Bulgarian to Galician: keeping object pronouns in the right role and position
Те and ти do not both become Galician te
Bulgarian distinguishes the short direct-object pronoun те from the indirect-object pronoun ти. Galician has a comparable distinction between te and che. Their similar-looking forms conceal a trap: Bulgarian те corresponds to Galician te by function, while Bulgarian ти may require che, rather than the Galician stressed subject pronoun ti. Matching these small words by appearance would mix up the person seen with the person receiving something.
Compare Bulgarian Видях те, “I saw you,” and Дадох ти книгата, “I gave you the book.” In the first, the addressee is the direct object. In the second, the book is the direct object and the addressee is its recipient. The Galician education material recommends identifying this grammatical role before choosing te or che. The person remains the same; the relationship to the verb changes.
A pronoun can move when the sentence becomes negative
Galician generally attaches an unstressed object pronoun after the verb in an ordinary affirmative main clause. Vinte onte means “I saw you yesterday.” The corresponding Bulgarian Видях те вчера also places the pronoun after the verb here, but that surface similarity does not establish one shared placement rule.
Bulgarian can instead begin Аз те видях, with the pronoun before the verb after the subject. Simply transferring that sequence into an unmarked Galician affirmative clause would be misleading. Galician placement is sensitive to particular preceding elements, rather than to the mere presence of a subject. Negative clauses, clauses introduced by interrogative words, and many subordinate clauses require preverbal pronouns.
For example, Eu non o fixen means “I did not do it.” The pronoun o stands between non and the verb, rather than being attached at the end. Bulgarian Не го направих also has a preverbal object pronoun, but a successful match here should not be generalized back to affirmative clauses. Negation is doing structural work in Galician.
Two Bulgarian words may become one Galician form
Bulgarian can combine a recipient and a direct-object pronoun as separate short words, as in Дадох ти я, “I gave it to you,” with a feminine object understood. Galician has contracted combinations: che plus a gives cha, while che plus o gives cho. The noun being replaced determines which direct-object component belongs in the combination.
This is not simply a spelling shortcut for two unchanged pronouns. Galician also has different third-person direct-object forms after particular sounds, and enclitic pronouns form one written word with the verb. A word-by-word alignment may therefore show fewer Galician tokens without losing either participant. The useful alignment is recipient plus transferred thing, not one source word per target word.
Respectful address changes the agreement system
Bulgarian respectful Вие uses second-person plural verb forms when addressing one person. Galician vostede refers to the addressee but takes third-person singular agreement; vostedes takes third-person plural. Thus the courteous intention can survive while the grammatical person changes. Carrying Bulgarian plural agreement directly into a sentence addressing one Galician reader would misrepresent the selected form of address.
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