A queation about the Serbian Language

[deslidell]

As a Chinese, I am interested to know if Serbian and Russian are mutually intelligible languages. Info in this regard will be appreciated and more comparison to include Ukrainian and other Slavic languages welcomed.

Thank you.

p.s. I know Slovene is kind of very different from Serbian, but due to historical reasons do all Slovenes understand Serbian as well?

Moreover, what is the opinion of average Serbs on Marshal Tito now?

[Jasmina]

  The answer is yes too all your questions!
  Serbs don't like Tito!

[deslidell]

  The answer is yes too all your questions!
  Serbs don't like Tito!

Thank you. Cyrillic alphabet prevails or Latin in Serbia,my last question if you don't mind.

[Spectator]

As a Chinese, I am interested to know if Serbian and Russian are mutually intelligible languages.

These two languages are "relatives". They both belong to the Slavic language group and derived from common ancient Slavic language. That is why they have many identical or similar words.

But today, they have significant differences in grammar, lexics and phonetics. For example, Serbian has the forms of the verb "to be" (am, are, is) and they are normally used in the language, whereas modern Russian has none. In my mind, the distance between Russian and Serbian is like distance between English and German - they too derived from the common root but today they are quite different.

Russian is my native language. When I hear fluent Serbian speech, I can understand perhaps 20-30 % of the meaning, no more.

P.S. Serbian is a beautiful language. I want to improve my skills in it. Is there a good grammar book online?

[Jasmina]

  Cirilic prevails in Serbia! Please forgive me if I was too fast in my last answer, but I didn't have time to write long answer!
  I could try to answer it now: about Tito! He was Croat communist who took over Yugoslavija and who didn't allowed to 300,000 refugies Serbs to go back to their home to KOSOVO! Those 300,000 ran away from their home because of the Albanians criminal gangs durring the Second World War . He did't just do that, but he colonized thousands of Albanians in South Serbia (Kosovo) and later tried to brake Serbian unity by founding "autonomic" states Kosovo and Vojvodina! There was the Serbian mistake because they did't protest against this bastard named Tito!

[deslidell]

I appreciate all replies. They are all very informative.

I have a strong interest in trying to understand the Balkan peoples,especially their divisive history.

[JusticeForSerbs]

As a Chinese, I am interested to know if Serbian and Russian are mutually intelligible languages. Info in this regard will be appreciated and more comparison to include Ukrainian and other Slavic languages welcomed.

Thank you.

p.s. I know Slovene is kind of very different from Serbian, but due to historical reasons do all Slovenes understand Serbian as well?

Moreover, what is the opinion of average Serbs on Marshal Tito now?

Here, let me try to explain it to you...
All slavic languages are very similar. I can very much understand a Czech, Slovak, Polak, Slovenian, Macedonian and I have some dificulties with undestanding Russian, Ukrainian, Belarus. That is because of great distance and history...
The most perfected alphabet is the, so called, a phonetic alphabet (one phonem - one character assigned to that phonem). And only Serbs developed such an alphabet. It is called - Cyrillic. The Cyrillic that is used by Serbs is a phonetic alphabet.

Tito was a vicious snake. We believed him, and we loved him, but the time showed that he had in mind to destroy us silently! Lucky he died!
He did a great national damage to Serbs!!!

[Sirbata]

I must add something that is goofy...

There is a saying in Serbia...   " Speak Serbian so that the whole world can understand you" This is a reference to honor, honesty and humanity.

[deslidell]

Thanks for all replies again.

In China, there is a very amicable feeling toward former Yugoslav peoples, although few know their history and understand why the country was split. How is the economy of Serbia today? By per capita GDP standard, it looks significantly lower than European average.

[Kerber]

Thanks for all replies again.

In China, there is a very amicable feeling toward former Yugoslav peoples, although few know their history and understand why the country was split. How is the economy of Serbia today? By per capita GDP standard, it looks significantly lower than European average.

Average monthly earnings are about 250 euros,so you can count yearly amount.
About 1 million unemployed of 7,5 millions population(not counting Kosovo and Metohiya Albanians).

[Nik_Srb]

Thanks for all replies again.

In China, there is a very amicable feeling toward former Yugoslav peoples, although few know their history and understand why the country was split. How is the economy of Serbia today? By per capita GDP standard, it looks significantly lower than European average.

Well most people in serbia like the Chinese,a country with one of the oldest cultures