Serbo-Croatian

franco   Mon Sep 07, 2009 12:30 pm GMT
Is Serbo-Croatian the easiest Slavonic languagage for non slavic speaking people? Compared to other Slavonic languages, such as Polish, Russian, Czech, Serbo-Croatian has fewer phonemes and its pronunciation is much clearer. It's only got five vowels, even the pitch accent is disappearing in most varieties. In this regard, there was a discussion on this forum too. As for the grammar, it's been simplifing a great deal, plenty of verb tenses are just literary nowadays.
Tito   Mon Sep 07, 2009 1:18 pm GMT
It's also very easy to write in bcms. It's absolutely phonetic.
curious   Mon Sep 07, 2009 1:25 pm GMT
What's bcms?
Tito   Mon Sep 07, 2009 2:16 pm GMT
bosnian-croatian-montenegrin-serbian
mata   Mon Sep 07, 2009 6:20 pm GMT
I can easily repeat Serbo.Croatian words unlike Polish or Russian ones
matko   Mon Sep 07, 2009 10:35 pm GMT
the pitch accent wasn't what it was a century ago, but it's still used and people don't notice it, just like most of French people don't know they actually distinguish e fermé/ouvert.
Strangers sound really funny when they learn a bit because the most difficult phonetic feature is the intonation and the pitch accent what is almost impossoble to reproduce, so you're wrong. As for the pronunciation, I agree, it's much simplier than the Russian or Polish one.
The tenses are still used and nowadays more and more because it has shorter forms, especially when texting or writing e-mails.
ja sam rekao vs. rekoh
ja sam bio napisao vs. napisah etc.
ja ću napisati/ ja budem napisao vs. napišem

etc...

-lots of assimilations, irregularities in conjugations and declensions, when to write -ije-; -je-; -e- (mlijeko, djeca, greška-->that exists only in Croatian, the rest of slavic languages use only -e-(Russian, Serbian, Slovenian, Polish etc.) or -i-(Ukrainian))
how to distinguish č from ć and dž from đ etc.... Really easy :-)



If it's so simple, learn it and we'll chat here. I'd be the happiest person to see you writing in Croatian. And no, I won't accept Serbian because it's easier because they dont have 3 jat reflexes (ije, je, e), they use only -e-.
guest   Tue Sep 08, 2009 8:05 pm GMT
I'm Slovenian and i think Croatian is one of the most difficult Slavic languages. They don't have the dual form like we do, but that's really easy to learn, no big deal.
I always have lots of problem when trying to express myself in Croatia because I've learned it at school, but always had the worst note.
What this guy above me wrote are the toughest things to learn in Croatian, like ije/je/e and č/ć and the assimilations.
veronika   Tue Sep 08, 2009 8:10 pm GMT
č/ć

No slovene guy learn this difference at school It's no longer used in Croatia
Janez3000   Tue Sep 08, 2009 8:23 pm GMT
No slovenians don't learn Croatian at school, they learn Serbian. Serbian womans are prettier then croatian womans.
Alojzji   Tue Sep 08, 2009 8:32 pm GMT
Hi, I'm a Slovenian guy learning Croatian at school. I reckon Croatian is really easy! It hasn't got the dual form, my mother tongue, Slovene does have it and it's quite complicated. I have never learnt the difference between c/C because my Croatian teacher told us that it is useless in Croatia nowadays, most Croats ignore it. We don't even study some old fashioned tenses like imperferct and Aorist because they are rarely used in modern Croatian, so all in all Croatian is easier than my loved Slovene!
guest   Tue Sep 08, 2009 8:40 pm GMT
I think I'm a bit older than you guys here, trust me :)
In my time, we used to learn everything, and of course we had to learn the Č/Ć because once we had to write, you know, whey you learna foreign language you have to write it, and you cannot write with only Č like we do.

The only thing Slovenian has and Croatian doesn't is the dual form. The rest is another story...The schools have changed...

By the way, how come you learn Croatian at school, my children don't have that option in their schools. hm....that's weird
Janez3000   Tue Sep 08, 2009 8:42 pm GMT
Who learns Croatian in Slovenia now? Everybody learns Serbian in city, you must come from little village Gornja Radgona. Only peasant learn Croatian. Fuj!
guest   Tue Sep 08, 2009 8:48 pm GMT
well, all of my friends do speak Croatian, so i don't see where is the problem. I'm from Maribor and I don't think it's a village.
Anyways...who cares.
nwe   Wed Sep 09, 2009 11:06 am GMT
Excuse me, but where is Serbo-Croatian spoken?
Nikola Tesla   Wed Sep 09, 2009 1:18 pm GMT
In Serbo-Croatia. Duh.