Serbian language српски језик srpski jezik
Pronunciation:	[ˈsr̩pskiː]
Spoken in:	See below under "Official status", besides that in Croatia and as an immigrant's language spread over Central and Western Europe, as well as Northern America
Region:	Central Europe, Southern Europe
Total speakers:	Over 12 Million
Ranking:	Around 63
Language family:	Indo-European  Slavic   South Slavic    Western South Slavic     Serbian language
Official status
Official language in:	Serbia  Bosnia and Herzegovina  Montenegro  Kosovo  Macedonia (regional) Recognised minority language in:  Hungary [1]  Romania
Regulated by:	Board for Standardization of the Serbian Language
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	sr
ISO 639-2:	scc (B)	srp (T)
ISO 639-3:	srp
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. Croatia (Hrvatska ˈxȓvatska officially the Republic of Croatia ( Republika Hrvatska) is a southern Central European country at the crossroads between Central Europe is the Region lying between the variously and vaguely defined areas of Eastern and Western Europe at its most general meaning means 'all the countries in the West of Europe ' Central Europe is the Region lying between the variously and vaguely defined areas of Eastern and The term Southern Europe can have four definitions geographical political climatic phytogeographic This is a list of languages, ordered by the number of native-language speakers, with some data for second-language use List of language familiesA language family is a group of Languages related by descent from a common ancestor called the Proto-language of that family The Slavic languages (also called Slavonic languages) a group of closely related Languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup of Indo-European languages South Slavic languages comprise one of the three geographical groups of Slavic languages (besides West and East Slavic) Serbia (Србија Srbija) officially the Republic of Serbia (Република Србија Republika Srbija) is a Landlocked Country Bosnia and Herzegovina ( Latin script: Bosna i Hercegovina, Cyrillic script: Босна и Херцеговина is a country on the Balkan Montenegro ( British English) Montenegrin / Serbian: PLEASE DO NOT CHANGE THE LANGUAGES WITHOUT CONSENSUS ON THE TALK PAGE! The Republic of Macedonia (Република Hungary (Magyarország 'mɔɟɔrorsaːg) officially in English the Republic of Hungary ( Magyar Köztársaság, literally Magyar (Hungarian Republic Romania ( dated: Rumania, Roumania This is a list of bodies that regulate Standard languages Natural languages Auxiliary languages Interlingua The auxiliary language The Board for Standardization of the Serbian Language ( Serbian: Одбор за стандардизацију српског језика Odbor za standardizaciju srpskog ISO 639-1 is the first part of the ISO 639 international-standard language-code family ISO 639-2 is the second part of the ISO 639 standard, which lists codes for the representation of the names of languages ISO 639 -3 (ISO 639-32007 is an international standard for Language codes The standard describes three‐letter codes for identifying languages In Computing, Unicode is an Industry standard allowing Computers to consistently represent and manipulate text expressed in most of the world's

Serbian (српски језик; srpski jezik) is a South Slavic language, spoken chiefly in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbs in Croatia, and in the Serbian diaspora. South Slavic languages comprise one of the three geographical groups of Slavic languages (besides West and East Slavic) Serbia (Србија Srbija) officially the Republic of Serbia (Република Србија Republika Srbija) is a Landlocked Country Bosnia and Herzegovina ( Latin script: Bosna i Hercegovina, Cyrillic script: Босна и Херцеговина is a country on the Balkan Montenegro ( British English) Montenegrin / Serbian: PLEASE DO NOT CHANGE THE LANGUAGES WITHOUT CONSENSUS ON THE TALK PAGE! Croatia (Hrvatska ˈxȓvatska officially the Republic of Croatia ( Republika Hrvatska) is a southern Central European country at the crossroads between There are currently 45 to 55 million Serbs in Diaspora throughout the world (those that are not constitutional peoples like in Serbia, Montenegro and Standard Serbian is based on Shtokavian dialect, like Croatian and Bosnian, with which it is mutually intelligible, and was previously unified with under the standard known as Serbo-Croatian. Shtokavian or Štokavian (štokavski is the main dialect of the Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian languages Croatian language ( hrvatski jezik) is a South Slavic language which is used primarily in Croatia, by Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina in neighbouring Bosnian language (Bosnian bosanski jezik) sometimes referred as Bosniak language or Bosniac language is a South Slavic language native The Serbo-Croatian language or Croato-Serbian language (cрпскохрватски језик srpskohrvatski jezik) is a South Slavic Diasystem It counts among official (and minority) languages of Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Kosovo, Croatia, Romania, Republic of Macedonia and Hungary. Serbia (Србија Srbija) officially the Republic of Serbia (Република Србија Republika Srbija) is a Landlocked Country Bosnia and Herzegovina ( Latin script: Bosna i Hercegovina, Cyrillic script: Босна и Херцеговина is a country on the Balkan Montenegro ( British English) Montenegrin / Serbian: PLEASE DO NOT CHANGE THE LANGUAGES WITHOUT CONSENSUS ON THE TALK PAGE! Croatia (Hrvatska ˈxȓvatska officially the Republic of Croatia ( Republika Hrvatska) is a southern Central European country at the crossroads between Romania ( dated: Rumania, Roumania The Republic of Macedonia (Република Hungary (Magyarország 'mɔɟɔrorsaːg) officially in English the Republic of Hungary ( Magyar Köztársaság, literally Magyar (Hungarian Republic

Two alphabets are used to write the Serbian language: a variation on the Cyrillic alphabet, devised by Vuk Karadžić, and a variation on the Latin alphabet, devised by Ljudevit Gaj. An alphabet is a standardized set of letters basic written symbols each of which roughly represents a Phoneme, a Spoken language, either The Serbian Cyrillic alphabet (српска/Вукова ћирилица srpska/Vukova ćirilica, literally " Serbian/Vuk's Cyrillic alphabet " is The Cyrillic alphabet (səˈrɪlɪk also called azbuka, from the old name of the first two letters is actually a family of Alphabets, subsets of which are used by Vuk Stefanović Karadžić ( Serbian Cyrillic: Вук Стефановић Караџић ( November 7, 1787 - February 7, 1864 Ljudevit Gaj ( August 8, 1809, Krapina &ndash April 20, 1872, Zagreb) was a Croatian linguist politician journalist

