Generate Bulgarian subtitles for your Bosnian videos

From the Latin alphabet to Cyrillic

Bosnian is written in the Latin alphabet and Bulgarian in Cyrillic, so the exported file uses a different writing system from the audio that produced it. The subtitle formats handle that — SRT and VTT are plain text and carry any script — but the font in whatever plays the file has to cover it.

This is the most common reason a Bulgarian subtitle track looks correct in an editor and shows boxes or blanks on a device. Test on the target platform before you publish a batch.

How Bosnian audio becomes Bulgarian subtitles

Audio in Bosnian (Bosanski) is transcribed first, then translated into Bulgarian (Български). Because the translation runs on the transcript rather than on the audio, the Bulgarian subtitle file keeps the timings of the original Bosnian speech — each line appears at the moment it was actually said.

Why translate Bosnian video into Bulgarian

Bosnian is spoken principally in Bosnia and Herzegovina; Bulgarian in Bulgaria. A Bulgarian subtitle track is what lets one recording reach both audiences without re-recording, re-editing or dubbing it.

Because subtitles are a separate file rather than part of the picture, you can attach several language tracks to the same video and let viewers pick.

About the Bosnian audio

Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian are close to identical in speech, and the choice between them is mostly about which written conventions and vocabulary you want rather than what the recording sounds like. Bosnian uses the Latin alphabet and admits more Turkish-derived vocabulary than its neighbours.

About the Bulgarian subtitles

Bulgarian is unusual among Slavic languages in having dropped noun cases and in attaching its definite article to the end of the word rather than placing it before. It is also close to Macedonian, close enough that detection between the two is not dependable.

What a Bosnian to Bulgarian subtitle file looks like

Four lines of Bosnian speech, transcribed and translated, as they come out of the exported SRT. The timings are the Bosnian speaker's — translation does not move them, which is why the file drops onto the original video unchanged.

1
00:00:01,000 --> 00:00:03,240
Добро утро на всички.

2
00:00:03,600 --> 00:00:06,120
Благодаря на всички, че дойдохте.

3
00:00:06,480 --> 00:00:09,300
Чувате ли ме добре?

4
00:00:09,700 --> 00:00:12,040
Ще споделя подробностите след момент.

What to check before publishing

• Names and places, which translation handles less reliably than ordinary prose.
• Idiom — a phrase that is natural in Bosnian may need loosening to read well in Bulgarian.
• That Cyrillic renders in your player, not just in the editor you exported from.
• Timing on fast exchanges, where two speakers overlap.