Western Slavic Languages

Most of us know that this includes Serbian, Croatian, Slovenian, and Bosnian. I know that S/C/B are very closely related, but the question is how related are they? Are they close enough that if I learned one would I understand the other ones rather well, or are they just mutually intelligible, and learning one would get me by in the other countries? If so, which one would be the best to learn. In an example, they say that Norwegian is the middle language, it shares vocabulary with Danish, but phonology with Swedish. How is it with West Slavic languages? I'd like to know, because learning one seems pretty attractive if it's 3 for 1.

>Are they close enough that if I learned one would I understand the other ones rather well,

Yes, apart from Slovenian, that's a little more different than the rest.

>or are they just mutually intelligible,

For the most part, yes. Some word differences, nothing amazing.

>and learning one would get me by in the other countries?

Definitely, but would probably get you kneecapped.  It is 3 for one, but you need to understand the... tense sociopolitical climate between all three.  Honestly, you're about to start walking blindfolded into a minefield here.

>>2
Thanks.

So it can be assumed that if I were to learn one, I should learn the differences between the other ones, so I don't metaphorically spit on them by using a not-liked neighbor's language? If I learned one, it would be a small matter to learn the differences between the other two then?

>So it can be assumed that if I were to learn one, I should learn the differences between the other ones, so I don't metaphorically spit on them by using a not-liked neighbor's language?

That would be a good idea really.  What would also be a good idea is to learn the reasons why they hate eachother to begin with as well before you just blunder around.  The first thing you should know is that 600 years isn't long enough for these people to forget about a grudge.

Thank you, anon, if it's one guy or two. Would that conflict be the King Serb that ruled Yugoslavia, and the Croats killing upwards of a million Serbs?

Anyway, then comes the question of which one to learn. Serbian is the most used one, but it appears that Croatian is more widely available.

The places I go say that Serbian uses BOTH the Cyrillic and Latin alphabets. Is this really true, are they wasting that much of their time and energy to have 2 alphabets?

English is the only language you will ever need. Toss aside your tribal superstitions and join the modern world

>>6
I bet you're secretly trying to self-teach yourself Japanese.

>Would that conflict be the King Serb that ruled Yugoslavia, and the Croats killing upwards of a million Serbs?

By the 600 year old grudge I was thinking more of the Ottoman Empire expansion into Jugoslavia, but sure, the rest of those are probably still valid options.

>The places I go say that Serbian uses BOTH the Cyrillic and Latin alphabets. Is this really true, are they wasting that much of their time and energy to have 2 alphabets?

It's true mostly, although the Cyrillic Serbian uses is slightly different to the Russian, but not by much.  I wouldn't let that turn you off though, two alphabets are really the easiest part of it all and worthwhile learning so you can understand parts of other Slavic languages outside the reach of Former Jugoslav states.

Bonus prize, one of your first phrases:  Jebi se. (YEH-bee seh)  Serbian for go fuck yourself, reasonably certain it'd be understood everywhere.  Only use in extreme circumstances and never to someone larger than you.

>>8

So when Ottomans invade the Serbs, Croats, and Bosnians hate each other, instead of the present-day Turks?

What the fuck.

Well, they hate the Turks as well, but the Turks left Islam with the Bosnians which made them kind of.. Turkish in their minds too.  The Croatians are an entirely different problem; Serbs tend to be East Orthodox and Croatians are Catholic.  Yeah, you've got far back historical feuding going on there as well, but these wounds are a lot more recent with the Ustaše and Jasenovac...  Croats, Bosnians and Serbians tend to be all deeply nationalistic (despite being the exact same peoples really, but don't tell them that) and easy to anger.  When they don't have something like WW2 or Eurovision to unite them, they're constantly taking pot shots at each other.

Seriously, it's a world of shit.  Half my family are Serbs, and I love em but... they're deeply flawed.

>>10
Ffs.

Anyway, back to a more /lang/ oriented subject, learning which one would be the gateway into the other 2? I'm guessing Serbian.

I would go with Serbian for the dual alphabets which would help you out vastly with the other Slavic nations to the east.  Other than that, if you have any Yugoslav diaspora around where you live, it might be best to pick whichever language they use for the practice.  Overall it's not too important which you pick.

>>12
This. Cyrillic can be learn it a day and it makes traveling through the Balkans much simpler. though i heard in another thread that Serbian and Croatian grow more distant everyday. it may just be a diaspora thing but i'm not really noticing that at all though :/


>>10
you know nothing of how people in those countries think. no one hates the turks apart from inbred Serbs who live out in the country and have nothing else to talk about. and most Bosnians are cool with Islam. Shahids are revered in Bosnian society.
The only thing that makes us ultra nationalistic is football.
HRVATSKA! HRVATSKA!