Serbian orthography is very consistent: approximation of the principle "one letter per sound". This principle is represented by Adelung's saying, "Write as you speak and read as it is written", the principle used by Vuk Stefanović Karadžić when reforming the Cyrillic orthography of Serbian in the 19th century. Johann Christoph Adelung ( 8 August 1732 – 10 September 1806) was a German Grammarian and Philologist. Vuk Stefanović Karadžić ( Serbian Cyrillic: Вук Стефановић Караџић ( November 7, 1787 - February 7, 1864

Writing systems

Serbian Cyrillic and Serbian Latin, from Comparative orthography of European languages. Source: Vuk Stefanović Karadžić Srpske narodne pjesme (Serbian folk poems), Vienna, 1841

Serbian language can be written in two different alphabets: Serbian Cyrillic script (ћирилица) and the Serbian Latin (latinica). Vuk Stefanović Karadžić ( Serbian Cyrillic: Вук Стефановић Караџић ( November 7, 1787 - February 7, 1864 Vienna ( in Wien; see also other names) is the Capital of Austria, and is also one of the nine States of Austria. The Serbian Cyrillic alphabet (српска/Вукова ћирилица srpska/Vukova ćirilica, literally " Serbian/Vuk's Cyrillic alphabet " is Both were promoted in Yugoslavia. The Cyrillic script is official under the 2006 constitution of Serbia, but the Latin script is gaining ground due to globalization. [1]

Table

Alphabetic order

The sort order of the two alphabets is different.

• 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
• Latin order (called abeceda): 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

Equivalence of scripts

The Cyrillic letters <Љ>, <Њ> and <Џ> are represented by digraphs in the Latin alphabet. A digraph, bigraph, or digram is a pair of characters used to write one Phoneme (distinct sound or a sequence of phonemes that does not correspond In digraphs, letters are always written together - even in top-down text - and are also sorted as one letter (e. g. ljubav, 'love', comes after lopta, 'ball'). The present Cyrillic script, having been devised for the language itself, is precise because there is no ambiguity involved in reading Lj, Nj and Dž: for example, both Cyrillic инјекција (mathematical injection or medical injection) and његов ('his') are written with <nj> in Latin form. See LJ for other meanings Lj ( lj in Lower case) is a letter present in some Slavic languages such as the Latin Dž ( titlecase form all- capitals form DŽ, lowercase dž) is the seventh letter of the Croatian and Bosnian An injection is an infusion method of putting Liquid into the Body, usually with a hollow needle and a Syringe which is pierced through Thus, automatic transliteration of Cyrillic text to Latin is straightforward, but automatic transliteration of Latin text to Cyrillic requires additional heuristic rules. heuristic (hyu̇-ˈris-tik is a method to help solve a problem commonly an informal method

Phonology

Vowels

The Serbian vowel system is simple, with only five vowels. In Phonetics, a vowel is a Sound in spoken Language, such as English ah! or oh!, pronounced with an open Vocal tract All vowels are monophthongs. A monophthong ( Greek μονόφθογγος "monophthongos" = single note) is a "pure" Vowel sound one whose articulation at The oral vowels are as follows:^[2]

Consonants

The consonant system is more complicated, and its characteristic features are series of affricate and palatal consonants. The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA is a system of phonetic notation based on the Latin alphabet, devised by the International Phonetic The close front unrounded vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in many spoken Languages The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents The open-mid front unrounded vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in some spoken Languages The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet The open front unrounded vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in some spoken Languages The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet The open-mid back rounded vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in some spoken Languages The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet The close back rounded vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in some spoken Languages The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents In Articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a Speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the upper Vocal tract, the upper vocal Affricate Consonants begin as stops (most often an alveolar, such as or) but release as a fricative (such as or or occasionally into Palatal consonants are Consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the Hard palate (the middle part of the roof of the mouth Voicing is phonemic, but aspiration is not. The phoneME project is Sun Microsystems reference implementation of Java virtual machine and associated libraries of Java ME with source licensed under the GNU Description Voiceless consonants are produced with the Vocal cords open and voiced consonants are produced when the vocal folds are fractionally closed The consonant phoneme table for Serbian is as follows (corresponding Latin letters are below the IPA symbols)

/r/ can be syllabic, playing the role of a vowel in certain words (it can even have a long accent). For example, the tongue-twister na vrh brda vrba mrda involves four words with syllabic /r̩/. A tongue-twister is a phrase that is designed to be difficult to articulate properly A similar feature exists in Czech, Slovak, Macedonian and many other languages. Czech (ˈʧɛk čeština ˈʧɛʃcɪna in Czech is a West Slavic language with about 12 million native speakers it is the majority language in the The Slovak language ( slovenčina, slovenský jazyk, not to be confused with Slovenščina) sometimes referred to as "Slovakian" Macedonian () is the official Language of the Republic of Macedonia and is a part of the Eastern group of South Slavic languages. In some vernaculars /l/ can be syllabic as well. Vernacular refers to the Native language of a country or a locality However, in the standard language, it appears only in loanwords as in the name for the Czech river Vltava for instance, or debakl (дебакл), monokl (монокл) and bicikl (бицикл).

