BULGARIAN TAXONOMIC TERMINOLOGY OF BIRDS AND MAMMALS (AVES ET MAMMALIA – VERTEBRATA, ANIMALIA)

Zlatozar Boev

Information about the author:  

PhD, DSc, Professor, zoologist, National Museum of Natural History – BAS

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8049-7509

e-mail: boev@nmnhs.com

https://doi.org/10.37919/2221-8807-2025-8-17

Title: BULGARIAN TAXONOMIC TERMINOLOGY OF BIRDS AND MAMMALS (AVES ET MAMMALIA – VERTEBRATA, ANIMALIA)

Rubric: NATURAL SCIENCES

Abstract: A summary of the approaches and results of the compilation of the first complete Bulgarian dictionaries of nomenclatural names for birds and mammals of the world is presented. All 18,134 species of both classes are covered – 11,536 species of birds and 6,598 species of mammals. For the first time, over 80% of birds and over 70% of mammals are named in Bulgarian. The naming of individual species of birds and mammals is most often based on their distinctive morphological, geographical, or behavioral characteristics. New names can be grouped into three main groups: (1) Completely New names of species and genera; (2) Established names in other languages; (3) Transliterated scientific Latin names. Some of these are borrowed from other Slavic languages, but also from Germanic and Roman languages. In this way, the language is directly enriched with thousands of new concepts, including dozens and hundreds of new words.

Keywords: birds, mammals, nomenclature name, biodiversity, Bulgarian, Ornithology, Mammology.

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