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Serbian Language is a result of the work of the great Serbian philologist and language reformer, Vuk Stefanovich Karadzich . There are thirty sounds in the language. The Serbian language has the Cyrillic and the Latin alphabets. In the Cyrillic alphabet, there is one symbol for each sound, that is, there are as many letters as sounds (30), making it completely phonetic. This system was introduced by Vuk Stefanović Karađžić who followed the rule: write as you speak, and read as you write.
The Latin alphabet is also phonetic, but some double letters are pronounced as one sound. The spelling of Serbian does not present any difficulties, because there is one symbol for each sound. Serbian language is thus one of the easiest language to learn to write. The order of the letters differs in the Cyrillic and the Latin alphabets. Serbian language, written in the Cyrillic alphabet is the official language (Cyrilic: српски,Latin: srpski, pronounced [sr̩̂p.skiː]) is a form of Serbo-Croatian language spoken by Serbs in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia and neighbouring countries. There are two principal Serbian language dialects, Shtokavian and Torlakian. The literary and standard language is based on Shtokavian, which is also the basis of Standard Croatian, Bosnian and Montenegrin.
Serbian language is the only European language with active digraphia, using both Curilic and Latin alphabets. The Serbian Cyrillic alphabet was devised in 1814 by Serbian linguist Vuk Karadžić, who created the alphabet on phonemic principles. The Latin alphabet was designed by Croatian linguist Ljudevit Gaj in 1830 and is used by the other standard forms of Serbo-Croatian.
Serbian Language/History
Serbian Language/History
Serbo-Croatian belongs to the Slavonic group of languages, one of the three largest groups of the Indo-European family along with Romance and Germanic. In the early medieval period, differences among the Slavonic languages were relatively insignificant, probably being smaller than the differences among modern German dialects in Switzerland. During the sixties of the ninth century, two educated Byzantines from Salonica, the brothers Constantine (later known as Cyril from his monastic life) and Methodius, with their knowledge of the Slavonic language spoken around their native town, translated the most important religious books into Slavonic by order of the Byzantine emperor Michael. By the end of the tenth century, the language of those translations had become the liturgical and literary language of most Slavs in the area encompassing the Adriatic and Aegean seas and all the way to northern Russia. The fundamental corpus of abstract terms (religious, philosophical and psychological), into which the trends in the development of Greek thought in antiquity and in the early Middle
Ages had been poured, thus obtained an adequate translation into Slavonic in a single move. The Slavs, therefore, also mastered the conceptual arsenal the Latins had acquired much earlier from the Greeks, and the later western European languages from Latin. Old Church Slavonic, the creation of those two brothers from Salonika, thus entered the family of great liturgical and literary languages of Christian Europe, parallel to Greek and Latin. Beyond the borders of the Christian world, similar roles were played by Hebrew, classical Arabic and Sanskrit. Constantine and Methodius also created a special alphabet which they used to write down their translations. This alphabet, known today as glagolitic, contained almost forty letters.
The phonological pattern of Slavonic at that time was much richer than that of Greek, and glagolitic had a letter for each of the sounds. Among Orthodox Slavs, the glagolitic alphabet was soon replaced by one which would later be called Cyrillic. Cyrillic was, in fact, the Greek uncial alphabet of that period, complemented by fourteen special letters for Slavonic phonemes which did not exist in Greek. Thus, an instrument of culture was created which was far more suitable than the Latin alphabet, which had been created for the Latin language in antiquity through an adaptation of the Greek alphabet, and which lacked letters for the special phonemes of later European languages. This would burden the literature of those languages with many problems, vacillations and inconsistencies. The solution was most often sought in assigning a group of two or three characters for a single phoneme. Thus, the well known case of the consonant marked in English by sh, in French by ch, in Italian by sc or sci, in German by sch, in Swedish by sj, in Polish by sz, and so on. In Cyrillic there is only one letter for that sound, and it is the same wherever that alphabet is used''.
Although Serbian language authorities recognize the official status for both scripts in contemporary standard Serbian language for more than half of a century now, due to historical reasons, Cyrillic was made the official script of Serbia's administration by the 2006 Constitution. However, the law does not regulate scripts in standard language, or standard language itself by any means, leaving the choice of script as a matter of personal preference and to the free will in all aspects of life (publishing, media, trade and commerce, etc.), except in government paperwork production and in official written communication with state officials which have to be in Cyrillic. Serbian language is a rare and excellent example of synchronized digraphia, a situation where all literate members of a society have two interchangeable writing systems available to them.
Serbian Language / The language reform of Vuk Karadzic
In 1814, an extremely talented, brave and aggressive autodidact entered the arena of literary language. The son of a peasant, Vuk Karadzic moved to Austria as a refugee from Serbia after the First Serbian Uprising. He carried the unquenchable spirit of that uprising in himself, along with the rich folklore tradition of the Serbian peasantry. Karadzic's meeting with Jernej Kopitar, the great Viennese Slavist, was decisive for his further lifework; Kopitar was carried away with a romantic delight in the authentic folk spirit, incarnated in the pure vernacular and in folklore. At Kopitar's insistence, Karadzic began to publish folklore and to work on language materials. His book, A Serbian Dictionary, with a section on grammar was published in 1818, and it laid the foundations for a new type of literary language whose roots were in the speech of country folk and not urban dwellers. In his later works, Karadzic defined a new attitude toward the heritage of Church Slavonic. It was to be retained to the extent that it actually had to be, and strictly adapted to the phonological and morphological structure of Serbian. Karadzic fundamentally reformed the Serbian Cyrillic alphabet as well, omitting all those letters which did not correspond to a particular sound in the Serbian vernacular. He introduced an orthography in which the written word precisely reflected the spoken word, according to the principle of "a letter for every sound".