In Serbian, the phonemes /tʃ/, /tɕ/, /dʒ/, and /dʑ/ (in contrast to Croatian and Bosnian vernaculars) have an independent phonetic realization in most vernaculars. ^[4]

Phonetic interactions

While the basic sound system is fairly simple, Serbian phonology is very complicated: there are numerous interactions (sandhi rules) between voices at morpheme boundaries which cause sound changes, with numerous exceptions. Phonology ( Greek φωνή (phōnē voice sound + λόγος (lógos word speech subject of discussion is the systematic use of sound to encode meaning Sandhi ( Sanskrit saṃdhi sa संधि "joining" is a cover term for a wide variety of phonological processes that occur at Morpheme In Morpheme-based morphology, a morpheme is the smallest linguistic unit that has semantic meaning. Sound change includes any processes of Language change that affect pronunciation ( phonetic change) or sound system structures ( Phonological change The changes include:

• Two types of Iotation
  • So called older, reflected in all Slavic languages
  • So called newer: d, t, l, n + j > đ, ć, lj, nj. Iotation is a form of Palatalization which occurs in Slavic languages.
• Three types of palatalization, reflected in all Slavic languages:
  • First, involving shift of velar consonants k, g and h into postalveolar č, ž and š in front of front vowels e and i,
  • Second (also known as "sibilarization"), involving shift of k, g and h into alveolar c, z and s in front of e and i
  • Little-known third, involving shift of k, g, h into c, z, s after e, i and a. Palatalization or palatalisation (ˌpælətəlɨˈzeɪʃən generally refers to two phenomena As a process or the result of a process Postalveolar consonants are Consonants articulated with the tongue near or touching the back of the Alveolar ridge, placing them a bit further back in the A front vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in some spoken Languages The defining characteristic of a front vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far forward Alveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior Alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli (the sockets
• Voicing and Devoicing assimilation
• Assimilation by place of articulation
• Elision in complex consonant clusters
• L→O shift, where final and pre-consonant *l was changed into an /o/
• "Labile A", referring to sound a occurring only in nominative and genitive plural of nouns with several suffixes (most commonly -ak and -ac): točak ('wheel') (N) → točka (G) → točku (D) etc. Voice or voicing is a term used in Phonetics and Phonology to characterize speech sounds, with sounds described as either voiceless Assimilation is a common Phonological process by which the phonetics of a speech segment becomes more like that of another segment in a word (or at a word boundary Assimilation is a common Phonological process by which the phonetics of a speech segment becomes more like that of another segment in a word (or at a word boundary In Articulatory phonetics, the place of articulation (also point of articulation) of a Consonant is the point of contact where an Obstruction Elision is the omission of one or more sounds (such as a Vowel, a Consonant, or a whole Syllable) in a word or phrase producing a result that is easier The nominative case is a Grammatical case for a Noun, which generally marks the subject of a Verb, as opposed to its object or other In Grammar, the genitive case or possessive case (also called the second case) is the case that marks a Noun as modifying another In Grammar, a suffix (also postfix, ending) is an Affix which is placed at the end of a word

Voicing and devoicing

In consonant clusters all consonants are either voiced or voiceless. In Linguistics, a consonant cluster (or consonant blend) is a group of Consonants which have no intervening Vowel. 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. Approximants are speech sounds ( Phonemes) that could be regarded as intermediate between Vowels and typical Consonants In the articulation of approximants

Prosody

Accents

Serbian has an extended system of accentuation. From the phonological point of view it has four accents which are divided into two groups according to their quality:

• there are two accents with falling intonation ("old accents")- the short one and the long one
• there are two accents with rise in intonation ("new accents")- the short one and the long one

However, their realization varies according to vernacular. That is why Daničić, Budmani, Matešić and other scientists have given different descriptions of the four Serbian accents. Đuro Daničić ( Serbian Cyrillic: Ђуро Даничић ( April 4 1825 in Novi Sad – November 17 1882 in Pero Budmani (1835 – 1914 born in Ragusa ( Dubrovnik) was a Croatian linguist and philologist who first used the name Serbo-Croatian in his book of grammar The old accents are rather close to Italian and English accent types, and the new ones to German (this can be easily seen through loanwords).

Here is one possibility of phonetic realization of 4 Serbian accents:

1. Short falling (kratkosilazni; symbol `` – double grave) as in Mïlica (PNfem). Pitch The grave accent was first used in the polytonic orthography of Ancient Greek, where it occurred only on the last syllable of a word in cases where the Pronunciation: /ˈmilitsa/ ('i' is stressed and short, as in English thick,cut).
2. Long falling (dugosilazni; symbol ^) as in pîvo ('beer'). Pronunciation: /piːvo/ ('i' is stressed, first low, then high and then again low, as in English seek, Italian Gino, Marco).
3. Short rising (kratkouzlazni; symbol ` – grave)as in màskara ('eye makeup'). Pitch The grave accent was first used in the polytonic orthography of Ancient Greek, where it occurred only on the last syllable of a word in cases where the Pronunciation: /ˈmaskara/ (the first 'a' is slightly stressed, the second 'a' is higher than the first one, and the third 'a' is even higher than the second one, as in German Arbeiter, Matratze).
4. Long rising (dugouzlazni; symbol ´) as in čokoláda ('chocolate'). Pronunciation: /tʃɔkɔˈlaːda/ ('a' is stressed, longer than the other vowels, and the intonation is slightly rising, as in German Balade or Schokolade).

The "finest" realization—the differences between the accents are relatively small, words are pronounced without any special effort—can be found in the most respectable vernaculars of Piva and Drobnjak and in Belgrade and partly in familiar vernaculars in Kolubara district and south-western Banat. These two groups of vernaculars gave the base for Belgrade old speaker school. Already in surrounding Nikšić (Montenegro), Dubrovnik (Croatia), Užice (Serbia) area stress is more intensive. Nikšić ( Serbian Cyrillic: Никшић is a city in Montenegro ( ||-||-||-||-||-||-||} Dubrovnik (ˈdǔbro̞ːʋniːk Dalmatian: Ragusa; Latin: Ragusium, also Rhausium, Rhaugia; Užice ( Serbian Cyrillic: Ужице IPA:) is a town and municipality located in Serbia at 43 Modern surveys have shown for instance, that there is a minimal difference in Piva and Drobnjak (where the family of Vuk Stefanović Karadžić had come from) between the syllables that carry short-stressed accent with fall intonation and the short-stressed with rise intonation. Vuk Stefanović Karadžić ( Serbian Cyrillic: Вук Стефановић Караџић ( November 7, 1787 - February 7, 1864 In the first edition of Vuk's dictionary (1818), Vuk even marked these two accents as one and the same accent. ^[5] The difference between the short-stressed accent with falling acentuation and the short-stressed with rise accent is almost lost in two-syllable words (cf. the surveys of Pavle Ivić on Serbian prosody). ^[6] The informal speech- slang in Belgrade has very special, neutralized accentuation (the oppositions falling/rising, short/long is only partly based on genuine word accents, far more on phonetic letter structure of the word).

