Customer Reviews

Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian, a Grammar: With Sociolinguistic Commentary

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This elegant book does it all. It presents a thorough, linguistically rigorous grammar of a sometimes extremely foreign language in a form accessible to everyone from beginners to practiced speakers. The discussion is lucid, with plenty of examples, and is infused with a good teacher's enthusiasm for the subject and sensitivity to the reader's needs. Anything but dry, it abounds with useful observations, many focusing on the particular difficulties presented by "BCS" to English-speaking learners.

The grammatical material is presented in an order that presumably complements the companion volume, a textbook with exercises. That could take some getting used to for an experienced speaker of the language: if you want to read all about verbs, for instance, you have to locate and read many short sections distributed through the book. A complete discussion of the verb or any similar topic is thus presented in segments a beginner can grasp, laid out in an order that a beginner can follow, with no compromise of scholarly detail and accuracy. The attractive layout and typography aid in the endeavor.

The descriptive grammar is followed by a "sociolinguistic commentary" which raises a fine scholarly achievement to a yet more useful level. The student of BCS must deal with a situation in which people who understand each other with ease insist that they speak different languages, others who understand each other barely or not at all admit only to speaking different dialects, and the cultural history apparently entitles anyone to despise half of his or her colinguists according to whether or not they pronounce a "y" sound before the letter "e." All of this receives careful, clear explanation, illustrated with maps and complemented by painstaking notes to the grammatical examples. As in the grammar, the author's eagerness to help the reader understand is everywhere apparent.

PROS:
- Comprehensive and detailed treatment of grammatical topics in Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian (BCS)
- Balanced presentation and comparison of grammatical topics and examples.
- Includes a readable and accessible introduction to the history and sociolinguistics of "old" Serbo-Croatian and "new" BCS

CONS:
- None

The grammatical sections are set up in the same sequence as that of the corresponding BCS textbook by Alexander and Elias-Bursac. This reference of grammar is useful in that it goes into greater detail than what's in the textbook and may provide a "second opinion" to someone who is unsure about something in the textbook. The examples that are used to illustrate grammatical topics also have the added benefit of being marked as being used most frequently by Bosnians, Croats or Serbs.

The history and sociological survey should be required reading for anyone who is just starting to study BCS or wondering why some people from the former Yugoslavia still become emotional or sensitive about their language(s). In fact I would venture to say that these same people of the former Yugoslavia would do well to read Alexander's survey for it's a detached and balanced description of the subordination/hijacking of language to fulfill political or sociological aims. I found that reading it was instructive and a reminder than most of us English speakers are relatively fortunate in not having questions about language usage tied as closely or violently to being part of "good guys" or "bad guys".

Overall, it's a valuable source of information and no one can go wrong by having it on his/her shelf when studying BCS.

I speak the language fluently, but I needed something to keep me going on studying the grammar. This book works great for what I need! For beginners it would work really well as well as for advanced speakers. Highly recommended!

this book breaks down the grammar so completly that not even my native speaker husband can understand when i talk that proper... the only people who speak that perfectly are teachers...

great book.... i just dont think most people need grammar that in depth. i dont regret the price though. quality book for a great price. it was just more then i need.

I purchased this book in April, 2007 after returning from my first trip to Croatia, Bosnia and Montenegro. I contacted my native Croatian immigrant friends in my town, and she and her Croat Serb husband to tutor me once a week as well. This book has been an excellent resource but you really need the textbook to go with it. Serbo Croatian is a difficult language for any English speaker unless you already speak a foreign language and are familiar with linguistics, verb conjugations and all the rest. Certainly learning Croatian or Bosnian, which are pretty much one and the same, using latin script is the easiest way to start. Serbian is slightly different (use cyryllic script), but I assure you, if you speak one, people will understand you, even if they claim they typically can't understand each other. That's just nationalistic bias coming out. There are colloquial difference, but not much different than if you are an English speaker in the US and live in Idaho vs Louisiana, or are from Canada vs England, or New Zealand. I returned to Croatia and Bosnia in September for the month and had made considerable progress. Although my tutor says I'm only to a 5th grade level, believe, me, that is an accomplishment with such a complex language, and in only about six or seven months of study. I continue my studies in anticipation of moving to Croatia or Bosnia in the future for a job opportunity. This is an excellent resource. And my Bosnian friends here think it's good, too. By the way, I taught English as a second language to Croat, Serb and Bosnian refugees here, so...I disagree with other review.

For my studies in slavic languages I needed a complete serbian grammar and I met one - this is a good grammar to consolidate the comprehension of the serbian language. I recomend it for those who want to have a fluid knowledge of serbian.

This is a good book for learning Serbian, and Bosnian, but it's not really suitable for Croatian.
The author gives you examples from Croatian literature when she finds them appropriate for usage she is trying to promote,
but when there's something she does not like (which is not shared with Serbian and Bosnian) she says
''Bosnians and Serbs cannot say such sentences at all, and that many Croats reject them as well.'' (page 305).


Even my highschool grammar (Hrvatska gramatika by Baric, Loncaric. Malic, Pavesic, Peti , Zecevic i Znika)
has a chapter on ''Obezlicenje'' (Impersonalization) with numerous examples taken from Croatian literature (from A. Šenoa
to S. Novak).

'' Obezlicenje'' (Impersonalization) is found in Croatian, Spanish and (Brazilian) Portuguese:

1. Roditelji se vole. = Se aman/quieren los padres. = Amam-se os pais. (Parents love each other) ''pronominal reciprocal'';

different than:

2. Roditelje se voli. = Se ama/quiere a los padres. = Ama-se os pais. (Parents are [to be] loved) ''impersonal se''

So, you should take this grammar with a grain of salt.

This book presumes to teach three languages at once: a task which is simplified by the fact that the three languages are, historically and in practice, effectively the same. Due to the recent conflicts within the former Yugoslavia, the author presents them on near equal footing as "BCS", indicating the general variations of dialect appropriately in the book.

While the book makes a noble attempt to explain the sometimes counter-intuitive (from a Latinic and Germanic perspective, at least) syntax of "BCS" grammar, this book, and its accompanying text, ultimately, leave something to be desired. While the author is clearly versed in etymology as a professor of Slavic languages (and in that sense, the grammar is, to my knowledge, accurate), my impression is that the usage is quite out of place. That is, whatever I have learned by studying Ronelle Alexander's "BCS" isn't quite Bosnian, Croatian, or Serbian, but the made up language that American students of foreign languages end up speaking when we study a language from a textbook, without reference to any primary sources. I don't regret the purchase of the book, as it is the only one available of its scope, but would prefer to read a text written by a native of the former Yugoslavia.

I will try to update this review in a few years if my opinion changes.