Serbian Language/Alphabetic order
The sort order of the ćirilica (ћирилица) alphabet:
Cyrillic order called Azbuka (азбука): А Б В Г Д Ђ Е Ж З И Ј К Л Љ М Н Њ О П Р С Т Ћ У Ф Х Ц Ч Џ Ш
The sort order of the latinica (латиница) alphabet:
Latin order (called Abeceda (абецеда): A B C Č Ć D Dž Đ E F G H I J K L Lj M N Nj O P R S Š T U V Z Ž
Serbian Language /Phonology
The following table provides the upper and lower case forms of the Serbian Cyrillic alphabet, along with the Serbian Latin equivalent and the IPA value for each letter, in Cyrillic sort order:
Serbian Language/Grammar
Conjugation
In Serbian Language verbs are conjugated in four past forms—perfect, aorist, imperfect, and pluperfect—of which the last two have a very limited use (imperfect is still used in some dialects, but majority of native Serbian speakers consider it archaic); one future tense (AKA first future tense—as opposed to the second future tense or the future exact, which is considered a tense of the conditional mood by some contemporary linguists), and one present tense. These are the tenses of the indicative mood. Apart from the indicative mood, there is also the imperative mood. The conditional mood has two more tenses, the first conditional (commonly used in conditional clauses, both for possible and impossible conditional clauses), and the second conditional (without use in spoken language—it should be used for impossible conditional clauses). Serbian language has active and passive voice. As for the non-finite verb forms, Serbian language has one infinitive, two adjectival participles (the active and the passive), and two adverbial participles (the present and the past).
Serbian Language/Vocabulary
Most of the words in Serbian language are of Slavic origin, meaning that their roots can often be traced back to a reconstructed Proto-Slavic language. For instance, srce ("heart"), plav ("blue").
"There are many loanwords from different languages:
The number of Turkish loanwords is also significant. There are according to Bosniak Abdulah Škaljić, ("Turcizmi u bosanskom jeziku"—"Svjetlost" Sarajevo), 8,742 Turkish words in the Bosnian language, but far fewer than that number are in use today. Most of these words are not Turkish in origin but Arabic or Persian; they entered Serbian via Turkish. However, these words are disappearing from the standard language at a faster rate than loanwords from any other language. In Belgrade, for instance, čakšire (чакшире) was the only word for trousers before World War II, today pantalone (панталоне; a borrowing from Italian) is current; some 30–50 years ago avlija (авлија < Turkish avlı) was a common word for courtyard or backyard in Belgrade, today it is the native Slavic dvorište (двориште); only 15 years ago čaršav (чаршав) was usual for tablecloth, today it is stonjak (стоњак). The greatest number of Turkish loanwords were and are in the vernaculars of south Serbia, followed by those of Bosnia and Herzegovina and central Serbia, generally corresponding with how many Muslims live in an area. Many Turkish loanwords are usual in the vernaculars of Vojvodina as well.
There are plenty of loanwords from German. The great number of them are specific for vernaculars which were situated in the Austrian monarchy (Vojvodina). Most cultural words attested before World war II, were borrowed from (or via) German, even when they are of French or English origin (šorc, boks). The accent is an excellent indicator for that, since German loanwords in Serbian have rising accents.
Italian words in standard language were often borrowed via German (makarone). If they were not taken directly from Italian, they show specific, not regular, adaptations. For instance špagète for Italian spaghetti rather than the "expected" špàgete. The most common informal Serbian greeting is "Ćao", after the Italian "Ciao".
Greek loanwords were very common in Old Serbian language (Serbian-Slavonic). Some words are present and common in the modern vernaculars of central Serbia (as well as other areas) and in the standard language: hiljada (хиљада), tiganj (тигањ), patos (патос), jeftin (јефтин). Almost every word of the Serbian Orthodox ceremonies is of Greek origin (parastos (парастос) 'requiem').
The number of Hungerian loanwords in the standard language is small: bitanga (битанга), alas (алас), ašov (ашов)). However, they are present in some vernaculars of Vojvodina and also in historical documents, local literature. Some place names in northern central Serbia as Barajevo, are probably of Hungarian origin.
Classical international words (words mainly with Latin or Greek roots) are adapted in Serbian like in most European languages, not translated as in Croatian. For instance Serbian atmosfera, Croatian ozracje, S telegraf, C brzojav, S avion, C zrakoplov.
Two Serbian words that are used in many of the world's languages are vampire and paprika. Slivovitz and ćevapčići are Serbian words which have spread together with the Serbian food/drink they refer to. Paprika and slivovitz are borrowed via German; paprika itself entered German via Hungarian. Vampire entered most West European languages through German-language texts in the early 18th century and has since spread widely in the world''
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