Unstressed lengths

Not only the stressed syllables can be short or long. Other syllables have that feature as well. In neo-shtokavian vernaculars, the unstressed long syllable (unstressed length) can occur only after the accented syllable (these lengths are usually called postaccent lengths. Shtokavian or Štokavian (štokavski is the main dialect of the Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian languages Their symbol is macron (-): dèvōjka ('girl'), Jugòslāvīja (Yugoslavia). A macron, from Greek el μακρόv ( makrón) meaning "long" is a Diacritic ¯ placed over or under a Vowel which was originally

The phonetic realization of postaccent lengths is different. In vernaculars of Piva and Drobnjak they are rather very short, without any stress components. In some other East-Herzegowinian vernaculars, they are almost stressed (of course, less intense than the really stressed syllable). In many vernaculars—for instance in Belgrade, and in many places in Vojvodina—postaccents lengths are almost lost. Belgrade (Београд Beograd is the Capital and largest city of Serbia. The Autonomous Province of Vojvodina ( Serbian: Аутономна Покрајина Војводина or Autonomna Pokrajina Vojvodina; Hungarian: Vajdaság That's why foreign students are not expected to pay much attention to them.

History

Before 1400, most Serbian vernaculars had two accents, both with fall intonation—the short one and the long one. That is why they are called "old accents". By 1500, the old accents moved by one syllable towards the beginning of the word, changing their quality to rising accents. For instance junâk (hero) became jùnāk. The old accents, logically remained only when they were on first syllable. Not all dialects had that evolution; those who had it are called neo-shtokavian. Shtokavian or Štokavian (štokavski is the main dialect of the Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian languages The irradiation point was in east Herzegovina, between Prokletije mountains and town of Trebinje. Herzegovina ( Bosnian, Croatian: Hercegovina, Serbian: Херцеговина) is a traditionally Trebinje ( Cyrillic: Требиње is the Southern most Municipality and Town in Republika Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina Since the 1500s people had been emigrating from this area. The biggest migrations were to the north, then toward Military Krajina and to the seaside (Dubrovnik area, including islands of Mljet and Šipan). Military Frontier (Military Border Military Krajina Vojna Krajina, Војна Крајина, Militärgrenze, Confiniaria militaria, Határőrvidék ||-||-||-||-||-||-||} Dubrovnik (ˈdǔbro̞ːʋniːk Dalmatian: Ragusa; Latin: Ragusium, also Rhausium, Rhaugia; Mljet ( Latin: Melita, Italian: Meleda) is the most southerly and easterly of the larger Adriatic Islands of the Šipan also Sipano (Italian Giuppana) is the largest of the Elaphiti Islands, 17 km northwest of Dubrovnik, Croatia separated from the In 1920s and 1930s royal government tried to settle people from this poor mountainous area to Kosovo basin. Vojvodina was settled with inhabitants from this area after the WW II. The Autonomous Province of Vojvodina ( Serbian: Аутономна Покрајина Војводина or Autonomna Pokrajina Vojvodina; Hungarian: Vajdaság

When all old accents had moved to the beginning of the word for one syllable, this was the result:

• In words with two or more syllables the last syllable cannot be stressed
• One-syllable words can have only falling accents
• In polysyllabic words, if an inner syllable is stressed, then it can have only a rising accent (there are exceptions- in standard and in many vernaculars, for instance when there is a ` - - combination)
• In a word with two or more syllables, if the first syllable is stressed, than it can have any of the four accents.

Grammar

Morphology

Declension

There are seven cases in Serbian: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, vocative, instrumental and locative. The nominative case is a Grammatical case for a Noun, which generally marks the subject of a Verb, as opposed to its object or other In Grammar, the genitive case or possessive case (also called the second case) is the case that marks a Noun as modifying another The dative case is a Grammatical case generally used to indicate the Noun to whom something is given The accusative case ( abbreviated ACC) of a Noun is the Grammatical case used to mark the Direct object of a Transitive The vocative case is the case used for a Noun identifying the person (animal object etc The instrumental case (also called the eighth case) is a Grammatical case used to indicate that a noun is the instrument or means by or with which the Locative (also called the seventh case) is a Grammatical case which indicates a location It is commonly mistaken, that locative and dative have the same form, and that morphologically the number of cases is six. The accent is in many examples different in dative and locative: cf. strâni ('to the site' dative)/ (na) stráni ('on the site' locative) or (ka) sâtu ('to the clock tower')/ (na) sátu ('on the clock').

The number of cases, in concert with a non-fixed word-order, can make Serbian difficult to learn for speakers of languages without a strong case system.

