Serbo-Croatian language: not yet dead, but not quite alive anymore. How Serbian and Croatian languages help you understand Russian Differences between Slovenian and Croatian
As a result of the collapse of Yugoslavia and the formation of new, independent states on its territory, the common language also disintegrated in a certain sense: Serbs, Croats, Bosnians and Montenegrins renamed it in their own way and did a lot to distinguish their language from Serbo-Croatian. Relatively speaking, there was an ethnic cleansing of the language.
About life and death
One of the leading linguists of the former Yugoslavia, professor at the University of Belgrade, member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, Ranko Bugarski believes that it is impossible to unequivocally answer the question of whether the Serbo-Croatian language is alive, because this problem must be considered in different planes. The first is linguistic and communication. If you look at the grammar, phonetics and vocabulary of new languages, they are very similar, and often identical. This is at the linguistic level. As for the communication aspect, when people with secondary education from Belgrade, Zagreb, Sarajevo and Podgorica communicate with each other, they understand each other without problems even today - just like in the days when a common Serbo-Croatian language officially existed. That is, in everyday life, in normal communication, the Serbo-Croatian language survived both the war, and artificial delimitation and "linguistic engineering".The second level, according to Professor Bugarski, is politically symbolic - the place of language in the constitution and legal documents. The constitutions and laws of the now independent states, created on the territory of the former use of the Serbo-Croatian language, do not mention such a language anywhere else. In this regard, there is simply no such language.
However, there is one more plane - sociopsychological: how the native speakers themselves perceive their own language, as it is traditionally called - whether Serbian, Croatian, whether it is perceived as Bosnian or Montenegrin. Or maybe they still consider him Serbo-Croatian? And yes, there are still people, although their number is decreasing, who insist that their mother tongue is Serbo-Croatian. In this sense, the common language is still alive.
Divorce to the heap
Any speaker of the Slavic language who came to the former Yugoslavia before the partition could not fail to note that “bread” in Serbian is “bread”, and in Croatian it is “krukh”. And "house" in Serbian is "house" or "heap", and in Croatian - "house". Since the early 90s, as a result of changes in politics and culture, more and more linguistic differences have appeared, but, as Professor Bugarski emphasizes, they were not spontaneous. This process took place under the control of national elites. Some strove to ensure that these differences were minimal - this was the ideology of Yugoslavism. Others have set out to deepen the differences.Serbo-Croatian language has become not only a leper, but also a forbidden language
Ranko Bugarski
On the Croatian side, already during the “First Yugoslavia”, in 1940, certain separatist sentiments began to appear, articles and books were published on the differences between the Serbian and Croatian languages. When the Second World War began, Croatian was officially introduced in Croatia instead of Croatian-Serbian, and Serbian in Serbia. From 1941 to 1945, in the Independent State of Croatia, the Croatian language was completely separated from Serbian, and not only declaratively. Spelling, grammar, partly vocabulary have been changed. When the war ended and the so-called "Second Yugoslavia" was created - the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and for a certain time the unity of the peoples reigned, the language was again called Serbo-Croatian or - for the Croatian Republic - Croatian-Serbian.
And then the tendency towards disintegration at the federal level reappeared, culminating in the war. The language was split along the republican borders, which became state ones. In his latest book, A Portrait of One Language, Professor Bugarski writes: "The Serbo-Croatian language has become not only a leper, but also a forbidden language."
The first and most powerful blow to the common language was, quite predictably, from Croatia. They invented new words, introduced archaisms, little-known vocabulary from dialects. “What has happened is what is called the engineering of language — its conscious development in a certain direction, often with the help of artificial means,” Professor Bugarski describes this process.
"Wounds" with subtitles
As soon as Yugoslavia began to fall apart, Croatia embarked on vigorous reforms, in every possible way trying to separate its so-called Western version of the common language from the Eastern version, which was in use in Serbia.The cultural disaster has gone so far that films made in Serbian are now being translated.
Sinan Gudjevic
Montenegro and partly in Bosnia. Books by Serbian authors and literature published in Serbia were seized and destroyed from libraries and bookstores. Each Croatian journalist had a dictionary at his desk at hand, in which new words were indicated, introduced instead of those that did not differ from the Serbian ones. There was even a moment when the parliament received a proposal to prepare a law on the formation of a language police.
Sinan Gudjevic, a philologist and translator from Zagreb, notes that over the years, the profession of proofreader has gained unexpected popularity in the territory of the Serbo-Croatian language use - only they, instead of correcting spelling errors, are called upon in Croatia to censor texts, removing from them all words and expressions that do not correspond to the "purity" of the new language. “The cultural catastrophe has gone so far,” says Sinan Gudjevic, “that we now translate films shot in Serbian.” For example, the film "Wounds" by Serbian director Srdjan Dragojevic was recently translated. The film was subtitled, and for four months, a cinema in Zagreb was overcrowded with spectators who came to laugh at the translation. It was reported that a Belgrade film producer had requested a Croatian copy of the film with subtitles to be shown in Belgrade. After all, a cinema in Belgrade would also have queues to watch this linguistic miracle.
