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Tuesday, May 25, 2010

"What's the matter with you?" in Serbian



"Koji ti je andrak?" (what's the matter with you? what is wrong with you?) ... a blast from the past ! I was so happy when I came across this phrase which I haven't heard for ages :o) Where do words hide when they grow old?

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Noun Declension in Serbian: 1st Declension, part 1

According to the case suffixes, nouns in Serbian can be grouped into three or four declensions (the order and number hasn't been established yet). I'll list the three most commonly presented ones, starting from the most complex one, which is often subdivided, depending on the noun gender and its stem ending:

1. Declension:

Masculine nouns ending in a consonant
Neuter nouns ending in -o or -e

*Note that Masc. nouns in Sg. Acc. is the same as the Genetive if the noun denotes an 'animate concept', like human being or an animal, while the 'inanimate' ones are objects, but also plants and groups of people or animals (like 'a people'= 'narod' or pack (of wolves)= 'čopor')

** All Neuter nouns have the same form for Nominative, Accusative and Vocative, which is really great :o)

*** With Masc. nouns ending in palatal 'j, lj, nj, č, dž, đ, ć, š, ž'
a/ in Sg. Instrumental case it will end in 'em', instead of 'om'
b/ in Sg. Vocative case it will end in 'u' instead of 'e'

ANIMATE ANIMATE non-ANIMATE non-ANIMATE
Sing.




non-palatal ending palatal non-palatal palatal ending
Nom DOKTOR PRIJATELJ BROD ČEKIĆ
Gen DOKTOR-A PRIJATELJ-A BROD-A ČEKIĆ-A
Dative DOKTOR-U PRIJATELJ-U BROD-U ČEKIĆ-U
Acc DOKTOR-E PRIJATELJ-A BROD ČEKIĆ
Voc DOKTOR-E PRIJATELJ-U BROD-E ČEKIĆ-U
Inst DOKTOR-OM PRIJATELJ-EM BROD-OM ČEKIĆ-EM
Loc DOKTOR-U PRIJATELJ-U BROD-U ČEKIĆ-U

****The pattern for Plural being the same for all the forms:
Nom DOKTOR-I
Gen DOKTOR-A
Dative DOKTOR-IMA
Acc DOKTOR-E
Voc DOKTOR-I
Inst DOKTOR-IMA
Loc DOKTOR-IMA

*****Elongated Plural can be seen in the majority of one syllable and a good part of two syllable nouns. In the plural they get 'OV' or with palatal ones 'EV':



Elongated' = longer form
Nom STAN-ov-I
Gen STAN-ov-A
Dative STAN-ov-IMA
Acc STAN-ov-E
Voc STAN-ov-I
Inst STAN-ov-IMA
Loc STAN-ov-IMA

******* Sometimes, if the noun ends in -c, -s, -z or -t, there is an ending in -ev (e.g. vicevi (jokes), nosevi (noses) , putevi (roads) )

Well, as you can see, this is just the beginning of the story about Noun Declensions. If you are learning Serbian, I'd like to ask you if you find it easier to learn the language in this 'grammar oriented' fashion, or simply 'by ear'?

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Latin Alphabet to/from Cyrillic Serbian Script


Here comes a great link to script conversion. I needed some urgent Latin to Cyrillic script conversion yesterday night, and after trying out a few sites, this one proved to be the best.

So, let's try it out by rewriting the following Serbian proverb from the Cyrillic script into Latin Alphabet:

Ко не плати руком, он ће душом.

Now let's translate the phrase to English using online dictionaries (you might get different funny sentences):

1. Who do not pays handful , him will sweetheart.
2. Who doesn't pay the hand, it is soul.

Well, does it make sense? Does anyone have an idea what the correct translation is?

Saturday, April 10, 2010

Vowels in Serbian

There are five vowels in the Serbian language: a, e, i, o, u.

