Croatia will be lowering annual tourist tax for yachts.

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PS. I'll see your three cases and raise you to 7 for Croatian, with different endings for singular and plural, not always the same for adjectives and nouns, AND to top it all. different endings sometimes depending upon a soft or hard sound AND different endings in the masculine singular for whether the thing being spoken about it ANIMATE or not. Thus: vidim moj stol. (I see my table) but Vidim mojeg sina. (I see my son) in nominative it is, of course, moj sin. Whacky? But what is great is to see the gobsmacked look on a Croatian's face when you make a reasonable attempt at speaking to them in their own language.

 

[Metabarca]

Er.... do you mean Serbia? I've never seen any Cyrillic script in Slovenia. Not saying there isn't mind you, but none around Maribor when I went there last year. Nor Bled. Worry not, I know all about Croatian grammar. I've been learning about 5 years now. In fact I had a lesson via Skype this am. Slavic languages are all notorious for inflection. Did you know they are thought to have been mutually intelligible until around 1000 AD? Polish and Russian have diverged a lot since. You would almost think they did the complex grammar deliberately to confuse me.

Whoops! Of course: Serbia. No Cyrillic in Slovenia... but there are some early traces of glagolithic you'll be glad to hear!

 

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Whoops! Of course: Serbia. No Cyrillic in Slovenia... but there are some early traces of glagolithic you'll be glad to hear!

As it happens, I am just starting to read a book about Old Church Slavonic, or Slavic as some have it, but I shall only do it for amusement. Speaking of which, for fun I occasionally do a bit of pyrography at home. I have a piece of wood by the front door. One side reads, in Glagolitic, "Dobrodošli" and the other, also fortunately in Glagolitic, "Odjebo". I tried to cut and paste the, but the forum wasn't having it. I wanted try to attach them to show I am not a pathological liar, but at 4Mb they are too big for this forum's software. .

 

[[165264]]

Whoops! Of course: Serbia. No Cyrillic in Slovenia... but there are some early traces of glagolithic you'll be glad to hear!

As it happens, I am just starting to read a book about Old Church Slavonic, or Slavic as some have it, but I shall only do it for amusement. Speaking of which, for fun I occasionally do a bit of pyrography at home. I have a piece of wood by the front door. One side reads, in Glagolitic, "Dobrodošli" and the other, also fortunately in Glagolitic, "Odjebo". I tried to cut and paste the, but the forum wasn't having it. I wanted try to attach them to show I am not a pathological liar, but at 4Mb they are too big for this forum's software. .

 

[newtothis]

And as for Bosnia...
Before an emergency joint session of Congress yesterday, the President announced US plans to deploy over 75,000 vowels to the war-torn region of Bosnia. The deployment, the largest of its kind in American history, will provide the region with the critically needed letters A,E,I,O and U, and is hoped to render countless Bosnian names more pronounceable.
"For six years, we have stood by while names like Ygrjvslhv and Tzlynhr and Glrm have been horribly butchered by millions around the world," he said. "Today, the United States must finally stand up and say 'Enough.' It is time the people of Bosnia finally had some vowels in their incomprehensible words. The US is proud to lead the crusade in this noble endeavour."
The deployment, dubbed Operation Vowel Storm by the State Department, is set for early next week, with the Adriatic port cities of Sjlbvdnzv and Grzny slated to be the first recipients. Two C-130 transport planes, each carrying over 500 24-count boxes of "E's," will fly from Andrews Air Force Base across the Atlantic and airdrop the letters over the cities.
Citizens of Grzny and Sjlbvdnzv eagerly await the arrival of the vowels. "My God, I do not think we can last another day," Trszg Grzdnjkln, 44, said. "I have six children and none of them has a name that is understandable to me or to anyone else. Please send my poor, wretched family just one 'E.' Please."
Said Sjlbvdnzv resident Grg Hmphrs, 67: "With just a few key letters, I could be George Humphries. This is my dream."
The airdrop represents the largest deployment of any letter to a foreign country since 1984. During the summer of that year, the US shipped 92,000 consonants to Ethiopia, providing cities like Ouaouoaua, Eaoiiuae, and Aao with vital, life-giving supplies of L's, S's and T's.

 

[[165264]]

This is my favourite Croatian word thus far. "opskrbljivanje". It is nautical in fact- "victualling".

 

[Metabarca]

This is my favourite Croatian word thus far. "opskrbljivanje". It is nautical in fact- "victualling".

