Is Slovenian closer to Croatian than Bulgarian is to Serbian in terms of intelligibility?
Posted by stifenahokinga@reddit | AskBalkans | View on Reddit | 9 comments
Slovenian is really cloise to Kajkavian Croatian but not so much to Standard Croatian.
Bulgarian is close to the dialects spoken in eastern Serbia, but not so much to standard Serbian
So, is Slovenian closer to Croatian than Bulgarian is to Serbian in terms of intelligibility?
Unable-Stay-6478@reddit
Slovenian is closer to Serbian than Bulgarian is to Serbian - not by much, though.
Stverghame@reddit
Funnily enough, Slovakian sounds and looks more "natural" that either of those two south Slavic languages lol
HumanMan00@reddit
With Bulgarian its the Western dialects that are close - Easterners are hard to understand to some West Bulgariams let alone Serbs.
VeterinarianSoft1336@reddit
99% of Slovenians can understand Croatian, but <50% of Croatians can understand Slovenian. Nevertheless I sometimes understand the Croatian of my cousins from Ljubljana better than Croatian of my cousins from Zagreb.
Hrevak@reddit
99% of Slovenians older than 50 can understand Croatian.
VeterinarianSoft1336@reddit
99% was just a rough number, though when I was in Ljubljana everybody could understand me, true maybe youth less than adults who were raised in Yugoslavia, but still very impressive number.
Hrevak@reddit
What amazes me is how few Croatians understand Slovenian. 10%? Makes me doubt if an average Štokavian speaking Croat even understands Kajkavian.
VeterinarianSoft1336@reddit
Probably. I picked up a few words from my cousins, but Slovenian is still totally abstract to me. Nevertheless, some Kajkavians who are unfamiliar with the standard language are a nightmare to have a conversation with…
Judestadt@reddit
Slovenian is a bit tricky because they have like 392929 dialects.