Pronunciation.

[c0da]

Am I right in pronouncing Jainism like "Jay-nizm"?

 

[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

 

[c0da]

Hehe, thanks! I'll try and get my tounge around those!

 

[Linus]

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

My mouth hurts after trying to say that. I can Americanize it and say it pretty well, but with the rolled "r" (as I am assuming it is pronounced) it makes that much more difficult for my american mouth to say.

As far as Jainism goes, I would say that yes, you pronounce it quite correctly.

 

[Djamila]

Linus, this should help... LOL

http://media.putfile.com/Bascarsija

 

[ayani]

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

 

[Djamila]

And you think you guys have accents in different regions of North America?

Pfft...come to Bosnia, my darlings. Take a listen to these two clips. They're both of the same song from different regions, by different singers.

The song is Cajorije Sukadije (Beautiful Lady):

http://media.putfile.com/Cajorije-Sukadije-20

EDIT: I accidentally put the first version twice, but the second is still there. lol

 

[Djamila]

And here's the difference between the Muslim and Christian accent.

This song has the same verses twice, first in Ekavian (Christian) the second is Ijekavian (Muslim):

Flamingosi 2nd Place getter at Evropesma 2006

 

[Djamila]

One more especially beautiful example. This singer is Anzej, he's an ethnic Slovene - meaning he speaks a language slightly different from regular Bosnian. Here is a Slovenian, Bosnian, and English clip of the same song, all sung by him.

1. Slovenian
2. Bosnian
3. English

http://media.putfile.com/Slovenian-Bosnian-English

 

[c0da]

Woah! They are a Bosnian version of the Blues Brothers! Thats brilliant.

 

[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]

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]

juh- inn

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

James

 

[Doktormartini]

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).