Differences in standard Serbian, Croatian and Bosnian
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The standard Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian languages differ in various aspects as outlined below. The various nuances aren't nearly as linguistically important as is the symbolic value that is assigned to them by their ethnically, religiously, socially and politically diverse group of speakers.
After the breakup of Yugoslavia, the Serbo-Croatian language, which was defined as the common and unified language of Serbs, Croats, Bosniaks and Montenegrins, also followed suit and officially split into three languages, still fully mutually intelligible.
It should be noted that Serbian and Bosnian language standards tend to be "inclusive", i.e. to accept a wider range of idioms, while Croatian standard is more restrictive. These approaches are, again, due to political connotations.
Contents |
Writing
Script
Though all could theoretically use either, the scripts differ:
- Croatian language uses the Latin alphabet.
- Bosnian language uses both Latin alphabet and Cyrillic alphabet.
- Serbian language uses both Cyrillic alphabet and Latin alphabet. (Cyrillic is in official use in Serbia and Republika Srpska. Latin script is also accepted as defined by laws, and used roughly by 1/3 of native speakers as the first script, although no official records exist).
In history, Croats, Serbs and Montenegrins have used glagolica script; Croatian form was mostly "squared", while Serb form was "mostly" rounded. Still, both peoples unrarely had mixed forms of glagolica letters used. Glagolica is the oldest South Slavic script.
There was another, less standardized script. It had more versions and names: arvacko pismo/arvatica (means the script used by Croats; name was used in Povaljska listina), bosanica/bosančica (means the script that was from Bosnia), begovica (used by Bosniak nobility), poljičica (means it was from Poljica region in southern Croatia). In some regions of Croatia, it was used until late 1860's.
Muslims in areas of Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro also had also used a modified Arabic script (based on the Ottoman one) until early in the 20th century, but mostly for literary or artistic purposes.
Phonemes
All official languages have the same set of regular phonemes, so the Croatian Latin and Serbian Cyrillic alphabets map 1:1. However, these letters/phonemes are not unknown to other South Slavic peoples.
In some regions of Croatia and Bosnia, the sounds "č" and "ć" and also "dž" and "đ" are either indistinct or pronounced as ć and đ respectively. Then, in some regions of Croatia, sounds "č" and "ć" are spoken in "softer" version - "č" is pronounced between literary "č" and "ć", while "ć" is spoken much softer; somewhere it turnes into "tj" (better to say, "t+soft vowel"). Similar is with "dž" and "đ". In some regions in Croatia, "dž" is spoken as "đ" or "ž", while "đ" sounds the same way as in literary standard, or as a "dj". Again, that is not reflected in the official language.
Orthography
The official language in Croatia alphabetically transliterates foreign names (and sometimes words) even in children's books [but not from Russian, and all other languages using Cyrillic alphabet] while the official language in Serbia performs a phonetic transcription of them whenever possible, regardless of alphabet. Officially, Bosnian language follows the Croatian example, but many books and newspapers phonetically transcribe foreign names.
Also, when the subject of the future tense is omitted, producing a reversal of infinitive and auxiliary "ću", only final "i" of the infinitive is elided in Croatian, while in Serbian the two are merged into single word. Bosnian accepts both variants:
- "Uradit ću to." (Bosnian/Croatian)
- "Uradiću to." (Serbian)
Regardless of spelling, the pronunciation is the same.
Speaking
Accentuation
Accentuation of the official languages is different.
However, accentuation is different within Bosnia, Croatia and Serbia themselves, see below for full explanation.
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Morphology
There are three variants of the Štokavian dialect that stem from different reflex of proto-Slavic vowel Jat. The jat appears in modern dialects in the following way: the Church Slavonic word for child, děte, is:
- dete in Ekavian
- dite in Ikavian
- dijete in Ijekavian
Serbian language recognizes ekavian and ijekavian as equal variants, while the Croatian and Bosnian uses only ijekavian. In Bosnia and Herzegovina (regardless of the official language) and in Montenegro, ijekavian is used almost exclusively.
