To all Serbo-Croatian speakers: What dialect do you speak where?

Posted by Different_Poem5013@reddit | AskBalkans | View on Reddit | 74 comments

Storytime:

Came back from a 1-month trip to Montenegro and Croatia, speaking Serbian/Croatian a lot, in many different contexts.

I was invited to a Balkan home (in Montenegro, on the coast) and the dialect didn’t really change - it was pretty much Standard Ijekavian Serbian (with a few Montenegrin features) all the way.

However, when I was in Dubrovnik, chatting informally with a taxi driver, he had a strong Dalmatian accent (ja san, s tobon, etc., heavy ikavian, etc.) but the words were again, pretty much standard.

Do you speak Standard at home? With friends? What about the majority of people?

(As a foreigner, I personally speak Ijekavian Štokavian, just substituting regional vocabulary as necessary in Serbia/Bosnia/Croatia/Montenegro. I freely mix “hoću ići” and “hoću da idem,” mostly use šta instead of što, and can just adapt my speech based on who I’m speaking with.)

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Antibacterial_Cat@reddit

Outside, I speak in Shtokavian. At home, among my own people, I speak in Torlakian.

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vllaznia35@reddit

Mostly Montenegrin with clear Albanian and Sarajevo influences

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NaxTZays@reddit

Jel to samo mene živcira ili još nekoga što odjednom je sve Serbo-Croatian kao da je to jedan jezik. Imaš Hrvatski pa imaš Srpski. To su dva različita jezika.

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Breezeshadow176@reddit

Auu kako su različiti, Srbi kažu mleko a mi mlijeko 😱 trebamo prevoditelja!!!!

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Different_Poem5013@reddit (OP)

Doslovno je isti jezik, ako želiš možemo razgovarati o ovome

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External-Site9171@reddit

People from Dubrovnik don't speak ikavian. They speak east Herzegovinian similar to Trebinje

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Different_Poem5013@reddit (OP)

I think he may have been from further up the coast or somewhere in the hinterland in that case

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DartVejder@reddit

Eastern Herzegovinan dialect (p'jeebiga, promakl'o), spoken mainly by Serbs west of Drina.

This is a different dialect than both Sumadija-Vojvodina (nije guzva nego je katastrofa) spoken by Serbs in Serbia and Eastern Bosnian (kisla mi gloOova, ljudi) which is spoken by Bosniaks.

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mihjok@reddit

Eastern Herzegovinian is the standard dialect, picked by both Dubrovnik Republic in the 15-16th century and Vuk Karadzic in the 19th century

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CmdrJemison@reddit

I speak croatian ,bosnian ,serbian, montenegrin and serbocroatian.

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Ill-Independence-553@reddit

Oh, you multilingual rascal! 🤭🤭

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enilix@reddit

Regarding the last sentence in your post, well... Not even people from Croatia can be bothered to use the native month names, we usually just use the numbers (e.g., "first month", "second month", etc.).

I'm from Nova Gradiška (Slavonia, near the border with Bosnia) and I speak the Shtokavian dialect, but not the standard variant (it's a common misconception that Shtokavian = standard). For example, we often omit vowels and sometimes consonants, so for example, "napravit ću" becomes "naprav't ću", "nedjelja" becomes "ned'lja", "nemam" becomes "neam", the final "-i" in the infinitive is always dropped (for example, ić, doć, uzet, etc.). We have the pitch accent system and the accent often shifts (so for example, "u školu" is pronounced as one word with the accent on "u" and a long o (úško:lu)).

We use a lot of Turcisms (avlija, pendžer, peškir, patike, kašika, komšija, etc. - some of these are considered standard in the Serbian and Bosnian varieties). The pronoun "what?" is "šta?" in my dialect, I never say "što?". Also, when people from Zagreb and other regions hear me talk, they often think I'm from Bosnia. Oh, and I use my dialect pretty much everywhere (at home, at work, anywhere in the BCMS speaking area).

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Ill-Independence-553@reddit

Haha ja Daruvačan rodom! To je ta zapadnoslavonska spika! Živ'jo, komšija prekobrda! 😁😁 Nek si tenisice i ručnik nabiju u dupe. Jedino što oko Daruvara nije kašika, ipak je žlica. Ostalo sve isto. Bio čak vic u srednjoj na račun toga s "h": EL TI MAT KAD KU'ALA LUMPUR?! pa ljudi išli guglati kakvo je to jelo "Lumpur" 🤣 ajd baš u Daruvaru "h" još i bože pomozi, ali okolna sela i prigradska naselja = 0 bodova

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Fear_mor@reddit

Isuse to me jako podsjeca na prijateljice iz Broda hahaha, one ti isto pricaju manje vise samo sto manje izbacuju i i uglavnom pricaju ijekavski.

