Serbo-Croatian language: does it still exist?

The existence of such a concept as “Serbo-Croatian language” has not been the first decade that provides the basis for violent disputes not only between linguists, but also people who, in principle, have something to do with the Balkan Peninsula. Some are sure that such a language no longer exists, it has split into several independent languages. Others prefer not to delve into this issue and combine the languages ​​of Serbs, Croats (and not only) into one. But where is the truth?

Is the patient alive rather than dead?

The Serbo-Croatian language belongs to the South Slavic subgroup of the Slavic group of languages, it was spoken in the now defunct Yugoslavia. After the bloody collapse of the country, several new republics appeared in the Balkans, and with them new languages. And one of the first things that the quarreling peoples took up was not only territorial division, but also linguistic. So, now we have not just Serbo-Croatian, but Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian and even very young Montenegrin.

So why are all of them still united under one concept? To answer this question, it is necessary to consider the Serbo-Croatian language from different angles. Firstly, from a purely linguistic point of view, all these independent languages ​​are not so much alike, but practically identical lexically, grammatically and phonetically. The situation is the same in communication between residents of Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Montenegro: in dialogue with each other they have no language barrier. Of course, by their accent they can immediately determine which regions the interlocutor came from, but the emphasis of the Yugoslavs is no more different than that of our fellow citizens from different regions of Russia. To be more precise, the Serbs “ekayut”, and the Croats, along with the Bosnians and Montenegrins, “ekat”. For example: in the Serbian language they say “time”, “telo” and “snag”, and in Croatian, Bosnian and Montenegrin - “time”, body “and” snow. There are some differences in the words themselves, but more on that later.

Territorial and political distinction

Obviously, the Serbo-Croatian language survived everything: the long war, the collapse of the country, and ethnic conflicts, but people both spoke the same language and they say so. But there is one "but." Still, Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and not so long ago, Montenegro exist independently of each other. Accordingly, in the legal documents and constitutions of these countries, no “Serbo-Croatian” exists.

The official name of the language of the inhabitants of Croatia is Croatian. They don’t want to hear anything about Serbian, and they don’t ascribe it to their linguistic roots. Throughout the history of the SFRY, this republic more than others tried in every possible way to separate its language from Serbian, and at times it even worked out. As a result, when the state came to the tragic end of its existence, a special post appeared in Croatia - a proofreader. Such people, having at hand a new Serbo-Croatian dictionary, corrected all local print media in order to eliminate exactly Serbian words, changing them to “new” Croatian ones. It was even more fun when Croatian subtitles began to be added to films shot in Serbian. By the way, even the inhabitants of Croatia watched such a movie more for the sake of laughter.

One language, but different alphabet

In Serbia, the situation is no better than in Croatia, although here the issue of language differences is more loyal. The language, in fact, is one, but the alphabet is still different.

The Serbo-Croatian alphabet is two sign systems: Cyrillic and Latin. The Latin alphabet is used in Croatia, mainly in Bosnia and Montenegro. In Serbia, one and the other. But why so? Is it really convenient for people to read and write in different characters? It should be said that for the inhabitants of Serbia it is not the slightest difficulty switching from Latin to Cyrillic and vice versa. Even local students learn one alphabet in parallel with another. Serbo-Croatian phrasebooks from the time of Yugoslavia have always printed variants of Serbian and Croatian pronunciation.

But to be more specific, the native letter for the Serbs is Cyrillic, its official name is “Vukovitsa” (on behalf of its creator Vuk Karadzic). It practically does not differ from Russian writing, but it has some interesting features:

• there is no hard sign in vukovice, and the soft sign here merges with some consonants - љ (), њ ()
• the letters ћ are pronounced as "h", but very softly (as in the Belarusian language);
• Serbian "h" is similar to Russian;
• ђ - this is our sound "dj", and this letter is usually put in front of soft vowels;
• џ should be pronounced as “j,” that is, harder than the previous one.

Vukovica is called the extended Cyrillic alphabet, and this is the official written language of Serbia. It also publishes all state publications, documents, it is used in signboards. Church books are written in Cyrillic.

The Latin alphabet in Serbia is called the gaewitz (on behalf of the Croatian leader Ludevit Gai), and it should be noted that every year it becomes more and more popular here. In social networks, young people mainly write with it, fashion magazines, weekly newspapers, books - all this is written by a gaewitz. This is much more convenient for many now, because almost all of Europe uses the Latin alphabet, and Serbia is a candidate for EU accession.

Gajevitsa is that thread which still unites the Serbian and Croatian languages ​​into one. Cyrillic letters, which are not in the gaewitz, are usually denoted by the following signs:

• č - solid "h";
• ć - soft "h";
• s - Russian and Serbian "c";
• dž - Serbian "џ" and Russian solid sound "j";
• đ - Serbian "ђ" and Russian soft sound "dj";
• lj and nj - Serbian "љ" and "њ";
• š - Russian and Serbian "w";
• ž - Russian and Serbian "w".

Vocabulary differences

Any native speaker of the Slavic language, coming to Serbia or Croatia, will understand most of the words both there and there. Our compatriots notice interesting coincidences with the Russian language, either in Croatian or in Serbian, while in these languages ​​the words will sound differently. Here are some examples:

And so, every little Yugoslav people tries as much as possible to "dissociate itself" from its neighbor, expressing it clearly in the language, because language is consciousness, it is a reflection of culture, mentality, national characteristics. However, native speakers of Slavic languages ​​arriving in the territory of the former Yugoslavia need to delve deeper into linguistics in order to find many of these differences. In general, all this difference is not particularly noticeable.