Dictionary of Meaning
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Serbian Language
*** Shopping-Tip: Serbian Language
{{Infobox Language
|name=Serbian
|nativename=Ñ?рпÑ?ки ''srpski''
|familycolor=Indo-European
|states=
Serbia and Montenegro,
Bosnia and Herzegovina,
Republic of Macedonia,
Croatia,
Sweden,
Hungary,
Romania,
Albania and other countries
|speakers=11,144,758
|rank=around 75
|fam2=
Slavic languages Slavic
|fam3=
South Slavic languages South Slavic
|fam4=Western South Slavic
|nation=
Serbia and Montenegro and
Bosnia and Herzegovina
|agency=
Council for Standardization of the Serbian Language
|iso1=sr|iso2b=scc|iso2t=srp|iso3=srp}}
The '''Serbian language''' is one of the standard versions of the
Shtokavian dialect Å tokavian dialect, used primarily in
Serbia and Montenegro,
Bosnia and Herzegovina and by
Serbs everywhere. The former standard was known as
Serbo-Croatian language, now split into Serbian,
Croatian language Croatian and
Bosnian language Bosnian standards.
The Serbian alphabet is very consistent: one letter per sound with a insignificant number of exceptions. This phonetic principle is represented in the saying: "Write as you speak and read as it is written", the principle used (though not invented) by
Vuk Stefanović Karadžić when reforming the Cyrillic spelling of Serbian in the
19th century.
Another rare feature of Serbian language is the presence of two
alphabets:
Cyrillic alphabet Cyrillic and
Latin alphabet Latin. The two alphabets are almost equivalent; the only difference is in the
glyphs used. This is due to historical reasons; Serbian once being a part of the Serbo-Croat unification brought Latinic usage into Serbia.
Alphabets
Image:AlphabetiSerborum 1841.jpg Vuk Stefanović Karadžić.html" title="Meaning of thumb thumb|250px|'''Serbian Cyrillic and Serbian Latin''', from ''Comparative orthography of European languages''. Source: [[Vuk Stefanović Karadžić "Srpske narodne pjesme" (Serbian folk poems),
Vienna,
1841.html" title="Meaning of 250px|'''Serbian Cyrillic and Serbian Latin''', from ''Comparative orthography of European languages''. Source: [[Vuk Stefanović Karadžić">thumb|250px|'''Serbian Cyrillic and Serbian Latin''', from ''Comparative orthography of European languages''. Source: [[Vuk Stefanović Karadžić "Srpske narodne pjesme" (Serbian folk poems),
Vienna,
1841">250px|'''Serbian Cyrillic and Serbian Latin''', from ''Comparative orthography of European languages''. Source: [[Vuk Stefanović Karadžić">thumb|250px|'''Serbian Cyrillic and Serbian Latin''', from ''Comparative orthography of European languages''. Source: [[Vuk Stefanović Karadžić "Srpske narodne pjesme" (Serbian folk poems),
Vienna,
1841
The following compares СрпÑ?ка Ћирилица (Serbian Cyrillic script) or Aзбука (''Azbuka'') with ''Srpska Latinica'' (Serbian Latin script) or ''Abeceda''.
{| class="wikitable"
|- style="background: #efefef;"
!
Cyrillic alphabet Cyrillic
!
Latin alphabet Latin
| rowspan="16" style="background: white; border-top: none; border-bottom: none; width: 4em;" |
! Cyrillic
! Latin
|----
|
A (Cyrillic) Ð?
|
A
|
En (Cyrillic) Ð?
|
N
|----
|
Be (Cyrillic) Б
|
B
|
Nje Њ
|
Nj
|----
|
Ve (Cyrillic) Ð’
|
V
|
O (Cyrillic) О
|
O
|----
|
Ge (Cyrillic) Г
|
G
|
Pe (Cyrillic) П
|
P
|----
|
De (Cyrillic) Д
|
D
|
Er (Cyrillic) Ð
|
R
|----
|
Dje Ђ
|
Bar (diacritic) Ä?
|
Es (Cyrillic) С
|
S
|----
|
Ye (Cyrillic) Е
|
E
|
Te (Cyrillic) Т
|
T
|----
|
Zhe (Cyrillic) Ж
|
Ž
|
Tshe Ћ
|
Ć
|----
|
Ze (Cyrillic) З
|
Z
|
U (Cyrillic) У
|
U
|----
|
I (Cyrillic) И
|
I
|
Ef (Cyrillic) Ф
|
F
|----
|
Je (Cyrillic) Ј
|
J
|
Kha (Cyrillic) Х
|
H
|----
|
Ka (Cyrillic) К
|
K
|
Tse (Cyrillic) Ц
|
C
|----
|
El (Cyrillic) Л
|
L
|
Che (Cyrillic) Ч
|
Č
|----
|
Lje Љ
|
LJ (letter) Lj
|
Dzhe Ð?
|
DŽ Dž
|----
|
Em (Cyrillic) М
|
M
|
Sha Ш
|
Å
|}
Notes
* The letters Lj, Nj and Dž are represented by two characters in the Latin alphabet and are always written together even in top-down text). They are also
Collation sorted together (i.e. ''ljubav'' comes after ''lopta'').
