Serbian (српски), Croatian (Hrvatski) and Bosnian (Bosanski) are different national literary and official registers of the Serbo-Croatian language, they are mutually intelligible and belong to the southern branch of the Slavic language family. They are spoken by about 18.5 million people, mainly in Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro. Related languages include Slovenian, Macedonian and Bulgarian.
Serbo-Croatian is or was also known as Serbo-Croat, Croato-Serbian, Serbian and Croatian, Croatian and Serbian, Serbian or Croatian, Croatian or Serbian, or Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian (BCS).
The oldest texts in these languages date back to the 11th century and were written in the Glagolitic alphabet, mainly in Croatia. The earliest text in the Latin alphabet dates from 1345. The Arabic alphabet was used to some extent by Bosnian Muslims. The Glagolitic alphabet was eventually replaced by the Latin alphabet in Croatia and by the Cyrillic alphabet in Serbia.
Up to the mid 19th century there was no standard written form of these languages, but there was extensive literature in different dialects. In 1850 a group of Serbian and Croatian writers and linguists decided to create a standard written form based on the widely-used Štokavian dialect.
There three different modern literary standards for these languages: Serbian, Croatian and Bosnian, and there is a movement to create a separate Montenegrin standard. All these standards developed from the 19th century unified literary language. After Yugoslavia broke up in the 1990s separate written and spoken languages began to emerge.
Today Croatian is written with the Latin alphabet, Serbian is written mainly with the Cyrillic alphabet, though the Latin alphabet is sometimes used, and Bosnian uses both alphabets.
Serbian contains many loan words from Greek and Turkish and continues to borrow new words from various languages. Croatian contains many words of Latin and German origin but many new Croatian words are created by combining and adapting existing ones.
The version of the Arabic alphabet shown below used to be used to write Bosnian sometimes.
Sva ljudska bića rađaju se slobodna i jednaka u dostojanstvu i pravima. Ona su obdarena razumom i sviješću i trebaju jedna prema drugima postupati u duhu bratstva.
Cвa људскa бићa рaђajу сe слoбoднa и jeднaкa у дoстojaнству и прaвимa. Oнa су oбдaрeнa рaзумoм и свeшћу и трeбa jeдни прeмa другимa дa пoступajу у духу брaтствa.
Sva ljudska bića rađaju se slobodna i jednaka u dostojanstvu i pravima. Ona su obdarena razumom i svešću i treba jedni prema drugima da postupaju u duhu bratstva.
A recording of this text by Robert Todorić
Cвa љyдскa бићa paђajy сe слoбoднa и jeднaкa y дoстojaнствy и пpaвимa. Oнa сy oбдapeнa paзyмoм и свиjeшћy и тpeбa дa jeднo пpeмa дpyгoмe пoстyпajy y дyхy бpaтствa.
Sva ljudska bića rađaju se slobodna i jednaka u dostojanstvu i pravima. Ona su obdarena razumom i sviješću i treba da jedno prema drugome postupaju u duhu bratstva.
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They
are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another
in a spirit of brotherhood.
(Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)
Longer sample text (Tower of Babel) in Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian
Useful phrases in Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian
Croatian, Serbian and Bosnian language learning materials
Online Serbian lessons and other resources
http://www.serbianschool.com
http://www.funkyserbian.com
http://serbianlesson.com
http://www.srpskijezik.edu.rs
http://www.slovce.com
Online Croatian lessons and other resources
http://www.hr/hrvatska/language/
http://www.loecsen.com/travel/discover.php?lang=en&to_lang=66
http://www.youtube.com/user/Croatian101Lesson
http://mylanguages.org/learn_croatian.php
http://learn-croatian.com
Serbian transliteration system
http://www.translitteration.com/transliteration/en/serbian/national/
Online Croatian dictionaries
http://www.rjecnik.net
http://www.english2croatian.com
http://en.crodict.com
Online Serbian dictionaries
http://www.english2serbian.com
Online Serbian phrasebooks
http://www.phrasebase.com/forum/read.php?TID=19369
http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1355876
http://www.lztranslation.com/pdf/serbian-phrases.pdf (PDF)
http://www.serbiatravelers.org/en/index.php/basics/42-basics/414-serbian-phrasebook
Online Croatian phrasebooks
http://www.visit-croatia.co.uk/croatianfortravellers/
http://www.hr/hrvatska/language/
http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1355876
http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/other/quickfix/croatian.shtml
http://www.linguanaut.com/english_croatian
Online conversion of Serbian texts into the Cyrillic alphabet
http://tsca.natverk.org/cgi/slovio.pl
BBC World Service in Croatian
www.bbc.co.uk/croatian
BBC World Service in Serbian
www.bbc.co.uk/serbian
Serbian Electronic talking dictionaries
http://www.ectaco.com
Croatian Electronic talking dictionaries
http://www.ectaco.com
Belarusian, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Kashubian, Macedonian, Old Church Slavonic, Polish, Russian, Rusyn, Serbian, Silesian, Slovak, Slovenian, Sorbian, Ukrainian
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