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To your "dialect with an army and a navy" point, don't forget that in the US a language is taught called "Serbo-Croatian." In Serbia, it's "Serbian" and is its
by slapshot 11y ago
To your "dialect with an army and a navy" point, don't forget that in the US a language is taught called "Serbo-Croatian." In Serbia, it's "Serbian" and is its own language. In Croatia, it's "Croatian" and it is also a separate language locally despite being almost entirely mutually intelligible with speakers of the Serbian form.
(To add to the fun, in the UN it's called "Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian", but who's counting?)
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croatian_language#Sociopolitical_standpoints https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croatian_language#Sociopolitic...
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_standard_Bosnian,_Croatian_and_Serbian https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_standard_Bosnian...
- nkoren 11y agoAbsolutely, a great example! I was just on holiday in Sarajevo (a lovely place -- I'd highly recommend going there before they resume shooting at each other). It's full of insignificant little differences which really drive this point home. Where the UK/US split can create a figurative minefield of idiomatic confusion, the Bosnian/Serbian/Croatian split has created literal minefields. Annoying!
- madcaptenor 11y agoMy wife studied this language once. The department she was studying it in called it "BCS" (for Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian); she eventually just took to calling it "Bosnifuckit".