Bosnian

Bosnain is a langauge spoken in the Balkans. One of three varieties used in the country of Bosnia, there is some tension as it being called ‘Bosnian’, which presupposes that it is the language of all Bosnians. The other two varieties are Serbian and Croatian. Until the 1990s, Bosnian was referred to as Serbo-Croatian. It is the most widely used regional language variety.

In the 1990s, war in the region displaced many Bosnians and caused a diaspora of Bosnian speakers to many other countries around the world.

Writing: Bosnian can be written in both the Latin and Cyrillic (Russian) scripts, with the Latin alphabet being the most common

Pitch: Bosnian has pitch accent, which means that the vowel of the stressed syllable in a word is accented with a rising or falling pitch. The location and type of accent varies by region.

Word Order: Bosnian generally has a subject-verb-object (SVO) word order, much like English. However, in Bosnian, word order is not as important, as part of speech is shown through other means.

Culture and Religion: Bosnians are a diverse religious group, with adherents to Christianity, Islam, and Russian Orthodox. What ties all Bosnians together is their strong family ties, hospitality, and sense of humor.

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