Talk:Bolyarka
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Name
[edit]Before anyone charges in like a bull in a china shop saying "Bolyarka is not a diminutive of Bolyarin - it is the feminine!" - i would beg them consider this little nugget:
yes, you are technically right, to a point. however, considering the fact that ALL names of beers - and indeed other alcohols - in Bulgarian (and most if not all other Slavic languages - aside from obvious ones stemming from place-name adjectives directly referring to the neuter "pivo" - eg stolichno; pirinsko, etc[1]) are in the feminine - eg Zagorka, Kamenitza, Astika; rakiya, mastika, slivovitza, etc........
This feminine therefore, in reality, has NO conscious link to ANY female people whatsoever (except maybe in an indirect way in terms of subconscious eroticism, but that's going WAY off-course). It is, therefore, for all intents and purposes (in terms of the reasons why the name was chosen in the first place), a DIMINUTIVE - in the same way that VODKA is a DIMINUTIVE of VODA, that PALINKA is a diminutive of the verb PALIT', etc etc etc.
So, please, DON'T revert to the version that says that Bolyarka means "female noble"[2]. Ta! 62.176.111.68 (talk) 12:37, 14 July 2008 (UTC)
Notes
[edit]- ^ and yes, there are exceptions such as the masculine Samogon, and there is a very good reason for this - because samogon is made of two words samo-gon. i suppose it could have been samogonka, but perhaps this was considered too long?
- ^ If someone REALLY insists, perhaps one could add that "it is the (feminine) diminutive..." but that'd be getting too technical - we're not writing an article on grammatical forms here, but on beer!