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Friday, February 19, 2010

Montenegro and its language

Montenegro language ,
Montenegro and its language



When is a language a language and when is it a dialect?

In 2007, a year after this small Balkan country broke from its big sister Serbia, Montenegrin - or Crnogorski - became the official language, as defined by the constitution.

To read more:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8520466.stm
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Friday, February 12, 2010

Adverbs, Adjectives and Nouns in Serbian - Word Order

Adverbs in Serbian , Word order in Serbian
Adverbs, Adjectives and Nouns in Serbian - Word Order
The Serbian language has fairly free word order because of its numerous suffixes for various categories. Let's see how to rephrase the sentences from the post on Adjectives and Nouns introducing an Adverb 'zaista', which means ''really''.

Formula:
This + BE + (article which doesn't exist in Serbian) really + Adj + Noun
Noun + BE + really + Adj

adjectives: LEP / JAK / VISOK / VELIK / SKUP
a. Ovo je zaista lepa knjiga = Ovo je lepa knjiga zaista = Zaista ovo je lepa knjiga = Zaista lepa je knjiga ovo.*

b. Knjiga je zaista lepa = Knjiga je lepa zaista = Zaista knjiga je lepa = Zaista lepa je knjiga.*
*less common word orders
  1. ___________ momak. (young man)
  2. ___________ automobil. (car)
  3. ___________ nos. (nose)
  4. ___________ zgrada. (building)
  5. ___________ kuća. (house)
  6. ___________ sto. (table)
  7. ___________ torba. (bag)
  8. ___________ dete. (child)
  9. ___________ zrno. (grain)
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Sunday, February 07, 2010

Vuku Karadžiću

cyrillic , Serbian poems
Vuku Karadžiću


Vuk je hteo, gde god krene,
Da se ljudi opismene,
Za slobodu da se bore,
I za jezik kojim zbore.

Ostašte nam posle Vuka
Lepa slova i azbuka.
Sad ih piše svaka ruka
Sa radošću i bez muka.

Vuk je bio dobre volje,
Vuk je bio prepun sreće
Kad pobedi ono bolje,
Kad se stekne znanje veće.

Ranko Simović

For your homework:
Listen to this poem and try to copy it in Cyrillic script :)
(if you are asked for username and password, click 'log in as a guest' to be able to listen to MP3)
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Saturday, February 06, 2010

Serbian Adjectives and Nouns in Genitive Case

Genetive in Serbian ,
Serbian Adjectives and Nouns in Genitive Case
After doing the exercise in Nominative, both Singular and Plural, let's move onto
Genetive case: (to find out which case is Genetive ask the following quiestons: ‘Of whom, whose’ (od koga) or ‘of what’ (čega)

Example: Some 'se' verbs require Genetive, like to be scared OF 'plašiti se' or to take hold OF 'dočepati se'
Singular: Plašim se skupog automobila.

adjectives: LEP / JAK / VISOK / VELIK / SKUP
  1. ___________ knjigE. (book)
  2. ___________ momkA. (young man)
  3. ___________ automobilA. (car)
  4. ___________ nosA. (nose)
  5. ___________ zgradE. (building)
  6. ___________ kućE. (house)
  7. ___________ stoLA. (table)
  8. ___________ torbE. (bag)
  9. ___________ deteTA. (child)
  10. ___________ zrnA. (grain)
Adjectives + Plural Nouns in Genetive:

adjectives: LEP / JAK / VISOK / VELIK / SKUP
(beautiful/strong/tall/big, large/expensive)

*Try to use all the adjectives that collocate with the nouns as follows:
Example:
Plural: ...od lepih knjiga.
  1. ___________ momakA.
  2. ___________ automobilA.
  3. ___________ nosEVA.
  4. ___________ zgrada.
  5. ___________ kuća.
  6. ___________ stoLOVA.
  7. ___________ torbI.
  8. ___________ decE.
  9. ___________ zrnA.
  10. ___________ devojAkA.
The audio answer has been recorded :o)
(in case you are asked for your username, click 'log in as a guest')
***********************
What I don't like to do when teaching Serbian grammar is to actually give the kind of exercise I just posted above - mixing up all the genders, so you cannot infer the rule (which majority of textbooks do). That's why for more elementary students, I'd group words in an exercise like the following one:

Nominative Fem. Sg. KUĆA, DEVOJKA, TORBA, KNJIGA, ZGRADA
+ Adjective: velikA kućA, velikA devojkA, velikA torbA, velikA knjigA, velikA zgradA
(so that your ears come to like this A-A concordance)
Genetive Fem. Sg: od kućE, od devojkE, od torbE, od knjigE, od zgradE
+ Adjective: od velikE kućE, od visokE devojkE, od skupE torbE, od jeftinE knjigE
(so that your ears come to like this E-E concordance)
etc. etc.
I think that so many (meaningless) suffixes like 'a' 'e' 'ih' 'og' 'u' 'om' ... can be learnt only through drill and immersion. What do you think, how many seconds/minutes would it take for you to think about all the categories (and their corresponding suffixes) involved in the following sentence in order to utter it fluently and accurately: 'Koliko lepih devojaka u ovom divnom gradu!' ?
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Thursday, February 04, 2010

How to use Adjectives in Serbian

Serbian adjectives ,
How to use Adjectives in Serbian
I have already written about a special relationship between adjectives and nouns in Serbian. Just to remind you, adjectives not only change according to Sg/Pl, but also according to gender and case. Therefore, I'll continue with my exercises for different categories. I hope Ivan will be willing to record the answers for you, when he comes back from school (I'll post the link here).
Adjectives + Singular Nouns in Nominative (from the previous post)
adjectives: LEP / JAK / VISOK / VELIK / SKUP
  1. ___________ knjiga. (book)
  2. ___________ momak. (young man)
  3. ___________ automobil. (car)
  4. ___________ nos. (nose)
  5. ___________ zgrada. (building)
  6. ___________ kuća. (house)
  7. ___________ sto. (table)
  8. ___________ torba. (bag)
  9. ___________ dete. (child)
  10. ___________ zrno. (grain)
Adjectives + Plural Nouns in Nominative:
adjectives: LEP / JAK / VISOK / VELIK / SKUP
(beautiful/strong/tall/big, large/expensive)
*Try to use all the adjectives that collocate with the nouns as follows:
For example: lepE / velikE / skupE knjigE:
  1. ___________ momCI.
  2. ___________ automobilI.
  3. ___________ nosEVI.
  4. ___________ zgradE.
  5. ___________ kućE.
  6. ___________ stoLOVI.
  7. ___________ torbE.
  8. ___________ deCA.
  9. ___________ zrnA.
  10. ___________ devojke. (young girls)
Audio answer (make sure you are logged in as a guest, if you want to hear the MP3 file)
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Advanced Serbian - Srpski kao drugi jezik

Gde je ključ? Где је кључ? - Učimo srpski sa Marinom
Gde je ključ? ...
Where is the Key?-...
By Marina Petrović
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