EasyCroatian_r47.an

Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 53 Giving Orders 311 / 600
imper-2 a bit unexpected razumi, and so on. However, Standard Serbian insists on
the imper-2 form razumej – according to the above rules – which is followed by very
few people in real life, and a source of endless debates on the Internet about what
is ‘right’. Even very educated public figures in Serbia vowed they will stick with
razumi, regardless of what the official Serbian grammar says.
Standard Serbian insists on the imper-2 forms boj and broj, which are rare in speech,
while Croatian allows boji and broji.
Using impf. verb in imperatives to say that we want somebody to start immediately
doing something seems (to me) less common in Croatia, and more common in
Bosnia and Serbia.
• Examples
The song Sanjaj me Dream of me, was the breakthrough hit by Novi fosili in 1977;
they soon became the most popular Croatian pop group.
The song contains just two parts, both are sung twice. The first part has a
characteristic melody:
Ugasnut će jednom ljubav naša N Our love will die out once
f
Negdje drugdje gnijezda A ćemo sviti We’ll weave nests somewhere else
Uspomene A odnijet će vrijeme N Time will carry away memories
U albumu DL ni slike G neće biti There won’t be a single picture in the album
Note how the word order is unusual, subject coming last, emphasizing words that
come first, adjectives coming after nouns. The phrase negdje drugdje somewhere
else (lit. ‘somewhere elsewhere’) is very common. The verb sviti (svije) perf. bend,
weave is seldom used, mostly with gnijezdo nest as the object. The verb odnijeti
perf. carry away is irregular; it will be explained in 65 Carry, Bring, Drive: Transport
Verbs.
The rare verb ugasnuti (ugasne) perf. go out, die out was also used in the song used
as an example in 43 And, Or, But: Basic Conjunctions – both are written by the same
person.
The last verse uses ni + G to enhance negation, meaning not even a; such
constructions will be explained in 67 Only, Except, Too: Inclusion and Exclusion.
The second part, the chorus, has a simple melody. The form sanjaj is an imperative.
The Croatian verb sanjati dream can be used both with A and o¨ + DL, and using just
A if quite common.
The second verse is a time clause (they will be explained in the next chapter). Within
it, there’s za me for me i.e. preposition + short form of pronoun, which is archaic in
speech in most regions (za mene is normally used) but found in poetry. That verse
contain a negative existential phrase with two things in G, linked by ni¨.