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“[T]he Bulgarian word for ‘fucking’ or ‘damned’ that he used did not actually have a pejorative connotation.”

So says the Bulgarian diaspora minister about a remark he made last week. He was enraged by a group of Bulgarian archaeologists who might have found relics of St John the Baptist in that country, but want to wait for authentication.

The minister’s thing is Why wait? The whole area around the relics can be transformed into pilgrimage tourism. Now.

“Why, damn it, why, where is all this envy coming from?! This is what I cannot find an explanation with this fucking people, with these fucking colleagues.”

He also seems to have insulted the women of Bulgaria. Plus Ancient Thrace.

Anyway, it’s interesting to learn that fuck doesn’t have a pejorative connotation in Bulgarian.

Google Translator gives me дяволите, which does seem innocent enough.

Though when you put дяволите back into Google Translator for the English, it comes out DAMN.

Margaret Soltan, August 10, 2010 12:48PM
Posted in: kind of a little weird

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3 Responses to ““[T]he Bulgarian word for ‘fucking’ or ‘damned’ that he used did not actually have a pejorative connotation.””

  1. Robert Mathiesen Says:

    The Minister used the Bulgarian adjective “shiban” and “fucking” or “fucked (up)” is not too far off the mark as a translation.

  2. Margaret Soltan Says:

    Which is, I assume, a bit on the pejorative side…

  3. Dave Stone Says:

    What Robert said. “Diavol” (in Russian, “d’iavol”)–the word Google Translator gave you a form of–is a cognate of the English word devil, and most assuredly NOT what the good minister used.

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