Bosnian language

Spoken in

And partly in:

• Serbia
• Montenegro
• Croatia
• Macedonia

Indo-European languages

• Bosnian

Bs

Bos

Bosnian ( Bosnian: bosanski jezik ) is a standard variety of the South Slavic branch of the Slavic languages ​​and is based as Croatian and Serbian on a štokavischen dialect.

Bosnian is spoken by about 2.5 million people in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where it is one of the three official languages ​​as mother language of Bosniaks. In addition, it is also in Serbia and Montenegro spoken by about 245,000 people in Western Europe and the United States of about 150,000 emigrants, as well as tens of thousands of ethnic Germans in Turkey. The language is now almost exclusively written in the Latin alphabet, only very rarely the Cyrillic alphabet used. The term " Bosnian " is defined in the ISO 639 standard.

Both grammatical criteria require as well as in the Bosnian language vocabulary Croatian and Serbian language is so similar that all Bosnischsprecher can communicate easily with speakers of Serbian and Croatian. Because of this politically controversial whether Bosnian is a separate language or a national variety of Serbo-Croatian. Because of the common history of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia in opinion regarding the independence of the language is always a politically biased, it is measured depends on the political point of view in different ways.

History

The Bosnian has in the course of its historical development in addition to Latin and Cyrillic alphabets, various other uses: Bosančica (a special Cyrillic alphabet, which was used mainly in Bosnia and Herzegovina, but also in Dalmatia, also called begovica ) Arebica ( an extended Arabic script adapted the Glagolitic alphabet on the Bosnian alphabet) and in some areas. The spoken dialects in Bosnia are indeed linguistically homogeneous than in Croatia or Serbia, but it was omitted from historical reasons during the 19th century to carry out a standardization of the language. The first Bosnian dictionary was a Bosnian - Turkish Dictionary of Muhamed Hevaji Uskufi from the year 1631.

While work Uskufis remained a single piece, Croatian dictionaries are regularly expanded and reissued for example. This was mainly due to the following:

• The Bosniak elite and many writers preferred Arabic, Turkish and Persian as a literary language.
• The Bosniak national identity was developed in comparison to the Croatian or Serbian relatively late and then did not try to differentiate themselves through language.

Cause of the latter point might be the fact that Bosnia and Herzegovina were a long time alternating times to the Occident, sometimes to the Orient. This also explains the origin of the Arabic words that are otherwise rarely found in a Slavic language. Since the East in the Middle Ages was culturally and intellectually more advanced than the West, it is not surprising that the elite preferred oriental languages ​​- but they came mostly from that very room.

The codification of the Bosnian language during the 19th and 20th century were mostly developed outside Bosnia and Herzegovina. To turn of the century it came to the so-called " Bosnian Renaissance ," at the root of the Bosnian language today: It mainly terms were normalized, the more similar to the Croatian as Serbian form, that is, it was the west - štokavisch - ijekavische form with Latin script set as a rule, but also many specific Bosnian terms were installed. The most important Bosnian writers of this period who contributed to the standardization of the language, were Safvet -beg Basagic, Musa Cazim Ćatić and Edhem Mulabdić.

During the period of socialist Yugoslavia, only the term Serbo-Croatian was used. Within the Serbo-Croatian, however outweighed the Serbian, the Latin script was retained.

Since the collapse of Yugoslavia into different nation states the forms previously referred to as variants are recognized as different languages. In Bosnian, the rules from the period before the First World War ( " Bosnian Renaissance " ) were largely restored.

The Bosnian stands out against the Serbian and Croatian mainly characterized by a slightly higher number of foreign and loan words from Turkish, Arabic and Persian ( Turzismen ). In addition, the emphasis of the letter 'h' is more pronounced than in the two other South Slavic languages.