Nice to see you're learning some starocerkvenoslovanščina !!

 

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Nice to see you're learning some starocerkvenoslovanščina !!

It's a minority sport, I'll admit.

 

[Metabarca]

Latest news: Slovenia is considering requiring quarantine of anyone arriving from Croatia if Covid-19 infections in Croatia continue in double digits and this causes a rise in Slovenia itself. Watch this space!

 

[[165264]]

They don't like each other. I'm not sure why. They didn't fight each other in the homeland war. A year ago we were in Carinthia and we went to Maribor for a day out. (Don't bother) In two cafes, I asked, in Croatian, "Sorry, I don't speak your language, would you prefer English, or German?" In one place near the border they said "German" and in the other, "English". Weird, or what?

 

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Sorry- I offered Croatian too of course.

 

[Metabarca]

No they don't like each other (does anyone in the Balkans?) for all sorts of reasons an misconceptions I won't go into here. But in your case, it's not strange that your contacts should prefer English or German: German because Austria is right there and because there is a strong Slovene presence in Carinthia so many people there will be anyway bilingual; English because it's the language they all learn at school and it's the language of tourism. There would be little sense in learning Croatian for someone in Maribor (if Croatian, why not Hungarian or the Bosnian version of Serbo-Croatian?).

 

[Baggywrinkle]

Latest news: Slovenia is considering requiring quarantine of anyone arriving from Croatia if Covid-19 infections in Croatia continue in double digits and this causes a rise in Slovenia itself. Watch this space!

Slovenia was the hardest controlled border I crossed last weekend. Started a thread about it here .... "Experience driving to the boat last weekend. (Germany-Austria-Italy-Slovenia-Croatia and back)"

This is worrying because there was little sign of social distancing or use of masks/hand-cleaner etc. in Croatia. Shops and restaurants looked almost back to normal apart from the markings on the floors and separate "lanes" to try and separate people - they weren't really being used or enforced. From June 15th there has been a definite rise in cases.


Croatia Coronavirus: 2,388 Cases and 107 Deaths - Worldometer

From 24th June ..... Croatias Coronavirus web site ....

22 new cases in the last 24 hours
In the last 24 hours, 22 new cases have been reported, so far a total of 2,388 positive people have been reported on Covid-19. So far, 2,145 people have recovered. One hundred and seven people died. Another 136 people are being treated.

A total of 2,388 people infected with the coronavirus have been confirmed so far and 22 new cases have been reported in the last 24 hours. One newly ill person is from Zagreb County, one from Zadar County, one from Primorje-Gorski Kotar County, one from Vukovar-Srijem County and one from Krapina-Zagorje County. Two newly ill persons are from the Istria County, 4 from the Osijek-Baranja County and 11 newly ill persons are from the City of Zagreb.

2,145 people recovered . There are no patients on a respirator, and 18 people are being treated in hospital.

One hundred and seven people died.

So far, 73738 people have been tested, of which 645 in the last 24 hours.

Google Translate

 

[[165264]]

No they don't like each other (does anyone in the Balkans?) for all sorts of reasons an misconceptions I won't go into here. But in your case, it's not strange that your contacts should prefer English or German: German because Austria is right there and because there is a strong Slovene presence in Carinthia so many people there will be anyway bilingual; English because it's the language they all learn at school and it's the language of tourism. There would be little sense in learning Croatian for someone in Maribor (if Croatian, why not Hungarian or the Bosnian version of Serbo-Croatian?).

I understand that BUT, I believe the languages are mutually intelligible. It is, I think, that since the loss of Jugoslavia, they all want to emphasize their differences. I am not an expert but probably mutually intelligible like Norwegian and Swedish. I think they are making a point. OK- fair enough, it's their country, but I am damned if I am learning Slovenian. Croatian is difficult, but there are 4million of them; there are only 2m Slovenians afaik.

 

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Slovenia was the hardest controlled border I crossed last weekend. Started a thread about it here .... "Experience driving to the boat last weekend. (Germany-Austria-Italy-Slovenia-Croatia and back)"

This is worrying because there was little sign of social distancing or use of masks/hand-cleaner etc. in Croatia. Shops and restaurants looked almost back to normal apart from the markings on the floors and separate "lanes" to try and separate people - they weren't really being used or enforced. From June 15th there has been a definite rise in cases.

View attachment 93323
Croatia Coronavirus: 2,388 Cases and 107 Deaths - Worldometer

From 24th June ..... Croatias Coronavirus web site ....