U Os (ono gdje sam ja) je isto slicno samo sto nikad ne izbacujemo i (naci uvijek napravit cu), samo imamo ijekavske oblike sem nekih rijeci (npr. sem hahaha), uglavnom vratimo h u rijeci koje bi trebale imat po etimologiji, al s domacim rijecima imamo oblike bez h (kruv, lijeja, rana, rzati, rđa). Prenosenje naglaska bude rjedje, mada je ono cesto medju nekima, pogotovo ako se druze s ljudima van grada, pa bi reko u skolu ko i ti, samo s kratkim o, isto bi reko u grad ko ȕ grād

Turcizama isto imamo dosta, ja bi bar reko sve od ovih osim pendžer za prozor + imamo dosta srpskih, njemackih i madjarskih rijeci zbog povijesti grada; tipa đeram, ašov, perkelt, šlamperaj, rajferšlus, germa, pasulj (ne bi bas nesta cesto govorio grah, a kamoli gra) itd.

Ne znam jel to vazi i za Novu Gradisku al mi imamo… cudan odnos valjda sa sto i sta, sto nam je cesto za zasto, a sta za what, ali moze se rec i u znacenju li; „šta ideš u grad ili?”, pa moras odgovorit sa da ili ne

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Ill-Independence-553@reddit

I'm originally from western Slavonia and speak exactly the same as the guy from Nova Gradiška, meaning I have a pitch accent "Idem uškolu. Stali smo pretkuću." Since I live in Osijek, in the very East of the country, for half of my life, I do tend to have longer vowel lengths as usual.

I never use "što" but exclusively "šta". "Što" would rather mean "Why?" in my dialect - "A što ne'š sa mnom?"

On the contrary to the urban pronunciation in Osijek I kept some features from my original subdialect, meaning that pronouncing the "h" is literally a Mission Impossible for me so I say "kuVati" instead of kuhati or "gra" instead of "grah".

Being from the mountainous part of Slavonija means that my č and ć did not get merged. Neither did they in Osijek among all of the speakers. I would say it's a 50/50 situation there.

My original dialect has an ekavian-ijekavian pronunciation of "yat" since bordering the Podravina ekavian dialects (not the kajkavian ones!) so it would be: dve, vreme, breg... To put it together like this: not every long yat becomes an "e" but only the "covered" one due to the d+(ij)e or vr+(ij)e clusters.

It sounds complicated, but my speech actually does sound quite standard, don't get confused by a longish explanation 🤣

And it will always be PEŠKIR and PATIKE. Kašika more or less. But they can put the ručnik and tenisice up to their asses, I'm never adopting that 😅🤣

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Realistic_Cut_9597@reddit

I don't speak Serbo-Croatian, but I always thought that Serbs sound more oriental and Croats sound more Eastern European like Russians and Ukrainians.

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Dujmo999@reddit

Half of family speaks kajkavian from zagorje, the other speaks cakavian from an island near rijeka. I can speak both, but i prefer kajkavian.

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jebac_keve_finalboss@reddit

I speak a standard Serbian with a slight southern influence to it.

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Ok-Health-3929@reddit

I speak Bosnian (using Turcisms that my Croatian friend had never heard before) with a German accent so everyone in Bosnia knows I'm a diaspora r*tard. Once in a tea shop in Sarajevo an older dude correctly guessed I'm from Mostar but honestly no clue how my terrible accent led him to that.

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Gladius_Bosnae_Sum@reddit

Essentially a Germano-Herzegovinian accent? What is God punishing you for?

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Ok-Health-3929@reddit

That one time I parked in front of my neighbor's garage and went away and he called my parents on the landline but mobile phone usage wasn't that normalized back then and I just took a walk and did some shopping and neighbor was fuming. So karma hit back on me.

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Gladius_Bosnae_Sum@reddit

🤣🤣🤣

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APadovanski@reddit

I speak chakavian (čakavski) at home and with family/friends. However, I moved up north where they speak a different dialect, so at work and with neighbours I speak mostly standard Croatian (shtokavian, štokavski),

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No-Introduction-5952@reddit

I speak a mix of štokavian and čakavian found in my village, Sveti Juraj under Senj

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the_bulgefuler@reddit

Ikavian Štokavian with my dads family, Kajkavian with my mum's and with friends/neighbours, standard Ijekavian Štokavian for inter-family communication, work and everyone else.

