Slavic languages

Leonita   Wed Aug 26, 2009 5:41 am GMT
So, As far as I know, Croatian and Serbian are dialects of BCS, or BCMS. Just like Macedonian is a dialect of the Macedonian-Bulgarian language.

//
if Croatian (with all its dialects including kajkavijan which is closer to Slovenian than Serbian), Serbian, Bosnian are the same language, the same should be said of -Portuguese, Brazilian, Gallego and Capeverdian-

Also, speakers of Capeverdian creole understand Canarian Spanish with ease. Should Spanish be included too in the -Portuguese, Brazilian, Gallego, Capeverdian, Spanish- mix? What's the fuss?
beija-flor   Wed Aug 26, 2009 6:25 am GMT
Also, speakers of Capeverdian creole understand Canarian Spanish with ease. Should Spanish be included too in the -Portuguese, Brazilian, Gallego, Capeverdian, Spanish- mix? What's the fuss

No, it doesn't . Spanish and Portuguese have different grammar and syntax, Serbo-Croatian don't.
BCMS   Wed Aug 26, 2009 5:01 pm GMT
You're welcome.
Bosnian Muslims or Bosniaks (Bošnjak, Bošnjaci) use Latin alphabet. Before the civil war they used to use both alphabets but never the Arabic one. I haven't heard of such an experiment yet.
During and after the war however, the Cyrillic alphabet became the cornerstone of Serb cultural and political identity and synonymous with Serb ethnicity.
A daily newspaper:
http://www.oslobodjenje.ba/
used to have one page written in Latinic and next page in Cyrillic, before war.
Another Bosniak newspaper 'Dnevni avaz' also use Latinic:
http://www.dnevniavaz.ba/

More interesting is the fact that Serbs in Republika Srpska use Latin alphabet, like in this newspaper:
http://www.blic.rs/repsrpska.php?id=17312

Even the Government of Republika Srpska site has Cyrillic and Latinic option:
http://www.vladars.net/sr-SP-Cyrl/Pages/splash.aspx

The same is true for the government of Serbia:
http://www.srbija.gov.rs/

Serbians (from Serbia, as opposed to Serbs - ethnicity) themselves use Latinic alphabet extensively, there's plenty of evidence on the net.
Christine   Wed Aug 26, 2009 10:21 pm GMT
why do all people call Serbian and Croatian Serbo-Croatian?
That was created during the 20th century in some of the ex-Yugoslavian periods, but nobody actually speak such a language in those countries. When somebody says it, it reminds me of Czeco-Slovakian or Galego-Portuguese and only fools would say something similar.
It's impossible and very stupid to mix two languages. I don't know its grammar or vocabulary, but I've read a lot about them on this forum and in some books, and lots of things are completely different, both in grammar and in vocabulary and nobody speaks a mixture of those two languages, nowadays, and never before.

Can somebody explain it? Are we still in 1952 or the linguistics is not developing?
Joao   Wed Aug 26, 2009 10:57 pm GMT
Very good Leonita, good to know you could speak Croatian, or Serbian or BCS.

However, can you give me about 3000 more examples of differences? This is more or less the amount of different words that can make us conclude that they are two different languages.

Otherwise:
American English: color
British English: colour

American: garbage
British: rubbish

American: pants
British: trousers

American: movie
British: film

American: sidewalk
British: pavement

American: elevator
British: lift

American: vacation
British: holiday

BCMS, can you confirm what Leonita said? Are there many differences in spelling between the Croat variant and the Serb? Or it's just a few differences, not enough to make them different languages?

Cape-Verde creole is not a dialect of Portuguese, but a real language.
I did not know that it was similar to a language/dialect spoken in the Canaries, but I do not think it is. Cape Verde creole is strongly influenced by African languages and by Portuguese.
Are there blacks in substantial numbers in the Canaries? I do not think so.
Both archipelagos have had separated lives.
Anyway, any Canarians and Cape-Verdians out there to confirm of deny what I said?

Galician is really almost Portuguese, so much so that some Galicians consider it a dialect. But the differences with Portuguese are higher than the differences between EuPT and BrPT and much lower than the ones between PT and SP.

If you PERSONALLY want to speak Spanish nothing prevents you from doing it, so what's the fuss?
Boris   Wed Aug 26, 2009 11:03 pm GMT
Joao, in fact there are more than 3000 words that differ Serbian from Croatian

Take a look at this dictionary: http://www.izloog.com/img/185x280/13882.jpg

It's called: Rječnik razlika između hrvatskog i srpskog jezika (Dictionary of differences between Croatian and Serbian language)
Joao   Wed Aug 26, 2009 11:04 pm GMT
Did not explain myself clearly. The example of few different words used in American English and British English is to show that those differences are not enough to make British English and American English different languages.

That's why I put the example of the English language.

