Best Slavic Language to Start With? (Specific Languages) Language Learning Forum

Best Slavic Language to Start With?
Tags: Slavic Languages \| Choosing a Language \| Learning Strategy
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Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages

31 messages over 4 pages: 1 2 3 4

Solfrid Cristin
Heptaglot
Winner TAC 2011 & 2012
Senior Member
Norway
Joined 5325 days ago
4143 posts - 8864 votes

Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian
Studies: Russian

Message 25 of 31

31 May 2012 at 6:42am | IP Logged

Many years ago I decided I needed a Slavic language. I chose Polish, because I figured the Russian
alphabet would be too hard for me. Further down the road I did however see that Russian was a must. In
the international organization I work with, a lot of people speak Russian as a first or second language and
it is used as a lingua franca in many countries. Also the amount of resources is massive. I would go for
Russian. And yes, the alphabet is a nightmare for me, but I am middle aged and dyslexic, the OP is
presumably not. ;-)
1 person has voted this message useful

Sennin
Senior Member
Bulgaria
Joined 6025 days ago
1457 posts - 1759 votes

5 sounds

Message 26 of 31

31 May 2012 at 5:28pm | IP Logged

Form the cultural point of view, the Czech Republic and Poland are very close to western Europe. People looking for more of an adventure should consider Russian, Bulgarian, Serbian. But I can't guarantee it will be a pleasant adventure. Concerning Bulgaria specifically, my advise would be to enjoy the nature and stay away from the people ( That's what I do ;-p. Although, I am Bulgarian myself, and at times it is hard ). That's just my misanthropy speaking. Bulgarian literature is rich on dusty old books, if you're into that kind of thing you will enjoy it enormously.

Edited by Sennin on 31 May 2012 at 6:00pm
1 person has voted this message useful

prz_
Tetraglot
Senior Member
Poland
last.fm/user/prz_rul
Joined 4850 days ago
890 posts - 1190 votes

Speaks: Polish*, English, Bulgarian, Croatian
Studies: Slovenian, Macedonian, Persian, Russian, Turkish, Ukrainian, Dutch, Swedish, German, Italian, Armenian, Kurdish

Message 27 of 31

31 May 2012 at 6:52pm | IP Logged

Quote:

Concerning Bulgaria specifically, my advise would be to enjoy the nature and stay away from the people

Why from all of the people? Away from the nationalists is sufficient.
1 person has voted this message useful

Medulin
Tetraglot
Senior Member
Croatia
Joined 4659 days ago
1199 posts - 2192 votes

Speaks: Croatian*, English, Spanish, Portuguese
Studies: Norwegian, Hindi, Nepali

Message 28 of 31

23 April 2013 at 11:53am | IP Logged

Kartof wrote:

prz_ wrote:

oh, sorry, a typo. vocative, of course.
Well, I think it is vestigial because now it's mostly used in the masculine forms (the feminine forms are considered
to be rural or even slightly offensive.

Yes, but you'd still use it with close female family members. I apologize to the OP as I fear we've hijacked this
thread from the original topic. If I had to pick a first Slavic language to learn (assuming I could or would start
over), I'd probably pick Serbo-Croatian due to the relatively prevalent language resources available for its number
of speakers as well as the fact that it seems to combine a variety of interesting features in moderation like a more
relaxed use of cases (less in some dialects and yet still understandable), more verb forms than in most Slavic
languages though significantly less than in Bulgarian, and a pitch accent.

The ''problem'' with Serbo-Croatian, you can speak it without cases and still be understood (as in the case of children of emigrants who rarely get cases right, or young Macedonians). Caseless Croatian/Serbian sounds sweet (like children speaking) rather than ugly or ignorant.

Another ''issue'' with cases in Serbo-Croatian, many times they fail to mark the most important feature of inflected language: differentiation between subjects and direct objects:

Mače voli naše dijete (The kitten loves our chilld).
Naše dijete voli mače (Our child loves the kitten).

Edited by Medulin on 23 April 2013 at 11:54am
2 persons have voted this message useful

Марк
Senior Member
Russian Federation
Joined 5047 days ago
2096 posts - 2972 votes

Speaks: Russian*

Message 30 of 31

23 April 2013 at 2:25pm | IP Logged

EuroLanguage wrote:

Could some Slavic languages be considered to have more regular and
less complex case systems than other Slavic languages or do they all share pretty much
the same system in regards to vowel changes?

Bulgarian and Macedonian have almost lost their cases. What do you mean by "vowel
changes"?
1 person has voted this message useful

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