Ultimately, this is how the analogue of the expression "Who gets up early, God gives to him" sounds in modern Serbian:
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Pop-out playerAnd here's the sound in modern Croatian:
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Pop-out playerKafa, kava, kahwa
Following Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, their own language was proclaimed - Bosnian. And they also tried to prove that it is authentic.As Professor Ranko Bugarski notes, this case is more complicated because the Bosnian language had to be different from both Serbian and Croatian. And the only way to make the Bosnian language more or less different from Serbian and Croatian is to find support in the East, in the Islamic heritage
We have everything dirty with politics, we are infected with it, and linguistic nationalism comes exclusively from the political context
Ahmed Burich
Bosnia and Herzegovina. In practice, this meant a return to Turkic words, many of which are actually Arabisms. In some cases, the phonetic structure of the language has been changed. For example, in the word “coffee” - in Serbian “kafa”, in Croatian “kava” - in Bosnian the sound “x” - “kahva” was added. This "x" has been added in a lot of words where it is completely unnecessary. But all this taken together, according to the professor, still did not lead to convincing differences, and therefore it is hardly worth saying that the Bosnian language is linguistically different from Serbian or Croatian.
As a result, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, part of the population - Bosnian Muslims - now speak Bosnian, Bosnian Croats Croatian, and Bosnian Serbs Serbian. At least that's what they think. And the poet and journalist from Sarajevo, Ahmet Burich, claims that earlier, before the war, it was impossible to distinguish by language who was of what nationality.
Buric spent part of his life in Mostar, part in Sarajevo, that is, part in Herzegovina, part in Bosnia. Some time ago he had a publisher in Zagreb, Croatia, who blamed Buric for the abuse of Serbian words. He replied that perhaps such an impression is being created, but from his point of view, these are Bosnian words that people have always used in Bosnia.
“Everything is dirty with politics, we are infected with it, and linguistic nationalism comes exclusively from the political context,” says Buric. “These petty phobias of ours are actually caused, as the Polish poet Czeslaw Milosz said,“ by the unformed nations, ”the impossibility, inability to express our real needs in relation to language. People who hide the immaturity of their own culture behind supposedly "national interests", artificially changing the language, mock him. "
Going to the village
The last to separate from the common Serbo-Croatian language were the Montenegrins. The existence of the Montenegrin language was proclaimed in 2008. At the same time, in history, all famous Montenegrin writers and poets claimed that they write in the Serbian language.According to Professor Bugarski, the situation with the Montenegrin language generally looks ridiculous. The Montenegrin language has chosen a special and only way: to find
It did not even occur to me at that time that new letters would be introduced into the Montenegrin language
Veselko Koprivica
support in the Montenegrin heritage - in folklore, traditions, in the use of localisms. After all, this is an unusual way of developing a standardized language - to go into the past, to leave the urban environment and its linguistic standard and look for their originality in the speech of the village or in the speech of ancient generations, the professor notes. However, this was the only way to give the Montenegrin language any independent meaning of its own. And, as the professor believes, this has not yet been done.
Moreover, as the Montenegrin journalist Veselko Koprivica says, the people themselves have not yet adapted to the new language. According to his observations, almost nothing has changed: in everyday communication, the same language remained, which was spoken before, and the new, literary, is almost never used. Koprivica analyzed the language of the Montenegrin media and noticed that the "new" Montenegrin is practiced by only two journalists! One television journalist who has lived in Montenegro for only a couple of years, and one professor from Serbia who blogs in this language for the Montenegrin state newspaper Pobeda. His texts are often composed of archaisms.
The latest population censuses in Montenegro clearly demonstrate the country's linguistic problems. In 2003, 63% of the population of Montenegro named Serbian as their native language, 22% - Montenegrin. In 2011, the number of citizens who consider Serbian their language was 43%, that is, their number decreased by 20%, but the number of those who called Montenegrin their native language increased to 37%.
Veselko Koprivice all this seems to be false patriotism. At the same time, he was one of those who, in the early nineties, during the census, declared that he spoke the Montenegrin language. After all, Yugoslavia collapsed, and it seemed logical to him that in a situation where Serbia instead of Serbo-Croatian called its language Serbian, Croatia - Croatian, Bosnia - Bosnian, and Montenegro has the right to call the language by its own name. “However, at that time it did not even occur to me that new letters would be introduced into the Montenegrin language, the phonetics would be changed and various archaisms were included in the standard language, which were rarely used, except somewhere in distant villages,” the journalist says.
Fight Latin
Surprisingly, the Serbian language, unlike the other three that replaced the common one, was not subjected to linguistic engineering, did not follow the path of artificial separation from other related languages.According to Professor Bugarski, the situation with the Serbian language is different due to a combination of geopolitical, historical, cultural and psychological reasons. First, the Serbian language in a certain way represented and represents the basis of what was called the Serbo-Croatian language. Second, it was geographically and geopolitically central. There was a voluminous folklore literature in Serbian. There were various other reasons, but this is enough to assert that from the very beginning the Serbian language felt independent, perceived itself as the basis and protector of the Serbo-Croatian heritage. Figuratively speaking, he felt like an older brother, as if proclaiming: if the rest of the brothers want to separate, leave me - let them go, happy journey, but I remain here and take care of our common home.
Therefore, nothing was officially undertaken in Serbia to separate the Serbian language from the Croatian language. But this does not mean that there were no such ideas in Serbia. Serbian nationalism was looking for differences not in the language itself, not in speech, but in the letter, focusing on supporting the "Serbian" Cyrillic alphabet and defeating the "Croatian" Latin alphabet - well, if not defeating, then at least sharply restricting the use of the Latin alphabet, explains Professor Bugarski.
