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.
Name:
luftballon2009-10-31 15:13
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.