Ikavian is limited to dialectal use in Dalmatia, Lika, Istria, Western Herzegovina, Turkish Croatia/Bosanska Krajina, Slavonia and northern Bačka (Vojvodina). So, for example:
| English | ekavian | ijekavian | ikavian |
|---|---|---|---|
| wind | vetar | vjetar | vitar |
| milk | mleko | mlijeko | mliko |
| to want | hteti | htjeti | htiti |
| arrow | strela | strijela | strila |
| But: | |||
| small arrow | strelica | strelica strjelica | strilica |
Bosnian official language allows both variants, and ambiguities are solved by preferring the Croatian variant, which is a general practice for Serbian-Croatian ambiguities.
Another example for phonetical differences is words which have h in Croatian and Bosnian, but v in Serbian:
| English | Serbian | Bosnian and Croatian |
|---|---|---|
| tobacco | duvan | duhan |
| to cook | kuvati | kuhati |
| dry | suvo | suho |
Phonetically and phonologically, the phoneme "h" is reinstated in many words as a distinct feature of Bosnian speech and language tradition. However, there are many people who do not speak this way. It is a regional or colloquial way of speaking.
| English | Bosnian | Croatian | Serbian |
|---|---|---|---|
| easy | lahko | lako | lako |
| soft | mehko | meko | meko |
| coffee | kahva | kava | kafa |
As ijekavian is the common dialect of all official languages, it will be used for examples on this page. Other than this, examples of different morphology are:
| English | Bosnian | Croatian | Serbian (ijekavian) |
|---|---|---|---|
| point | tačka | točka | tačka |
| correct | tačno | točno | tačno |
| municipality | općina | općina | opština |
| priest | svećenik | svećenik | sveštenik |
| male student | student | student | student |
| female student | studentica | studentica | studentkinja |
| male professor | profesor | profesor | profesor |
| female professor | profesorica | profesorica | profesorka |
| translator | prevodilac | prevoditelj | prevodilac |
| reader | čitalac | čitatelj | čitalac |
| But: | |||
| assembly | skupština | skupština | skupština |
| male president | predsjednik | predsjednik | predsjednik |
| female president | predsjednica | predsjednica | predsjednica |
| male Black | crnac | crnac | crnac |
| female Black | crnkinja | crnkinja | crnkinja |
| thinker | mislilac | mislilac | mislilac |
| teacher | učitelj | učitelj | učitelj |
Internationalisms
Also many internationalisms are different:
| English | Bosnian | Croatian | Serbian |
|---|---|---|---|
| to organise | organizirati | organizirati | organizovati |
| to realise | realizirati | realizirati | realizovati |
| But: | |||
| to analyse | analizirati | analizirati | analizirati |
This is because, historically, modern age internationalisms entered Bosnian and Croatian mostly through German and Italian, while Serbian received them through French and Russian, so different localization patterns were established based on those languages. The case of English is special case.
Still, it is important to note that there are words from Russian that are considered "to be in spirit of Croatian language", and are felt as Croatian, not as foreign word. Other Russian loanwords are considered as "serbisms".
Notes: the term "ostvariti" is preferred over "realizovati/realizirati"; here the word has been used as it is an internationalism. In the Bosnian language, the variant in braces is also allowed, but the other variant is preferred.
Some other imported words are of masculine gender in Serbian and Bosnian, but feminine gender in Croatian:
| English | Bosnian and Serbian | Croatian | |
|---|---|---|---|
| minute | minut | minuta | |
| But: | |||
| planet | planeta | planet | |
Pronouns
In Serbian and Bosnian, pronoun what has form što when used as relative, but šta when used as interrogative; the latter applies also to relative sentences with interrogative meaning. Croatian uses što in all contexts.
| English | Bosnian and Serbian | Croatian |
|---|---|---|
| What did he say? | Šta je rekao? | Što je rekao? |
| Ask him what he said. | Pitaj ga šta je rekao. | Pitaj ga što je rekao. |
| What he said was a lie. | To što je rekao je laž. | To što je rekao je laž. |
The sentence "I want to do that" could be translated with any of
- Hoću to da uradim
- Hoću to uraditi
This difference partly extends to future tense, which in Serbo-Croatian is formed in a similar manner as in English, using (elided) present of verb "ht(j)eti" -> "hoću"/"hoćeš"/... -> "ću"/"ćeš"/... as auxiliary verb. Here, the infinitive is formally required in both variants:
- Ja ću to uraditi. (I shall do that.)
However, when da+present is used instead, in it can additionally express the subject's will or intention to perform the action:
- Ja ću to da uradim. (I will do that.)
