Serbo-Croatian
“A shprakh iz a diyalekt mit an armey un a flot”1
—Max Weinrich, 1945
This section is devoted to my study of the Serbo-Croatian language.
Serbo-Croatian, or Serbo-Croat, is a South Slavic language; this group of languages includes, for example, Serbo-Croatian, Slovenian, Macedonian and Bulgarian. Serbo-Croatian was the main language of the former Yugoslavia, and variants are now spoken in Croatia, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Montenegro, and Serbia. Serbo-Croat is divided into two main variants, known often merely as the eastern and western variants, the former spoken primarily in Serbia, the Western primarily in Croatia and much of Bosnia. The dialect spoken in Montenegro combines features from both main dialects. Alternate terms for these main variants are ekavski (for the eastern) and ijekavski (for the western).
Political events over the last decade have affected how we look at Serbo-Croat. In particular, the use of the term Serbo-Croat to encompass several dialects - and hence, to act as if we are dealing with several dialects of the same language rather than several different languages - has come under fire by many, mostly those with nationalistic interests. From a linguistic point of view, the two variants (in their standard forms) are mutually intelligible, which is one of the main criteria in determining whether one is dealing with dialects or separate languages. The fact that the western variant is written in a version of the Latin alphbet while the eastern uses a version of the Cyrillic alphabet is of little linguistic - but of occasional political - interest. However, speaking for the consideration of these variants as separate languages would be the fact that there are numerous lexical differences between the variants. For example, while the eastern variant uses names of months that have cognates in most west-european languages, the western variant uses neo-slavic terms created in the 19th century:
western |
eastern |
English |
|---|---|---|
sijechanj |
januar |
January |
veljacca |
februar |
February |
ozhukak |
mart |
March |
travanj |
april |
April |
svibanj |
maj |
May |
lipanj |
jun |
June |
spranj |
jul |
July |
kolovoz |
avgust |
August |
rujan |
septembar |
September |
listopad |
oktobar |
October |
studeni |
novembar |
November |
prosinac |
decembar |
December |
Furthermore, there are syntactic differences as well. The eastern variant uses so-called "da clauses"), whereas the western form prefers infinitive consutructions. See the following example:
English |
I like to drink beer. |
|---|---|
western |
Ja volim piti pivo. |
eastern |
Ja volim da pijem pivo. |
However, (in common usage) American and British (as well as Canadian, for example) English are seen primarily as dialects of English, despite numerous orthographic and lexical differences; and similarly, "German" (Hochdeutsch) German, "Swiss" German, and "Austrian" German are usually treated as dialects of the same main language.
Hence, the author of this site has chosen to treat "Croatian" (hrvatski), "Bosnian" (bosanski), and "Serbian" (srpski) as "Serbo-Croat". Part of this choice is purely practical; the variants are so similar that it makes no sense to create a separate website to discuss each individually. Important differences can be discussed as asides and/or footnotes. Additionally, I do not wish to be forced to "pick a favorite" variant and hence name this page/site according to a single variant. Finally, the decision to name the language "Croatian", "Serbian", etc. is almost exclusively a matter of identity politics and a tool of nationalist interests - to the extent that I oppose such politics, and find them entirely destructive and the source of numerous evils, I refuse to acknowledge their claims on what has become known as "Serbo-Croat".
Below you will find links to several other pages I have written - or am in the process of writing - regarding my own study of Serbo-Croat. Particular emphasis will be given to grammar points, especially noun and adjective declention, and verb conjugation. As time permits, I plan to provide lists of conjugated verbs, after the model provided by numerous text books.
Finally, let me present a short note on orthography and the presentation of materials on this site. This site will be written primarily in English, with examples given in Serbo-Croat. To make this site accessible to the largest number of people, I have chosen to write such examples in the Latin alphabet; I do, however, use both eastern and westerna variants in such examples, and I do not always clarify which variant is being used. Sometimes it will be clear from the syntax and/or spelling conventions. The variant of the Latin alphabet used by Serbo-Croat (western variant) includes a number of letters not used in the standard Latin alphabet (as used by English, for example), including marks over c, s, and z, and through d. These all represent palatalized sounds; I may present a separate page on pronunciation (if time permits). I will at times use the Latin-2 character set (ISO 8859-2) to present these characters; at other times I will use "cc", "ch", "dj", "sh", and "zh" to represent the appropriate sounds.
graphic of Serbo-Croat specific characters: |
 |
characters used in these pages to represent the above: |
cc,CC ch,Ch dj,Dj sh,Sh zh,Zh |
In the long term, I hope to find a solution beneficial to users of most browsers.
If you have any comments or suggestions for this site, please contact the author.
The Serbo-Croatian Noun System
Aspect in Serbo-Croatian verbs
Serbo-Croatian Adjectives
1. Weinreich's quote is often seen in the following English translation: “A
Language is a Dialect with an Army (and a Navy).” The quip/quote/metaphor is
usually credited to M. Weinreich. Others credit it to his son Uriel, and still others to J.
Fishman. For more information, see the LINGLIST:
http://www.linguistlist.org/issues/8/8-306.html
http://www.linguistlist.org/~ask-ling/archive-1998.1/msg00887.html