THE SERBIAN LANGUAGE (SRPSKI JEZIK)

Serbian is a South Slavic language spoken mainly in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina,
Montenegro, Croatia, and Macedonia by about 9-10 million people. It is official in Serbia, and is
the principal language of the Serbs.
Serbian is currently written with both the Cyrillic and Latin alphabets, which are both
officially recognised, although Cyrillic was made the official script of Serbia's government in
2006.
The Serbian language has two variations (ekavski and ijekavski) which differ according to
how the old sound

(jat) is applied in modern speech. In ekavski E is used, for example lepa

devojka (beautiful girl), whilst in ijekavski either je or ije is used. for example lijepa djevojka.

Phonetic Sounds, letters and scripts

The Serbian Language has 30 sounds (phonemes), and the same number of letters.
Serbian Cyrillic

Serbian Latin

In the Cyrillic script each phonetic sound is represented by an individual Cyrillic letter. In
the Roman script three phonetic sounds are represented by two letters, LJ, NJ and D.

ABECEDA
(Roman script = Serbian Latin)

Pronunciation of difficult letters

OVEK, AJ (tongue is touching upper palate; hard letter; as in English word chalk)

URKA (soft letter; top of the tongue is touching lower teeth; middle part of the tounge

is touching upper palate and upper teeth; no equivalent in English)

DEP (similar tounge position as , only you are also moving lower lip; hard letter;

many equivalents in English - d as in gin, Jerry, John, Jack)

AK, UBRE (soft letter; no equivalent in English; similar tongue position as , only

tongue is lower)

LJ

LJUBAV, LJILJANA (soft letter, as soft L; no real equivalent in English, but similar to L

in milion; tongue is down, touching lower teeth; mouth is half open)

NJ

NJUITI, NJEN (soft letter, as soft N; no real equivalent in English, but similar to N in

onion; both lips forward, tongue linned on low teeth)

UMA (sound like when you want to make silence shhhhh)

ZVONO, ZUB (sound like bees buzzing, zzzzzzzz; like in English zest)

ENA, IVOT (sound like stronger Z, like in English pleasure)

Exercise:
READ LETTERS AND WORDS:
(PROITAJ SLOVA I REI:)

IZMA

OVEK

Nj

NjIVA

IRAFA

ABA

Lj

LjUBAV

LjUDI

ZVEZDA

ZMAJ

NEBO

METAR

OKO

BORBA

BRAT

POLITIKA

PISMO

ROAK

RUA

DOBAR

DAN

READING (ITANJE)

U CARA TROJANA KOZJE UI

Synopsis
The emperor Trojan had goat's ears, but kept this fact a secret from the populace. Every
day, he had a new barber whom he would ask if he noticed anything strange; when the man
answered that he had goat's ears, he was put to death. One day, an apprentice went, and said that
he saw nothing strange, so he remained as the emperor's barber. The apprentice found his secret
troubling him. His master advised him to tell him, the master, or his pastor, or to whisper it into a
hole in the ground.
The apprentice dug a hole, whispered into it that the emperor had goat's ears, and filled it
up again. An elder tree grew there, someone cut a branch and made a flute, but the only thing the
flute would play was "The Emperor Trojan has goat's ears."
The news spread, and the emperor discovered it and wormed the secret out of the
apprentice. He had the last branch cut and found the flute made from it was the same. He spared
the apprentice's life but did not keep him on
as his barber.

Bio jedan car koji se zvao Trojan.

Imao je kozje ui. Svakog dana je dolazio
po jedan berberin da ga brije. Posle brijanja,
car bi svakog od njih upitao ta je video.
Svaki je odgovorio: "Kozje ui". Potom bi
car naredio da ga poseku. Doao je red na
jednog berberina koji se napravi bolestan i
posla svoga uenika kod cara.

Nakon to je momak obrijao cara, car i njega upita ta je video, na ta on odgovori da nije
video nita.
Car mu dade 12 dukata i ree mu da on od sada uvek dolazi da ga brije. Momak je
redovno odlazio da ga brije i od svih tajio da car ima kozje ui. uvanje tajne ga je vremenom
sve vie muilo, da se zbog toga skoro razboleo.
To je njegov majstor primetio i stalno ga je pitao ta mu je. Na to mu momak jednom
odgovori: "Da mi je da nekom kaem odmah bi mi bilo lake". Majstor mu onda predlo. "Kai
meni, ja neu nikom kazati, a ako nee meni, a ti izai u polje pa iskopaj jamu, te zavuci glavu u
nju, pa tri puta ka ta te mui, te opet jamu zatrpaj".
Momak tako i uini. Iskopa jamu, zavue glavu u nju i tri puta ree: "U cara Trojana
kozje ui", zagrnu zemlju i ode kui.
Posle izvesnog vremena iz jame nikne zova. obani od nje napravie svirale. Kad su
poeli da sviraju, iz svirale izae glas: "U cara Trojana kozje ui". To se odmah razglasi po celom
carstvu i na kraju sazna to i car.
Car tada pozove momka i upita ga zato je celom narodu oglasio da su u njega kozje ui.
Momak se poe pravdati i ispria caru kako je sve bilo.
Car odlui da proveri njegovu priu, pa zajedno sa njim ode na mesto gde je jamu
iskopao. Kad tamo, jo samo jedan prut. Car naredi da se od njega napravi svirala. Odmah tako
uradie. Kad su poeli da sviraju, a ono iz svirale izlazi glas: "U cara Trojana kozje ui".
Onda se car Trojan uveri da se na zemlji nita ne moe sakriti, pa onome berberinu
oprosti ivot, i posle dopusti da svako moe dolaziti da ga brije.