Bulgarian to Korean: a respectful message may need fewer pronouns
Вие does not have one universal Korean replacement
Bulgarian courteous address often uses Вие, which makes it tempting to find one Korean word for polite you and insert it everywhere. Sangoak Lee’s discussion of Korean honorifics explains why that approach fails: address can depend on a title or another noun expression, not solely a pronoun. The appropriate target wording needs the relationship between speaker and reader, as well as the intended level of speech.
Lee discusses 당신, transcribed tangsin, as a particularly risky supposed universal equivalent. Its uses in advertising and some personal relationships do not make it an unrestricted courteous address in conversation. A Bulgarian customer reply should therefore not be considered respectful merely because a translator has substituted that word for Вие. The target expression must fit the actual interaction.
A title can preserve the reference more naturally
The discussion gives 선생님, sensayng-nim, among titles used in address. A Bulgarian message to a teacher can consequently retain a clear addressee through an appropriate Korean title without a directly corresponding second-person pronoun. This is a grammatical and interpersonal reconstruction, not an omission of the teacher.
The distinction matters when the Bulgarian source alternates a title with Вие in later sentences. Repeating a Korean title can be more appropriate than forcing the target to imitate that title-pronoun alternation. Conversely, adding a title mechanically to an unrelated customer exchange can invent a role the Bulgarian writer never assigned. Determine the real relationship before deciding which noun expression should carry the target reference.
Repeated reference need not become he or she
Lee’s narrative example repeats 누나, nwuna, for an older sister referred to by a male speaker, rather than replacing each later mention with a third-person pronoun. Bulgarian readers accustomed to pronoun alternation should not remove every repeated Korean relationship term as redundant. It may be the target’s normal way of maintaining the same person in the discourse.
For a Bulgarian family account, the relationship term itself also contains information. Do not select 누나 solely because the Bulgarian noun says sister: the Korean example specifies relative age and the speaker’s relationship. If that information is not available in the source, it needs resolution rather than an invented assumption. A target can be fluent while silently adding a family detail that Bulgarian did not state.
The first person participates in the register choice too
Lee distinguishes plain 나 from humble 저, transcribed na and ce in the source. Bulgarian аз alone does not encode that same choice. A formal Bulgarian request may therefore need a coherent Korean first-person expression alongside its courteous wording for the reader. Changing only a second-person pronoun leaves this additional decision untouched.
Bulgarian gender agreement and polite plural verbs are useful clues to the original participants, but they cannot serve as a complete Korean honorific plan. The target interaction may use a title instead of Вие, repeat a relationship noun instead of a later gendered pronoun, and choose a humble first person where Bulgarian simply has аз. Each change should preserve the actual people and relationship expressed in the Bulgarian exchange.
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