Declension of proper name ‘Larisa” (feminine noun)

Larisa je dobra nastavnica. = Larisa is a good teacher (subject; Larisa = nominative case)

Vidim Larisu. = I see Larisa. (Larisu = ‘direct’ object; Larisu = accusative case)

On daje knjigu Larisi. = He is giving a book to Larisa. (Larisi = ‘indirect’ object; Larisi = dative case)

Idem sa Larisom. = I am going with Larisa. (Larisom = object of preposition ‘sa’; Larisom = instrumental case)

Idem kod Larise. = I’m going to Larisa’s house. (Larise = object of preposition ‘kod’; Larise = genitive case)

Conjugation

Further in Serbian conjugation

Serbian verbs are conjugated in 4 past tenses - 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); 1 future tense (aka 1st future tense - as opposed to the 2nd future tense or the future exact, which is considered a tense of the conditional mood by some contemporary linguists), and 1 present tense. The perfect aspect is variously considered either an aspect or tense which calls a listener's attention to the consequences generated by an action rather than the The imperfect tense, in the classical grammar of several Indo-European languages, denotes a Past tense with an Imperfective aspect. The pluperfect tense (from Latin plus quam perfectum more than perfect also called past perfect in English, is a Perfective In Grammar, the future tense is a verb form that marks the event described by the verb as not having happened yet but expected to happen in the future (in an Absolute tense The conditional mood is the form of the verb used in Conditional sentences to refer to a hypothetical state of affairs or an uncertain event that is contingent on another set Present Tense is the first Sagittarius album released in 1968 by Columbia Records. These are the tenses of the indicative mood. Grammatical mood is one of a set of distinctive Verb forms that are used to signal modality. Apart from the indicative mood, there is also the imperative mood. The imperative mood is a Grammatical mood that expresses direct commands or requests The conditional mood has two more tenses, the 1st conditional (commonly used in conditional clauses, both for possible and impossible conditional clauses), and the 2nd 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 1 infinitive, 2 adjectival participles (the active and the passive), and 2 adverbial participles (the present and the past). In Grammar, infinitive is the name for certain verb forms that exist in many languages Adjectival participles are built out of a Verb (mostly with a Suffix) and in most cases they play the role of the Sentence element called Adverbal participles are built out of a Verb (mostly with a Suffix) and in most cases they play the role of the Sentence element called Adverbial

Syntax

The default word order is Subject-Verb-Object. In Linguistic typology, subject-verb-object ( SVO) is a sentence structure where the subject comes first the Verb second and the object However, since inflection in most cases uniquely determines the role within the sentence, Serbian is mostly a free word order language, and as such it is often cited by Noam Chomsky and other generative syntacticians. In Grammar, inflection or inflexion is the way language handles grammatical relations and relational categories such as tense, mood, voice In Linguistics, word order typology refers to the study of the different ways in which languages arrange the constituents of their sentences relative to each other and the systematic Avram Noam Chomsky (noʊm ˈtʃɑmski born December 7 1928 is an American linguist, Philosopher, cognitive scientist, Political

In Serbian, the sentence "Grandfather is making brandy" can therefore be expressed in the following ways:

• Deda peče rakiju. (SVO - Grandfather. NOM make. The nominative case is a Grammatical case for a Noun, which generally marks the subject of a Verb, as opposed to its object or other PRES. Present Tense is the first Sagittarius album released in 1968 by Columbia Records. IMPF brandy. The imperfective aspect is a Grammatical aspect. It refers to an action that is viewed from a particular viewpoint as ongoing habitual repeated or generally containing internal ACC)
• Deda rakiju peče. The accusative case ( abbreviated ACC) of a Noun is the Grammatical case used to mark the Direct object of a Transitive (SOV - Grandfather. NOM brandy. ACC make. PRES. IMPF)
• Peče deda rakiju. (VSO - Make. PRES. IMPF grandfather. NOM brandy. ACC)
• Peče rakiju deda. (VOS - Make. PRES. IMPF brandy. ACC grandfather. NOM)
• Rakiju deda peče. (OSV - Brandy. ACC grandfather. NOM make. PRES. IMPF)
• Rakiju peče deda. (OVS - Brandy. ACC make. PRES. IMPF grandfather. NOM)

(Note that although in Serbian the verb also agrees with the subject in person and number, it is irrelevant in these examples since both the subject and the object are third person, singular. Grammatical person, in Linguistics, is deictic reference to a participant in an event such as the speaker the Addressee, or others In linguistics grammatical number is a Grammatical category of nouns pronouns and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions (such as "one" )

All six orders can be stressed in three ways - the first option stressing either WHO is making brandy (grandfather), WHAT is being made by grandfather (brandy), or WHAT is grandfather doing with/to the brandy (making it). However, although possible, some word orders may appear unnatural out of context.

Vocabulary

• Most of the words in Serbian are of Slavic origin. The Slavic languages (also called Slavonic languages) a group of closely related Languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup of Indo-European languages That means that their roots continue some words reconstructed for Proto-Slavic language. Proto-Slavic is the Proto-language from which Slavic languages later emerged For instance, srce ('heart'), plav ('blue').

• There are many loanwords from different languages:

