Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member Latest Breaking News General Discussion The DU Lounge All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search
8 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Does anyone here speak Croatian/Serbian? (Original Post) whathehell Apr 2012 OP
Slavic languages are big on cases RZM Apr 2012 #1
So it seems!...My croatian teacher, who also taught French told me whathehell Apr 2012 #4
Ucio sam se srbohrvatskomu jeziku na univerzite. Igel Apr 2012 #2
Hvala! whathehell Apr 2012 #3
Croatian , or Serbian language Al Arafat Apr 2012 #5
Serbian and Croatian are almost identical...In fact, it used to be called "Serbo-Croatian". whathehell Apr 2012 #6
Spam deleted by Paulie (MIR Team) ghjfhgf Sep 2012 #7
This message was self-deleted by its author whathehell Sep 2012 #8
 

RZM

(8,556 posts)
1. Slavic languages are big on cases
Sun Apr 1, 2012, 01:17 PM
Apr 2012

Russian has six. I believe Polish has seven (though I think one of them is rarely used).

whathehell

(29,024 posts)
4. So it seems!...My croatian teacher, who also taught French told me
Sun Apr 1, 2012, 10:53 PM
Apr 2012

Last edited Mon Apr 2, 2012, 07:07 AM - Edit history (1)

that English and French really HAVE no cases...Truly, the whole concept

of changing "endings" of words to indicate different persons/ relationships, etc.

was very hard for me to grasp at first.

Igel

(35,268 posts)
2. Ucio sam se srbohrvatskomu jeziku na univerzite.
Sun Apr 1, 2012, 09:09 PM
Apr 2012

Can't speak hardly any now. It's too similar to Russian, and I had Czech and Polish after doing two years of Serbo.

Can still read a decent chunk of it.

Don't be put off by the number of cases. "Seven" is what you get from grammatical analysis. There's a lot of overlap in forms, and forms is where the difficulty is.

Take English. We have nominative and genitive, accusative and dative. Good luck finding that many case forms. The genitive is a clitic, an 's' that sticks at the end of the phrase for most Americans. The accusative, dative, and nominative look the same everywhere but for pronouns. We really only have one case plus a clitic for genitive, for all but pronouns.

Serbian has some wrinkles, to be sure, but it's quite learnable. Don't let the grammar pile up--learn a little bit and then get the hang of it. In speech some of the rules are often botched; the entire system of intonations is mostly wrong for most speakers.

There are a lot of Serbian and Croatian speakers; fewer Bosnian speakers. (Figure out which you want. They stopped agreeing on having a common language 20 years ago.) Unlike Latino immigrants, though, most are educated and quickly learn English. Those who aren't well educated have no choice because there aren't ethnic enclaves into which they can retreat for linguistic comfort. I run into a SBC speaker about every 2-3 months. Then again, when I hear an accent that sounds E. European I ask.

whathehell

(29,024 posts)
3. Hvala!
Sun Apr 1, 2012, 10:51 PM
Apr 2012

So you studied the language in the university?...I'm curious, what made you study it?

Moja Baka i moy dyed iz Mali i Veli Losing....but they spoke Italian (!) because they came from

the Dalmatian Coast, an area ruled by the city state of Venice for a few hundred years.

hey both left before WWI when the area was under the Hapsburg Empire

and so they identified as Austrian...As a kid, it was confusing to me, as they all had slavic last names, most

ending in "ich", but they spoke Italian and considered themselves Austrian!...I was thirty years old

before I discovered they were actually Croatian!.

As I'm sure you know, Serbian and Croatian (and even Bosnian, so I'm told) were all pretty much

one language, but they decided to identify as separate languages for poltiical and nationalistic reasons.

I've been there a few times and, because of my ancestry, am eligible for dual citizenship, so I've been

trying to learn the language. To je Tezak Jezik!



Al Arafat

(10 posts)
5. Croatian , or Serbian language
Fri Apr 13, 2012, 06:32 AM
Apr 2012

There are a lot of Serbian and Croatian speakers;

I can't speak in Croatian , or Serbian , is it the nearby the Russian language ?

But I really interested to this language. But how did i start .....

Any idea ....


whathehell

(29,024 posts)
6. Serbian and Croatian are almost identical...In fact, it used to be called "Serbo-Croatian".
Fri Apr 13, 2012, 01:33 PM
Apr 2012

My teacher told me that the language is CLOSEST to Russian.

Many Berlitz language schools teach it. If that doesn't work,

go online and type in "Learn Croatian" or "Learn Serbian" alongside

the name of the city you are in.

Response to ghjfhgf (Reply #7)

Latest Discussions»Culture Forums»Languages and Linguistics»Does anyone here speak Cr...