Milestones on the Road Towards Imperfect Serbian – In Memory and Fantasy of a Serbian Son-in-Law (Part 1)
While attending an international literary translation project in Dublin, I was renting an apartment from a Serbian woman living there and her Irish husband Ciarán. A retired architect and a language enthusiast, he showed great interest in my literary translation endeavors and, being a native speaker of English, offered his help with selfless dedication. At the same time, he asked sharp questions about the Serbian language that often left me puzzled – when you are a native speaker, you don’t think much about rules and exceptions! Below you will find a compilation of Ciarán’s remarks about Serbian and some useful tips on how to approach learning it. Enjoy!
Milestone #1: Africa
The first Serbian words I ever heard were spoken by the men and women of Partizanski put, roadbuilders on a sugar plantation in North Sudan. They taught me few a words: voda za piće – drinking water; pivo – beer; numbers from one to ten – od jedan do deset, and a few vulgar expressions. I also learned the Serbian for “road” is “put”, which means the same as the Croatian “cesta”; at the time, while Serbo-Croatian was still the official language, it was a matter of local usage like highway in America and motorway England.
Milestone #2: Cyrillic
Later, in Libya, I found there were many Serbian speakers, great social possibilities, and frequent flights to Belgrade. To pass the time on my first Belgrade flight, I picked out some nouns from the Cyrillic signs onboard, and from a bilingual text in the in-flight magazine; when I arrived in Belgrade, I was reading the Cyrillic signs on public transport. Here, with the help of online videos, are my Six Commandments for the Serbian Cyrillic & Latin Alphabets:
1. The sounds of Serbian are represented, letter for letter, in both the Cyrillic and Latin alphabets. But the letter sequences are different.
2. Cyrillic is at the core of Serbian language and culture, but knowing it isn’t necessary. Both alphabets, Cyrillic and Latin, are in daily use throughout Serbia.
3. Anybody can learn Cyrillic from online videos. Just listen to the sounds and repeat them aloud one-by-one in alphabetical sequence until memorised. Then copy the shapes of the letters one-by-one, and repeat until memorised. Practice by figuring out everyday words like Србија, Београд, Дунав, etc.
4. The Cyrillic letter sequence is arranged so that it’s necessary to make certain adjustments of the mouth, tongue, teeth, and lips to say each letter aloud in sequence. But if you really want to practice, start with the sounds like Ћ ћ, Ч ч, Ђ ђ, Ш ш, Ж ж!
5. Again, the same sounds but in the Latin alphabet! To type Serbian text in the Latin alphabet with an English keyboard: search for a Serbian Latin alphabet and copy these modified consonants Ć ć Č č Đ đ Š š Ž ž, then paste these onto your text, use them where required, and delete afterwards.
6. True aficionados of their language and culture may insist that it is more correct to use Cyrillic than Latin – if you don't feel like perfecting it, it is totally up to you!
I hope you’ll find this piece useful! We’ll be back soon with the second part of Ciaran’s experience in learning Serbian.
While attending an international literary translation project in Dublin, I was renting an apartment from a Serbian woman living there and her Irish husband Ciarán. A retired architect and a language enthusiast, he showed great interest in my literary translation endeavors and, being a native speaker of English, offered his help with selfless dedication. At the same time, he asked sharp questions about the Serbian language that often left me puzzled – when you are a native speaker, you don’t think much about rules and exceptions! Below you will find a compilation of Ciarán’s remarks about Serbian and some useful tips on how to approach learning it. Enjoy!
Milestone #1: Africa
The first Serbian words I ever heard were spoken by the men and women of Partizanski put, roadbuilders on a sugar plantation in North Sudan. They taught me few a words: voda za piće – drinking water; pivo – beer; numbers from one to ten – od jedan do deset, and a few vulgar expressions. I also learned the Serbian for “road” is “put”, which means the same as the Croatian “cesta”; at the time, while Serbo-Croatian was still the official language, it was a matter of local usage like highway in America and motorway England.
Milestone #2: Cyrillic
Later, in Libya, I found there were many Serbian speakers, great social possibilities, and frequent flights to Belgrade. To pass the time on my first Belgrade flight, I picked out some nouns from the Cyrillic signs onboard, and from a bilingual text in the in-flight magazine; when I arrived in Belgrade, I was reading the Cyrillic signs on public transport. Here, with the help of online videos, are my Six Commandments for the Serbian Cyrillic & Latin Alphabets:
1. The sounds of Serbian are represented, letter for letter, in both the Cyrillic and Latin alphabets. But the letter sequences are different.
2. Cyrillic is at the core of Serbian language and culture, but knowing it isn’t necessary. Both alphabets, Cyrillic and Latin, are in daily use throughout Serbia.
3. Anybody can learn Cyrillic from online videos. Just listen to the sounds and repeat them aloud one-by-one in alphabetical sequence until memorised. Then copy the shapes of the letters one-by-one, and repeat until memorised. Practice by figuring out everyday words like Србија, Београд, Дунав, etc.
4. The Cyrillic letter sequence is arranged so that it’s necessary to make certain adjustments of the mouth, tongue, teeth, and lips to say each letter aloud in sequence. But if you really want to practice, start with the sounds like Ћ ћ, Ч ч, Ђ ђ, Ш ш, Ж ж!
5. Again, the same sounds but in the Latin alphabet! To type Serbian text in the Latin alphabet with an English keyboard: search for a Serbian Latin alphabet and copy these modified consonants Ć ć Č č Đ đ Š š Ž ž, then paste these onto your text, use them where required, and delete afterwards.
6. True aficionados of their language and culture may insist that it is more correct to use Cyrillic than Latin – if you don't feel like perfecting it, it is totally up to you!
I hope you’ll find this piece useful! We’ll be back soon with the second part of Ciaran’s experience in learning Serbian.