*A: ako (if), tavan (attic), ali (but), auto (car)


*E: evo (here), ekser (nail), med (honey), lep (beautiful)


*I: imati (to have), ili (or), iako (although), ići (to go)


*O: ovo (this), ono (that), oko (eye), brod (ship)


*U: u (in), uvo (ear), zub (tooth), uspeh (success)


However, in some words, the so called 'syllable forming r' (slogotvorno r) plays the vowel role. That's why some words in Serbian are difficult to pronounce. Let's practise together on our Pronunciation Site:

* R : prst (finger), krst (cross), srce (heart), Srpski (Serbian), pržiti (to fry)

Sunday, April 04, 2010

Uskršnje Jutro

Here is a link to a lovely video clip of a choir singing an Easter song:

Uskršnje Jutro (Easter Morning)

by
Čarolija


Uskršnje jutro kada se javi
Svakom na licu osmeh zablista.
Danas je praznik, danas se slavi
Dan vaskrsenja Isusa Hrista.

Šarena jaja na stolu stoje
U ispletenoj korpi od pruća.
Svako od nas će dobiti svoje
Ostaće jedno naš čuvar kuća.

Chorus (x2)
Pozdravimo Spasitelja
Njegova je bila želja
Da nas vodi ljubav, vera, nada.
Čovečanstvo neka celo
Isusovo sledi delo
Hristos Vaskrs!
Mir Božiji neka vlada!

Šarena jaja na stolu stoje
U ispletenoj korpi od pruća.
Svako od nas će dobiti svoje
Ostaće jedno naš čuvar kuća.

Pozdravimo Spasitelja
Njegova je bila želja
Da nas vodi ljubav, vera, nada.
Čovečanstvo neka celo
Isusovo sledi delo
Hristos Vaskrs!
Mir Božiji neka vlada!

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

How to pronounce letters in Serbian

While teaching Serbian to speakers of other languages, I noticed that different students have different pronunciation problems with certain Serbian sounds/phonemes. In order to practise together, let's make most of this lovely online learning tool, where you can simply listen to me and other students pronouncing certain words or phrases.

You will always be able to access the recordings from this site and to add your short replies. Let's practise together:

Intro :
* Introduce yourself like this:

Zdravo, ja sam ______. Ja sam _______. Imam _______godina. Živim u _________u/i.


(Hi, I am .... I am a ... I am ... I live in ...)

Pronunciation:

*Ć - ću, ćeš, će, ćemo, ćete, će (= will)

*Č - čekaj (wait) čuvaj se (take care) čitaj (read)


*Š - šutni (kick) šališ se? (are you kidding?) šta? (what?)

*C - cev (pipe), car (tzar) cvet (flower)


*S - sve (all), svet (world), sutra (tomorrow)


*Đ - đak (pupil, student), đavo (devil), Đorđe (name)

*DŽ -džaba (for free, worthless), džemper (jumper, cardigan), džin (giant)


*NJ - njiva (field), Anja (Anya), šaliti se (to make/tell jokes)


*LJ - ljuljaška (swing), ljubav (love), biljka (plant)

*H - hrčak (hamster), hleb (bread), hladno (cold)

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Asking About Location in Serbian



Fourteen years ago on March, 13th 1996, this song was the Song of the Day at the local radio station. I remember listening to it every hour! Take a guess where I was by asking questions, as follows:

1. "Da li ste bili u + city ? "
(when you guess the name of the city, proceed to 2)
2. "Da li ste bili u + place ?"

1/Word Bank: ---> Locative Case

Bečej ----> Bečeju
Senta ----> Senti
Zrenjanin ---> Zrenjaninu
Novi Sad---> Novom Sadu
Šabac ---> Šapcu
Niš ---> Nišu
Kragujevac ---> Kragujevcu
now, you do the same...
Kraljevo --->
Milanovac --->
Paraćin--->
Subotica --->
Zaječar--->
Beograd --->

2/Word Bank for places ---> Locative


škola - školi

crkva - crkvi
centar - centru
važno mesto - važnom mestu
*now, you do the same...
zgrada
vrtić
prodavnica
sajam
knjižara
bolnica

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
Photo book