If you follow the Constitutions of Serbia from the time of the Yugoslav Federation to the present day, you can see that at the beginning it was written that these two letters - Cyrillic and Latin - have equal rights. Then, in the next Constitution, it was introduced that the Cyrillic alphabet has priority and is obligatory in official use. The Latin alphabet also had an official use, but with certain restrictions. And in the last Constitution, adopted in 2006, the Latin alphabet is not even mentioned as a letter of the Serbian language.
In the former Yugoslavia, children from the first grade were taught both Cyrillic and Latin at school. In Serbia, to this day, many books are printed in the Latin alphabet, many newspapers and magazines are published in the Latin alphabet, and more or less educated people do not even notice what letters they write. However, state media and those close to the authorities are published in the Cyrillic alphabet.
And the fact that the Serbian national identity is partially based on the Cyrillic alphabet, according to Ranko Bugarski, is the source of many problems. “Many conflicts in society,” the scientist says, “right up to wars, basically have this position - to reduce everything to one thing: if you are Serb by nationality, ethnic origin, then you must be Orthodox. After all, it is believed that a Serb cannot be a Catholic. Serb - Orthodox - writing in Cyrillic - this is an obligatory triad. If someone does not fit into this formula, then he is some kind of mixture, and the mixture is not popular and politically undesirable. " According to this European cultural scheme of the late 18th century, which remained in force throughout the 19th century, and in some places has survived to this day, language, nation and state are the holy trinity. Sometimes religion is added there too. And it is this approach that favors constant conflicts and wars, including wars over language and religion.
“You speak bossan well!” Or What languages do the Balkans speak?
Each of us, arriving in a new country, inevitably asks the question: what language is spoken there? In the case of countries, this question becomes more interesting and relevant also because there are several different answers to it.
But let's sort it out in order.
South Slavic languages
Any reference book will tell us that the South Slavic languages include Serbo-Croatian, Macedonian, Slovenian and Bulgarian. Let's not go into the jungle and say that Old Church Slavonic and Church Slavonic are also included here, you are unlikely to come across them at the reception in a Budva hotel or in some local supermarket. Everything is quite clear with Bulgarian, Macedonian and Slovenian. The first is spoken in Bulgaria, the second - in the ex-Yugoslav republic, the third - in the same ex-Yugoslav republic.
*Note.
On the territory of the German state of Saxony, Serbolusic (Verneluzhen and Lower Sorbian) languages are still widespread, belonging to the Slavic group of languages. In total, they are spoken by about 60 thousand people, although in real life they are used less and less. Remember: Serbo-Croatian languages have nothing to do with the Serbo-Croatian language. They belong to the West Slavic group: Upper Sorbian is close to Czech, and Lower Sorbian is close to Polish.
A few words about Serbo-Croatian
And what about Serbo-Croatian? It is logical that it is spoken in and in. But this is not enough. After all, we still need to understand what is the difference between "Serbo-Croatian Serbian" and "Serbo-Croatian Croatian"? And one more thing: what languages are spoken then in and? We will try to answer these questions.
To begin with, the Great Soviet Encyclopedia defines the Serbo-Croatian language as "the language of Serbs, Croats, Montenegrins and Muslim Bosnians." You do not need to be a specialist in the field of linguistics to understand that if one language is spoken in different countries, then in each of them it has certain dialectal characteristics. Serbo-Croatian, in this respect, is divided into three main zones: INTO cavalry, kai cavalry and cha cavalry. They are named so only because in each of them the pronoun "what" is pronounced differently - like "cha", "INTO" and "kaj". At the same time, the Kayawa and Chakava norms are common only in the territory.
In the twentieth century, the Ustasha (Croatian nationalist) regime in Croatia did a lot to artificially separate the Croatian language from Serbian as much as possible. In particular, neologisms were artificially formed, although very few of them took root in the language. And in 1954, the Novisad Agreement recognized the existence of the Croatian and Serbian variants of the Serbo-Croatian language.
The next stage of the artificial isolation of the Croatian language began in 1967, when Croatia signed the Declaration on the name and position of the Croatian literary language, which required the recognition of four equal languages of the SFRY - Slovenian, Croatian, Serbian and Macedonian. After that, until the collapse of Yugoslavia in Croatia, they spoke of the Croatian language called "Croatian or Serbian", and in Serbia this language continued to be called "Serbo-Croatian".
Language and politics: where did the Bosnian and Montenegrin languages come from?
The political situation in the Balkans after the collapse of the SFRY strongly influenced the situation with the Serbo-Croatian language. In the former republics, their own linguistic standards began to form more intensively, sometimes even to be imposed. The Croatian language distanced itself even more from Serbian, and “conservative neologisms”, which the Ustashas tried to impose half a century ago, began to return to it. As a result, the traditional Serbo-Croatian borrowings were replaced by words with Slavic roots, which led to a completely paradoxical situation when new words supplanted even the original Croatian words of the Kaikavian and Chakavian dialects.
At the same time, the Serbo-Croatian language, which was spoken in Bosnia, also became isolated - more and more Turcisms, Persians and Arabisms appeared in it, which have synonyms in classical Serbo-Croatian. And after Montenegro gained independence in 2006, another new language was proclaimed on the territory of this country - Montenegrin. And the modern Serbian language, which is spoken in Serbia, turned out to be closest to the language spoken and written in the SFRY.
Summer 2009 
A council of professors from Montenegro, Croatia and Ukraine introduced new double letters into the Montenegrin alphabet Ś (the letter corresponds to a sound close to Russian [u]) and Ź (sound [z ’]). At the same time, the previous pronunciation and spelling is not canceled, which means that the innovation did not bring significant changes to the Montenegrin alphabet in comparison with the Serbian one.