Differences with other South Slavic languages

Main article: Differences between the Serbo-Croatian standard varieties

Orthography

The Bosnian spelling is largely similar to the Croatian or Serbian. A frequently occurring difference is given in the use of the future form ( future tense ). While in Serbia the infinitive with the auxiliary word " Cu " is fused, these words are written separately in the Bosnian and Croatian, for example,

• Uradit to CU. ( Bosnian )
• Uradiću to. ( Serbian)
• Napraviti to Cu ( Croatian)

Another difference is that foreign-language proper names in the Bosnian played once in the original unmodified notation (eg "New York" ), a transcribed occasion (eg " Minhen "), while these words in Serbian always transcribed ( " Nju Jork " ) and always taken in Croatian in the original are ( " Munich ").

Morphology

The Bosnian language used (as well as mostly Croatian) the ijekavischen dialect, while in Serbia the Ekavische dialect is common, for example:

• Wind: vjetar ( Bosnian / Croatian) - vetar ( Serbian)
• Milk: mlijeko ( Bosnian / Croatian) mleko ( Serbian)
• Want: htjeti ( Bosnian / Croatian) - hteti ( Serbian)
• Bay: zaljev ( Croatian) - zaliv ( Bosnian / Serbian)
• Influence: utjecati ( Croatian) - uticati ( Bosnian / Serbian)

In addition is the 'h' approved in more compounds, partly as a reflection of a Slavic Velars:

• Easy: lahko ( Bosnian ) - lako ( Croatian / Serbian)
• Soft: mehko ( Bosnian ) - meko ( Croatian / Serbian)
• Coffee: Kahva ( Bosnian ) - kava ( Croatian)
• Tobacco: duhan ( Bosnian / Croatian) - duvan ( Serbian)
• Cook: kuhati ( Bosnian / Croatian) - kuvati ( Serbian)
• Dry: suho ( Bosnian / Croatian) - Suvo ( Serbian)

In loanwords, there are some differences, for example, derived verbs:

• Organize: organizirati ( Croatian) - organizovati ( Bosnian / Serbian)
• Realize: realizirati ( Bosnian / Croatian) - realizovati ( Serbian)

Some words have in Bosnian - as in Serbian - grammatically female gender, while they are grammatically masculine in Croatian, for example:

• Planet: planeta ( Bosnian / Serbian), planet ( Croatian)

A number of other morphological differences can be systematically difficult to classify. Here are some examples:

• Point: Tacka ( Bosnian / Serbian) - točka ( Croatian)
• Right: tačno ( Bosnian / Serbian) - točno ( Croatian)
• Student: student ( same in all languages ​​), but
• Student: studentica ( Bosnian / Croatian), studentkinja ( Serbian)
• Professor (male): profesor ( same in all languages ​​), but
• Professor (Female): profesorica ( Bosnian / Croatian), profesorka ( Serbian)
• Europe: Evropa ( Bosnian / Serbian) - Europe ( Croatian), but
• Euro: Euro ( Bosnian / Croatian) - evro ( Serbian)

Vocabulary

There are some words in Bosnian, which generally differ from the Croatian or Serbian words, many with Turkish or Arabic word origin. On the other hand, there are words that prefer either the Croatian or the Serbian form. There is no learnable rule, in which case the Croatian and in which case to use the Serbian version. To this end, following are some more examples:

• History: historija ( Bosnian ) - povijest ( Croatian) - istorija ( Serbian)
• Watchmaker: sahadžija ( Bosnian ) - Urar ( Croatian) - časovničar ( Serbian)
• Table: hastal ( Bosnian ) - stol ( Croatian) - sto ( Serbian)
• Garden: Basca ( Bosnian ) - vrt ( Croatian) - bašta ( Serbian)
• Bread: hljeb or somun ( Bosnian ) - kruh ( Croatian) - hleb ( Serbian)

• Rice: Riža ( Bosnian / Croatian) - pirinač ( Serbian)
• Spinach: Spinach ( Bosnian / Croatian) - Spanac ( Serbian)
• Carrot / Carrot: mrkva ( Bosnian / Croatian) - šargarepa ( Serbian)
• Beans: grah or pasulj ( Bosnian ) - grah ( Croatian) - pasulj ( Serbian)
• Aktiengesellschaft: Dioničko društvo ( Bosnian / Croatian) - akcionarsko društvo ( Serbian)