* Cyrillic is considered more precise because there is no ambiguity involved in reading Lj, Nj and Dž. For example, both Cyrillic "и'''нј'''екција" (
Injective function mathematical injection or
Injection (medicine) medical injection) and "'''њ'''егов" (''his'') are written with "'''nj'''" in Latin form. Thus, transliteration of Cyrillic text to Latin is straightforward but causes loss of information that makes it harder to perform the inverse.
* The
collation sort order of the two alphabets is different.
:Cyrillic: Ð? Б Ð’ Г Д Ђ Е Ж З И Ј К Л Љ Ðœ Ð? Њ О П РС Т Ћ У Ф Ð¥ Ц Ч Ð? Ш
:Roman: A B C ÄŒ Ć D Dž Ä? E F G H I J K L Lj M N Nj O P R S Å T U V Z Ž
* Many
e-mail and even web documents written in Serbian use basic
ASCII, where Serbian Latin letters that use
diacritics (Ž Ć ÄŒ Å ) are replaced with the base, undiacritised forms (Z C C S), letter Ä? is replaced with Dj, and Dž with Dz. The original words are then recognized from the context. This is not an official alphabet, and is considered a bad practice, but there are some documents in Serbian that use this simplified alphabet. This is common practice in other languages that use letters with diacritics.
Phonology
Vowels
The Serbian
vowel system is simple, with only five vowels. All vowels are
monophthongs. The oral vowels are as follows:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! '''Latin script'''
! '''Cyrillic script'''
! '''
International Phonetic Alphabet IPA'''
! '''Description'''
! '''English approximation'''
|-
| align="center" | '''a'''
| align="center" | '''а'''
| align="center" | {{IPA|[a]}}
|
Open front unrounded vowel open front unrounded
| ''f'''a'''ther''
|-
| align="center" | '''i'''
| align="center" | '''и'''
| align="center" | {{IPA|[i]}}
|
Close front unrounded vowel close front unrounded
| ''s'''ee'''k''
|-
| align="center" | '''e'''
| align="center" | '''е'''
| align="center" | {{IPA|[É›]}}
|
Open-mid front unrounded vowel open-mid front unrounded
| ''t'''e'''n''
|-
| align="center" | '''o'''
| align="center" | '''о'''
| align="center" | {{IPA|[ɔ]}}
|
Open-mid back rounded vowel open-mid back rounded
| ''c'''au'''ght'' (British)
|-
| align="center" | '''u'''
| align="center" | '''у'''
| align="center" | {{IPA|[u]}}
|
close back rounded vowel closed back rounded
| ''b'''oo'''m''
|}
Consonants
The
consonant system is more complicated, and its characteristic features are series of
affricate and
Palatal consonant palatal consonants. As in English, voicedness is
phoneme phonemic, but
aspiration (phonetics) aspiration is not.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! '''Latin script'''
! '''Cyrillic script'''
! '''
International Phonetic Alphabet IPA'''
! '''Description'''
! '''English approximation'''
|-
! colspan="6" |
trill
|-
| align="center" | '''r'''
| align="center" | '''Ñ€'''
| align="center" | {{IPA|[r]}}
|
alveolar trill
| rolled '''r''' as in
Spanish language Spanish ''ca'''rr'''o''
|-
! colspan="6" |
approximants
|-
| align="center" | '''v'''
| align="center" | '''в'''
| align="center" | {{IPA|[Ê‹]}}
|
labiodental approximant
| '''''v'''ase''
|-
| align="center" | '''j'''
| align="center" | '''ј'''
| align="center" | {{IPA|[j]}}
|
palatal approximant
| '''''y'''es''
|-
! colspan="6" |
laterals
|-
| align="center" | '''l'''
| align="center" | '''л'''
| align="center" | {{IPA|[l]}}
|
lateral alveolar approximant
| '''''l'''ock''
|-
| align="center" | '''lj'''
| align="center" | '''Ñ™'''
| align="center" | {{IPA|[ʎ]}}
|
palatal lateral approximant
| ''vo'''lu'''me''
|-
! colspan="6" |
nasals
|-
| align="center" | '''m'''
| align="center" | '''м'''
| align="center" | {{IPA|[m]}}
|
bilabial nasal
| '''''m'''an''
|-
| align="center" | '''n'''
| align="center" | '''н'''
| align="center" | {{IPA|[n]}}
|
alveolar nasal
| '''''n'''ot''
|-
| align="center" | '''nj'''
| align="center" | '''Ñš'''
| align="center" | {{IPA|[ɲ]}}
|
palatal nasal
| ''ca'''ny'''on''
|-
! colspan="6" |
fricatives
|-
| align="center" | '''f'''
| align="center" | '''Ñ„'''
| align="center" | {{IPA|[f]}}
|
voiceless labiodental fricative
| '''''ph'''ase''
|-
| align="center" | '''s'''
| align="center" | '''Ñ?'''