Google Translate

I'm not surprised and tbh, I have heard that outside of Zagreb, it's not a wonderful place to be ill in.

 

[Metabarca]

I understand that BUT, I believe the languages are mutually intelligible. It is, I think, that since the loss of Jugoslavia, they all want to emphasize their differences. I am not an expert but probably mutually intelligible like Norwegian and Swedish. I think they are making a point. OK- fair enough, it's their country, but I am damned if I am learning Slovenian. Croatian is difficult, but there are 4million of them; there are only 2m Slovenians afaik.

Yes, the languages are similar (especially in vocabulary), but... it is different to Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian by its unique grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation. In fact, most people in Bosnia, Croatia and Serbia have difficulty understanding Slovenian. One the most evident significant differences that makes Slovenian harder for a foreigner to learn is the midva or dual. Here is a blog I found on this: "
Well, as a Serbian/Croatian (or Serbo-Croatian) a native speaker, if a Slovene speakers speaks slowly, I can have a raw guess about what s/he says. The same occurs with reading.
The declension (endings) system is a bit different! although Slovene language does not have a vocative form the endings are different especially with the plural forms which are more precise than the Serbo-Croatian ones.
The number reading in Slovene is like in German: for example while in English or in Serbo-Croatian you say “thirty-one” for 31, in Slovene you will litteraly say “one-and-thirty”.
BUUUUUUT, what is specific to Slovene is the “old” dual system that still exists in this language only. For example:
-Mi gremo v solo (“we go to school”, which means that at least 3 people go to school);
Midva greva v solo (“we go to school” which means that “we, BOTH of us, go to school).
You have a special conjugation, declension system for TWO elements/people, which no longer exists in Serbo-Croatian or in any other Slavic language and let alone in any Indo-European language."
So to sum up, Slovenia has (or, better, Slovenes have) always had its own language. If anything, it is Croatia that is distancing itself from its neighbour... but not from Slovenia: with Serbia. For instance by maintaining the fiction that 'Serbo-Croatian' is not the language spoken from Belgrade to Zagreb (it is, or was: since the war, both sides are at pains to try and invent ways to differentiate themselves).

 

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Interesting. It's as if someone wanted to invent a language and make it difficult. In Croatian it's numbers. 1-4 of something (say onions) you use the genitive SINGULAR. So "I would like four of onion please". Over 4 and it's gen plural. BUT, I chose onions deliberately as there is no genitive plural of onions, so you cannot ask for 5 onions in Croatian! We discussed this at length a couple of years ago on our residential course. We decided you'd have to point and ask for "Pet Komada". Five pieces.

As to Serbo Croat my teacher said it was an invented language for official type communications, to make government easier. Another example of this today would be "Standard Modern Arabic", really only intelligible to educated Arabs. Everyone else speaks their own dialect. It seems that Egyptian Arabic is widely understood because that is where all the Arabic films are made: the Bollywood of the Arab world.

 

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PS. When last in Bled I saw they had a different word for "Castle" . Grad vs Dvorac.

 

[Metabarca]

Interesting. It's as if someone wanted to invent a language and make it difficult. In Croatian it's numbers. 1-4 of something (say onions) you use the genitive SINGULAR. So "I would like four of onion please". Over 4 and it's gen plural. BUT, I chose onions deliberately as there is no genitive plural of onions, so you cannot ask for 5 onions in Croatian! We discussed this at length a couple of years ago on our residential course. We decided you'd have to point and ask for "Pet Komada". Five pieces.

As to Serbo Croat my teacher said it was an invented language for official type communications, to make government easier. Another example of this today would be "Standard Modern Arabic", really only intelligible to educated Arabs. Everyone else speaks their own dialect. It seems that Egyptian Arabic is widely understood because that is where all the Arabic films are made: the Bollywood of the Arab world.

God knows they eat enough onion!
Invented language? Yeah well, so is Italian in that case, in that Florentine was adopted as the national language. Sure there are loads and loads of dialects (in both Italy and former Yugoslavia) but the basis is the same in Croatia and Serbia (AFAIK). Yes, Slovene is dreadfully hard (and also has lots of dialects...): three genders, cases, the 'midva'...
As for 'grad', as you know, it exists in Croatian but has a different meaning (or has one that has evolved from its original one). In Slovene = castle, in Croatian = town (as in Novigrad; Cittanova in Italian).

 

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I think I shall sut up or we will bore them!