Against this background, classical Serbo-Croatian began to be subdivided into four successor languages: Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian and Montenegrin.
Latin vs Cyrillic. Ekavitsa vs Ekavitsa
Before answering the question about the expediency of this division, let us list the distinctive features of each of these languages from the traditional Serbo-Croatian. We will not go into linguistic details, we will focus on two aspects - the alphabet and "ekavitse-ekavitse".
In and, even after the division, the Cyrillic alphabet is the official norm, however, the Latin alphabet is often used in everyday life. In Bosnia, Cyrillic and Latin are equal. In Croatia, only Latin is used.
Slavic "yat" in a number of dialects of the Serbo-Croatian language turned into sounds [e] ("e" in writing), [e] in short syllables or [e] in long ("je" or "е" / "ije" in writing) and [and] ("and" / "i" in the letter). Thus, there are several pronunciation norms: "Ekava", "Ekava" and "Ikava". In the Croatian language, the "Ekava" norm is officially recognized (time, weather: Croatian vrije me [vri e me] - Serb. time [time eh me]), however, in Croatian there are also official cases of the use of the "Ekava" norm (for example, an error: greška [gr eh shka]) and even "ikavskoy" (part: dio [д and o], to make fun of: ismijavati [ismi I am wati]). Formally, the “Ekava” and “Ekava” norms are equal, however, in Serbia, the “Ekava” norms are used more often, and in Montenegro, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, the “Ekava” norms are used.
| TABLE OF PERFORMANCE STANDARDS OF THE SERBOHORVATIAN LANGUAGE | |||
| Ekavitsa (Ekavitsa) | Ekavitsa(Ijekavica) | Ikavitsa (Ikavica) | Russian translation |
| Grandfather [Dead] | Djed [Djed / Jed] | Did [Did] | Grandfather |
| River [R eh ka] | Rijeka [Ri e ka] | Rika [P and ka] | River |
| Lep [Lep] | Lijep [Li e P] | Lip [Lip] | Nice |
| Belief eh ra] | Vjera [Въ e ra] | Vira [In and ra] | faith |
| Mleko [Ml eh to] | Mlijeko [Mli e to] | Mliko [ML and to] | Milk |
| Hteti [Xt eh ty] | Htjeti [Хтъ e ty] | Htiti [Xt and ty] | Want |
One language or four?
From the point of view of many specialists, including foreign ones, there are no sufficient linguistic grounds for dividing Serbo-Croatian into four national languages. The difference between the norms of the Serbian, Croatian and Bosnian languages is less than between the Kaikavian and Chakavian dialects. At the same time, the Bosnian language practically does not differ from Serbian.
Thus, there are only political reasons for the division of the language. The Bosnian language increasingly focuses on Croatian vocabulary and spelling (with the addition of Turkishisms, Persians and Arabisms) only because Croats were allies of the Bosnian Muslims in the recent war against the Serbs. And the declaration of the Montenegrin language as independent is a direct consequence of the declaration of independence of Montenegro itself from Serbia, and not at all objective linguistic processes.
| SOME LEXICAL DIFFERENCES IN THE LANGUAGES OF THE SUCCESSOR OF SERBOKHORVAT | ||||
| Serbian | Croatian | Bosnian | Montenegrin | Russian translation |
| Bread [Chl eh b] | Kruh [Cr at X] | Hlijeb [Hli e b] | Hljeb [Chl e b] | Bread |
| The science [N a uk] | Znanost [Zn a nost] | Nauka [N a uk] | Nauka [N a uk] | The science |
| History [East O riya] | Povijest [P O wiest] | Istrorija [East O riya] | Istrorija [East O riya] | Story |
| Nedeљa [N eh delya] | Tjedan [Tb e Dan] | Sedmica [C eh dmita] | Sedmica [C eh dmita] | A week |
| Ogledalo [Ogle eh gave] | Zrcalo [Z s rtsalo] | Ogledalo [Ogle eh gave] | Ogledalo [Ogle eh gave] | Mirror |
| Terati [T eh rati] | Tjerati [Tb e rati] | Tjerati [Tb e rati] | Tjerati [Tb e rati] | Chase away |
| U century [Have vec] | U vijek [Have viek] | Uvijek [Have viek] | Uvijek / Vazda [V a zda] | Is always |
| Krompyr [Cr O ipir] | Krumpir [Cr at ipir] | Krompir [Cr O ipir] | Krompir [Cr O ipir] | Potato |
| Kashika [K a chic] | Žlica [Zhl and tsa] | Kašika [TO a chic] | Kašika [TO a chic] | A spoon |
| Degree [St eh penite] | Stepenice [St eh penite] | Basamice [Bass a mitse] | Stepenice [St eh penite] | Steps |
| Poreklo [Por eh clo] | Podrijetlo [Podri e tlo] | Porijeklo [Pori e clo] | Porijeklo [Pori e clo] | Origin |
| Lovely [З a sabno] | Zasebno [З a sabno] | Ba ška [B a shka] | Zasebno [Z a sabno] | Separately |
| faith [V eh ra] | Vjera [Въ e ra] | Vjera / Din [Dean] | Vjera [Въ e ra] | faith |
| Soup [WITH at na] | Juha [YU Ha] | Supa [WITH at na] | Supa [WITH at na] | Soup |
| Mister [Gospod O din] | Gospo din [Gosp O din] | Efendija [Eph eh ndia] | Gospodin [Gospodin O din] | Lord |
| The doctor [L eh kar] | Liječnik [Lee e chnik] | Ljekar / Heć i
m [Hatch and m] | Lijekar [Lee e kar] | Doctor |
| Conversation [P a conversation] | Razgovor [P a conversation] | Muhabet [Flies a bet] | Razgovor [P a conversation] | Talk |
| Ubav [L Yu bav] | Ljubav [L Yu bav] | Ljubav / Sevdah [WITH eh vdah] | Ljubav [L Yu bav] | Love |
But nevertheless, these differences are not always applied in practice, that is, in Bosnia they do not always use exclusively Turkishisms and Arabisms, and if you say “Conversation” instead of “Muhabet”, everyone will understand that you want to talk. Or say in Montenegro or Croatia instead of "Zrcalo" "Ogledalo", they will understand you, even if for some reason they pretend that they do not know what you are asking about. Or if in Serbia you say "Sedmica" instead of "Nedeљa", the interlocutor will understand what is at stake.
