Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian, a Textbook: With Exercises and Basic Grammar

by Ronelle Alexander, Ellen Elias-Bursać

With the disintegration of Yugoslavia has come a shifting of linguistic boundaries, chiefly along political lines. Out of this complex situation three official languages have Croatian in Croatia, Serbian in Serbia, and both these languages plus Bosnian in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian, a Textbook introduces the student to all three. Dialogues and exercises appear in each language, presented side by side for easy comparison; in addition, Serbian is rendered in both its Latin and its Cyrillic spellings. Teachers may choose a single language to use in the classroom, or they may want to familiarize students with all three. Features of the textbook •All dialogues, exercises, and homework assignments available in Bosnian, Croatian, or Serbian
•Classroom exercises designed for both small-group and full-class work, allowing for maximum oral participation
•Reading selections written by Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian authors especially for this book
•Vocabulary lists for each individual section and full glossaries at the end of the book
•A short animated film, on an accompanying DVD, for use with chapter 15
•Brief grammar explanations after each dialogue, with cross-reference to more detailed grammar chapters in Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian, a Grammar
Available separately, the audio supplement (ISBN 0-299-22110-5) offers audio recordings of all dialogues in Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian, a Textbook.

Genres: Reference, Nonfiction, Language

500 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2006

Reviews

[Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

It gets points for being essentially the only such textbook for learning Serbo-Croatian. However within the very first lesson it translates the Serbian Cyrillic 'C' as a Croatian 'C', which it very much isn't. A Serbian Cyrillic 'C' is a Croatian 'S'. This wasn't just in some random sentence either, it's in the CYRILLIC ALPHABET GUIDE. I appreciate how ambitious this book is, but if they are going to make such unforgivable mistakes how can I trust the rest of the book to teach me correctly?

[Fiana · Rating 4 out of 5]

B/C/S are such niche languages that you kind of have to take what you can get when it comes to learning material. I worked with a private tutor for two years and she used this textbook to help guide our agenda each week. The book certainly isn’t perfect as there’s a fair amount of outdated vocabulary at this point and the authors have a tendency to overcomplicate examples unnecessarily. Additionally, the explanations on grammar (which are written in English for much of the book) are difficult for even a native English speaker to interpret! That said, it’s much better than the sparse set of alternatives out there.

Best of luck to anyone attempting to learn these languages!

[Annyaka · Rating 4 out of 5]

Must read the blue book, grammar and sociolinguistic commentary to better know what’s going on. I had to put word ranges on each page of the glossary. Glossary is good. Verbose to the max and written for linguists more than the regular language student.