1. There are plenty of loanwords from German. A loanword (or loan word) is a word directly taken into one Language from another with little or no translation The German language (de ''Deutsch'') is a West Germanic language and one of the world's major languages. The great number of them are specific for vernaculars which were situated in Austrian monarchy (Vojvodina, Slavonija, Lika and partly Bosnia). Habsburg Monarchy (alternatively Habsburg Empire) refers to the territories ruled by the Austrian branch of the House of Habsburg, and then by the successor The Autonomous Province of Vojvodina ( Serbian: Аутономна Покрајина Војводина or Autonomna Pokrajina Vojvodina; Hungarian: Vajdaság Not to be confused with Slovenia, a nearby country Slavonia ( Croatian, Serbian: Slavonija, Cyrillic script Lika is a mountainous region in central Croatia, roughly bound by the Velebit mountain from the southwest and the Plješevica mountain from the northeast Bosnia and Herzegovina ( Latin script: Bosna i Hercegovina, Cyrillic script: Босна и Херцеговина is a country on the Balkan 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). World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States The accent is an excellent indicator for that, since German loanwords in Serbian have rising accents.
2. Italian words in standard language were often borrowed via German (makarone). Italian ( or lingua italiana) is a Romance language spoken by about 63 million people as a First language, primarily in Italy. If they were taken directly from Italian, they show specific, not regular adaptations. For instance špagète for Italian spaghetti rather than the "expected" špàgete.
   1. On the other hand, as in Croatian, there are plenty of Italian loanwords in the coastal vernaculars (in Spič, Paštrovići, Boka Kotorska, Dubrovnik area and at Kvarner coast), as well as in the vernaculars near the coаst. Croatian language ( hrvatski jezik) is a South Slavic language which is used primarily in Croatia, by Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina in neighbouring The Paštrovići ( Serbian Cyrillic: Паштровићи is a Serb coastal clan in Montenegro. History The nearby hamlet of Risan was a thriving Illyrian city called Rhizon as early as 229 BC and gave its name to the bay then known as Rhizonicus ||-||-||-||-||-||-||} Dubrovnik (ˈdǔbro̞ːʋniːk Dalmatian: Ragusa; Latin: Ragusium, also Rhausium, Rhaugia; The Kvarner Gulf ( Croatian: Kvarnerski zaljev, Italian: Golfo del Quarnero/Quarnaro/Carnaro; sometimes also Kvarner Bay) is a In some Croatian vernaculars, Italian loanwords made up to 40-50% of the vernacular vocabulary in the 1930s. Most common are words borrowed from Venetian (brancin, altroke, ardura, karonja ('lazy man'), pršut(a)). Venetian or Venetan is a Romance language spoken by over two million people mostly in the Veneto region of Italy. Some toponyms such as Budva and Boka Kotorska ('bay of Kotor') are borrowed from Venetian. Budva ( Montenegrin language / Serbian language: Будва Budva Italian: Budua is a coastal town in Montenegro. History The nearby hamlet of Risan was a thriving Illyrian city called Rhizon as early as 229 BC and gave its name to the bay then known as Rhizonicus
   2. In the coastal area, many words were borrowed from the Dalmatian language (murina, imbut), a Romance language, that was extinct by 1900. Dalmatian is an extinct Romance language formerly spoken in the Dalmatia region of Croatia, and as far south as Kotor in Montenegro The Romance languages (sometimes referred to as Romanic languages, or Neolatin languages) are a branch of the Indo-European language family comprising all Many toponyms were also borrowed from Dalmatian (Kakrc, Luštica, Lovćen, Sutomore< Sancta Maria). Lovćen (Ловћен is a mountain and National park in southwestern Montenegro. History Sutomore was called Spizza in Venetian, when it was under the Republic of Venice from 1420 to 1797 and belonged to the Albania Veneta ^[7]
3. The number of Turkish loanwords is also significant There are according to Abdulah Skaljic, ("Turcizmi u srpskohrvatskom jeziku" - "Svjetlost" Sarajevo), 8. Turkish ( tr Türkçe IPA) is a language spoken by over 63 million people worldwide making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. 742 Turkish words, but much less of that number is today in use. Most of these words are not Turkish in original but Persian. They came through Turkish into Serbian language. However, these words are disappearing from the standard language at a faster rate than any other language's contributions. In Belgrade, for instance,čakšire (чакшире) was the only word for trousers before World War II, today pantalone (панталоне) is current; some 30-50 years ago avlija (авлија) was a common word for courtyard or backyard in Belgrade, today it is dvorište (двориште); only 15 years ago čaršav (чаршав) was usual for tablecloth, today it is stoljnjak (стољњак). Belgrade (Београд Beograd is the Capital and largest city of Serbia. The greatest number of Turkish loanwords had and have vernaculars of south Serbia (including Kosovo), followed by those of Bosnia and Herzegovina and central Serbia. Serbia (Србија Srbija) officially the Republic of Serbia (Република Србија Republika Srbija) is a Landlocked Country Bosnia and Herzegovina ( Latin script: Bosna i Hercegovina, Cyrillic script: Босна и Херцеговина is a country on the Balkan Many Turkish loanwords are usual in the vernaculars of Vojvodina, Slavonija, Montenegro and Lika as well. The Autonomous Province of Vojvodina ( Serbian: Аутономна Покрајина Војводина or Autonomna Pokrajina Vojvodina; Hungarian: Vajdaság Not to be confused with Slovenia, a nearby country Slavonia ( Croatian, Serbian: Slavonija, Cyrillic script Montenegro ( British English) Montenegrin / Serbian: PLEASE DO NOT CHANGE THE LANGUAGES WITHOUT CONSENSUS ON THE TALK PAGE! Lika is a mountainous region in central Croatia, roughly bound by the Velebit mountain from the southwest and the Plješevica mountain from the northeast ^[8]
4. Greek loanwords were very common in Old Serbian (Serbian-Slavonic). Greek (el ελληνική γλώσσα or simply el ελληνικά — "Hellenic" is an Indo-European language, spoken today by 15-22 million people mainly Some words are present and common in modern vernaculars in central Serbia (and also in other areas) and in the standard language: hiljada (хиљада), tiganj (тигањ), patos (патос). Almost every word of the Serbian Orthodox ceremonies are in Greek language (parastos (парастос)). The Eastern Orthodox Church is the second largest single Christian Communion in the world ^[9]
5. The number of Hungarian loanwords in the standard language is small: bitanga (битанга), alas (алас), ašov (ашов)). Hungarian ( magyar nyelv) is a Uralic language (more specifically a Ugric language) unrelated to most other languages in Europe. However, they are present in some vernaculars of Vojvodina and Slavonia and also in historical documents, local literature. The Autonomous Province of Vojvodina ( Serbian: Аутономна Покрајина Војводина or Autonomna Pokrajina Vojvodina; Hungarian: Vajdaság Not to be confused with Slovenia, a nearby country Slavonia ( Croatian, Serbian: Slavonija, Cyrillic script Some place names in northern central Serbia as Barajevo, are probably of Hungarian origin. Barajevo ( Serbian Cyrillic: Барајево) is a suburban settlement and one of 17 municipalities which constitute ^[10]