Concerning the thread topic, I would like to know if the differences between those forms of BCS are substantial or is it just those examples shown by Leonita,

Any answers, please?
Boris   Wed Aug 26, 2009 11:09 pm GMT
Those languages were never one single language till the ex-Yugoslavia.

You should know that the dialects and literature are forming a great language history and those two languages always had completely different literature and the dialects...well, go get yourself a book.
Joao   Wed Aug 26, 2009 11:23 pm GMT
I was having troubles with my computer, so while I was trying to post my last answers, I did not read the last posts.

So, the differences are varied. It was clear that the alphabet was different.
But according to Boris and sensitive Christine, there's a different spelling and... pronounciation rules? What about grammar? And rules for case endings if there are case endings in those languages?

I cannot open dictionaries in JPG files, sorry (lol) but thank you guys and ladies anyway.

BCMS, again, I passed last year through Zagreb and Belgrade. In Belgrade I saw indeed quite a few things writen with the Latin alphabet.
Regarding Boris and Christine's comments, what do you have to say about it?
Boris   Wed Aug 26, 2009 11:35 pm GMT
yes, there are 7 cases in both languages, the endings are the same, but very frequently those two languages have different genders so it's not the same thing.
There are some differences in forming some tenses, in using the infinitive and final clauses.
The pronunciation is different, but only people from ex-Yugoslavia can hear them or Slavonic philology students.
latin   Thu Aug 27, 2009 1:17 pm GMT
Slavonic languages are mutual intelligible??? I have been told they are but most people reckon they are not in this forum...so What's the truth? I'm a bit dizzy, They even sound the same but that may be just me: I haven't had much exposure to them.
BCMS   Thu Aug 27, 2009 5:18 pm GMT
Croato-Serbian is the old name for the language. The name was coined during the Yu-era, when unity of Serbian and Croatian nations (and other ethnicities) was the imperative. Historically, the two nations were never united and indeed have a very different history, folklore, culture, etc. However, they always coexisted shoulder to shoulder and they share this language, language that is almost the same as far as grammar is concerned.
http://www.seelrc.org/webliography/bcs.ptml
http://www.enqa.net/languages-and-linguistics/bosnian-/-croatian-/-serbian-university-of-vienna/view-details.html
http://docs.google.com/gview?a=v&q=cache:I50XkUvXN0AJ:www.irex.org/programs/stg/research/04/alexander.pdf+bosnian+croatian+serbian+university&hl=sl&gl=si
etc...

Yes, people in ex-YU countries speak different mixtures of Croatian and Serbian. It's called dialect continuum. This is the reason that kajkavians (the dialect of Croatian) can understand some Slovenian and vice-versa (still not even close to being mutually intelligible).

So, when it was politically opportune to seek similarities between languages (and nations) it used to be one language (Serbo-Croatian in Serbia or Croato-Serbian in Croatia); but when it became politically opportune to find differences; well, that's just was was done.
Linguistically, though, it is one language and is treated as such by the academic institutions of the world. Of course this is not the case with academics in Croatia and Serbia, for obvious reason (lol).
Mind you, that Serbians sometimes still use the term Serbo-Croatian in an attempt to undermine Croatian (and Montenegrin) sovereignty, or more likely out of pure inertia. It was Croatia that split from Serbia (Yu) after all.

I'm a busy person (lol) so I'll have to leave now. See ya tomorrow.
Cheers
Dubrovnik   Thu Aug 27, 2009 9:03 pm GMT
No, it doesn't . Spanish and Portuguese have different grammar and syntax, Serbo-Croatian don't.
.
.
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Larga de ser besta, claro que tem.
Dubrovnik   Thu Aug 27, 2009 9:07 pm GMT
Urdu and Hindi are two separate languages
just like Danish and Norwegian, and Croatian and Serbian.

Norwegian: nynorsk and bokmal
Croatian: kajkavski, cakavski and stokavski

stokavski is related to Serbian, just like Bokmal is related to Danish
Nynorsk is uniquely Norwegian, just like cakavski; kajkavski is related to Slovenian

Serbian people don't understand this Croatian sitcom, but Slovenian people do: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7IBxHjoJ1k
Dubrovnik   Thu Aug 27, 2009 9:15 pm GMT
Spanish and Portuguese have different grammar and syntax.

...

Continental and Brazilian Portuguese also have different grammar and syntax, so they are different languages (according to French linguist Galves):

quem conhece você?
''who do you know'' in Lusitanian; and
''who knows you'' in Brazilian?

totally opposite things


Spanish and Portuguese were also considered one language when Portuguese was part of Spain and when many/most Portuguese writers wrote in Spanish, but when they separated, languages separated too.

Croatian and Serbian were different languages before unification (Yugoslavia) and they are different languages again, with all dialectal richness of each respective language.

Today's kids in Croatia (born after 1990) don't understand Serbian cartoons, because they're not familiar with that language.