| align="center" | {{IPA|[s]}}
|
voiceless alveolar fricative
| '''''s'''ome''
|-
| align="center" | '''z'''
| align="center" | '''з'''
| align="center" | {{IPA|[z]}}
|
voiced alveolar fricative
| '''''z'''ero''
|-
| align="center" | '''Å¡'''
| align="center" | '''ш'''
| align="center" | {{IPA|[ʃ]}}
|
voiceless postalveolar fricative
| '''''sh'''eer''
|-
| align="center" | '''ž'''
| align="center" | '''ж'''
| align="center" | {{IPA|[ʒ]}}
|
voiced postalveolar fricative
| ''vi'''si'''on''
|-
| align="center" | '''h'''
| align="center" | '''Ñ…'''
| align="center" | {{IPA|[x]}}
|
voiceless velar fricative
| ''lo'''ch'''''
|-
! colspan="6" |
affricates
|-
| align="center" | '''c'''
| align="center" | '''ц'''
| align="center" | {{IPA|[ʦ]}}
|
voiceless alveolar affricate
| ''po'''ts'''''
|-
| align="center" | '''dž'''
| align="center" | '''ÑŸ'''
| align="center" | {{IPA|[ʤ]}}
|
voiced postalveolar affricate
| ''do'''dge'''''
|-
| align="center" | '''Ä?'''
| align="center" | '''ч'''
| align="center" | {{IPA|[ʧ]}}
|
voiceless postalveolar affricate
| '''''ch'''air''
|-
| align="center" | '''Ä‘'''
| align="center" | '''Ñ’'''
| align="center" | {{IPA|[ʥ]}}
|
voiced alveolo-palatal affricate
| ''sche'''du'''le''
|-
| align="center" | '''ć'''
| align="center" | '''Ñ›'''
| align="center" | {{IPA|[ʨ]}}
|
voiceless alveolo-palatal affricate
| ''na'''tu'''re''
|-
! colspan="6" |
plosives
|-
| align="center" | '''b'''
| align="center" | '''б'''
| align="center" | {{IPA|[b]}}
|
voiced bilabial plosive
| ''a'''b'''use''
|-
| align="center" | '''p'''
| align="center" | '''п'''
| align="center" | {{IPA|[p]}}
|
voiceless bilabial plosive
| ''to'''p'''''
|-
| align="center" | '''d'''
| align="center" | '''д'''
| align="center" | {{IPA|[d]}}
|
voiced alveolar plosive
| '''''d'''og''
|-
| align="center" | '''t'''
| align="center" | '''Ñ‚'''
| align="center" | {{IPA|[t]}}
|
voiceless alveolar plosive
| '''''t'''alk''
|-
| align="center" | '''g'''
| align="center" | '''г'''
| align="center" | {{IPA|[g]}}
|
voiced velar plosive
| '''''g'''od''
|-
| align="center" | '''k'''
| align="center" | '''к'''
| align="center" | {{IPA|[k]}}
|
voiceless velar plosive
| ''du'''ck'''''
|-
|}
In
consonant clusters all consonants are either voiced or voiceless. All the consonants are voiced (if the last consonant is normally voiced) or voiceless (if the last consonant is normally voiceless). This rule does not apply to
approximants — a consonant cluster may contain voiced approximants and voiceless consonants; as well as to foreign words (''Washington'' would be transcribed as ''VašinGton''/''ВашинГтон''), personal names and when consonants are not inside of one syllable.
'''R''' can be syllabic, playing the role of a vowel in certain words (occasionally, it can even have a long accent). For example, the
tongue-twister ''na vrh brda vrba mrda'' involves four words with syllabic '''r'''. A similar feature exists in
Czech language Czech,
Slovak language Slovak and
Macedonian language Macedonian. Very rare, '''l''' can be syllabic (in the name for the river "Vltava", 'l' is syllabic) as well as '''lj''', '''m''', '''n''' and '''nj''' in
jargon.