A bit complex but it works none the less.

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IKaizoku@reddit

What ist kajkavian? I am living in Germany but parents are from croatia. I was Born Here and am Not the best at grammatics.

For example i know Mlijeko ijekavica? Mliko ikavica (mostly serbian accent?) Mleko ??

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Different_Poem5013@reddit (OP)

Kajkavian = northwest croatia dialects, sort of a transitional between Standard Croatian and Slovene. (As a standard Serbo-Croatian speaker with some Montenegrin/Dalmatian elements mixed in, it sounds absolutely hilarious)

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jajebivjetar@reddit

Just listen to how they talk in Komiža on the island of Vis. When they show a speech on TV, they put subtitles on because no one understands them.

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TwoFistsOneVi@reddit

I refuse to believe that you can speak both ikavian stokavian and kajkavian perfectly, without listeners laughing their asses off.

The pronunciation of words is drastically different in both dialects i.e. each dialect puts focus on different vowels.

It's more certain that you speak one dialect perfectly and think that you can speak the other dialect perfectly as well.

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the_bulgefuler@reddit

I refuse to believe that you can speak both ikavian stokavian and kajkavian perfectly,

I never claimed I speak one or the other perfectly, you made that assumption. I just stated that I speak both.

without listeners laughing their asses off.

I'm certainly more of a 'native' Kajkavian speaker compared with Ikavian, and that certainly isn't lost on me. But if you're implying I speak ikavian while sounding like a Zagorje hick you're way off - you do understand its not the 1930s and most areas are way more urbanised and less isolated than they previously were.

The pronunciation of words is drastically different in both dialects i.e. each dialect puts focus on different vowels.

No shit.

It's more certain that you speak one dialect perfectly and think that you can speak the other dialect perfectly as well.

Again I never claimed I speak either dialect 'perfectly', those are your words and not mine. My accent will certainly be more Kajkavian, but aside from sound that doesn't have any bearing on pronunciation, intenation, or broader understanding of how the dialect works.

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Nitronical38@reddit

Govorin novi forma srpskohrvatski kod kuca - zove cringlish. tribat doc ode da findoutati kako mi govorimo ovi novi jezik.

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Imaginary-Librarian7@reddit

Why would anyone speak standard at home

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slatkojanje@reddit

My parents are Dalmatians who never taught me Croatian (diaspora), so I learnt it at uni and through other courses and now speak it fluently!

So yeah, unfortunately, I speak standard Croatian with a few random dalmatian/serbian words thrown in. If I tried speaking with a Dalmatian accent I'd just sound like a fraud!

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requiem_mn@reddit

Because we are born into it.

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Daj_Dzevada@reddit

central Bosnia, I feel like we don't really have a distinct accent/dialect other than maybe that we speak a bit slower

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GlitteringLocality@reddit

Well, I speak srbohrvaščina. I have a knack for languages so idk how to explain it. When I traveled to Serbia I would just speak Slovenian and plug in local dialectal words. People could understand me. Eventually I picked it up. I say on average it would take a motivated Slovene 3 months to learn it, vice versa.

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DekadentniTehnolog@reddit

Took me 6 months for slovenian. However until i was 4 years old.I was spending 90% of.time.with my grandfather from Gorski kotar and was watching Kanal A and SLO2 the whole time.

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BDP-SCP@reddit

I speak the ciakavian dialect, the south western istrian version :)
Ou accent is similar to Slovenian and we have a lot of words form italian venetians dialect. one example
hoći ići - bin poša
hoću da idem - gremo

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CmdrJemison@reddit

My grandfather spoke kajkavian while I grew up learning regular croatian. Took me a while to understand my grandfather.

Always visited his places in Zagorje & Ljubljana. Good old days.

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Panceltic@reddit

Gremoooooooo!!!!!

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-Against-All-Gods-@reddit

Koliki su spali na njejnin kušinu i brali pičurke po njejnin kršinu?

Koliki su klekli na njejni škalin, rigali natašće u njen lavandin?

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cosmic_joke420@reddit

I speak Serbian in a Hungarian accent. Why?

Because I like to fuck w people.

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namombolovo@reddit

Torlakian dialect from leskovac, kinda related to northern macedonian and eastern bulgarian. Best dialect around.

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CakiGM@reddit

I'd say Vranje speech is way closer to northern Macedonian Kumanovo speech than Leskovac speech

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namombolovo@reddit

Well, as you go to the south it gets more similar. On the border itself its basically the same.

