Keys to successfully hiring Bulgarian<>English translation services
Advertising and communication agencies have very specific needs when requesting translations from Bulgarian or into Bulgarian. Whether press releases or advertising texts, this type of translation requires not only an extensive linguistic knowledge, but also a good cultural background of each country or region (Bulgaria, in this case) and how words are used.
A good advertising translation is paramount to expanding your target audience of Bulgarian-speaking users. Here are a few tips to keep in mind.
Remember these tips when translating your marketing content from or into Bulgarian:
Know your audience
Before you start translating, decide who your target audience will be. Who do you think will be most responsive to your services or products?
Find out and limit who your target audience is going to be. In this case, if you intend translating into Bulgarian, think about which markets you want to reach. Only Bulgaria…? Or maybe into other territories with large Bulgarian-speaking communitites? Always consider the local and dialectal variations of Bulgarian and how this may impact the recipient.
Also consider the age of your audience, as this will determine the style in the translation. The more you narrow your focus by directly targeting a niche market, the more likely it is that your translation from Bulgarian or into Bulgarian will attract potential buyers.
Consider all types of publications
There are many ways to enter local Bulgarian markets. Expand the type of advertising and informational content to cover all of your company’s social channels.
Press releases and printed advertising material are a classic, but translating your website content into Bulgarian and start publishing articles about products or services can be a great way to reach thousands of readers in Bulgaria.
One option is to start a profile on a social network such as Twitter or Instagram, and specifically target Bulgarians. You can also start an email marketing campaign targeted at Bulgarian!}-speaking countries. Remember to always include these new communication formats in your English-Bulgarian strategies.
Translate and localize (i.e. culturally adapt into Bulgarian)
In the marketing world, localization refers to the adaptation of all elements (from design to cultural references) for a specific audience. A small change in an audience type will increase the response rate and the number of sales.
Even if two groups speak the same language, such as Bulgarian, we may need different translations for each region or country (Bulgaria).
A good localization in Bulgarian helps us solve these problems: from everyday expression to date formats, weight units or forms of address used in Bulgaria, etc.
Take every aspect into account
In an advertising translation into Bulgarian, not everything is text. Remember that there are also graphics, presentations and drawings that can be important to attract the attention of your Bulgarian-speaking users.
Changes in graphics and pictures not only affect the content, but are sometimes necessary for the readability of the translation. Sometimes we will need to make changes to accommodate the reading direction of a language (left to right or right to left), the spacing of a particular alphabet, or any features such as those specific to the Bulgarian language.
Always keep in mind that the space taken up by a translation may increase or decrease with respect to the original text when translating from English into Bulgarian or vice versa.
Do not limit your imagination
When looking for translations in Bulgarian for your advertising content, your initial idea in English may not work when translated into Bulgarian.
It is important to maintain consistency throughout the campaign: it is what will identify your brand, company or product in countries like Bulgaria… Remember that a literal translation of an English witty expression will most probably not work in Bulgarian.
Throughout the translation project, always think about which types of Bulgarian-speaking users your campaign is targeting. Be open to new ideas so your message does not get lost in translation.
How do you say “Bulgarian” in Bulgarian?
Bulgarian (български език in Bulgarian) is the national language of Bulgaria and is spoken by about 8 million inhabitants. Bulgarian is written in Cyrillic characters.
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A quick overview of the Bulgarian language
Within the Slavic languages, Bulgarian takes a particular place because of the use of the determined article in the form of a suffix and the loss of infinitive forms.
The current Bulgarian developed from the Old Bulgarian (9th-11th century), through the Middle Bulgarian (12th-14th century) and the New Bulgarian (15th century) to its present form. It was influenced by Turkish, Greek and, of course, Russian. There is also a close relationship with the Macedonian language.
Bulgarian is a South Slavic language with about 12 million speakers mainly in Bulgaria, but also in the Ukraine, Macedonia, Serbia, Turkey, Greece, Romania, Canada, the USA, Australia, Germany and Spain. Bulgarian is mutually intelligible with Macedonian, and is related to Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian and Slovenian.
Bulgarian was the first written Slavic language. The first writings appeared in the 9th century in glagolitic script, which was gradually replaced by an early version of the Cyrillic alphabet in later centuries.
At the end of the 18th century, the Russian version of Cyrillic, or "civil writing" by Peter the Great (1672-1725), was adapted to write Bulgarian, as a result of the influence from Russian printed books. During the 19th century, several versions of this alphabet were used, containing between 28 and 44 letters. In the 1870s, a 32-letter version of the alphabet, proposed by Marin Drinov, came into use. This version remained in use until the spelling reform of 1945, when the letters yat (Ѣ ѣ) and yus (Ѫ ѫ) were removed from the alphabet.
The modern literary language, based on vernacular Bulgarian, underwent a process of normalization after Bulgaria became independent in 1878. Many Turkish words were passed on to Bulgarian during the long period of Ottoman rule. Latin, Greek, Russian, French, Italian, German and, increasingly, English words have also been borrowed.