# South Slavic Languages



## EdnoMomche

Hello to all, great forum!

So, I am native Croatian speaker, who learned just from Internet, all other SS languages: Bulgarian, Macedonian and Slovenian.

For me, it is really interesting to observe every similarity and difference between them. 


I think that Bulgarian vocabulary is even closer to BCMS one than Slovenian. But, on the other hand, Slovenian have same latinic script like we so we don't have to learn it like it is with Bulgarian cyrillic what is different from BCMS one 



Is there anyone more here like me who is interested especially in SS languages?


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## Panceltic

EdnoMomche said:


> Is there anyone more here like me who is interested especially in SS languages?



Hello and welcome!  I am also interested in South Slavic languages (and all others)  How good do you speak Slovenian?


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## EdnoMomche

Upam da je moja slovenščina zelo dobra, glede na to da sem jo učil le preko spleta.


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## Panceltic

Ja, izgleda dobro! Manjka edino nekaj vejic


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## EdnoMomche

Opravičujem se. 

Veste hrvaščino, ali ne?


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## Panceltic

Haha, saj vejice vsem povzročajo probleme.  Da, govorim hrvatski! Počeo sam ga učiti pre nekoliko mjesecima, ali sam naravno bio i prije s njim u kontaktu - na moru i slično


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## EdnoMomche

One example: Except older generations who have learned SerboCroatian in school, it is interesting that nowadays, young generation in Slovenia understand BCMS language much worse than young generation in Macedonia. There almost everyone can understand perfectly BCMS. There even on the radio is played more often BCMS songs version of Macedonian singers than one on Macedonian language.


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## Panceltic

Yes, that is true. I have a lot of friends who just say: "Oh, this is in Croatian. I really don't understand that." They don't even try! However, we have lots of BCMS songs on the radio!


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## EdnoMomche

Really strange, in my opinion.


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## Panceltic

Not necessarily ... There is just not so much "need" for this language now. It was _de facto_ obligatory to know it in the times of our ex-country, but now everybody is oriented towards English.


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## EdnoMomche

Not because of that, it is just that it is the nearest Slavic language to Slovenian. I don't believe that Slovenians understand Slovakian or Czech better.


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## Panceltic

I have been to Slovakia once and listened to a guided tour of some castle ... I was really surprised how I could understood every single word of it!


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## EdnoMomche

So you think that Slovakian is more similar to Slovenian than Croatian?


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## Panceltic

No, of course not! The Kajkavian is the most similar.  But it was a surprise!


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## EdnoMomche

Kakšna je razlika med besedami 'le' in 'samo' v slovenščini?

In Croatian it is only samo.


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## Panceltic

Ne vem ...  V osnovi je pomen isti. Ima pa "le" še nekaj dodatnih pomenov, npr. "Kdor le more, naj gre v gore.", "Le kaj si misli o nas?" Ne znam dobro prevesti :S


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## EdnoMomche

Razumem. Hvala za pojasnilo.


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## Panceltic

Prosim  Take "nepomembne" besede skrivajo v sebi pravo malo bogastvo!


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## tetraeder

Sorry for the ignorance, but can you tell me what is BCMS... Is it llike Bulgarian,Croatian, Macedonian and Slovenian...


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## Panceltic

tetraeder said:


> Sorry for the ignorance, but can you tell me what is BCMS... Is it llike Bulgarian,Croatian, Macedonian and Slovenian...



Nope, it means Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin and Serbian. Four languages that some consider to be just one language with many varieties.


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## jasio

Just curious, but do I understand correctly that the real differences are between dialects (shtokavian, kajkavian, chakavian), and a dialect map is basically unrelated to boundaries between 'national languages'?


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## Panceltic

jasio said:


> Just curious, but do I understand correctly that the real differences are between dialects (shtokavian, kajkavian, chakavian), and a dialect map is basically unrelated to boundaries between 'national languages'?



Well, it could be said so. The problem is that Chakavian and Kajkavian speakers consider themselves Croats, but Shtokavian speakers are split in numerous ethnic groups (Croats, Serbs, Montenegrins, Bosnians ...). But all four "standard" languages (literary Croatian, literary Serbian, literary Bosnian and literary Montenegrin) are based on the Shtokavian dialect, albeit different groups (ekavian or ijekavian). That's the way I see it, maybe some will disagree.


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## klemen

In ex-Yugoslavia there was Serbo - Croatian language. When Yugoslavia broke apart and wars finished, four separate languages (it would be correct to call them subdialects of sthokavian dialect, not languages) and 3 dialects emerged in former Serbo - Croatian language area: Croatian, Bosnian, Serbian, Montenegrin (all of these are from Stokavian dialect), Kajkavian, Ćakavian, Torlakian. And now, no one can tell if he or she speaks Croatian, Serbian, Bosnian or Montenegrin... And so, it became more difficult to pick the correct variant... It seem that these dialects are becoming separate languages.


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