Pronunciation. (America, Jainism)

[Djamila]

^ They're actually Serbian and Montenegrin nationals, coDa.

[c0da]

Is the latin alphabet used in places like Bosnia and Serbia? Are there special characters used as well? Some of the sounds used sound so different

[Djamila]

Latin is used in Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro. Cyrillic is used in Serbia and Macedonia.

And yes, there are special characters. This a sample for you, with the Bosnian alphabet on top and the Serbian alphabet in the middle. I have no idea what the alphabet in brackets is, probably a pronunciation key.



You can see there are many English letters which do not exist in Bosnian (Q, X, etc.) and many Bosnian letters than do not exist in English.

[c0da]

Thats very interesting, thanks.

Which alphabet is predominantly used in Serbia and Montenegro and by the government? I can imagine it might get quite frustrating to have two different alphabets in the one country?

[Djamila]

The government in Serbia probably uses both Cyrillic and Latin, with Cyrillic being dominant. The Serbian population is certainly fluent in both. Moderates will be indifferent and nationalists will prefer Cyrillic since it is immediately synonymous with Serbian.

In Bosnia, Orthodox Christians generally use Cyrillic everywhere the government hasn't forced them to use Latin. Most Bosnians of a certain age can read both, those my age and younger would struggle to read Cyrillic if they are Muslim or Roman Catholic. It was purged from our... everything... after the war. Again, because it is immediately synonymous with Serbian.

[c0da]

Many Thanks You have been very helpful.

[Milind2469]

juh- inn

[James the Persian]

Originally Posted by gracie

phonetically though, it may be closer to jine-izm (rhymes with shine). no? maybe?

Yes. From what I understand from Indian friends Jain sounds more like line than lane.

While we're on interesting pronunciations. Anyone care to hazard a guess as to how to pronounce oaie (Romanian for sheep)?

James

[James the Persian]

Originally Posted by Milind2469

juh- inn

Yes, that looks about like what my Indian freinds say - nearly rhyming with line but with the vowels more separated.

James

[Doktormartini]

Originally Posted by Djamila

As far as I know, yes. You should be asking about English words, though, those you should know.

Try some Bosnian words on for size...

Djamila, for example = Jaw-me-lah

Bascarsija (Old Market) = Bash-Char-She-Yah

Bosna (Bosnia) = Boss-nyah (No Z you Ango butchers!)

Sarajevo = Sa-rye-yay-vo

This is kinda old to bring up, but I can pronounce all those words and I'm American. That's probably because languages is one of my hobbies (which is odd since I can't fully speak another language besides English).