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CakiGM@reddit

Yeah, southern Serbian, northern Macedonian and western Bulgarian Dialects are great examples of transitional dialects between 3 related languages

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AideSpartak@reddit

If you go back 100-200 years it was practically the same across the 3 borders. All of them moved to the literary norm in their respective countries

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AideSpartak@reddit

Leskovac speak like Varna :O

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vbd71@reddit

Eastern Bulgarian??

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nikolapc@reddit

Brother.

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Striking-Weakness486@reddit

Chavakian Ekavian (i.e. po kastafsku)

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Magistar_Idrisi@reddit

Some Zagreb bastardization of ijekavian štokavian. I easily switch to a light form of Kajkavian whenever I spend time in the north though.

Also, when I speak to people who are neither from Zagreb nor from the north of Croatia, I switch to some sort of... Slavonian? I don't even know why, but apparently I tend to do that.

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deviendrais@reddit

Do some people really say “hoću ići”? That sounds so robotic to me and more like “Yes, i WILL go and there’s nothing you can do to stop me”

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Magistar_Idrisi@reddit

I'd probably say "hoću ić", but yeah, it's completely normal in everyday speech.

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Unable-Stay-6478@reddit

Hoću ići is pretty normal to me. I'm from Belgrade.

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deviendrais@reddit

I know, but it feels different to “hoću da idem”. A but like “I’m going” and “i AM going”

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Obvious_Serve1741@reddit

hoću ići is standard

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Obvious_Serve1741@reddit

koristimo u imalo službenijem kontekstu, ali uobičajeno je samo redni broj mjeseca

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IKaizoku@reddit

I am totally confused now after Reading the comments.

I am Born in Germany with Christian Heritage.

My grammatic knowledge is minimal. Can you give me example words for different dialects?

I only know: mlijeko..... Mliko..... Or mleko.... For Milk. What ist kajkavian and some other Things i read in Here?

Poz iz njemacke

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Aristo95@reddit

It's a mess. Map is inaccurate, as it was made before the war, but it's still a mess. I speak Sumadija-Vojvodina dialect, which is the most common in Serbia, but not really spoken outside of Serbia.

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CakiGM@reddit

Small note those are only Shtokavian dialects

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AnteChrist76@reddit

I dont believe this map, Croats dont speak anything alike Serbs from Bosnia, tbh not even Croats from Bosnia speak like Croats from Croatia.

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Aristo95@reddit

Yeah, the map is from late 80s, things are a bit different now. Just wanted to illustrate how many dialects are there and that they dont always correspond to state borders.

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Remote_Succotash@reddit

Come to the south of Serbia to learn about (true) distinct dialects. Pirot is my favourite :)
There was a formal classification of dialects during the Serbo-Croatian (and vice versa) period in former Yugoslavia. I'm sure you can find it online. Now, those are considered completely different languages, with different origins coming from different galaxies, with the nuance that we all understand each other better than Germans understand their own dialects :)

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Camemboo@reddit

Ijekavski and štokavian.

I am Serbian from Montenegro, raised in Canada. I speak very poor kitchen Serbian I picked up mainly from my Baba and my Mom, who came to Canada at age 9.

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Gladius_Bosnae_Sum@reddit

Ša ba paša ooooovo ooooono ba.

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nikolapc@reddit

You can speak pretty much any dialect except the edge cases(zagorski, edge dalmatian and south Serbian) and everybody should understand you.

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CakiGM@reddit

I speak Prizren-South Morava sub-dialect of Prizren-Timok (a.k.a. Torlakian) dialect and Kosovo-Resava dialect. Depends on were I am I use one more often than the other, place where I live itself is pretty much transitional area between those two dialects.

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Somnic_in_Capitza@reddit

I was born in Romania to a mixed family. Father’s side are Serbs and supposedly some Bosnian. We speak/spoke standard fare Vojvodina accent - think Novi Sad. That being that, in school in Timișoara, I attended a Serbian school (back in the 80s and 90s), where the manual for “Serbian” language class was named “Уџбеник Српско-Хрватског Језика” - Manual for Serbo-Croatian language.

So I guess so with that as you will. The only other distinct accent/dialect of Serbian spoken in Romania (that I know of), is in the Dunavska Klisura region, hugging the Danube. Those guys speak like Šumadinci - think Kragujevac, Trstenik.

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Bunjo@reddit

Štokavski-ikavski from northern Bačka in Hungary. Going to Serbia or Croatia just adjust to national standards. Bigger differences between č and ć than ex-Yu, stressing syllables is a bit different and use of more loan words from German and especially Hungarian.

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