[smarinov]

A piece of information which I missed in the article: ‘yoghurt’ was an almost completely unknown word in Bulgaria until as soon as 2-3 decades ago. We call the substance „кисело млѣко“ (kiselo mlěko)[1] which literally means ‘sour milk’. Nowadays there are some products that are commercially available and are denoted as ‘yoghurt’ (Bulg. „йогурт“), but the word still seems somewhat unnatural for most Bulgarians and may not be completely understood by some people (e.g. older, from the countryside, etc).

I am not a specialist, but the products that we in English call ‘yoghurt’, ‘soured milk’, ‘buttermilk’, ‘kefir’ are somewhat related and as far as I can understand from my cursory research now, the former two fall under the formerly shown term in Bulgarian, while the latter two are often referred to as „мътен“ (măten), „мътеница“/„матеница“ (mătenitsa/matenitsa), „бутаница“ (butanitsa) and a few other regional names. Kefir is also often just called that way if it was imported, e.g. from Russia or somewhere in the Caucausus–as is usually done with other things (sometimes also with foreign-origin yoghurt). ‘strained yogurt’ is „цедено кисело мляко“ (lit. the same), and there are also other milk products some of which I am not entirely sure how to explain since I don't know how exactly they are made, e.g. „катък“ (katăk–something like a milk-based spread; essentially the same name as ‘qatiq’ in many Turkic-speaking regions, but AFAIK the same name can refer to relatively/quite different things from place to place), „таратор“ (‘tarator’–a cold soup, similar to ‘ayran’ with some specific added ingredients to it), „сух таратор“ (lit. ‘dry tarator’, similar to Gr. tzatziki and Tur. cacık) and a number of others which people who are better aware of the Bulgarian culinary traditions would've probably mentioned here.

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Following is my completely wild guess, but unfortunately I wasn't able to find reliable sources to either prove or disprove it, so take from it whatever you want. Will be glad if somebody could chip in with more knowledge.

The Bulgarian term for yoghurt (as already said also not unknown in other South Slavic languages, but the single most–and virtually universally–used term in our language) seems closely related to the old Greek type of yoghurt «οξύγαλα», which literally means the same (‘sour milk’). It was not uncommon for Bulgarians to translate terms from Greek during Medieval times, but they just took the Turkish word for all new things that came during Ottoman times, with the most prominent examples that remain nowadays all being foods (e.g. various plants or cooked dishes). Romanian features similar ways to refer to yogurt (although ‘iaurt’ seems more common nowadays), but I don't know how many of them are just calques, regional variants, or what the origin of each is in particular. What is more, Albanian also has its own–although seemingly unrelated–words for yogurt, buttermilk and various other milk products. This leads me to think that ‘yoghurt’ was one of the things that was known on the Balkans long before the Ottoman conquest and the Slavic speakers back then knew it–or something essentially similar–quite well (in stark contrast to another beloved milk product made out of yogurt: „айран“, the name of which comes directly from the Turkish ‘ayran’).

P.S. As of now the Wikipedia article on the bacteria mentioned in the article[2] says the following: “Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus can be found naturally in the gastrointestinal tract of mammals living in Bulgaria, but one specific strain, Lactobacillus bulgaricus GLB44, is extracted from the leaves of the Galanthus nivalis (snowdrop flower) in Bulgaria as well. The bacterium is also grown artificially in many other countries.” It is yet to be given a proper citation, but this is the anecdotal information I have heard on numerous occasions circulated in Bulgaria as the source for the naming as opposed to the country of origin of the person who discovered it. I don't know which version–if any–is correct, though.

P.P.S. There are also other milk products in Bulgaria with traditional names:

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[1] Official writing nowadays is „кисело мляко“, but I have left the former spelling on purpose because this is etymologically more informative and makes a more visible connection to all Bulgarian dialects as well as to all modern South Slavic languages (also the ones from the western branch), where ‘kiselo mlijeko’ is also not unknown.

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lactobacillus_delbrueckii_subs...

[petre]

The Romanian equivalent for „кисело мляко“ is „lapte bătut” (buttermilk, this the name found on products in stores) or „lapte acru” (sour milk, regional, less commonly used) or „lapte prins” (bound milk, regional, even less commonly used; refers to sour milk becoming thicker than regular milk). The latter names are what your Romanian grandmother would call it, depending on the region. There is also „lapte covăsit” which is even less commonly used. It's derrived from the Ukrainian „квacити” which refers to the process of mixing a bit of „covăseală” (starter culture in the form of sour cream or sour milk) in regular milk in order to make sour milk. This name has been lately promoted by a dairy company in Covasna county because it sounds like its name.