Morphology
Cases
There are seven cases in Serbian:
nominative,
genitive,
dative,
accusative,
vocative,
Instrumental case instrumental and
locative. This, in concert with a non-fixed word-order, can make Serbian difficult to learn for speakers of languages without a strong case system. In Serbian, the sentence "Anna loves Philip" can therefore variously be expressed thus:
* Ana voli Filipa
* Ana Filipa voli
* Voli Ana Filipa
* Voli Filipa Ana
* Filipa Ana voli
* Filipa voli Ana
Serbian literature
Image:Jevandj.gif manuscript.html" title="Meaning of right right|thumb|250px|"Miroslavljevo jevanđelje" (The Gospel of Miroslav), a [[manuscript, ca.
1180.html" title="Meaning of thumb|250px|"Miroslavljevo jevanđelje" (The Gospel of Miroslav), a [[manuscript">right|thumb|250px|"Miroslavljevo jevanđelje" (The Gospel of Miroslav), a [[manuscript, ca.
1180">thumb|250px|"Miroslavljevo jevanđelje" (The Gospel of Miroslav), a [[manuscript">right|thumb|250px|"Miroslavljevo jevanđelje" (The Gospel of Miroslav), a [[manuscript, ca.
1180
''Main article:
Serbian literature''
Serbian literature emerged in the
Middle Ages, and included such works as ''Miroslavljevo jevanđelje'' (The Gospel of Miroslav) in
1192 and ''Dušanov zakonik'' (
Dušan's Code) in
1349. Little
secular mediæval literature has been preserved, but what there is shows that it was in accord with its time; for example, ''Serbian Alexandride'', a book about
Alexander the Great, and a translation of ''
Tristan and Isolde'' into Serbian.
In the mid-
15th century, Serbia was conquered by the
Ottoman Empire and, for the next 400 years there was no opportunity for the creation of secular written literature. However, some of the greatest literary works in Serbian come from this time, in the form of oral literature, the most notable form being
Serbian epic poetry. It is known that
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Goethe learned the Serbian language in order to read Serbian epic poetry in the original. Written literature was produced only for religious use in churches and monasteries, and held to
Old Church Slavonic. By the end of the
18th century, the written literature had become estranged from the spoken language. In the second half of the 18th century, the new language appeared, called
Slavonic-Serbian. In the early
19th century,
Vuk Stefanović Karadžić, following the work of
Sava Mrkalj, reformed the Cyrillic alphabet by introducing the
phonetics phonetic principle, as well as promoting the
spoken language of the people as a literary norm.
The first printed book in Serbian, ''Oktoih'' was produced in
Cetinje in
1494, only 40 years after
Gutenberg's invention of
movable type.
Demographics
Figures of speakers according to countries:
*
Serbia and Montenegro: 7,170,000
**
Serbia: 6,770,000
***
Vojvodina: 1,557,020 (''
as of 2002 2002'')
***
Central Serbia: 5,063,679 (''2002'')
***
Kosovo: 150,000
**
Montenegro: 401,382 (''
as of 2003 2003'')
*
Bosnia-Herzegovina: 1,500,000
*
USA: around 500,000
*
Canada: 55,545 ([http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census01/products/highlight/ETO/Table1.cfm?Lang=E&T=501&GV=1&GID=0 2001 census], 40,580 of that in
Ontario)
*
Croatia: 44,629 (''
as of 2001 2001'')
*
Republic of Macedonia: 33,315 (''2001'')
*
Romania: 20,377 (''2001'')
*
Australia: 50,000 (''2001'')
Trivia
Two Serbian words that are used in many of the world's languages are
vampire and
slivovitz (though the
etymology and origin of the word ''vampire'' is disputed [http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=vampire&searchmode=none]).
Differences to similar languages
''Main article:
Differences in official languages in Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia''
See also
*
Serbo-Croatian language
*
Common phrases in different languages#Serbian (Slavic) Common phrases in Serbian
*
Serbian proverbs
*
List of tongue-twisters#Serbian Serbian tongue-twisters
*
List of Serbs#Serbian language speakers, learners, etc. Famous non-Serbs who were speaking or learning the language
*
Å atrovaÄ?ki (slang form)
*
Romano-Serbian language (mix with Romany)
External links
{{Interwiki|code=sr}}
{{Wikibookspar||Serbian}}
-
METAK - Serbian-English dictionary, as quick as a bullet
-
Standard language as an instrument of culture and the product of national history — an article by pre-eminent linguist
Pavle Ivić
-
Serbian School Learn Serbian online for free.
-
Serbian Language and Culture Workshop Learn Serbian
-
Serbian vocabulary learning tool
Category:South Slavic languages
Category:Languages of Serbia and Montenegro
Category:Languages of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Category:Languages of Vojvodina
Category:Languages of Serbia
Category:Languages of Montenegro
Category:Languages of Kosovo
Category:Languages of Hungary
Category:Languages of the Republic of Macedonia
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