SERBIAN-ENGLISH

Iv PREFACE
two halves, which came to be differentiated and known under their old
tribal names of Serbs or Serbians (Srbi) and Croats or Croatians (Hrvati).
It thus, further, has come about that their language, now generally
known as Serbo-Croatian, which is essentially one and the same, is written
in both alphabets, Latin and Cyrillic, while each of the other of the
Slavonic languages is only written either in Latin or Cyrillic characters.
The Serbo-Croatian language, written in Latin characters as taught
in the schools where Roman Catholics predominate, i.e. in the western
part cf the Serbo-Croatian territory, is called Croatian written in
Cyrillio characters as taught in the eastern Orthodox half of the Serbo-
Croatian territory it is called Serbian. That is to say, the same language
can be written in either alphabet.
The Cyrillic alphabet has this advantage over the Latin, that it
represents each sound in the language by one complete letter, while the
Latin alphabet has recourse to accents placed over certain consonants
to represent some sounds, and double consonants to represent others.
But as the Latin alphabet with these additions accurately and scientifically
represents the sounds of the language, the language can be learnt
just as well from a book printed in Latin as in Cyrillic characters ; in
fact, for many who may not have time to learn the Cyrillic characters
at once, it is more practical to make a first acquaintance with the language
in the Latin alphabet.
But it must be remembered that not only are the characters of the two
alphabets dissimilar, but also their order is largely different ; that of the
Latin or Croatian alphabet is of course the same as our own, while that
of the Cyrillic or Serbian alphabet is, with certain modifications owing
to the introduction of new letters, the same as that of the Greek alphabet,
on which, indeed, it is modelled.
Grammars and dictionaries for use in Croatia use the order of the
Latin alphabet ; those for use in Serbia and Montenegro use the order
of the Cyrillic alphabet. The present volume, though for reasons of
immediate utility printed in the Latin or Croatian alphabet, is intended
for use primarily in the eastern parts of the Serbo-Croatian territory,
and therefore follows the order of the Serbian or Cyrillic alphabet, which
is here given in full with its Latin or Croatian equivalents.