This form is more frequently used in Serbia and Bosnia. The nuances in meaning between two constructs can be slight or even lost (especially in Serbian dialects), in similar manner as the shall/will distinction varies across English dialects. Overuse of da+present is regarded as Germanism in Serbian linguistic circles, and it can occasionally lead to awkward sentences.
However, Croatians seldom naturally use da+present form. Instead, a different form can be used to express will:
- Ja hoću to uraditi. (I want to do that.)
Interrogative constructs
In interrogative and relative constructs, Croatian uses inversion, while Serbian also allows forms with da li. (A similar situation exists in French, where a question can be formed either by inversion or using est-ce que, and can be stretched in English with modal verbs):
- Možeš li? (Can you?) (Croatian and Serbian)
- Da li možeš? (Do you can?) (Serbian)
In addition, non-grammatical je li ("Is it?"), usually elided to jel', is vernacular for forming all kinds of questions, e.g. Jel' možeš?. In official language, it is used only in questions involving auxiliary verb je (="is"):
- Je li moguće? (Is it possible?) (Croatian and Serbian)
- Da li je moguće? (Serbian)
As a summary, English sentence "I want to know whether I'll start working" would typically read:
- Želim da znam da li ću da počnem da radim. (spoken Serbian)
- Želim znati hoću li početi raditi (spoken Croatian)
although many in-between combinations could be met in vernacular speech, depending on speaker's dialect, idiolect, or even mood.
Trebati (need)
In Croatian, verb trebati (need or should) is transitive, as in English. In Serbian and Bosnian, it is impersonal, (as French il faut, or English construct is necessary (to)); the grammatical subject is either omitted (it), or presents the object of needing; the person that needs someting is an indirect grammatical object, in dative case:
| Serbian and Bosnian | English (literal trans.) | Croatian | English | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Petru treba novac. | Money [is necessary] to Peter. | Petar treba novac. | Peter needs money. | |
| Ne trebam ti. | I [am not necessary] to you | Ne trebaš me. | You don't need me. | |
| Treba da radim. | (It) [is necessary] that I work. | Trebam raditi. | I should work. |
Vocabulary
Examples
Most differences among the languages lie in the vocabulary. However, most words are well understood, or even occasionally used, in other languages; in most cases, common usage favors one variant while the other(s) are regarded as "imported", archaic, dialectal or simply, more rarely used.
| English | Serbian | Croatian | Bosnian |
|---|---|---|---|
| one thousand | hiljada | tisuća | hiljada |
| January Template:Ref | januar | siječanj | januar siječanj |
| table | sto astal | stol | sto hastal |
| factory | fabrika | tvornica | fabrika tvornica |
| rice | pirinač | riža | riža |
| carrot | šargarepa | mrkva | mrkva |
| outer | spoljno | vanjsko | vanjsko |
| oil (food) | ulje zejtin | ulje | ulje |
| spinach | spanać | špinat | špinat |
| ladder | merdevine lotre lojtre | ljestve skale (colloq.) | merdevine ljestve lotre |
| football | fudbal | nogomet | nogomet fudbal |
| train | voz | vlak | voz |
| wave | talas | val | val talas |
| person | lice | osoba | lice |
| uncivil | nevaspitan | neodgojen | neodgojen |
| one's own | sopstveno | vlastito | vlastito sopstveno |
| road Template:Ref | put cesta drum džada | cesta put | put cesta drum džada |
| But: | |||
| dad | tata | tata | babo tata |
| tomato | paradajz | rajčica pomidor (colloq.) | paradajz |
Template:Note1) All month names are different. See below for full table.
Template:Note2) This is an excellent example of foreign influences. "Put" and "cesta" are Slavic, "drum" is Greek and "džada" is Turkish. Moreover, the central difference lies in the fact that Croatian is, unlike Serbian or Bosnian, a purist language, as it is the case with Czech, Slovak, Hungarian and German language.
Note that there are only a few differences that can cause confusion, for example the verb "ličiti" means "to look like" in Serbian and Bosnian, but in Croatian it is "sličiti"; "ličiti" means "to paint".
The word "bilo" means "white" in ikavian, "pulse" in official Croatian and "was" in all official languages, although it's not so confusing when pronounced because of different accentuation (bîlo or bílo = white, bı̏lo = pulse, bílo = was).
