title

Significant step in the development of the Bulgarian nomenclature of the world bird and mammal fauna

author(s)

Hennady Fesenko (orcid: 0000-0003-1586-8411)

affiliation

Ivan Schmalhausen Institute for Zoology, NAS of Ukraine (Kyiv, Ukraine)

bibliography

Theriologia Ukrainica. 2026. Vol. 31: 205–212.

DOI

language

In Ukrainian, with English summary, titles of tables, captures to figs

abstract

A review of Z. Boev’s publications from 2025 ‘Terminologia ornithologica bulgarica. Vol. I. Taxonomia. Illustrated trilingual dictionary of the birds of the world. English–Latin–Bulgarian. Part 1. Non-Passeriformes and Part 2. Passeriformes,’ as well as ‘Terminologia theriologica taxonomica bulgarica. Illustrated trilingual dictionary of the mammals of the world. English–Latin–Bulgarian.’ The review contains an analysis of the forms of Bulgarian names of birds and mammals of the world in dictionaries compiled by Z. Boev. For more than 80% of the species of the world’s fauna of these animals, the author proposed Bulgarian names for the first time. The national names of the orders showed features that are inherent in the names of this level in Latin. All Bulgarian names of bird orders are unified with the use of the final morpheme -подобни, which is the equivalent of the ending -formes in Latin. But, as in the Latin names of mammal orders, there is no unification in the corresponding Bulgarian names. The Latin names of bird and mammal families are formed through the use of the suffix ending -idae. Most of the Bulgarian names of families are also unified with suffixes -в(и), -ев(и), -ов(и). Significant part of the Bulgarian family names are formed similarly to English definitions, from a plural noun and an adjective in a preposition. Bulgarian species names are also formed according to the English ones: the preposition contains adjectival definitions, and genus name is in the postposition. In terms of the number of words in a species name, Bulgarian definitions are also similar to English ones. Three-word names predominate in Bulgarian species names, followed by four- and two-word names, and one-word names are also found. An essential feature of Bulgarian species names is the presence of a significant number of five- and six-word definitions. Up to three adjectives can be found in the specific part of a species name. The generic part of the name sometimes consists of four or five words. The considered dictionaries also contain synonyms. The compiler rightly noted that it is inappropriate to use eponyms as biological species names, because these names do not indicate their features. But he did not do without eponyms, but listed them mainly as synonyms.

keywords

review, dictionary, nomenclature of birds and mammals, diversity, Bulgarian language

references

Boev, Z. 2025a. Terminologia ornithologica bulgarica. Vol. I. Taxonomia. Illustrated Trilingual Dictionary of the Birds of the World. English — Latin — Bulgarian. Part 1. Non-Passeriformes. National Museum of Natural History — Bulgarian Ornithological Society, Sofia, 1–432.
Boev, Z. 2025b. Terminologia ornithologica bulgarica. Vol. 1. Taxonomia. Illustrated Trilingual Dictionary of the Birds of the World. English — Latin — Bulgarian. Part 2. Passeriformes. National Museum of Natural History — Bulgarian Ornithological Society, Sofia, 1–508.
Boev, Z. 2025c. Terminologiatheriologica taxonomica bulgarica. Illustrated Trilingual Dictionary of the Mammals of the World. National Museum of Natural History, Sofia, 1–462.
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