• Rail / train: voz ( Bosnian / Serbian) - vlak ( Croatian)
• Thousand: hiljada ( Bosnian / Serbian) - tisuća ( Croatian)
• Music: muzika ( Bosnian / Serbian) - Glazba ( Croatian)
• Salt: as ( Bosnian / Serbian) - sol ( Croatian)
• Pepper: beaver ( Bosnian / Serbian) - papar ( Croatian)

• Caffe: Kahva ( Bosnian ) - Kafa ( Serbian) - kava ( Croatian)
• Rope: kanafa ( Bosnian ) - kanap or kanapa ( Serbian) - konop or Konopa ( Croatian)
• Cage: kafez ( Bosnian ) - kavez ( Serbian / Croatian)
• Windows: prozor or pendžer ( Bosnian ) - prozor ( Serbian) - prozor or oblok ( Croatian)
• Grandmother: nana ( Bosnian ) - baba ( Serbian) - baka ( Croatian)
• Papa ( diminutive of father): babo ( Bosnian ) - tata or CACA ( Croatian) - Čale ( Serbian)
• Spain = Spanish: Španija = španijski ( Bosnian ) - Španija = španski ( Serbian) - Španjolska = španjolski ( Croatian)

Month names in the Bosnian are similar to those in German, on the other hand Croatian month names are based on ancient Slavic season designations. Croatian month names can be used as synonyms by the regulations but what is rarely done in practice ( eg newspapers use both month names). In the month names Bosnian Serb are broadly similar, with three exceptions:

• June: June ( Bosnian ) - jun ( Serbian)
• July: July ( Bosnian ) - jul ( Serbian)
• August: august ( Bosnian ) - avgust ( Serbian)

Accentuation

The accentuation, ie emphasizing the words, is strongly differentiated in Bosnia and Herzegovina (but also in Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro) depending on the region.

The emphasis of the words is therefore not bound by standard languages ​​, be they Bosnian, Croatian or Serbian, but to the different regions.

Grammar

In Croatian, the infinitive is selected by modal auxiliaries majority of which is in Bosnian and Serbian often described as "da" ( that ). In Bosnian, but in each case both variants are generally permitted, eg

• Bosnian / Serbian: Moram because radim ( " I have to work ", literally "I have that I work " )
• Croatian: Moram raditi ( " I have to work " )

There are also in the Bosnian language differences in number words:

• Bosnian ( and predominantly Croatian): četverica muškaraca, Serbian: četvorica muškaraca ( four men )
• Bosnian ( and predominantly Croatian): petero djece, Serbian: Petoro dece ( five children)

Alphabet and Pronunciation

The Bosnian alphabet has 30 letters:

A, b, c, č, ć, d dž, đ, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, lj, m, n, nj, o, p, r, s, š, t, u, v, z, ž.

The letters q, w, x, y occur only in foreign proper names, what stands out especially in foreign words (eg Phoenix = feniks not fenix ). The digraphs dž, lj and nj are treated in alphabetical order in each case as a single letter. There are only a very small number of words in which these groups of characters designate two separate sounds and therefore must be treated as two letters ( eg " nadživjeti " - someone survive ).

The majority of the letters are pronounced on the whole, as in German.

Grammar

Considered Grammatically, the Bosnian seven cases (case ): nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, vocative, instrumental, and locative. The grammar is - with few exceptions - almost identical to that of the Croatian and the Serbian.

Controversies

The term " Bosnian language" ( bosanski jezik bosn. ) is very controversial among linguists. Some Serbian or Croatian currents prefer the term " Bosnian language" ( " bošnjački jezik " ), because in their opinion the language is spoken by all Bosnians, but only by Bosniaks and thus represents an attempt by the minority oppression. However, such views often arise from political rather than linguistic argumentation.

Some language experts question the existence of language in general in question because of the cultural differences were summarized for political reasons in the language.

The term " Bosnian ", however, is recognized internationally and is also used in the Dayton Agreement.