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Bosnian/Croatian/Montenegrin/Serbian | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| ewomahony Diglot Groupie England Joined 5368 days ago 91 posts - 115 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Italian, French, Afrikaans | Message 1 of 43 17 January 2010 at 5:28pm | IP Logged | ||
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Could anyone help me answer these questions about these languages:
1) Exactly how close are these languages to one another? 2) Which is the easiest to learn? 3) Which has the most resources on the internet? 4) Which one looks/sounds most pleasing? Thanks 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Fazla Hexaglot Senior Member Italy Joined 6048 days ago 166 posts - 255 votes Speaks: Italian, Serbo-Croatian*, English, Russian, Portuguese, French Studies: Arabic (classical), German, Turkish, Mandarin | Message 2 of 43 17 January 2010 at 6:37pm | IP Logged | ||
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1)They are so close you will never EVER have a problem in speaking with anyone in the Cro/BiH/SRB/MT area. They ARE the same language.
So, anyone who speaks standard Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian/Montenegrin will talk 95% of the times in the very same way. Than again, there are recognizable differences in the words from one region to another... I come from the city which has the most recognizable different way of "street-speaking" (In my humble opinion) that is Sarajevo and it comes natural to me to say "jaran" instead of "prijatelj" even though you'll never hear the word "jaran" on a Bosnian TV broadcast. 2)I'd say standard Serbian only because it uses the ekavica "system" ( I wouldn't know how to call it in any other way). That only means that in 95% of words that in Croatia and Bosnia people have these "je" or "ije" sounds (like "dijete" (kid) , "mlijeko" (milk), "lijepo" (nice/pretty) ) people in Serbia will say dete , mleko , lepo. That's the only reason why Serbian would be easier, as they are the same language, there's no other reason why you should learn one instead of another. I take it as a given that you will learn the Štokavian way of speaking which is used in the whole Cro/BiH/SRB/MT area except for some few areas in the north of Croatia. 3) I'd say Serbian... the only problem might be to learn the cyrillic alphabet which you can learn in 2 days anyways. On the internet Serbian is written in the latin alphabet 90% of the time so if you will use the Internet only, you won't have that problem. Standard Croatian might have the usual "problem" of Croatian: it uses a lot of words that differ from Bosnian/Serbian/Montenegrin like "week" (tjedan instead of sedmica) "bread" (kruh instead of hljeb) "a thousand" (tisuća instead of hiljada) all the months and... some few other words. NOTE: Every person who lives in Croatia perfectly knows what a sedmica, a hljeb, a hiljada are, as every person who lives in BiH, Serbia and Montenegro perfectly knows what a tjedan, a kruh and a tisuća are. Again, if you find a book for Croatian... that wouldn't change much. 4) They look exactly the same, written in the cyrillic or in the latin alphabet. Completely the same. (Although the Ekavica/ Ijekavica rule remains (someone from Serbia will write dete while someone from Bosnia dijete). As for what sounds the most beautiful, that's up to you to judge. On youtube you can find plenty of songs or examples of speech... I can give you a good example with political interviews like here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hn2UBCxpsIk&feature=related Here the current president of Serbia talks with an interviewer from Bosnia (Sarajevo) NOTE: They are speaking respectively in standard Serbian and standard Bosnian. As you can see they don't have many problems in interacting. Here's the same interviewer who is speaking with the president of Croatia http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fojbo1khURw&feature=related Again, they are speaking in standard Croatian and standard Bosnian. I'm not much into Croatian and Serbian singers, so if you are looking for songs I can give you some Bosnian popular singers like Dino Merlin or Hari matahari http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-g6FIRFj5Q http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrpkrITwSCU Btw, they do have a noticable Bosnian accent 16 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Delodephius Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member Yugoslavia Joined 5189 days ago 342 posts - 501 votes Speaks: Slovak*, Serbo-Croatian*, EnglishC1, Czech Studies: Russian, Japanese | Message 3 of 43 10 February 2010 at 1:32am | IP Logged | ||
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I personally find the dialects of the native Vojvodinian Serbs (called mostly pl. Lale, sg. Lala) and the dialect of Sarajevo as the most beautiful ones.
