Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian, a Grammar: With Sociolinguistic Commentary

The ride is tough through a bumpy area of Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian and Montenegrin language. If you never experienced learning Slavic languages before, this book can help you but be aware that the material is not easy to comprehend. This is not a book for those who take language lightly or do not like linguistics. I have both the textbook and the grammar book: being a teacher, I would wholeheartedly recommend it to my students, but certainly not the beginners. The textbook starts harshly, with possessives and cases ... 'boom'! It is hard to understand 'why' unless you have a good teacher to explain it to you. This is not a book for an easygoing self-study. I admire the effort the authors have input in it, though. I would suggest to, please add word genders, possibly examples and anomalies to your vocabulary lists. Thanks!

I find the chapters 21 to 26, the SOCIOLINGUISTIC COMMENTARY, essential for understanding the history of the language. Author Ronelle Alexander appears to respect the three strains of the languague that have recently emanated from the dismemberment of the nation of Yugoslavia: Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian. No treatment is given to Slovenian, Kosovo-ian or Macedonian. Some words are mentioned about Montenegrin, if it too shall begin to independently develop its own language and spelling. Copyright 2006, maps are from 2005.Since the great attempt at peaceful cooperation that was the nation of Yugoslavia is now gone and done, we must face the brave new world and what will come of it. This book helps gain perspective.

I purchased this book in April, 2007 after returning from my first trip to Croatia, Bosnia and Montenegro. I contacted my native Croatian immigrant friends in my town, and she and her Croat Serb husband to tutor me once a week as well. This book has been an excellent resource but you really need the textbook to go with it. Serbo Croatian is a difficult language for any English speaker unless you already speak a foreign language and are familiar with linguistics, verb conjugations and all the rest. Certainly learning Croatian or Bosnian, which are pretty much one and the same, using latin script is the easiest way to start. Serbian is slightly different (use cyryllic script), but I assure you, if you speak one, people will understand you, even if they claim they typically can't understand each other. That's just nationalistic bias coming out. There are colloquial difference, but not much different than if you are an English speaker in the US and live in Idaho vs Louisiana, or are from Canada vs England, or New Zealand. I returned to Croatia and Bosnia in September for the month and had made considerable progress. Although my tutor says I'm only to a 5th grade level, believe, me, that is an accomplishment with such a complex language, and in only about six or seven months of study. I continue my studies in anticipation of moving to Croatia or Bosnia in the future for a job opportunity. This is an excellent resource. And my Bosnian friends here think it's good, too. By the way, I taught English as a second language to Croat, Serb and Bosnian refugees here, so...I disagree with other review.

I've been looking for a book like this for years! My fiance is Bosnian and has had a hard time teaching me to speak Bosnian. When I read this book, she's been extremely impressed with the way they describe details like proper pronounciation and the subtle differences between Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian....as well as English. I've tried the software learning approach to no avail. I've learned more in the first 2 chapters of these books than I have in the past 4 years of messing with random Bosnian learning software. I bought the combo of BCS Textbook, BCS Audio Suppliment, and BCS Grammer. Totally worth it!

I purchased used $15.82. Good condition. Great 4 learning Bosnian , Croatian and Serbian.

this book breaks down the grammar so completly that not even my native speaker husband can understand when i talk that proper... the only people who speak that perfectly are teachers...great book.... i just dont think most people need grammar that in depth. i dont regret the price though. quality book for a great price. it was just more then i need.

For my studies in slavic languages I needed a complete serbian grammar and I met one - this is a good grammar to consolidate the comprehension of the serbian language. I recomend it for those who want to have a fluid knowledge of serbian.

I'm a native Serbo-Croatian speaker and this book is absolutely amazing. I've used it to teach my fiancé a few basics in Serbo-Croatian. Go for it!

Good price, easy to understand

Ich habe die Erfahrung gemacht, dass englischsprachige Autoren bessere Lehrbücher über slavische Sprachen schreiben als deutschsprachige. Vielleicht liegt es daran, dass die englische Sprache so schwach flektierend ist und daher der Erklärungsbedarf für die Leser höher ist. Von der englischen Sprache braucht man sich nicht abschrecken zu lassen, da das Buch mit Schulenglisch durchaus lesbar ist. Als positiver Nebeneffekt wird zusätzlich noch das Englisch trainiert. Das einzige gute Lehrbuch der serbischen Sprache von einem deutschen Autor ist das zweibändige Werk von Alois Schmaus, das aber etwas Staub angesetzt hat.

Premetto che devo ancora arrivare in fondo, comunque mi sta piacendo come grammatica (così come il libro di testo), approfondita, ha rimandi interni, spiega bene le cose e credo che anche agli altri autodidatti piacerà!E' un po' mattone, certo, ma non è una colpa del libro secondo me, alla fine non è la lingua più semplice del mondo e in più qua c'è altro materiale, non è solo una grammatica.Ah, è una grammatica umana. Nel senso che non si aspetta che uno sappia già le parole di suo, gli esempi sono tradotti subito a lato (anche quello credo aiuti a far crescere di pagine il libro, ma queste sono pagine che aiutano!) non è necessario mettersi lì col vocabolario a spulciare ore, a saltare alla fine per vedere le traduzioni o cose del genere e questo conta tantissimo nello studio. Se apri una grammatica, che già di suo non sarà il libro più avvincente della tua vita, e devi anche metterti lì a tradurre ti scoraggi, con questa non capiterà.Consiglio di comprarla insieme al libro di testo, perché va abbastanza di pari passo.

Detailed and logical system and explanations, found things that even my Croatian teacher was unable to answer. A real star, and worth every money.

This book complements the language learning book along with the CD. In fact I would say you should buy all three!