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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| tennisace Newbie United States Joined 5423 days ago 39 posts - 43 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Croatian, French | Message 1 of 17 01 May 2011 at 7:21am | IP Logged | ||
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I don't know what it is, but these languages really interest me. I can remember the first time I heard Serbian (or at least what I thought was Serbian). Now don't make fun, but it was in the first season of 24. It just sounded so awesome and different exotic. I've been trying to read up on these languages before I actually try to learn them. I honestly have no practical reason to learn the language. I don't envision myself going to these area of Europe anytime soon nor do I know anybody personally who speaks either one. In any case, they are still appealing.
So what are your thoughts on the languages? What resources have you used or would you recommend to a beginner like me? I know the languages are similar yet still different and I was thinking about starting with Croatian (due to the latin alphabet and my first time with declensions). I would love to hear from learners and natives alike. Thanks! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 6965 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes  20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish | Message 2 of 17 01 May 2011 at 9:10pm | IP Logged | ||
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See the following:
Best way to start learning Bosnian Bosnian/Croatian/Montenegrin/Serbian BCMS profile (former Croatian profile) Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian, a textbook How to begin Serbian from scratch.... Is Croatian considered hardcore? Serbo-Croatian Start with whichever variant interests you the most. By the way, ALL variants have been codified using the Latin alphabet. The subtlety is that Croats use only the Latin-based script, while Bosnians, Montenegrins and Serbs can express themselves in writing using either Cyrillic or Latin (although Bosnian Cyrillic is rare). Declensions are codified virtually the same and so picking Croatian over the other variants because of an assumed simplicity in its declensions compared to what's found in the other variants sounds odd to me. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Merv Bilingual Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5082 days ago 414 posts - 749 votes Speaks: English*, Serbo-Croatian* Studies: Spanish, French | Message 3 of 17 02 May 2011 at 4:54pm | IP Logged | ||
A subtle point, but while Bosnian Muslims say they speak Bosnian, it is a sensitive point to refer to one of the ethnic groups as solely Bosnian. A modifier is usually given, as e.g. Bosnian Muslim (Bosniak), Bosnian Serb, Bosnian Croat, and all three groups can be described as regionally Bosnian, but not ethnically. Additionally, Bosnian Cyrillic is a variant of Serbian Cyrillic used primarily in the medieval period. Today it is extinct: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bosnian_Cyrillic Today, the Cyrillic alphabet used in Bosnia is the same as the Cyrillic alphabet used in Serbia, and is the Serbian Cyrillic alphabet (as distinct from Bulgarian, Russian, Old Church Slavonic, etc.) designed by Vuk Karadzic. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serbian_Cyrillic_alphabet Edited by Merv on 02 May 2011 at 5:15pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Merv Bilingual Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5082 days ago 414 posts - 749 votes Speaks: English*, Serbo-Croatian* Studies: Spanish, French | Message 4 of 17 02 May 2011 at 5:05pm | IP Logged | ||
Grammatically they are practically the same. There are grammatically simplified Serbian and Croatian dialects to the south of Serbia and the area of Croatia that borders with Slovenia, and the grammar is "purest" and most vigorous in the highlands of Herzegovina, but they are all the same grammatically. Vocabulary is increasingly diverging. If you are deciding between learning the variant spoken in Belgrade vs. the one spoken in Zagreb, the Belgrade variant is closer to the "average" language in terms of the vocabulary being very similar to that of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro, and until the recent past Croatia. Since 1991, the Croatian variant has undergone a "purification" process whereby many words considered "international" or "Serbisms" have fallen out of favor. If you learn this more restricted vocabulary, you may encounter common words present in the Serbian/Bosnian/Montenegrin variants which you will not recognize. To give you the most notorious example of the months: English Croatian &nb sp; Serbian Bosnian January siječanj &n bsp; januar januar February veljača &n bsp; februar februar March ožujak mart mart April travanj april april May svibanj &n bsp; maj maj June lipanj &n bsp; jun juni July srpanj &n bsp; jul juli August kolovoz ; avgust august September rujan &nbs p; septembar septemb ar October listopad &nb sp; oktobar oktobar November studeni &nb sp; novembar novemba r December prosinac &n bsp; decembar decemb ar Most people in Serbia, Bosnia, Montenegro will not know right away what lipanj or kolovoz are, whereas most people in Croatia will know what jun(i) or avgust are. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tennisace Newbie United States Joined 5423 days ago 39 posts - 43 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Croatian, French | Message 5 of 17 02 May 2011 at 6:55pm | IP Logged | ||
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Chung - Thanks a lot for all of those links. I will be sure to take a look at all of them. I guess when I wrote about the declensions, I didn't mean that because Serbian uses a different alphabet it would be more difficult. I also think I'm beginning to see some of the differences between the languages in that the vocabulary seems to be different but the grammar is pretty much the same.
Merv - Thank you for this example. I'm confused if you are recommending to learn the Croatian or Serbian variant in relation to vocabulary. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tennisace Newbie United States Joined 5423 days ago 39 posts - 43 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Croatian, French | Message 6 of 17 05 May 2011 at 6:53am | IP Logged | ||
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Does anybody else have any input, whether it be with the language, resources, etc?
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| mmartine Diglot Newbie Croatia Joined 4757 days ago 2 posts - 2 votes Speaks: English, Croatian* Studies: Spanish | Message 7 of 17 09 May 2011 at 4:53am | IP Logged | ||
The main difference between Croatian and Serbian is the way words are written and pronounced. In Croatian, the variation is in "ije" and in Serbian is "e". For example, the word "white" in English would be: Croatian - bijelo and in Serbian - belo. The word "milk" in English would be: Croatian - mlijeko and in Serbian - mleko. That was for words that are similar. The other difference are the words that are obviously totally different. For example, month february (SRB-februar; CRO-veljača) Another difference is on historical basis. In Serbian, there are numerous words that come from Turkish(because of the Ottoman empire) while in Croatian there are less Turkish words and more German and Italian, depending on which part of Croatia people live) I'm a native speaker of Croatian so if you have any more questions, don't hesitate to ask. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Merv Bilingual Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5082 days ago 414 posts - 749 votes Speaks: English*, Serbo-Croatian* Studies: Spanish, French | Message 8 of 17 10 May 2011 at 6:08am | IP Logged | ||
Well, having seen this again, all I can say is you had better have more reasons to want to learn it than an episode of 24. I'm learning Spanish and find it hard at times to study (I haven't studied in an organized fashion in several weeks, but that's because I'm really busy with work). You need to be motivated by literature, music, travel, etc. to really make it worth it for you to learn the language. Just because it's spoken by a relatively small number of people (as compared to "big" languages like Russian, French, English, etc.) doesn't mean it'll be any easier than tackling a much more widely spoken language. Fish around on the internet for traditional music clips or read translations from a few books originally written in Serbian/Croatian. Then decide if it piques your interest enough. I'm sure you'll find enough at that point to help you to decide to learn either Serbian or Croatian variants. Despite the fact that the language is the same, the history and consequently culture is rather different. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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