# Serbian-Croatian false friends



## pastet89

Can we put in this thread false friends between serbian and croatian? I hope native speakers can contribute to the thread as these examples are extremely rare. 
I will start with 

naučnik - SR Scientist / HR young boy learning from experienced master a kind of profession
slovenski - SR slavic / HR - slovenian

Thanks!


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## bigic

zrak
Serbian - ray, beam (HR: zraka)
Croatian - air (SR: vazduh)


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## pastet89

bigic said:


> zrak
> Serbian - ray, beam (HR: zraka)
> Croatian - air (SR: vazduh)


I can easily reckon few similar examples, such as "lice" which in Serbian means both "person" and "face", while in Croatian just "face". 
Can you please confirm that "zrak" means "ray" as well in Croatian?
I was actually mainly interested in pure false friends such as those in OP.
Of course, every entry is welcome, but pure false friends will be highly appreciated. 

Thanks!


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## Милан

Зрак also means air in Serbian so that's not actually a false friend.


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## Gavril

pastet89 said:


> slovenski - SR slavic / HR - slovenian



Just out of curiosity, what is the normal Serbo-Croatian term for "Slovenian"? (Or what was considered the normal term in Yugoslav times?)


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## iobyo

Gavril said:


> Just out of curiosity, what is the normal Serbo-Croatian term for "Slovenian"? (Or what was considered the normal term in Yugoslav times?)



It hasn't changed; i.e. _slovenski _was and is used in Croatia, and _slovenački _was and is used in Serbia.

In Yugoslav times, the differences between the "Eastern" and "Western" variants weren't just jekavica vs. ekavica; _tko, zrak, sretan, bit ću, prosinac _were used in print in Croatia, and _ko, vazduh, srećan, biću, decembar _in Serbia. Such differences weren't introduced after the breakup of Yugoslavia.


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## prst

Gavril said:


> Just out of curiosity, what is the normal Serbo-Croatian term for "Slovenian"? (Or what was considered the normal term in Yugoslav times?)



There wasn't a "normal" Serbo-Croatian term for Slovenian/Slovene just like there weren't "normal" terms for words like "cup", "plate", "gas" or "yugoslav".

One was Eastern (officially "Serbo-Croatian" in Serbia) the other was Western (officially "Croato-Serbian" in Croatia), or in colloquial terms, one was _Serbian _and the other was _Croatian_.


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## Gavril

Thanks, I was not familiar with the basics of Serbo-Croatian/Croato-Serbian.


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## pastet89

*Deva

*HR: Camel
SR: Virgin girl


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## Милан

pastet89 said:


> *Deva
> 
> *HR: Camel
> SR: Virgin girl


Actually devica is virgin girl in Serbian, Deva can be a female name, camel, hyp. for devojka. 
I forgot, we can use Deva Marija or Devica Marija [Bogorodica] for Virgin Mary.


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## pastet89

Yes, I know. In Serbian-Bulgarian dictionary the main word is _devica, _but_ deva_ is also mentioned, I suggest, as an archaic and Church usage. I am not sure if it is also not a rarer archaism in Croatian, however, if it is, it would be _Djeva_,_ because the word devica _has jekvian reflex in HR: _djevica._ So _deva (HR)_ and _deva (SR)_ are for sure false friend here, despite the fact it may seem more like a linguistic coincidence, from jekavian reflex point of view.


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## markomario

Really it's hard to speak of false friends in Croatian and Serbian as practically there aren't any. Words with the i-j-ekavian reflex are not false friends because Croatian dialects also use  the ekavian reflex - in chakavian dialect  they also say devica, e.g. *Marija Devica : čakavska pjesma   (Marija Devica - chakavian poem ) *

And naučnik i znanstvenik. According to Croatian purism stemming from the political reasons it is a false friend. But books written in Croatian language during Yugoslavia used znanstvenik and naučnik equally. Znanstvenik and znanost came to be used exclusively in the nineties and naučnik and nauka were proclaimed to be Serbian as well as some other words which were also regularly used in Croatian up to the nineties such as saradnja and suradnja  - cooperation.  Now it's only allowed to say suradnja, as saradnja is deemed to be Serbian. 
Also, the verb "to defend" odbraniti and obraniti were used, now it's only obraniti - no d allowed  . So, both, suradnja and saradnja, obraniti and odbraniti, znastvenik and naučnik were used  in books and textbooks written in Croatian language during Yugoslavia and the same was  spoken on Croatian TV during Yugoslavia.  I have to stress this - some words were known to be of predominantly Serbian usage - for example vazduh, Croatian zrak.  So in a textbook written during Yugoslavia in Croatian there was never vazduh, always zrak, but on the other hand naučnik was used and saradnja for example. So, some linguists decided that some words are more Serbian than others and they were virtually banned from usage on TV, in the newspapers, textbooks.


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## pastet89

Thanks for input. As languages are developing and changing in time we should focus on the present and future.


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## markomario

The thing with Croatian is that it has two dialects - kaikavian and chakavian that use the ekavian reflex  - so, they say deva for djeva in chakavian and kaikavian dialect. Also, in Croatian there is a word naučenjak that means znanstvenik, and naučnik is also found in Croatian dictionaries http://hjp.novi-liber.hr/index.php?show=search


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