In general, all residents can understand each other without a dictionary, since they are carriers of a single Serbo-Croatian language.
And all the differences are just regional features and artificially imposed standards.
So, when going on a trip to Herceg Novi or Sarajevo, do not try to search the shelves of a bookstore for Montenegrin-Russian or Bosnian-Russian phrasebooks!
A few days ago, Andrew touched on an extremely interesting topic in a commentary on an article on this blog. Here's what he wrote:
"Hello, im from Ukraine. I read that Serbian and Croatian are the same. Please tell us about the prevalence of Serbian? Is it further official in countries such as Croatia, Montenegro? Ato read about these countries on the wiki and was completely confused by the diversity of languages and dialects in this region. I need to learn the Croatian language, but could I speak Serbian there? Is this the same situation with languages, as well as with Ukrainian, Belarusian and Russian?
Dyakuyu. "
I made a promise to answer, but to be honest, when I tried to answer, I myself fell into a stupor. Especially when Google translator found Serbian, Serbo-Croatian, Croatian and Montenegrin! languages.
In addition to the concept of "Serbo-Croatian" (earlier, it seemed, as it was written "Serbo-Croatian"), Montenegrin is especially pleased.
In general, I decided to completely abandon the pathetic attempts to pose as an expert. Having rummaged in browser bookmarks, on bookshelves and other parts of the body, I am ready to present to your attention a very interesting, in my opinion, article. True, I could not resist and slightly "rewritten" this very article.
But, before continuing, I would like to bring some clarity to the concepts of nation and nationality. In the Balkans, these concepts are special.
In terms of language, ex-Yugoslavia was divided, in fact, into only three parts: Slovenian, Serbo-Croatian and Macedonian.
The fact is that Serbs, Croats, Bosnians and Montenegrins speak the same language. Its international designation is Serbo-Croatian. Serbs and Montenegrins write in Cyrillic, Croats and Bosnians - in Latin. Serbs and Montenegrins are Orthodox, Croats are Catholics, and Bosnians are Muslims. They were divided according to the religious principle. Divided while fighting. To my great regret.
There are also Slovenes. But the Slovenes are here, as it were, always and in everything separately. And they have a separate language, with not weak German blotches.
There are also Macedonians. But Macedonian is essentially a dialect of Bulgarian. Such is the linguistic picture we get. We go further, we see the forest ...
Despite the fact that the Cyrillic alphabet is officially recognized in Serbia, they also write and write in the Latin alphabet quite cheerfully. In particular, the vast majority of newspapers are published in the Latin alphabet and, which is very important, the Serbian Internet is based.
Let's leave the Latin alphabet for now. Curious metamorphoses have taken place with the Cyrillic alphabet (in the Serbian language). The Serbs abandoned the letters E, Щ, Э, Ю, Я, as well as hard and soft signs. Let's remember the Russian alphabet and cut off its “tail”. Have you presented?
So much for the Serbian alphabet, except that the Serbs have letters, rather strange for our perception, Ђђ, Џџ, Ћћ, soft Љљ, Њ, and the usual Y is replaced by Ј.
In addition to the alphabet, the Serbian language is related to Russian by the presence of cases and genders. It seems to me that this is not a weak problem for non-Slavs who study Serbian.
What else can be said about this ... Well, for example, we can say thanks to Vuk Karadzic (1787-1864) for his reform, thanks to which all words in the Serbian language are spelled almost the same way as they are heard.
But let's get back to Andrew's question about the differences in modern Serbian and Croatian languages.
In terms of regional differences in the former Yugoslavia, there is a win-win litmus test - the word “what”. By analogy, a Russian will say “cho”, and a Ukrainian will say “sho”;)
In the Balkans, if you “stock”, then you are a Serb, if you “chaka” or “kaykaesh,” then Croat or Dalmatians, respectively. Although, all this is rather arbitrary, approximately at the level of okania and acania in Russia.
However, after the collapse of Yugoslavia, all the republics, except, of course, Serbia, immediately began to artificially invent dialectical differences for themselves, in order to as confidently as possible surround their linguistic “otherness”.
For example, the Croats decided to call the months of the year not by Latin names (as in Serbian, Russian, and, after all, in the same English), but in the Old Slavonic manner (as the Ukrainians) - serpents, leaves, etc.
Ulazi u beogradski taksi hrvat. Kada su stigli na zeljeno mesto hrvat pita:
- "Koliko sam duzan?"
