Народния музей Варна and улица „Професор Атанас Иширков

[ahvalj]

What is the grammatical role of the last element in the Bulgarian constructions like Известия на Народния музей Варна? The French translation suggests it might be a genitive (de Varna) with just the preposition omitted, is it so? Or is it rather a complement as sometimes found in other languages, like National museum, Varna? What is the perception of average Bulgarian speakers? How old this construction is? Did it already exist in the 19th century when those institutions of the modern society were first installed?

Another similar case, this time with counterparts in Romance, is театър „Иван Вазов“ or улица „Професор Атанас Иширков“. Is it meant to be a name of the place like Piccadilly or Montmartre, or again a special kind of genitive (George Floyd square)? How old is this one? A 19th century French calque or older?

 

[DarkChild]

I perceive them as National museum, Varna. The name of the street and and theater are just that as well - a name.

 

[ahvalj]

I perceive them as National museum, Varna. The name of the street and and theater are just that as well - a name.

Thank you. Further questions.

I have found къща-музей Никола Вапцаров on улица „Ангел Кънчев": without quotes on Google Maps but with ones, as „Никола Вапцаров", on the museum site (by the way, these quotes, when copied here, have turned out to be conveyed with different Unicode symbols). Is this absence/presence of quotes of any importance?

Is the genitive (overt or implied) ignored altogether in Bulgarian onomastics? Is something like *къща-музей на Никола Вапцаров or *улица на Хан Аспарух possible and actually used?

What is the grammatical difference between the above and улица „Солунска", which certainly is a relational adjective, and thus a genitive equivalent (why not *улица „Солун" as булевард „Витоша" nearby)?

 

[DarkChild]

I don't think quotation marks change the meaning at all.

Къща-музей на Никола Вапцаров is used all the time because that's his house and the museum is dedicated to him.
Улица на Хан Аспарух is definitely not a way of talking about a street, unless it actually belongs to that person.

Both улица Солунска and улица Солун are possible. I think the adjective form is reserved for bigger and more centrally located streets, while the latter could be a small street anywhere.

I should say, though that I'm not sure how much people associate that the adjective like Солунска is actually characterizing улица. I may be wrong but I believe most people think Солунска is just the name which happens to be an adjective, and not a description of the street. I don't know if that makes sense.

 

[ahvalj]

A few observations.

On this map of 1908 we indeed find улица Солунъ. I wonder what was the motivation to convert this name into a relational adjective later.

In contrast, on this “Град София през XVII век” от проф. д-р. Анастас Иширков we find plenty of relational adjectives: Алабинска улица, Азаджиска махала, Радомирска улица, Орханиска улица, Цариградска улица, Витошка улица, Боянска улица. However, other names are constructed as Чиръ махала, Муслимъ махала, Баня баши махала, Мерджанъ махала, Гюлъ чешма махала, Топхане махала, Ходжа-Мехмедъ медресе, Сияушъ паша джамия or as Имаретъ мехлеси, Челеби джамиси. It looks like Slavic names strongly prefer adjectives while Turkic names only use apposition or ezafe. Thus something happened with toponymic habits between the 17th and 19th centuries so that the latter approach has mostly replaced the former.

 

[DarkChild]

Well, those Turkish names aren't streets though but neighborhoods and mosques so I'm not sure the analogy is the same. Also, the adjective street names are in the minority.