25.1487, A Final Look at Eastern Europe

Fri Mar 28 14:28:21 UTC 2014

LINGUIST List: Vol-25-1487. Fri Mar 28 2014. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 25.1487, A Final Look at Eastern Europe

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Date: Fri, 28 Mar 2014 10:28:11
From: LINGUIST List [linguist at linguistlist.org]
Subject: A Final Look at Eastern Europe

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Region 6 | Eastern Europe | Fund Drive 2014

Welcome back! Today I will be guiding you through the beautiful country of
Bulgaria. There is plenty of things to do here. But first let’s try to recall
what we know about Bulgarian, the official language of the country.

As many of you might already know, Bulgarian is the oldest written Slavic
language, it is distinguishable from the languages in this group through
certain grammatical peculiarities such as the lack of noun cases and
infinitives, and a suffixed definite article, and the lack of a verb
infinitive; however it retains and has further developed the Proto-Slavic verb
system. And just like Russian, Bulgarian uses Cyrillic script.

And by tradition, hot linguistics news from Bulgaria! For the first time, the
annual meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics (ACL) took
place in Bulgaria. ACL 2013 was held in Sofia, Bulgaria's capital, August 4-9,
2013. As in previous years, the program of the conference included a poster
session, tutorials, workshops and demonstrations in addition to the main
conference.

Did you know that Bulgaria is actually one of the few centers of computational
linguistics in Eastern Europe? So now it’s time to meet our linguistic
colleagues from Linguistic Modelling Department (LMD) at the Institute of
Information and Communication Technologies (IICT), Bulgarian Academy of
Sciences. LMD is the computational linguistics center, whose kernel was
preserved during the last twenty five years as one administrative and
scientific unit. LMD staff members successfully switched from the older
Eastern academic style to collaboration on project basis with major European
research institutions. Today the group is active in a number of advanced CL
fields including both development of linguistic resources and implementation
of software applications.

Let’s move forward and attend the Faculty of Slavic Studies at the St. Clement
of Ohrid University of Sofia where we can say “hi” to our fellow linguists at
the Department of General, Indo-European and Balkan Linguistics as well as the
Department Slavic Linguistics and Departments of Bulgarian and Russian
Languages.

Sofia is one of the most visited traveler’s destinations in Bulgaria, so since
we are still Sofia, let’s not miss that chance and take a walk through the
city.

We are going start with the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, one of the symbols of
Bulgaria, constructed in the late 19th century. It occupies an area of 34,100
square feet and can hold up to 10,000 people.

Sofia concentrates the majority of Bulgaria's leading performing arts troupes.
Theatre is by far the most popular form of performing art, and theatrical
venues are among the most visited, second only to cinemas. The oldest such
institution is the Ivan Vazov National Theatre, which performs mainly
classical plays and is situated in the very centre of the city.

For those of you who like to shop, the Mall of Sofia is the best shopping
center to go to. Located at the intersection of Aleksandar Stamboliyski
Boulevard and Opalchenska Street, the Mall boasts more than 130 stores, a
number of restaurants and cafés as well as the first in Eastern Europe 3-D
IMAX movie theater.

Food: 
Shopska salad, also known as Bulgarian salad, is the salad that defines
Bulgaria. Not only is it the most popular Bulgarian salad but is also named
after a big group of very frugal people called shopi who live in Sofia.
Shopska salad is made from chopped tomatoes, cucumbers, onions and peppers
sprinkled with Bulgarian white cheese.

Banitsa (Bulgarian: Баница, also transliterated as banica and banitza) is a
traditional Bulgarian food prepared by layering a mixture of whisked eggs and
pieces of cheese between filo pastry and then baking it in an oven. Banitsa is
a symbol of Bulgarian cuisine and traditions.
The word "banitsa" is used as a simile for something (mainly documents and
paperwork) crumpled, or badly maintained. For example, a police officer can
make a remark to someone about letting his or her passport "become like a
banitsa" (станал е на баница); a teacher might say this about a student's
notebook.

Mineral water is huge in Bulgaria. Bulgaria is a country with many mineral
springs scattered across the entire country. It's cheaper to buy a bottle of
mineral water than a bottle of regular purified water. It's healthier too. The
level of mineralization and the temperature of the mineral water differs
across the country's regions. Drink it right from the bottle.

Thank you for traveLING through Eastern Europe with us! It was only a slice of
a big picture, but I hope you enjoyed our little trip. If you would like to
explore the rest of Eastern Europe on your own, check the list of the other
possible destinations below. Have fun and stay tuned for the more exciting
trip days with our TraveLING Around the World Fund Drive Tour!

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