• Classical international words (words mainly with Latin or Greek roots) are adapted in Serbian like in most European languages, not translated as in Croatian. Latin ( lingua Latīna, laˈtiːna is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Croatian language ( hrvatski jezik) is a South Slavic language which is used primarily in Croatia, by Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina in neighbouring For instance Serbian atmosfera, Croatian ozracje, S telefon, C brzojav, S avion, C zrakoplov.
• Two Serbian words that are used in many of the world's languages are vampire^[11] and paprika. Vampires are mythological or folkloric revenants who subsist by feeding on the blood of the living Paprika is a spice made from the grinding of dried sweet red or green Bell peppers ( Capsicum annuum) ^[12] Slivovitz and ćevapčići are Serbian words which have spread together with the Serbian food/drink they refer to. Slivovitz is a Distilled beverage made from Damson plums It is frequently called plum brandy If anyone else has a dictionary of some Slavic language Ćevapčići (formal diminutive or Ćevapi (ʨɛ'vapi in some regions is an authentic Bosnian dish of grilled minced meat of oriental origin also popular in ^[13] 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.

Serbian literature

Main article: Serbian literature

Miroslavljevo jevanđelje (The Gospel of Miroslav), a manuscript, ca. Serbian literature is Literature written in Serbian and/or in Serbia. Miroslav Gospels ( Serbian Мирослављево Јевађеље or Miroslavljevo Jevanđelje) is a 362-page Illuminated manuscript Gospel Book A manuscript is any Document that is Written by hand as opposed to being printed or reproduced in some other way 1180

Serbian literature emerged in the Middle Ages, and included such works as Miroslavljevo jevanđelje (Miroslav's Gospel) in 1192 and Dušanov zakonik (Dušan's Code) in 1349. Miroslav Gospels ( Serbian Мирослављево Јевађеље or Miroslavljevo Jevanđelje) is a 362-page Illuminated manuscript Gospel Book Dušan's Code ( Modern Serbian: Душанов законик Dušanov zakonik) is a legal code one of two the most significant cultural-historical monuments of Little secular medieval 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 Iseult into Serbian. Secularity ( adjective form secular) is the state of being separate from Religion. Alexander the Great ( or, Mégas Aléxandros; July 20 356 BC June 10 or June 11 323 BC also known as Alexander III of Macedon (el Ἀλέξανδρος Γ' The legend of Tristan and Iseult is an influential romance and tragedy retold in numerous sources with as many variations Although not belonging to the literature proper, the corpus of Serbian literacy in the 1300s and 1400s contains numerous legal, commercial and administrative texts with marked presence of Serbian vernacular juxtaposed on the matrix of Serbian Church Slavonic. Church Slavonic (also Church Slavic, Old Bulgarian) is the Liturgical language of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, Macedonian Orthodox

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. The Ottoman Empire (1299–1923 ( Old Ottoman Turkish: دولتْ علیّه عثمانیّه Devlet-i Âliye-yi Osmâniyye, Late Ottoman and Modern Turkish 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. Serbian epic poetry (Српске епске народне песме is a form of Epic poetry originating in the Serbian lands, today's Serbia, The epic poems were mainly written down in the 19th century, and preserved in oral tradition up to 1950s, that is few centuries or even a millennium longer then by most other "epic folks". Goethe and Jacob Grimm learned Serbian language in order to read Serbian epic poetry in original. ˈjoːhan ˈvɔlfgaŋ fɔn ˈgøːtə (in English generally ˈgɝːtə 28 August 1749 22 March 1832 was a German writer Jacob Ludwig Carl Grimm ( Hanau, January 4, 1785 &ndash September 20, 1863 in Berlin) German Philologist 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. The Slavonic-Serbian language (славяносербскій / slavjanoserbskij or словенскій slovenskij; славеносрпски / slavenosrpski This artificial idiom superseded works of poets and historians like Gavrilo Stefanović Venclović, who wrote in essentially modern Serbian in 1720s- just, these vernacular compositions have remained cloistered from the general public and received due attention only with the advent of modern literary historians and writers like Milorad Pavić. Milorad Pavić (Милорад Павић (born October 15, 1929 in Belgrade) is a noted Serbian Poet, Prose writer In the early 19th century, Vuk Stefanović Karadžić, promoted the spoken language of the people as a literary norm. Vuk Stefanović Karadžić ( Serbian Cyrillic: Вук Стефановић Караџић ( November 7, 1787 - February 7, 1864 A spoken language is a human Natural language in which the Words are uttered through the Mouth.

Dictionaries

Serious Serbian and Croatian dictionaries regularly include Croatian only, and Serbian only words. Three Serbian words that are used in many of the world's languages are vampire, paprika (borrowed via Hungarian), and slivovitz. Vampires are mythological or folkloric revenants who subsist by feeding on the blood of the living Paprika is a spice made from the grinding of dried sweet red or green Bell peppers ( Capsicum annuum) Hungarian ( magyar nyelv) is a Uralic language (more specifically a Ugric language) unrelated to most other languages in Europe. Slivovitz is a Distilled beverage made from Damson plums It is frequently called plum brandy If anyone else has a dictionary of some Slavic language The English word nightmare is also most probably of Serbian origin. A nightmare is a Dream which causes a strong unpleasant emotional response from the sleeper typically fear or horror being in situations of extreme danger or the sensations It originated from the name of a demon in Serbian folklore - Mora, which denotes a female demon that comes at night and sits upon its sleeping victims, giving them bad dreams. Mora are mostly malevolent folkloric beings associated with sleep that in some form or another can be found throughout Europe

Standard dictionaries

• Rečnik sprkohrvatskog književnog i narodnog jezika (Dictionary of Serbian standard language and vernaculars) is the biggest dictionary of Serbian language and still unfinished. Starting with 1959, 16 volumes were published, about 40 are expected. Works of Croatian authors are excerpted, if published before 1991.
• Rečnik srpskohrvatskoga književnog jezika in 6 volumes, started as a common project of Matica srpska and Matica hrvatska, but only the first three volumes were also published in Croato-Serbian (hrvatskosrpski). The Matica srpska ( Serbian Cyrillic: Матица српска is the oldest cultural-scientific institution of Serbia. The Matica hrvatska is one of the oldest Croatian cultural institutions dating back to 1842

• There are no high-standard volume dictionaries whether of Serbian nor of Croatian language. Matica srpska is preparing one. The Matica srpska ( Serbian Cyrillic: Матица српска is the oldest cultural-scientific institution of Serbia. Several volume dictionaries were published in Croatia (for Croatian language) during the 90s and till today (Anić, Enciklopedijski rječnik, Hrvatski rječnik). .

