Difficulty of Russian vs. Serbo-Croatian
Posted: August 3rd, 2022, 7:55 pm
In a previous post I mentioned that I would like to learn a Slavic language as the next phase of my polyglot quest. The two Slavic languages which interest me the most are Russian and Serbo-Croatian.
Each of these languages has its respective appeal for me. Serbo-Croatian is spoken in arguably the nicest part of the Slavic world along much of the Mediterranean coastline of the Balkan region. Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Montenegro each have their own unique charm and appeal to a lover of Mediterranean culture like myself. Russian on the other hand is a major world language spoken by hundreds of millions of people throughout Russia itself and Central Asia and with speakers almost everywhere since there exists a substantial Russian diaspora. I've come across Russians in every European country I've been in. I've hardly met any Serbo-Croatian speakers anywhere.
As far as difficulty is concerned, Russian seems a bit harder to me personally, although more advanced learners of the Slavic languages will be able to shed more light on this than a beginner like myself can.
Let me start off by saying that the Cyrillic script isn't a problem. I dabbled in Russian a little in the early 2010s (as well as Serbo-Croatian) and can already read the script fairly fluently. Of course the Latin script of Croatian is easier for a Western European learner accustomed to it but Cyrillic is not too difficult to get used to.
The biggest area in which Russian seems more difficult is undoubtedly pronunciation. While Serbo-Croatian's phonology is extremely pure and simple, Russian heavily features vowel reduction in which unstressed o becomes ɐ (i.e., akanye), unstressed a becomes ə, and unstressed e becomes a non-tonic i. Although vowel reduction exists in my own native language of English, I've become used to the pure and clean pronunciation of languages like Spanish and so when I'm reading my mind almost wants to resist the reduced vowels. I see a word like небо and end up pronouncing it as "nyébo" rather than "nyébə". Couldn't I just learn Russian with an okanye accent and sound like a bumpkin? Also the pairs of hard and soft sounds make the pronunciation of consonants more complicated. Certain vowels soften or "wet" the consonant that precedes them. нет for example is pronounced as "nyet". This feature doesn't exist in other Slavic languages.
When it comes to grammar I don't think that either Russian or Serbo-Croatian are particularly complex in comparison to other Slavic languages such as Polish and Czech. Both have a somewhat simplified case system with many cases merging. Both have simple verb morphology with participles replacing the more numerous Old Slavic inflected tenses.
I am of the view that deep knowledge of a Romance language such as Spanish or Italian will make any Slavic language easier to learn. It helps for learning the verb conjugations which are eerily similar between the two language families, noun gender (Slavic languages actually have three genders), reflexive pronouns which work almost the same, and verbal aspect. I think that the only true novelty is the noun cases which have to be learned from scratch but I already know how to use them from my previous dabbling.
How difficult do you think Russian and Serbo-Croatian would both be for me respectively? Would the difference be great or only marginal?
How hard is correct Russian pronunciation? Also would it be perceived as weird if I spoke with an okanye accent or didn't reduce all of the vowels?
Each of these languages has its respective appeal for me. Serbo-Croatian is spoken in arguably the nicest part of the Slavic world along much of the Mediterranean coastline of the Balkan region. Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Montenegro each have their own unique charm and appeal to a lover of Mediterranean culture like myself. Russian on the other hand is a major world language spoken by hundreds of millions of people throughout Russia itself and Central Asia and with speakers almost everywhere since there exists a substantial Russian diaspora. I've come across Russians in every European country I've been in. I've hardly met any Serbo-Croatian speakers anywhere.
As far as difficulty is concerned, Russian seems a bit harder to me personally, although more advanced learners of the Slavic languages will be able to shed more light on this than a beginner like myself can.
Let me start off by saying that the Cyrillic script isn't a problem. I dabbled in Russian a little in the early 2010s (as well as Serbo-Croatian) and can already read the script fairly fluently. Of course the Latin script of Croatian is easier for a Western European learner accustomed to it but Cyrillic is not too difficult to get used to.
The biggest area in which Russian seems more difficult is undoubtedly pronunciation. While Serbo-Croatian's phonology is extremely pure and simple, Russian heavily features vowel reduction in which unstressed o becomes ɐ (i.e., akanye), unstressed a becomes ə, and unstressed e becomes a non-tonic i. Although vowel reduction exists in my own native language of English, I've become used to the pure and clean pronunciation of languages like Spanish and so when I'm reading my mind almost wants to resist the reduced vowels. I see a word like небо and end up pronouncing it as "nyébo" rather than "nyébə". Couldn't I just learn Russian with an okanye accent and sound like a bumpkin? Also the pairs of hard and soft sounds make the pronunciation of consonants more complicated. Certain vowels soften or "wet" the consonant that precedes them. нет for example is pronounced as "nyet". This feature doesn't exist in other Slavic languages.
When it comes to grammar I don't think that either Russian or Serbo-Croatian are particularly complex in comparison to other Slavic languages such as Polish and Czech. Both have a somewhat simplified case system with many cases merging. Both have simple verb morphology with participles replacing the more numerous Old Slavic inflected tenses.
I am of the view that deep knowledge of a Romance language such as Spanish or Italian will make any Slavic language easier to learn. It helps for learning the verb conjugations which are eerily similar between the two language families, noun gender (Slavic languages actually have three genders), reflexive pronouns which work almost the same, and verbal aspect. I think that the only true novelty is the noun cases which have to be learned from scratch but I already know how to use them from my previous dabbling.
How difficult do you think Russian and Serbo-Croatian would both be for me respectively? Would the difference be great or only marginal?
How hard is correct Russian pronunciation? Also would it be perceived as weird if I spoke with an okanye accent or didn't reduce all of the vowels?