The Little Red-Hat

This one is dedicated to T. Mike Keesey. Does it work?

 

(step 1: English)

Once upon a time, there was a little girl whose granny loved her so much, that she bought the girl a red riding hood to wear.

(step 2: Bulgarian sentence structure and literal translation)

From then, that girl was called by “The Red Little-Hat.”

(step 3: articles, prepositions, and pronouns)

One day, mother-the on Red-the Little-Hat to-her told to go to house-the on granny to-her for to to-her give basket filled with good things for to drive granny-the to-her to feel self more-good.

(note, Bulgarian suffixes definite articles to the ends of words, and has a special prepositional or “to-me” form of every pronoun)

(step 3: verbs and gender)

“Remember-thou-!” said-she-fem mother-fem-the on Red-fem-the Hat-little-fem, “Walk-thou-! only on path-little-the-fem. Not-! to out-leave-thou from to-her.”

(Bulgarian has different imperatives for one or many recipients and the past tense used for stories modifies the verb based on the gender of the subject)

(step 4: bulgarian morphology)

Red-a-ta Hat-chits-a walk-i-l-a to forest-a-ta, where-to she meet-i-l-a big-0 evil-0 wolf-0.

“Hello, Red-ata Hat-chitsa,” said-al wolf-at. “On where go-vash?”

(N-ata is the ending for definite feminine nouns. N-chitsa and N-tse are cute forms. V-vash is for 2nd-person present verbs. What is the definite ending for masculine nouns? What about male-subject past verbs?)

(step 5: Bulgarian prepositions)

“Go-vam na house-ata na granny-ta to-me,” said-ala Red-ata Hat-chitsa. “Carry-ya tova basket-tsa na good-i thing-a za da to-her drive da feel-va self po-good.”

“I where live-e ti granny?” po-ask-al Wolf-at.

Tya live-e e~e tam do old-at oak,” said-ala Red-ta Hat-chitsa.”

(V-ila is the past tense ending for female-subject verbs. V-vam or V-ya is for 1st person present and V-va for 3rd person present. N-i is plural, but neuter nouns have N-a. What are the prepositions?)

(Step 6: Bulgarian pronouns and particles)

“Why ne give-ash i sashto one bouquet na flower-tse?” po-ask-al wolf-at. Toi had-al plan da iz-eat-e i Red-ta Hat-chitsa i granny-ta i. “Can-esh da gi pick-esh ako iz-leave-esh se ot path-echkata.”

(what are the pronouns? Remember there are three forms: I, me, and to-me.)

(Step 6: bulgarian nouns)

I Cherven-ata Shap-chitsa go-vala ot pat-echkata za da gather-e tsveten-tseta.

(who went where and gathered what?)

(Step 6: Bulgarian verbs)

V sashto vreme, valkat hod-il v kashtata na baba na Cherventata Shapchitsa za da ya iz-yad-e. 

(sashto vreme = same time, kashta = house. Who went where to do what?)

Toi ya izyal v edna glatka.

(edin = one, glatka = gulp)

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