Bilingual dictionaries

• Standard dictionaries
• Specialized dictionaries
• Phraseological dictionaries

Historical dictionaries

The Rječnik hrvatskoga ili srpskoga jezika (I-XXIII), published by Yugoslav academy of sciencies and arts (JAZU) from 1880 to 1976 is the only general historical dictionary of Serbian language. The Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts (Academia Scientiarum et Artium Croatica Hrvatska akademija znanosti i umjetnosti abbrev His first editor was Đuro Daničić, followed by Pero Budmani and famous "vukovac" Toma Maretić. Đuro Daničić ( Serbian Cyrillic: Ђуро Даничић ( April 4 1825 in Novi Sad – November 17 1882 in Pero Budmani (1835 – 1914 born in Ragusa ( Dubrovnik) was a Croatian linguist and philologist who first used the name Serbo-Croatian in his book of grammar The sources are, especially in first volumes, mainly shtokavian. Shtokavian or Štokavian (štokavski is the main dialect of the Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian languages

Etymological dictionaries

The standard and the only completed etymological dictionary of Serbian language is so-called "Skok": Petar Skok. Etimologijski rječnik hrvatskoga ili srpskoga jezika. I-IV. Zagreb 1971-1974.

There is also a new monumental Etimološki rečnik srpskog jezika (Etymological dictionary of Serbian language). Up to now, two volumes were published: I (with words on A-), and II (Ba-Bd).

There are specialized etymological dictionaries for German, Italian, Dalmatian, Turkish, Greek, Hungarian, Russian, English and other loanwords (cf. chapter word origin).

Dialect dictionaries

• Kosovsko-resavski dialect dictionaries:

Gliša Elezović, Rečnik kosovsko-metohiskog dijalekta I-II. 1932/1935.

• Prizren-Timok (Torlakian) dialect dictionaries:

Brana Mitrović, Rečnik leskovačkog govora. Leskovac 1984.

Nikola Živković, Rečnik pirotskog govora. Pirot, 1987.

Miodrag Marković, Rečnik crnorečkog govora I-II. 1986/1993.

Jakša Dinić, Rečnik timočkog govora I-III. 1988-1992.

Momčilo Zlatanović, Rečnik govora južne Srbije. Vranje, 1998, 1–491.

• East-Herzegowinian dialect dictionaries:

Milija Stanić, Uskočki rečnik I–II. Beograd 1990/1991.

Miloš Vujičić, Rečnik govora Prošćenja kod Mojkovca. Podgorica, 1995.

Srđan Musić, Romanizmi u severozapadnoj Boki Kotorskoj. 1972.

Mihailo Bojanić/ Rastislava Trivunac, Rječnik dubrovačkog govora. Beograd 2003.

Svetozar Gagović, Iz leksike Pive. Beograd 2004.

• Zeta-Pester dialect:

Rada Stijović, Iz leksike Vasojevića. 1990.

Drago Ćupić — Željko Ćupić, Rečnik govora Zagarača. 1997.

Vesna Lipovac-Radulović, Romanizmi u Crnoj Gori — jugoistočni dio Boke Kotorske. Cetinje — Titograd, 1981.

Vesna Lipovac-Radulović, Romanizmi u Budvi i Paštrovićima. Novi Sad 1997.

• Others:

Rečnik sprskih govora Vojvodine. Novi Sad.

M. Peić — G. Bačlija, Rečnik bačkih Bunjevaca. Novi Sad 1990.

Mile Tomić, Rečnik radimskog govora — dijaspora, Rumunija. 1989.

Geographic distribution

Figures of speakers according to countries:

• Serbia: 6,540,699
• Montenegro: 401,382 (2003)
• Bosnia-Herzegovina: 1,600,000
• Germany: around 507,000
• USA: around 500,000
• Canada: 55,545 (2001 census, 40,580 of that in Ontario)
• Croatia: 44,629 (2001)
• Republic of Macedonia: 33,315 (2001)
• Romania: 20,377 (2001)
• Australia: 50,000 (2001)

Differences among similar languages

Main article: Differences in official languages in Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia

See also

• Serbian Cyrillic alphabet
• Serbian proverbs
• Famous non-Serbs who were speaking or learning the language
• Šatrovački (slang form)
• Romano-Serbian language (mix with Romany)
• Swadesh list of Serbo-Croatian words

References

External links

• Vokabular - Serbian language dictionary
• FunkySerbian.com - Free vocab builder with audio. Also, learn Serbian romantic phrases.
• Standard language as an instrument of culture and the product of national history — an article by linguist Pavle Ivić at Project Rastko
• Dueling Scripts: The Ongoing War Between Latin and Cyrillic, Serbianna. Professor Pavle Ivić ( Serbian Cyrillic: Павле Ивић ( December 1, 1924 - September 19, 1999) was a leading Project Rastko - Internet Library of Serb Culture ( Serbian: Пројекат Растко - Електронска библиотека српске културе Projekat com, 23 January 2007
• Serbian School Learn Serbian online for free. Events 393 - Roman Emperor Theodosius I proclaims his nine year old son Honorius co-emperor Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century.
• Serbian Language and Culture Workshop
• Online Zoomable Serbian Virtual Keyboard

Online dictionaries

• English-Serbian-English On-line Dictionary with Google Gadgets
• Serbian (Latin Script) Dictionary from Webster's Dictionary
• English-Serbian-English On-line Dictionary