|
 |
Serbo-Croatian, Russian or Bulgarian? | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| benzionisrael Triglot Groupie Spain Joined 4476 days ago 79 posts - 142 votes  Speaks: English*, Japanese, SpanishB2 | Message 1 of 7 22 April 2012 at 6:29pm | IP Logged | |||||
|
Previously I dabbled in Russian for a while but know I am studying Serbo-Croatian. Serbo-Croatian is a nice language which interests me much more than Russian, but one day I might take up Russian again and cash in on discount one gets when they learn a second Slavic language.
It is possible that soon I will be moving to Spain again. I was always my plan to study Serbo-Croatian first, and then Russian, Bulgarian etc..., but in Spain there are many Bulgarian immigrants and that would make it much easier to learn the language. Because of that should I consider learning Bulgarian first? Bulgarian is also interesting in its own way, but there are certain features which put me off learning it first because it is the black sheep of the language family with many characteristics not present in its Slavic relatives. For example, it has a much more complex verbal paradigm, uncommon in other Slavic languages but at the same time has lost most of its nominal cases and has very simple adjectives. Bulgarian also uses cyrillic script exclusively, whereas in Serbo-Croatian there is the option to use either latin or cirillic script. I personally find Serbo-Croatian more beautiful, but Bulgarian seems not only easier (because of the simplification of its nominal declension) but also more accessible in the country where I will soon be living. Any opnions or advice? Edited by benzionisrael on 22 April 2012 at 6:32pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Kartof Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 4877 days ago 391 posts - 550 votes Speaks: English*, Bulgarian*, Spanish Studies: Danish | Message 2 of 7 23 April 2012 at 12:48am | IP Logged | |||||
|
You should study whatever language will hold your interest most passionately so that it won't be a chore to
maintain your study habits. If you're looking to "cash-in" on the language similarity discount then Bulgarian isn't so bad of a choice. Bulgarian shares linguistic proximity with Serbo-Croatian by means of their genetic similarity as South Slavic languages and with Russian by means of mutual lexical exchanges from the early days when Russia adopted Eastern Orthodox Christianity (absorbing OCS lexicon) and during the Bulgarian revival in the post-Ottoman era when Bulgarian reabsorbed Slavic vocabulary through Russian. The fact that Bulgarian lacks nominal cases doesn't make it so different from other Slavic languages and mutual intelligibility with Serbian is relatively high (some Bulgarians claim 85-90% intelligibility with Serbian). I think this is because despite not having cases in their full use, the relatively loose word order of Bulgarian and use of set phrases that make use of cases impart at least some familiarity with how other Slavic languages are structured, more so than the familiarity a Romance language speaker my have, for example. Also, both Bulgarian and Serbian are a part of the Balkan Sprachbund which is a linguistic region with common areal features. Serbian hasn't been affected by this Sprachbund as heavily as Bulgarian has but it does mean some increased grammatical commonality that may not initially be apparent. Simplicity in language is relative and you said it yourself that the Bulgarian verbal system is more complex while the nominal system is easier when compared to other Slavic languages' systems. However, with your background in Spanish, you'll find that the Bulgarian verbal system is eerily similar to the Spanish one, or at least I thought so while learning Spanish. Overall, I think Bulgarian shares a large portion of its vocabulary with both Serbian and Russian for the different historical reasons described above while Serbian and Russian may not have so much vocabulary in common with one another. I'm not sure if this was helpful but I hope that this information can help you make a more informed decision on which language to choose at the very least. Edited by Kartof on 23 April 2012 at 2:11am 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Rowerzysta Newbie Poland Joined 4423 days ago 12 posts - 20 votes | Message 3 of 7 23 April 2012 at 2:01pm | IP Logged | |||||
|
I wouldn't base my choice, at least now, on whether there's a strong Bulgarian community in Spain. After all, it might not be so easy to get to talk in Bulgarian with them, and on the other hand, there are communities of speakers of those other languages as well (as a meaningless anecdote, I know a Russian living in Spain, no Bulgarians ;-) ).
I would continue with Serbo-Croat. When Kartof stresses the similarity of Bulgarian to Serbo-Croat, it means that it will be easy for you one day to start Bulgarian, if you continue now with Serbo-Croat. A final "philosophical" point: in a simplified scenario of three languages, one of them being somewhat in the middle of the other two, I'd prefer to learn first one of the extremes, then the other extreme, and only afterwards "synthetize" the middle language. That's at least what I am doing with leaving Ukrainian for after I'll have "mastered" Polish and Russian. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Merv Bilingual Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5084 days ago 414 posts - 749 votes Speaks: English*, Serbo-Croatian* Studies: Spanish, French | Message 4 of 7 23 April 2012 at 3:27pm | IP Logged | |||||
It sounds to me like SC is where your heart really is, so that is what you should go with. In terms of usefulness (i.e. by number of speakers, learning materials, resources), it's quite clearly Russian >>>>>> SC > Bulgarian. Btw, I'm absolutely not making any value judgment between these three languages, so nobody should think I am doing that. It just seems like sound advice given what you've posted. Edited by Merv on 23 April 2012 at 3:30pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| benzionisrael Triglot Groupie Spain Joined 4476 days ago 79 posts - 142 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese, SpanishB2 | Message 5 of 7 23 April 2012 at 9:11pm | IP Logged | |||||
Thank you for your advice and opinion. I do really like Serbo-Croatian. I would say that it is the Slavic language I like the most so far. But of course anything can change. In Spain, where I plan to live for a long duration, there are many Bulgarian immigrants and I even have known some Bulgarians personally. Our feelings and preferences can easily change depending on our experiences. Before I never had any interest in neither Bulgaria nor the Bulgarian language. In fact I even had a negative image of Bulgarian people because most (almost all) of the Bulgarian people who I had known in the past had been somewhat unpleasant or mean-spirited. And so then I thought, "Bulgarians, what a mean and unsociable people!". But when I fortunately had the chance to meet many Bulgarians in Spain, my perception changed completely. When I was working in the countryside with many immigrants, I came across many Bulgarians who showed me such kindness and friendship. I also made Bulgarian friends in my church. My impression regarding Bulgarian people changed dramatically and I soon realized that the mean-spirited Bulgarians I had encountered before were just a minority of bad people (a minority of assholes exists in every country) and that they were in no way representative of the majority of Bulgarian people. The ones I had met before were just a minority comprising of selfish and spoilt unfriendly upper-middle class snobs, whereas Bulgarians on the whole are much more humble and friendly than that minority which I had previously known. Edited by benzionisrael on 23 April 2012 at 9:13pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Kartof Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 4877 days ago 391 posts - 550 votes Speaks: English*, Bulgarian*, Spanish Studies: Danish | Message 6 of 7 23 April 2012 at 11:19pm | IP Logged | |||||
|
Well, besides the access to native speakers, is there any other reason why you want to learn Bulgarian? Having
native speakers to speak to may be reason enough but if there's no deeper interest then you might quickly lose interest. It seems to me as if you've put off Russian for the distant future so if you're seriously deliberating between learning Serbo-Croatian or Bulgarian, maybe make a list of pros and cons for both languages. If you can't decide, you could always study both languages simultaneously. It would be difficult, but not impossible to differentiate the languages based on the (quite obvious) grammatical differences. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
 jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6720 days ago 4250 posts - 5710 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 7 of 7 23 April 2012 at 11:36pm | IP Logged | |||||
To begin with, you could have included Greek as well instead of starting another advice thread. 1 person has voted this message useful |
If you wish to post a reply to this topic you must first login. If you are not already registered you must first register
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
