EasyCroatian_r47.an

Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / Introducon 6 / 600
Introduction
This is a simple introduction to the Croatian language, where you can learn the very
basics easily. (At least I hope so.)
It’s currently under construction: some parts are completed, some are not even
started.
Two warnings. First, I’m not a professional language teacher or linguist. Second,
English is not my native tongue so you will probably find some bad English in this
‘course’. Feel free to correct me.
If you’re an expert in Croatian, or have read some book with very detailed
descriptions of Croatian grammar, etc. and want to ask me why something is not
described here, please bear in mind that this ‘course’ is intentionally lightweight and
focuses on performance and not learning all the details and formal rules.
What is Croatian? There’s no single answer. Strictly speaking, ‘languages’ are a kind
of abstractions and oversimplifications. There’s language on the public TV, but
there’s also language on the streets, in movies, books and songs. People in Croatia
don’t speak a ‘monolithic’ language, despite being portrayed so in many
introductory, and even advanced texts. There’s a lot of regional variation, and in
some parts of Croatia, extraordinary local diversity is found. This affects not only
the language spoken at home, but also how people talk in public, certain words and
grammar rules. I will attempt to give at least an overview of all such variations:
places of significant variation within Croatia will be marked with a ® mark, and
explained at the end of each chapter.
In this work, I’ll use ‘Croatian’ as ‘what is most common in use in Croatia’, especially
in in everyday communication, e.g. at work, at university, in shops, at least in bigger
cities, that is, how most people today speak (which is not uniform, as you will
immediately see).
It turns out that the language most people in Croatia use is very close to what
people in Bosnia-Herzegovina use, and quite similar to what many people in Serbia
use. There are no sharp lines between Croatian, Bosnian and Serbian (defined as
how people actually speak in these countries). Actually, the diversity within Croatia
is much greater than e.g. difference between the standard languages you can hear
on Croatian and Serbian public TV.
However, this means if you’re really interested in Bosnian or Serbian, this ‘course’
could be very useful to you; differences are small and I will summarize them at the
end. Through this ‘course’, all important differences are marked: words that are
really different are also marked with a ® mark, and such differences are explained at
the end of each chapter. What applies to Bosnian, usually applies to Montenegrin as
well. If you are interested in Croatian only, simply ignore such remarks.