- "Hiljadu dinara" - kaze taksista
- "Molicu lijepo, koliko je to u tisucama?" - pita hrvat
A taksista ce k "o iz topa
- "Pet tisuca"
That's what I want to say. These differences in Serbian and Croatian will be even greater in the future. I think it is necessary to decide on an intuitive level. And, start learning either Serbian or Croatian. And then speak either Serbian with a Croatian accent, or Croatian with a Serbian accent.
But, be that as it may, the Russian accent will completely break everything!
The topic of the conversation, of course, is not closed. There will be a continuation and, I hope, in the near future I will be able to organize for you, my dear readers, a real surprise.
Shl. Smiled.
On AZONE I saw the annotation of the audio course of the Croatian (or Hungarian? !!) language. I could not resist and took a screenshot. Catch:
Popularity: 7%
Friends, thanks for sharing the link to this article:
And here is a repost:
(English version)
Serbian Language and Culture Workshop celebrates its anniversary -
10 years of work. Our first summer school was an enthusiastic camp
which we organized in August 2002, when we had a total of 10 students
(5 from Poland, 2 from the USA, 1 from Russia, 1 from Italy and 1 from
Germany). After 10 years, about 1500 of you studied at the Workshop
and I hope that now you speak Serbian better than before, thanks to
our courses and your individual work.
After 10 years the professors of Serbian who teach, or used to
teach in the Workshop, are still young and creative professionals
which know well how to solve your problems in learning Serbian. Today
many of us are associates of academic institutions in the World: the
University in Belgrade, Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts,
Masarik "s University in Brno, State University of Wisconsin-Madison,
University of Aix in Provence, we develop our scientific projects and
academic career.
Workshop has remained highly specialized, we do only Serbian for
foreigners and we don "t offer foreign languages to Serbs. Serbian for
foreigners is our only field of work. But all our professors are
polyglots, we speak English, Russian, French, German, Spanish, Greek,
Polish and Czech.
The students say that 3 weeks in Workshop has the same effect as
one semester of Serbian in the university. Therefor we will celebrate
this anniversary by offering 3-week programs at lower prices to all of
you who studied Serbian at the Workshop, and your recommended friends
will receive a discount of 50 EUR.
1. Summer School in Valjevo for 435 EUR! Duration 21 days. The price includes:
60 language classes,
30 academic culture classes,
30 popular culture classes,
accommodation with a family or in a student apartment,
free use of kitchen,
Starts on July 14th or on August 4th, 2012.
2. Summer School in Belgrade for 580 EUR! Duriation 21 day. The price includes:
60 language classes,
accommodation in hostel in a multiple bed room;
free use of kitchen,
3. Discounts for your friends!
For every friend of yours which you send to us, and who never had
learned Serbian with us before, we give a discount of 50 EUR. You only
need to send us an e-mail with recommendation, and your friends should
note in the registration form that you recommended the Workshop to
I wish you a pleasant and creative Summer 2012!
Project Director
Serbian Language and Culture Workshop
It is hard to believe, but there were no extreme differences between the Balkan Slavs. Until the 19th century, the Croats and Serbs were the most friendly nations. The difference did exist, but only a religious one! The Croats were under the domineering influence of Italy and Austria during the entire period of the Middle Ages. The first Croatian settlements appeared in the Mediterranean in the 7th century.
These events are associated with the search for the salvation of the Slavic tribes from the Avars, Germans and Huns, scattered throughout the country. Most of all, the Slavs chose the possessions of today's Zagreb with its adjacent territories. However, they did not manage to get to the prosperous lands of the coast, which was under the leadership of the Romans. Then the Slavs created several autonomous principalities.
Croatia as part of Hungary
Closer to the 10th century, the Croats enlisted the assistance of Byzantium, gathered considerable strength to create a cohesive state. Even to this day, the Croatian people love to focus on their Christianity. The initial period of recovery did not last long, until internal divisions threatened national unity. Then the noble community in 1102 recognized Kalman I, the Hungarian king, as its sovereign. As a result, Croatia became part of the Kingdom of Hungary. At the same time, the parties agreed that Kalman would leave the administrative and political structure and aristocratic privileges unchanged.
The oppression of the Hungarian kingdom
Under the rule of Hungary, the Croats had to share a lot of difficult historical changes with this kingdom. By far the most significant damage was caused by the attacks of the Ottomans. Due to the fact that these offensives were continuously moving to the north, the Hungarian government in 1553 militarized the border territories of Slovenia and Croatia. The tense state of war lasted for 25 years. During this time, most of the residents moved to safer areas.
However, under the leadership of the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Great, it broke through the defenses. Moreover, the army was able to approach the gates of Vienna, but failed to capture the city itself. In 1593, the Battle of Sisak forced the Ottomans to leave the conquered Croatian lands. Only the Bosnian surroundings remained in their possession.
Unity and strife of two Slavic peoples
Under the influence of the Austrians and Hungarians, the Croats imperceptibly lost their national identity. However, both Croats and Serbs felt the same contempt for the Turkish invaders. The only difference existed in one - the discrepancy between traditions. However, the feeling of hatred for the usurper was much stronger than the insignificant differences in customs. Examples of the fighting unity of Croatian and Serbian rebels are innumerable! They fought together with the sworn Ottoman invaders, as well as with the equally resentful Habsburgs.
In 1918, a favorable situation arose - the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The event that occurred made it possible to disconnect the southern lands. This is how the united kingdom of Yugoslavia was formed. In principle, the displacement of the Turks and the formation of a separate kingdom should have brought the Slavic peoples even closer together. However, everything happened the other way around ...
