../russian_08_09_blue_ridge_parkway.html

The first dialog is: Я *говорил* со своей тётей. - Что (она) *сказала*?

A wonderful example of Old Slavonic *она рекла* in modern Russian poetry 
*Toronto Slavic Quarterly: ЛЮБОВЬ КИСЕЛЕВА - "ОРЛЕАНСКАЯ ДЕВА ...*
... "Дерзай - *она* *рекла* мне - чистой деве. Доступно все великое земли, ...
www.*utoronto.ca*/tsq/18/kiseleva18.shtml

*она рекла* - it is stylish to say that in Russian (paronymic to *речь* as noun). Still used in Church Slavonic blended in with modern Russian 

*Иеромонах Варлаам -*
из разговора: до воцерковления он был хорошим человеком... Вышли мы из-за угла, и *рекла она* брату моему: оставь его в покое, всему своё время. ...
*fater-varus.livejournal.com*/55277.html


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## trance0

In Slovene:

Govoril/pogovarjal sem s teto. Kaj je rekla/povedala? ("govoril" and "pogovarjal" are both imperfective while "rekla/povedala" are perfective)

I talked to my aunt. What did she say?



Moja mama je rekla, da jutri ne bo delala. ("rekla" is perfective - infinitive is "reči")

My mother said she won`t work tomorrow.



Pogovoril sem se s teto. O čem sta pa govorila?/O čem sta se pa pogovarjala? ("pogovoril" is perfective, "govorila" and "se pogovarjala" are imperfective)

I spoke/talked to my aunt. What did you (two) talk about?

In the last example I used a perfective verb in the first sentence which stresses that I talked to her about something specific, a problem or something like that. In the second sentence I used imperfective verbs which imply that I wanted to know in more detail what the topic of conversation was. If I had just wanted to know in general what the point(or the result) of conversation was, I would have used perfective verbs instead: 

"O čem/Kaj sta se pogovorila?"
"What (problem) did you two discuss/work out?" 

Or:

 "What solution did you work out?"


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## Thomas1

My comments inside:





jazyk said:


> In Czech both perfective and imperfective can be used when you refer to something you said, even if it's only once.
> 
> Mluvil jsem s tetou. - Co *řekla*? - perfective
> I talked to my aunt. - What did she say?
> Rozmawiałem z ciocią. - (I) co powiedziała? perfective
> 
> Maminka *říkala*, že zítra nebude pracovat. - imperfective
> My mother said that she won't work tomorrow.
> 
> I guess _říkala_ is used because it's something she said en passant.
> 
> Would_ Mama mówiła, że jutro nie będzie pracowała _be acceptable in Polish? What about _Мама говорила, что она __завтра __не будет работать _in Russian? What about other Slavic languages? I'd appreciate it if you could illustrate the case using the same examples above.
> It sounds OK to me. You can also say Mama powiedziała, że... If I ponder a bit about this option it suggests to me that she simply stated that and that most likely there was no further conversation. Your option implies that most likely there was one.
> 
> Thanks.


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## orijan

_Kazati_ and _reći_ mean exactly the same. What happens is that _kazati_ is used in the present tense and forms of _reći _are used in all the other tenses. For example, the sentence _Kaže da govori istinu_ (He says he's telling the truth) would be _Rekao je da govori istinu _in the past. Some Croatian vernaculars use _kazati_ in all tenses, but that's not the case in Zagreb.


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## Kanes

Bulgarian:

kazah - I said
kazvah - I was saying

I think it is possible to interchange them in most languages not only slavic ones. In English for example. Technicly they mean different things but its close enough.


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## slavic_one

Thomas1 said:
			
		

> Would_ Mama mówiła, że jutro nie będzie pracowała _be acceptable in Polish? What about _Мама говорила, что она __завтра __не будет работать _in Russian? What about other Slavic languages? I'd appreciate it if you could illustrate the case using the same examples above.
> It sounds OK to me. You can also say Mama powiedziała, że... If I ponder a bit about this option it suggests to me that she simply stated that and that most likely there was no further conversation. Your option implies that most likely there was one.


Would it be better to say "Mama mówiła, że jutro nie będzie pracować" or "pracowała" is only right option?


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## dudasd

orijan said:


> _Kazati_ and _reći_ mean exactly the same. What happens is that _kazati_ is used in the present tense and forms of _reći _are used in all the other tenses. For example, the sentence _Kaže da govori istinu_ (He says he's telling the truth) would be _Rekao je da govori istinu _in the past. Some Croatian vernaculars use _kazati_ in all tenses, but that's not the case in Zagreb.


 
The curious thing about _kazati _in BCS that it is a perfective verb in past tenses (kazao, kazah) and in future I (kazaću / kazati ću), and in present it's imperfective. (Past tense of _kazati _is regular, it's just a question of its "popularity".) 

One more interesting verb is "velim", which has present only. (I have met several cases of imperfect ("veljah") in literature, but it's an archaic and, I'd say, dialectal form.)


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## Thomas1

slavic_one said:


> Would it be better to say "Mama mówiła, że jutro nie będzie pracować" or "pracowała" is only right option?


Yes, they are both fine. Here is something that may be of interest if you want to know more about these forms. 

Tom


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## slavic_one

dudasd said:
			
		

> (kazaću / kazati ću)






Thomas1 said:


> Yes, they are both fine. Here is something that may be of interest if you want to know more about these forms.
> 
> Tom


Dziękuję Ci, interesujący topic, będę go przeczytać!


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## WannaBeMe

In Serbian:
Perfective form infinitive: reći or kazati, but in present is common just: kažem, kažeš...
The form: rečem, rečeš...is common in Montenegro, but there is also the form reknem, rekneš...used in Bosnian Krajina.
Imperfective form infinitive: govoriti or kazivati (govorim or kazujem).
The verb pričati has the meaning to tell the stories and comes from priča-the story (more like "die Erzählung" in German).
The similar function as pricati has the verb (pri)povedati.
The meaning of pricati and pripovedati is hard to distinguish for not native Serbs, but somewhere pricati-to tell, pripovedati-to narate


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