Sour milk that you find in stores is usually a drinkable yoghurt that has more acidity than regular yoghurt. A good product would be a thick yoghurt drink with the consistence of a thick smoothie that's unevenly mixed and has a more acidic taste (much like ayran or kefir). Not to be confused with „iaurt de băut” (yoghurt drink) products which are a watered down variant of regular yoghurt with a boring, nondescript taste.

[smarinov]

Thanks for the thorough explanation! I can't edit my answer above anymore, but I upvoted you.

This actually reminds me that there is also „lapte bătut“ in Bulgarian („бито мляко“, meaning is the same: ‘beaten milk’), and a similar trend for „iaurt de băut” („йогурт за пиене“, again the same ‘yoghurt drink’). I think it is the more literary variant of the „мътеница“-branch above since all those names for buttermilk there are from different regions.

I've seen that we have a lot of things, esp. foods or basic day-to-day phrases, that can literally be translated word for word and mean the same in Bulgarian–or South-Slavic in general–and Romanian, and often Albanian and/or Greek (and there are good historical reasons for that), so I was kind of surprised about how I interpreted the things I hastily found above. But thanks to you everything comes into place now. :)

[aorth]

> кисело млѣко

I love that you used the old "yat" character that is missing from modern Bulgarian (since the reforms in 1940s if I recall correctly[0]). I see it on the coat of arms of the city of Sofia[1], though, and it makes me happy: Расте, но не старѣе (grows but doesn't age). Modern Bulgarian would be: Расте, но не старее.

[0] https://poznavame-li-sofia.blogspot.bg/p/blog-page.html

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coat_of_arms_of_Sofia

[pvg]

Countless Bothans have fought and died over literal centuries to free Cyrillic from this godawful and pointless letter. You should both be ashamed of yourselves!

[smarinov]

Yes, I plead guilty and am utterly ashamed of myself. My usage above was totally misleading when we consider the way people write nowadays. :)

In Bulgaria, the letter was first briefly removed in a reform between 1921 and 1923 and then removed by the new regime after the end of World War II. It was surrounded by controversy for a long time because in general there is one single way a word can be read in Standard Modern Bulgarian–save for the location of the stress–, which was not the case for this letter. In addition, prior to its official introduction after Bulgaria regained autonomy–and then independence–there were multiple ways to denote the sounds it used to stand for.

But for the sake of etymology I find it quite useful in a lot of places since it pops up in common but generally regular vowel changes across Slavic languages.

[pvg]

in a reform between 1921 and 1923

Wait, really? Was this some zany БЗНС/Стамболийски thing?

[smarinov]

Yes, it was a БЗНС thing at first. There were three major reforms in the way Modern Standard Bulgarian is written:

0. no official codification (before 1899; basically everybody wrote as they pleased and there were some differences between various authors); at some point there was a mostly standard way to write in Bulgarian, though, which was introduced and used by the precursor of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and various other institutions; https://bg.wikipedia.org/wiki/Дриновски_правопис

1. first official codification (1899–1921 and 1923–1945 with some minor changes); https://bg.wikipedia.org/wiki/Иванчевски_правопис

2. shortly-lived attempt to modernise it (1921–1923); https://bg.wikipedia.org/wiki/Омарчевски_правопис

3. last and so-far successful modernisation, since it wasn't succeeded by anything else yet (1945–nowadays). It was partly inspired from the previous attempt and partly by Lenin's reforms in Russian from 1918, and not from other Bulgarian or e.g. Serbian attempts, for whatever reason. https://bg.wikipedia.org/wiki/Правописна_реформа_на_българск...

[jk2323]

Lactobacillus_delbrueckii?

This is actually used for pre-fermentation of a special kind of beer:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berliner_Weisse

http://www.southernfriedfermenters.com/2015/10/30/tips-and-t...

[wirrbel]

> closely related to the old Greek type of yoghurt «οξύγαλα», which literally means the same (‘oxidised milk’).

Isn't it that oxy- means sour? so its sour milk in greek

[smarinov]

Yes, thanks. I edited my text above and removed all references to ‘oxidised’; also for Bulgarian since the words are related, but not the same: „кисел“ / «όξινο» (sour/acidic) vs „окислен“ / «οξειδωμένος» (oxidised). I don't know why I left them in the first place as they were quite confusing in that context.