The reason for the first conflicts
The first bursts of rivalry appeared after the end of the second. It was then that the true history of the conflict between Serbs and Croats began! The need to reconstruct the Balkans turned into a hostility that has not subsided to this day.
In fact, two conflicting currents emerge at the same time, rapidly gaining recognition. Serbian minds have put forward the concept of "Greater Yugoslavia". Moreover, the system center must be formed in Serbia. The reaction to this statement was the emergence of the nationalist edition "Name of Serbs", written by the dashing hand of Ante Starcevic.
Undoubtedly, these events have been developing for a long time. However, to this day there is an insurmountable obstacle that Croats and Serbs cannot resolve between themselves. The difference between the two fraternal peoples is distortedly manifested even in the understanding of the most urgent issue for them. If for a Serb the guest is the one who feeds the owner, then for the Croat it is the one who feeds the owner.
Father of the Croatian nation
Ante Starcevic was the first to come up with the idea that Croats are not Slavs! They say that they are the offspring of the Germans, who hastily became Slavic-speaking, because in this way they want to better lead the Balkan slaves. What a terrible twist of fate! The mother of the “father of the Croatian nation” was Orthodox, and the father was Catholic.
Despite the fact that the parents were Serbs, the son became the ideological leader of Croatia, spreading the concept of the Serb genocide in his country. It is noteworthy that his closest friend was the Jew Joseph Frank. Although Ante Starchevich had a deep disgust for this nation as well. Joseph himself also became a Croatian nationalist, having converted to Catholicism.
As you can see, the guy's imagination has developed infinitely. One thing is sad in this story. Starcevic's delusional parting words echoed in the hearts of Croatian youth. As a result, a series of Serbian pogroms swept across Dalmatia and Slavonia at the beginning of the century. At that time, it would not even have occurred to anyone that the Croats were artificially converted Serbs!
For example, under the leadership of the "father of the nation" from September 1 to 3 in 1902, together with his friend Frank, the Croats in Karlovac, Slavonski Brod, Zagreb destroyed Serbian shops and workshops. They unintentionally invaded houses, threw away personal belongings, and beat them.
The shaky world of a united kingdom
One of the results of the First World War was the emergence of a united kingdom. A lot of historical information confirms the involvement of the Serbs in the violent rejection of the Slovenes and Croats inside the kingdom.
The economy in Slovenia, Croatia was more developed. Therefore, they, in turn, asked a fair question. Why is it necessary to feed the poor metropolis? Much better to form your own autonomous state, living happily ever after. Moreover, for a Serb, every Orthodox Slav has always been and will remain alien!
Croatian genocide
The existence of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia did not last long - the Second World War began. In 1941, on April 6, German aircraft attacked Belgrade. After just two days, the Nazi army had already captured this territory. During the war, Ante Pavelic's Ustasha union gained fanatical popularity. Croatia became a German mercenary.
Belgrade historians are sure that the approximate number of those killed by the Ustasha is 800,000 Roma, Jews and Serbs. Only 400 people were able to escape to Serbia. The Croats themselves do not refute this number, but claim that most of them are partisans who died with weapons in their hands. The Serbs, in turn, are confident that 90% of the victims are civilians.
If today a tourist happens to be on Serbian soil, it is possible that the hosts will show a loyal interest in the guest. The Croatian side is on the contrary! Even despite the absence of bulky Asian barriers, gates, any illegal appearance in their personal space is perceived as a manifestation of rudeness. Based on this information, one can clearly imagine who the Croats and Serbs are. Characteristic features are most pronounced in the mentality of these two peoples.
Nazis and Martyrs
After the end of the war, Yugoslavia came under the influence of the USSR. The new state was headed by Josip, who ruled with an iron fist until his death. At the same time, Tito did not accept the advice of his closest friend Moshe Pjade, deliberately mixing the indigenous population of Slovenia and Croatia with the Serbs. After 1980, due to political and territorial conflicts in Yugoslavia, a split began gradually to occur, in which the Croats and Serbs were most affected. The difference between the two once brotherly peoples again boiled down to irreconcilable enmity.
Even under the Hapsburgs, the Croats who fought for federalism did not want to adapt to the Serbs. Also, the Croats did not want to admit that the very birth of the southern was due solely to the suffering and military victories of the Serbs. The Serbs, in turn, were not going to compromise with those who had only recently removed their Austrian uniform. In addition, resolutely, and at times even ruthlessly fighting on the side of Austria, the Croats never went over to the Serbian side. Unlike Slovaks, Czechs.
War inside the country
Later, in early 1990, the USSR collapsed, during which the final split of Yugoslavia followed. As a result, Croatia, having declared independence, separated from the country. However, the Serbs in Croatia themselves incited inter-territorial clashes within the country. After a short time, this led to a brutal civil war. Serbian and Yugoslav armies invaded Croatian territory, capturing Dubrovnik and Vukovar.
Still, we will try to impartially look at the outbreak of the conflict, without dividing into "left" and "right". Croats and Serbs. What's the Difference? If we talk about religious motives, it is safe to say that some are Catholics and others are Orthodox. However, this is the lot of interchurch conflicts, the main goal of which is exclusively the prosperity of confessions. Therefore, one should not forget that the Croats with the Serbs are, first of all, two fraternal peoples who were pitted against by their common enemies throughout the 20th century.
