Bulgarian to Georgian: a changing subject case does not mean a changing actor
Identify the participants before comparing noun endings
Bulgarian ordinary nouns lack a general case declension. Georgian has a richer case system, and its subjects can occur in nominative, ergative or dative depending on the construction. A Bulgarian subject therefore cannot always be translated by choosing a Georgian nominative dictionary form and keeping it unchanged across different verb forms.
Georgian research describes split ergativity and emphasizes the relationship between case marking and the verb construction. For Bulgarian-to-Georgian translation, the practical task is to keep track of the participant who performs the action while allowing the target case to change appropriately. A changed ending is not, by itself, evidence that the actor has become an object.
The same applies when a Bulgarian object clitic accompanies a full noun phrase. Determine whether they identify one participant before examining the Georgian result. The target verb can agree with objects as well as subjects, so repeated reference may be represented through verb morphology rather than through a matching collection of independent short words.
Negation can state either non-occurrence or inability
The Georgian grammar overview distinguishes არ, ar, not, from ვერ, ver, not able. Bulgarian input that denies an event and input that describes inability need different interpretations even if both contain a negative expression. A statement that someone did not act does not automatically say that they could not act.
Keep an explicit Bulgarian ability expression with its negation when selecting the Georgian construction. In a report about an unfinished task, the difference can separate a decision from a practical obstacle. Replacing both with a single general negative would remove information about why the event failed to happen.
A Georgian word may include what Bulgarian writes separately
The overview gives სახლია, saxlia, meaning it is a house, and სახლში, saxlshi, meaning in the house. The first attaches a copular element; the second includes a place relationship. Their shared house root does not make their endings equivalent. A Bulgarian copula and a Bulgarian preposition contribute different meanings that the target must distinguish.
This is useful when translating short property descriptions. The target may contain fewer spaces because Georgian attaches information to a noun. Do not insert a separate Bulgarian-style word boundary into that Georgian form, and do not treat every longer version of a noun as merely a definite form. Georgian’s attached material can express a whole relation.
The absence of an infinitive is only the beginning of the comparison
Bulgarian uses finite да constructions rather than an infinitive. Georgian also lacks a conventional infinitive, but that shared absence does not establish an identical complement pattern. Georgian dictionaries may present a verbal noun, an abstract root or a finite form as the headword, so a search result is not necessarily a ready-to-use dependent verb.
A Bulgarian expression of intention must retain who intends and who performs the intended action. Selecting a Georgian dictionary form solely because an English gloss says to do something can lose that relationship. Read the target construction through its participants and its verb form; the resemblance between the two languages’ missing infinitives cannot replace those grammatical decisions.
Language references