• force@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    i can’t tell if this is serbocroatian or slovenian or something else but i’m too afraid to ask

    • 0x4E4F@sh.itjust.worksOP
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      11 months ago

      Serbocroatian is long gone, it was a construct made up back in Yugoslavia. It was basically Serbian written in latin (basically… there were some things from Croatian, but very little).

      It’s Croatian. Serbian and Croatian are similar, but Serbian is written in Cyrillic, while Croatian in Latin.

      • force@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        A majority of linguists consider Serbocroatian to be one language, there are many distinct dialects (with different countries having different standards). The writing system is irrelevant, the writing system isn’t the language. Also you can write Serbian in Latin script (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanization_of_Serbian)

        They are no less mutually intelligible than what are considered different dialects of other languages. In fact as someone who can read Russian & Polish I can understand a good amount of written Serbocroatian with trouble (it’s a lot harder than reading something like Ukrainian due to linguistic distance), it’s significantly closer between Serbian & Croatian varieties. Often people on media/politics pretend not to understand the other though due to mutual hatred from nationalism.

        I would like to spend a lot of time on the language one day, I haven’t done much besides read some from grammar books on it. I like it a lot.

        • 0x4E4F@sh.itjust.worksOP
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          11 months ago

          Yes, you can write Serbian in latin, but not on any documents… as in, you can do it, but informally.

          You are correct about the politics part. Serbs and Croats understand each other perfectly, so do Bosnisnas. The odd balls out were Slovenian and Macedonian, with Slovenian (IMO) being a little bit harder to decypher than Macedonian.

          • MeanEYE@lemmy.world
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            11 months ago

            Government issued documents are in Cyrillic by default in Serbia, but official documents can be written in Latin as well. It’s not forbidden to use either of the alphabets. Most of the ads, signs and similar material are written indeed in Latin.

            • 0x4E4F@sh.itjust.worksOP
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              11 months ago

              For “backwards compatibility” I presume… and also catering to Croats and Bosnians that live in Serbia.

              • MeanEYE@lemmy.world
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                11 months ago

                I’d say it’s a habit now more than anything. It’s also more convenient not having to configure computer and phone, etc. Latin has become dominant. Everyone still learns both and has to know how to write in print and cursive. But no one writes print Cyrillic by hand anymore, or at least very few. I still prefer cursive Cyrillic to anything else, because it flows better. But print Latin is what most kids write these days from what I’ve seen. There has been suggestions of government incentive to keep Cyrillic. Proposal was to give some tax deductions if companies use Cyrillic for most things. Probably didn’t go far. But it is a cultural heritage worth keeping.

                • 0x4E4F@sh.itjust.worksOP
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                  11 months ago

                  Cyrillic is a must here (Macedoia). Sure, we text and may write in Latin (not all the time though), but other than that, yeah, we still use Cyrillic.

                  I just text in Latin. Can’t really get accustomed to the Cyrillic keboard, 4 more letters and my fingers are thick 😂.

                  Russians are die hard though, they don’t write Russian in Latin… ever 😂.

                  • MeanEYE@lemmy.world
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                    11 months ago

                    I should probably start typing more in Cyrillic, even my messages. Most people will laugh at me for doing so.