# Bosnian (BCS):  Akcija!



## musicalchef

I see this on signs in shop windows here (Sarajevo), sometimes followed by a price, sometimes alone.  The dictionary says it means "action," but that doesn't make much sense here.  Does the word have other meanings?  Perhaps it means "take ACTION and get it while we've got it" or something like that?

Hvala!


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## TriglavNationalPark

This word is also used by stores in Slovenia: it means "sale". It annoys me immensely because it doesn't make any etymological sense and isn't even a Slovenian word in this context; you won't find it in a dictionary. It's probably the same in BCS.

I consider it vacuous "marketing speak" and avoid it at all cost.


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## phosphore

It is pretty usual here, too, and also "roba na akciji" etc. In this context it means "sale", as Triglav has already said, and it probably originates from some other language where it is used in the same meaning; I understand it as "an action of lowering the prices", like "humanitarian action" and so on.


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## sokol

I think that this could be a German loan (or anyway it's certainly not an English loan); in German it is very common to use "Aktion!" in the same sense.


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## musicalchef

Hvala!  That makes sense, but yes it seems a bit annoying.  some store windows say akcija and some say sniženje.


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## Duya

Actually, it's not identical. Akcija means "special offer" rather than "sale."


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## phosphore

Duya said:


> Actually, it's not identical. Akcija means "special offer" rather than "sale."


 
Yes, you are right.


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## sokol

Duya said:


> Actually, it's not identical. Akcija means "special offer" rather than "sale."


To confirm again concerning its German counterpart - German "Aktion" also is used in the sense of "special offer" rather than "sale".
So as even the meaning is identical, down to nuances, I'd say we have as good as established that this should be a German loan.


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## TriglavNationalPark

You're right; "akcija" also means "special offer" in Slovenia*, although the line between a sale and a special offer is often blurred.

* But not, I would argue, in standard Slovenia*n*, where "posebna ponudba" would be used instead. Sokol seems to be right; "akcija" was almost certainly borrowed from German, even though it makes little if any etymological sense in Slovenian.


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## jazyk

You see akce everywhere in the Czech Republic and I've also seen akcja in Poland. To me especially as a Romance speaker it struck me as odd, but I guess I've come to accept it.


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## Duya

At least in South Slavic languages, though, it's a very recent loan -- from the last 5-10 years I'd say.


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## musicalchef

Hvala puno!


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## SweetCherry

musicalchef said:


> Hvala! That makes sense, but yes it seems a bit annoying. some store windows say akcija and some say sniženje.


 Akcija is already explained, and sniženje means discount.


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## Mishe

TriglavNationalPark said:


> * But not, I would argue, in standard Slovenia*n*, where "posebna ponudba" would be used instead. Sokol seems to be right; "akcija" was almost certainly borrowed from German, even though it makes little if any etymological sense in Slovenian.



And don't you think it's weird how we use it in context, for example _Ta jajca so v akciji_, meaning you get 20 for the price of 10, for example. I don't find it annoying, because I'm not against new words and expressions in a language if they are not forced. Akcija was started as a way of marketing approach, but has become very widely used nevertheless, so I don't see it disappearing anytime soon.


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## TriglavNationalPark

Mishe said:


> And don't you think it's weird how we use it in context, for example _Ta jajca so v akciji_, meaning you get 20 for the price of 10, for example. I don't find it annoying, because I'm not against new words and expressions in a language if they are not forced. Akcija was started as a way of marketing approach, but has become very widely used nevertheless, so I don't see it disappearing anytime soon.


 
I see your point, but I would say that *akcija* in this context was forced upon us in a way; it began as "marketing speak" that was originally used only in advertising campaigns. No one else used it.

I don't have a problem with words that ordinary people use and are then accepted into standard Slovenian, but in this case, marketing professionals simply assigned a brand-new meaning to the existing word *akcija*, apparently based only on the use of *Aktion* in German (possibly via BCS).

I would argue that neither etymological principles nor common use justified the introduction of this new meaning.


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## Коста

TriglavNationalPark said:


> I would argue that neither etymological principles nor common use justified the introduction of this new meaning.


I am in total agreement with you, Triglav. Etymologically it makes no sense. But, then, we have other marketing loan words such as "cool" that make no etymological sense either. Yet, it became commonplace in everyday speech. The alternative is to establish "language police" and filter out such words, or let the language grow even if it makes no sense. It seems to me, the odds are on the side of entropy. The experts no longer decide what is correct language; they just acknowledge it.


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## TriglavNationalPark

Коста said:


> I am in total agreement with you, Triglav. Etymologically it makes no sense. But, then, we have other marketing loan words such as "cool" that make no etymological sense either. Yet, it became commonplace in everyday speech. The alternative is to establish "language police" and filter out such words, or let the language grow even if it makes no sense. It seems to me, the odds are on the side of entropy. The experts no longer decide what is correct language; they just acknowledge it.


 
Yes, but there are some differences between "akcija" and "cool", at least in Slovenian:

1.) There seems to be a greater awareness that "cool"/"kul" is a foreign word that is just slang in Slovenian, whereas "akcija" (in the context we're discussing it) is often treated as a perfectly normal Slovenian word. In reality, it's etymologically just as alien.

2.) The process that introduced "cool"/"kul" to everyday speech was a bottom-up one, whereas "akcija" was introduced from the top down. In other words, young people began to use "kul" after they picked it up on television, in the movies, in songs, and so on; advertisers then adopted it because they wanted to sound hip and appeal to young consumers by mimicking their speech patterns. In contrast, no one ever used "akcija" before it began to appear in advertisements.

Standard Slovenian (and, yes, very different standards apply to informal speech) is still a perscriptively rather than a descriptively regulated language. I'm just saying that people should realize that "akcija" in this context makes little if any etymological sense -- as little in fact as "kul", which is generally frowned upon in everything but very informal speech.


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## Коста

Correct except that I was making a comparison with "cool" from the point of view of the English language when I said it made as much etymological sense as "Akcija" in Slovenian.


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## TriglavNationalPark

Коста said:


> Correct except that I was making a comparison with "cool" from the point of view of the English language when I said it made as much etymological sense as "Akcija" in Slovenian.


 
Oh, I see! 

(Still, etymonline.com says that "cool" in this context came from jazz circles, so it was a bottom-up, rather than a top-down process. And as a source of new words, I'll take Duke Ellington over Mercator any day! )


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## Majalj

You'll actually see three words: 
akcija = special offer (you're right, completely unjustified loan, but not the only one)
rasprodaja = sale, meaning they want to sell out e.g. last year's stock 
sniženje (cijena) = discount 

Another point is if people decorating shop windows can see the difference between them...


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