If you learn one of them you will know all of them. It is a bit problematic they are not just treated as dialects but as separate languages. My opinion is that unlike for example English where you can say American English or British English, there is no such unifying term for Serbian/Croatian/Bosnian/Montenegrin. A friend of mine once suggested Illyrian, since that is the historic name of the region where it is spoken. But the word Illyrian has not been used to refer to this language for almost two centuries (not to be confused with Ancient Illyrian which is today unknown). Some have suggested Štokavian which I also find sensible, but then again, Macedonian and Bulgarian are also štokavian. There is currently no solution to this matter. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Aineko Triglot Senior Member New Zealand Joined 5234 days ago 238 posts - 442 votes Speaks: Serbian*, EnglishC2, Spanish Studies: Russian, Arabic (Written), Mandarin | Message 4 of 43 10 February 2010 at 11:00pm | IP Logged | ||
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There is just one thing to think about here - although these languages are almost identical, somebody who didn't grow up on Balkan might find them much more different that native speakers who did. It is simply the fact that we were exposed to other languages/dialects through culture. For certain Croatian words, I know them not because they sound similar to Serbian words for same things, but because I was exposed to them through nooks, movies, people - although I first time visited Croatia when I was 23. I had never thought about this till I met a Croatian who didn't grow up in Croatia and so hadn't been exposed to Yugoslavian pop-culture. Despite he spoke perfect Croatian, he asked me about few Serbian words I used that Croats from Croatia would understand without problems.
So the situation for someone who picks one of those languages to learn is that they would be understood everywhere, but they themselves might find some words difficult if they have a conversation with somebody who speaks one of the languages they didn't learn. However, this 'problem' is very easy to solve - first, everyone would be able to explain to you what that word means in a language you have learnt, and second - these languages are so similar that once you know one of them good enough to reed a book or watch a movie, just pick a book or a movie in a language you didn't learn and you will easily spot the differences and familiarize yourself with them from the context, without need to learn them as a completely new words. 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Fazla Hexaglot Senior Member Italy Joined 6048 days ago 166 posts - 255 votes Speaks: Italian, Serbo-Croatian*, English, Russian, Portuguese, French Studies: Arabic (classical), German, Turkish, Mandarin | Message 5 of 43 11 February 2010 at 12:23pm | IP Logged | ||
You are right Aineko, as you are right having pointed out that it is something that a week anywhere in the Balkans would solve.
I'm really happy to hear that :D I always thought that people from the outside didn't like our dialect and way of speaking. I'm just wondering where could you have heard it. But than again it might be obvious... in Sarajevo, no ? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Delodephius Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member Yugoslavia Joined 5189 days ago 342 posts - 501 votes Speaks: Slovak*, Serbo-Croatian*, EnglishC1, Czech Studies: Russian, Japanese | Message 6 of 43 11 February 2010 at 9:12pm | IP Logged | ||
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I have cousins in Sarajevo. Hell, I have cousins and acquaintances all over ex-Yu. I heard almost all dialects this land has to offer and the Lale's and Sarajevo dialect I find to be the most beautiful ones. Sarajlije just speak so kindly and generously, like music to my ears. :-D
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Aineko Triglot Senior Member New Zealand Joined 5234 days ago 238 posts - 442 votes Speaks: Serbian*, EnglishC2, Spanish Studies: Russian, Arabic (Written), Mandarin | Message 7 of 43 11 February 2010 at 10:47pm | IP Logged | ||
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sorry guys, there's no sexier dialect than Croatian-Dalmatian :)
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| hanni aka cordelia0507 Groupie United Kingdom Joined 5390 days ago 69 posts - 92 votes Speaks: Dutch* | Message 8 of 43 11 February 2010 at 11:34pm | IP Logged | ||
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Interesting. Actually I thought there WAS a name for this language, "Serbocroatian". Perhaps it went out of fashion after the end of Yugoslavia, and also it doesn't include any reference to Bosnian and Montenegrian. There is something sad about a country falling apart. Hope your countries will join the EU soon.
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