In Serbian, word izvanredan (extraordinary) has only the positive meaning (excellent), vanredan being used for "unusual" or "out of order"; however, only izvanredan is used in Croatian in both contexts. Thus, Croatian phrase izvanredno stanje (martial law) sounds funny to Serbian ears.
Also note that in most cases Bosnian officially allows all of the listed variants in the name of "language richness" (or lack thereof), and ambiguities are resolved by preferring the Croatian variant. Generally, no rule for the vocabulary treatment in Bosnian language can be deduced. Bosnian vocabulary writers based their decisions on usage of certain words in literary works by Bosnian authors.
Names of the months
In the Croatian language months have Slavic names, while Serbian and Bosnian use the same set of international Latin-derived names as English. But Slavic names may also be used in the Bosnian language as well; Latin-derived names are preferred.
| English | Croatian | Serbian | Bosnian |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | siječanj | januar | januar siječanj |
| February | veljača | februar | februar veljača |
| March | ožujak | mart | mart ožujak |
| April | travanj | april | april travanj |
| May | svibanj | maj | maj svibanj |
| June | lipanj | jun | juni lipanj |
| July | srpanj | jul | juli srpanj |
| August | kolovoz | avgust | august kolovoz |
| September | rujan | septembar | septembar rujan |
| October | listopad | oktobar | oktobar listopad |
| November | studeni | novembar | novembar studeni |
| December | prosinac | decembar | decembar prosinac |
International names of months are well understood in Croatia and several names of internationally important events are still commonly known using the international name of the month: "1. maj", "1. april", "oktobarska revolucija". In spoken Croatian it is common to refer to a month by its number, in order to be understood by e.g. Bosniaks or Serbs. Croats therefore often say "peti mjesec" ("the fifth month") for May if they speak to people from other cultures.
Notes on comprehension
It is important to notice a few issues:
- Pronunciation and vocabulary differs among dialects spoken within Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia themselves. Each larger region has its own pronunciation and it is reasonably easy to guess where a speaker is from by their accent and/or vocabulary. Colloquial vocabulary can be particularly different from the official standards.
This is one of the arguments for claiming it is all one and the same language: there are more differences within the territories of the official languages themselves than there are between the standards (all of which inherit from the standards established in Yugoslavian times, when Serbo-Croatian was the official language). This is not surprising, of course, for if the lines between the languages were drawn not politically but linguistically, then there would be no continuum at all. As Pavle Ivić explains, the continuous migration of Slavic populations during the five hundred years of Turkish rule has scattered the local dialects all around. This does not answer the primary question, and that is: does a Bosniak want to speak the same language as a Serb, or to call his language by the same name as a Serb?
- When Bosnians, Serbs and Croats talk amongst each other, the other speakers may or may not understand them completely. But, when communicating with each other, in the interest of better understanding, they will use terms that are easier to understand for everyone.
For example, to avoid confusion with the names of the months, they can be referred to as the "first month", "second month" and so on which makes it perfectly understandable for everyone. In Serbia, the names of the months are the international ones so again they are understandable for anyone who knows English or another Western European language.
- Entire books and movies have been "translated" from one language to another. However, the translation of the Serbian movie Rane (Wounds) into Croatian for example turned it from a tragedy into a comedy, as the whole audience was laughing at the "translation." On the other hand: probably the most bizarre case is Swiss psychologist Jung's masterpiece "Psychology and Alchemy"; translated into Croatian in 1986, and retranslated, in late 1990s, into Serbian not from the original German, but from Croatian. A translation and "translation's translation"; differ on virtually every page—orthographically, lexically, syntactically and semantically. However, these translations were done after the Yugoslav wars of secession, and the translations were taken to extreme distances to diverge the languages as much as possible.
See also
External links
References
- Miro Kačić: Croatian and Serbian: Delusions and Distortions, Novi Most, Zagreb 1997
- "Hrvatski naš (ne)zaboravljeni" (Croatian, our (un) forgotten language), Stjepko Težak, 301 p., knjižnica Hrvatski naš svagdašnji (knj. 1), Tipex, Zagreb, 1999, ISBN 953-6022-35-4 (croatian)de:Unterschiede zwischen der kroatischen, der serbischen und der bosnischen Standardsprache