The term "Patriotic War" in Croatia
Among the Croats, the civil war is called the Patriotic War. In addition, they are extremely offended if someone calls her otherwise. Against this background, even an international scandal with Switzerland broke out not so long ago. The country has banned Croatian singer Marko Perkovich Thompson from entering its territory. It was argued that Marco, through his performances, incited interracial, religious hatred.
When the Swiss recklessly used the name "Civil War" in the text, they caused a storm of emotions in the Croatian ministry. In response, the Croatian side sent a protest letter bypassing its president, Stepan Mesic. Naturally, such an act aroused fair indignation in him. In addition, the president did not like the fact that Croatian officials defended the hated Thompson, who had indeed been repeatedly seen stirring up conflicts. However, when the question is about the exact wording, you can close your eyes to the rest.
The culprit of a new war is the Yugoslav army
Undoubtedly, the war was largely civil. Firstly, the beginning was laid by the internecine conflicts that broke out in the united Yugoslavia. In addition, the Serbs who rebelled against the Croatian leadership were the actual citizens of this country.
Secondly, the war for Croatian autonomy was fought only at first. When Croatia received international independence status, the war continued anyway. However, this time the issue of renewing the territorial unity of Croatia was being decided. On top of that, this war had a clear religious connotation. However, is there not one thing in this story that does not allow us to name a civil war, in which only Croats and Serbs participated?
History, as you know, is based solely on irrefutable facts! And they say that the Southern People's Army (JNA) played the role of the real aggressor of Croatia. In addition, Croatia was still a part of Yugoslavia, where two Croatian leaders formally dominated - President Stepan Mesic together with Prime Minister Ante Markovic. By the beginning of the offensive on Vukovar, the Yugoslav army was already legally on the territory of Croatia. Therefore, the invasion that took place cannot be called aggression from the outside.
However, the Croatian side absolutely does not want to admit that the JNA has never represented the interests of Serbia. Before the attack on Vukovar, which took place on August 25, 1991, the JNA acted as the opposing side. Subsequently, the Yugoslav army began to represent only its generals, as well as a small part of the communist leadership.
Is Croatia Guilty?
Even after the withdrawal of Yugoslav troops from Eastern Slavonia, Western Sriem and Baranja, JNA still continued its attacks on Croatia. In particular, to Dubrovnik. Moreover, a pronounced aggression was manifested on the part of Montenegro. It is important to know that Croatia also participated in the attack, in turn, also fought against the Army in the territory of Herzegovina, Bosnia.
According to experts, at least 20 thousand people became victims of the war, which lasted for four years, on the Balkan Peninsula. Thanks to the assistance of the UN, together with other international organizations, in 1995 the war in Croatia was ended. Today, all conversations boil down to the return of refugees, who, in turn, talk more about return than they intend to do so.
Undoubtedly, Serbo-Croatian relations today are far from cloudless. And mutual collisions continue to this day. Especially in those areas that have suffered the most from the hostilities. However, the unhealthy demonization of the Croatian people, carried out throughout the 90s and continued by some now, does not at all coincide with reality!
From the end of the 19th century to the middle of the 20th century (until 1954, to be more precise), Serbian and Croatian were one language, the so-called Serbo-Croatian. It was the language of Croats, Serbs, Montenegrins and Bosnians. The Croats were the first (in 1954) to start the movement to separate their language, but until the collapse of Yugoslavia, a single language continued to exist. In Croatia then they spoke Croatian, and in Serbia, right up to the rule of Sl. Milosevic, continued to communicate in Serbo-Croatian.
After the collapse of Yugoslavia, the former Yugoslav republics began to actively separate their own language norms. The language was divided into Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian, and Montenegrin appeared in 1995.
The creation of the Serbo-Croatian language and its division into several autonomous languages can be fully considered a political act. The language, in view of the acute issue of self-determination of previously united peoples, was divided into several closely related languages. The changes that took place in these autonomous languages were often guided by the desire for originality, dissimilarity to other languages. At all costs, be different from the language of the neighbors.
In Croatia, for example, after the separation of the Croatian language, a number of inconvenient and linguistically illogical rules were introduced, which were aimed at emphasizing the identity of the Croatian language (for example, conservative neologisms, words with Croatian roots, which should have been replaced by borrowings). In Serbia, only the Cyrillic alphabet is now recognized as the official alphabet, while the Latin alphabet is still much more popular in everyday life.
Language differences
1. Writing. The Serbo-Croatian language had two alphabets, Cyrillic and Latin. Now Croatian uses Latin, while Serbian officially uses Cyrillic and unofficially uses Latin.
2. Lexicon. In terms of vocabulary, the differences are most obvious. In Croatia, a policy of purism is actively developing, supplanting borrowings and replacing them with Croatian words.
3. Grammar. In different ways, for example, essentially the same derivational affixes are used. If in Croatian the -nik and tel are used to denote a profession, in the Serbian profession they are denoted by other affixes (ac, etc.). There are some minor differences in syntax as well.
4. There are phonetic differences between Serbian and Croatian. In Serbian, for example, quite often (but not always and not strictly necessary) "x" is replaced by the sound "v".
In fact, the situation is such that Serbian and Croatian are very close, similar languages, which, for political reasons, strive for the greatest possible autonomy and identity. More and more - especially in Croatian - there are rules that separate this language from Serbian. Serbo-Croatian and Croatian-Serbian are independent languages of UNESCO, and the organization publishes its books in both languages. Despite this, native speakers of both languages can easily communicate with each other if they avoid using local vocabulary and use common vocabulary.
