Teach Yourself Complete Serbian - 2 Audio CDs and Book
2 CDs and Book
Are you looking for a complete course in Serbian which takes you effortlessly from beginner to confident speaker? Whether you are starting from scratch, or are just out of practice, Complete Serbian will guarantee success! Now fully updated to make your language learning experience fun and interactive. You can still rely on the benefits of a top language teacher and our years of teaching experience, but now with added learning features within the course and online. The course is structured in thematic units and the emphasis is placed on communication, so that you effortlessly progress from introducing yourself and dealing with everyday situations, to using the phone and talking about work.
By the end of this course, you will be at Level B2 of the Common European Framework for Languages: Can interact with a degree of fluency and spontaneity that makes regular interaction with native speakers quite possible without strain for either party. Learn effortlessly with a new easy-to-read page design and interactive features:
NOT GOT MUCH TIME?
One, five and ten-minute introductions to key principles to get you started.
AUTHOR INSIGHTS
Lots of instant help with common problems and quick tips for success, based on the author's many years of experience.
GRAMMAR TIPS
Easy-to-follow building blocks to give you a clear understanding.
USEFUL VOCABULARY
Easy to find and learn, to build a solid foundation for speaking.
DIALOGUES
Read and listen to everyday dialogues to help you speak and understand fast.
PRONUNCIATION
Don't sound like a tourist! Perfect your pronunciation before you go.
TEST YOURSELF
Tests in the book and online to keep track of your progress.
EXTEND YOUR KNOWLEDGE
Extra online articles at: www.teachyourself.com to give you a richer understanding of the culture and history of Serbia.
TRY THIS
Innovative exercises illustrate what you've learnt and how to use it.
The first widely available title covering Serbian only
Practice exercises in every unit help you remember what you've learnt
Comprehensive - the book covers a wide range of topics and introduces both the Latin and the Cyrillic alphabets to enable you to communicate in any situation you may encounter.
Practise listening and speaking skills with the two hours of accompanying recorded material available on CD
Table of Contents:
Introduction
Welcome to Teach Yourself Serbian
The structure of Teach Yourself Serbian
How to use this course
Serbia - history
Serbia - today
The Serbian language
Unit 1 Beginning Serbian
Unit 2 Greetings and introductions
Unit 3 Do you speak Serbian?
Unit 4 Ordering a drink
Unit 5 Ordering food
Unit 6 Going shopping
Unit 7 In town
Unit 8 Directions
Unit 9 Arriving in Belgrade
Unit 10 At home with the family
Unit 11 Planning a holiday
Unit 12 Buying travel tickets
Unit 13 Daily routine
Unit 14 Free time
Unit 15 Celebrations
Unit 16 Health matters
Unit 17 Buying clothes
Unit 18 Meeting in Novi Sad
Unit 19 On the telephone
Unit 20 Accommodation
Key to exercises
Transcripts to listening comprehensions
Glossary of grammatical terms
Grammar summary
Serbian-English vocabulary
English-Serbian vocabulary
Grammar index
Taking it further
About the Author:
Davis Norris has taught Serbian and Croatian Studies since 1980. He is currently Senior Lecturer at the University of Nottingham. Vladislava Ribnikar is lecturer at the School of Slavonic Studies, University of Nottingham and a native speaker of Serbian.
About the Serbian Language
The Serbian language is a South Slavic language, spoken chiefly in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia, and in the Serbian diaspora. Standard Serbian is based on Shtokavian dialect, like modern Croatian and Bosnian (formerly known as Serbo-Croatian), with which it is mutually intelligible, and was previously unified with under the standard known as Serbo-Croatian. It counts among official (and minority) languages of Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia, Romania, Republic of Macedonia and Hungary.
Two alphabets are used to write Serbian: a variation on the Cyrillic alphabet, devised by Vuk Stefanović Karadžić, and a variation on the Latin alphabet, devised by Ljudevit Gaj. Serbian orthography is very consistent: approximation of the principle "one letter per sound". This principle is represented by Adelung's saying, "Write as you speak and read as it is written", the principle used by Vuk Karadžić when reforming the Cyrillic orthography of Serbian in the 19th century.
Serbian can be written in two different alphabets: Serbian Cyrillic script (ћирилица) and the Serbian Latin (latinica). Both were promoted in Yugoslavia. The Cyrillic script is Serbia's official under the 2006 Constitution of Serbia, but the Latin alphabet is equally used with the Cyrillic alphabet in Serbian language, according to the Serbian orthography. The Latin alphabet was first officially used in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later Kingdom of Yugoslavia). Also, among others, a famous Serbian literary historian and critic Jovan Skerlić proposed abandoning the Cyrillic script and accepting Latin as the only alphabet.
Before 1400, most Serbian vernaculars had two accents, both with fall intonation—the short one and the long one. That is why they are called "old accents". By 1500, the old accents moved by one syllable towards the beginning of the word, changing their quality to rising accents. For instance junâk (hero) became jùnāk. The old accents, logically remained only when they were on first syllable. Not all dialects had that evolution; those who had it are called neo-shtokavian. The irradiation point was in east Herzegovina, between Prokletije mountains and town of Trebinje. Since the 1500s people had been emigrating from this area. The biggest migrations were to the north, then toward Military Krajina and to the seaside (Dalmatia, Istria, Dubrovnik area, including islands of Mljet and Šipan). In 1920s and 1930s royal government tried to settle people from this poor mountainous area to Kosovo basin. Vojvodina was settled with inhabitants from this area after WWII.
When all old accents had moved to the beginning of the word for one syllable, this was the result:
* In words with two or more syllables the last syllable cannot be stressed
* One-syllable words can have only falling accents
* In polysyllabic words, if an inner syllable is stressed, then it can have only a rising accent (there are exceptions- in standard and in many vernaculars, for instance when there is a ` - - combination)
* In a word with two or more syllables, if the first syllable is stressed, than it can have any of the four accents.
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