Just for the record: Croatian, Serbian and Bosnian belong to the south slavic language group, not to the western one.
However, the differences between the three languages are very small, maybe even smaller than the differences between two German dialects. I have a Serbian friend who says he could understand Croatian and Bosnian without any problems. Slovenian is more distant though.

Serbs pronounce Zaba as Dzaba

One thing you need to keep in mind when discussing BCS is that those languages are similar due to the dialect which was chosen as the standard base for all of them (Shtokavian). Serbian and Croatian also have other dialects (Torlakian; Kajkavian and Chakavian) which in most circumstances are unintelligible to speakers of the standard language.

>>14
The South Slavic languages are grouped into Western and Eastern due to the grammatical and morphological differences between Slovenian/Croatian/Bosnian/Serbian & Macedonian/Bulgarian.

>>14
Actually, ignore what I said in the last paragraph. I thought the reference to Western was strictly in the sense _South Slavic -> Western_, but looking at the thread title now (which I ignored at first :P) I see that's not what was implied.

OP here. Unfortunately I don't live anywhere that has any diaspora, other than an unusual number of Koreans, and most of them are American Koreans, the lazy, wigger, uncultured type that the Korean Americans hate.

First of all they are south slavic, not west. I'd choose bulgarian.
Pros:
lack of cases
english-like grammar
90% of vocabulary are similar to russian(bulgarian is even easier to understand for russian than ukrainian that is considered to be part of east slavic languages(which includes russian)).
cyrillics
Cons:
you won't be able to understand other slavic languages unless you learn their declensions and cases(considered to be the toughest part of slavic languages)

>>19
90% of vocabulary are similar to russian(bulgarian is even easier to understand for russian than ukrainian that is considered to be part of east slavic languages(which includes russian)).
cyrillics
bulgarian is fucking foreign, perhaps i understand more words from bulgarian than ukrainian, but in overall sense this is not true
i don't even feel bulgarian to be a human language
i can't imagine humans are actually speaking this

>>19
>>20
Cyrillic shouldn't count neither as pro nor con. Anyone that knows a few Greek letters from Math and Physics classes can learn the Cyrillic alphabet in a couple of hours.

test

Personally, I hate handwritten Cyrillic letters. :(

Croatian guy here,
here's a word of advice: most of these guys don't know what they're talking about. Croatian and Serbian are one language. "Bosnian" is just another name for Serbo-Croatian language made up in the 90's, it does not exist nowhere except in the mind of their lunatic politicians. If you want to learn the language, you can't choose between the "two" as we're talking only about ONE language, and with it you will be able to understand most of the people living in these places, including the Slovenes and Macedonians (in any case, they WILL understand you). The differences are comparable to the differences between American and British English which is 99% in the accent and pronunciation of words, but you still call it "English".

Don't worry about which accent you have, be it Croatian or Serbian, because in 99,999999% of cases people will automatically realize you're not from this region, so they won't hold a grudge on you (even the more primitive ones). It is much more possible that they will compliment you on your ability to speak our language.

With that said, I wish you happy learning!

>>25
It is much more possible that they will compliment you on your ability to speak our language.
True that. I'm an Argentinian learning Croatian and when I went to Serbia people complimented me on my "Serbian."

There's no reason do learn any Slavic language other than Russian.

>>27
True

By the way, I'm learning the Cyrillic alphabet. What is the most popular keyboard layout in Russia? That one that comes with Windows or the phonetic one where the Cyrillic keys are in the same places as their Roman equivalents?

>>29
In Russia all keyboards are mandatory marked with Cyrillic letters in addition to Latin ones, so the one that comes with Windows is typically used. Outside of Russia, it depends.

>>31
You mean the ЙЦУКЕН layout, right?
If so, that's good news, because I have it almost memorized and I was wondering whether or not it was a waste of time.

>>32
Yeah.

>>28
Moar like - there's no reason to learn _any_ Slavic languages.

>>34
'Russian tongue (language)') is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages, and the largest native language in Europe.

Over a quarter of the world's scientific literature is published in Russian.[4] Russian is also a necessary accessory of world communications systems (broadcasts, air- and space communication, etc).

Hence, the language is one of the six official languages of the United Nations.

>>35
Yeah, but it's only because of what the Soviets did - all the scientific and industrial achievements, and the last time I checked it was no more, so...

>>36
It's still superior to other slavic languages, and always was