# Serbian (BCS): vreme je!



## maree

When I visited my cousins in Serbia last summer, they gave me a record with the Serbain goth band Abonos. Since the only thing I know in Serbian is "ja ne mogo viso maiki mi", I don't understand much of the lyrics.

In one song, they say "vreme je!" a lot. I'll write some pieces of the lyrics, so that you'll get a context.

Vreme je! Stize me strah, da li je san

Vreme je! Slusaj me sad, ja sam taj glas

I would be grateful if someone could translate the sentences for me.
(And som of the s'es and z's are supposed to be voiced, I just don't know how to write it with my Norwegian keyboard )


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## Mariposas_de

Vreme je! Stize me strah, da li je san
It's time! I am frightened , is it a dream ....

Vreme je! Slusaj me sad, ja sam taj glas
It 's time!! Listen to me now, I am your voice.........

I don't know that song , so maybe the translation is a bit literal , but in general those are the meanings.

Rgds


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## maree

Thanks a lot! It's probably pretty correct. You know, these goth bands are all so dramatic...


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## Maja

Just a little corrections: 



Mariposas_de said:


> Vreme  je! Stize me strah, da li je san
> It's time! I am frightened , is it a dream  ....
> 
> Vreme je! Slusaj me sad, ja sam taj glas
> It 's time!! Listen to  me now, I am the/that  voice.........





maree said:


> Since the only thing I know in Serbian is "ja ne mogu  više, majke mi", I don't understand much of the  lyrics.






maree said:


> I would be grateful if  someone could translate the sentences for me.
> (And som of the s'es and z's  are supposed to be voiced, I just don't know how to write it with my Norwegian  keyboard )


 *Š* is pronounced as *sh* in "shad".  And *Ž*,  I am afraid, has no adequate example in English... or  at least I cannot think of any... Maybe a French name  Jacqueline?


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## maree

Maja said:


> Just a little corrections:
> 
> 
> 
> *Š* is pronounced as *sh* in "shad". And *Ž*, I am afraid, has no adequate example in English... or at least I cannot think of any... Maybe a French name Jacqueline?


Yeah, I know, I just don't have the little v-thing on my keyboard^^

Thanks for correcting my only Serbian sentence, though. I sure need it when I'm over there. You know, Serbian grannies... (<3)


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## Duya

Maja said:


> ...And *Ž*,  I am afraid, has no adequate example in English... or  at least I cannot think of any... Maybe a French name  Jacqueline?



You mean, as in pleasure (/plɛʒə/), measure (/mɛʒə/)? 

If I recall correctly, only LJ, NJ, Ć and Đ don't have close English equivalents (plus R, which is fairly different (trill vs. approximant)).


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## Maja

Duya said:


> You mean, as in pleasure (/plɛʒə/), measure (/mɛʒə/)?


 Yeah, that will do! Thank God, I prudently said:


Maja said:


> ... or  at least I cannot think of any...


 


maree said:


> Thanks for correcting my only Serbian sentence, though. I sure need it when I'm over there. You know, Serbian grannies...


 No problem, if you need anything else, just ask away...


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## Athaulf

Duya said:


> If I recall correctly, only LJ, NJ, Ć and Đ don't have close English equivalents (plus R, which is fairly different (trill vs. approximant)).



"NJ" is pretty close to the way "N" in "New York" is pronounced. "Ć" doesn't have a real equivalent, but some words have a very soft "ch" that comes close, like "chick" for example.


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## cucu

And band's name is *Abonos*. Song's name is *Milas*. They're Serbian Goth Metal band that rarely known except Serbia.


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## GranPensadoraDolorDCabeza

May I take a stab at transliteration for these letters? I am new to the forum and surf the different ones looking for questions or answers. The french J is zh... it is a harder sh. I am not sure how that soft ch as in chick sounds, but I believe (from studying russian in college) that a letter like that may be described as the sht in ashtray or shch as in wash cherries. 

Gran Pensadora or GPDC


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## Athaulf

GranPensadoraDolorDCabeza said:


> May I take a stab at transliteration for these letters? I am new to the forum and surf the different ones looking for questions or answers. The french J is zh... it is a harder sh.



I think that a technically precise term for "ž" would be the "voiced" version of "sh" (which is spelled "š" in Serbian and Croatian). It's indeed very similar to the French "j" and its best informal English transliteration would be "zh."



> I am not sure how that soft ch as in chick sounds, but I believe (from studying russian in college) that a letter like that may be described as the sht in ashtray or shch as in wash cherries.


There is no exact equivalent in either Russian or English; the actual sound of "ć" is softer than the "ch" in any English word. The closest sounds I can think of are the Spanish "ch" and the Italian "c" as in "ciao."


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## Athaulf

GranPensadoraDolorDCabeza said:


> Sorry, Like I said, I wasn't really sure what this letter sounds like. But now that I am getting the picture, may I try to describe it as the Hindi CH transliterated as jh it is like a fluffy ch it has more air pressure I guess, where if you hold it long enough you can almost whistle. You know how your tongue  curves and meets the pallate as you're getting ready to say the basic ch, and how the tip pushes off? Well this Jh is like that but the entire tongue pushes away from the pallate. Is this the sound you're describing.



To avoid confusion, I think it's the best if you just listen to some audio samples by native speakers of Croatian or Serbian. For example, here you can find some sound samples that contain examples of words with both "ž" and "ć".


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## beclija

What about the fusion of [t] and [j] as in a sloppy pronounciation of "got you" for an approximation of the ć-sound in English?

good night from Vienna


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## Athaulf

beclija said:


> What about the fusion of [t] and [j] as in a sloppy pronounciation of "got you" for an approximation of the ć-sound in English?



That might well be the closest thing to iotation that can be found in English , but I still think it's not a real equivalent of the Croatian/Serbian _ć_.


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## Tolovaj_Mataj

Ok, maybe I can add my own experience with ć. 
As you already know Slovene doesn't have this sound and we must learn it somehow. I was taught like this: you should press your tongue to the back of your lower teeth and say č (ch like in church). 
It is difficult to me to pronounce words like čevapčiči (native speakers, please replace č with ć where applicable) in a normal speed.


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## Athaulf

Tolovaj_Mataj said:


> It is difficult to me to pronounce words like čevapčiči (native speakers, please replace č with ć where applicable) in a normal speed.



It's *ć*evap*č*i*ć*i.


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## beclija

Athaulf said:


> That might well be the closest thing to iotation that can be found in English , but I still think it's not a real equivalent of the Croatian/Serbian _ć_.


Well, I called it an approximation...


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## Maja

beclija said:


> What about the fusion of [t] and [j] as in a sloppy pronounciation of "got you" for an approximation of the ć-sound in English?


Yeah, I would say that it is an approximate pronunciation!



Athaulf said:


> It's *ć*evap*č*i*ć*i.


 Mmmmm...


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## meeryanah

If you find yourself in Zagreb, don't get confused with the way young people pronunce Č, we say it like ć mostly, but we're all avare of the difference in written language.

Do you know how they pronounce 'che' in Argentina? That would be ć, I think.


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