SACE Stage 2 Bosnian Continuers cheat sheet

Bosnian has three dialect groups (Štokavian, Čakavian, Kajkavian); the standard language is based on the Štokavian dialect, specifically the East Herzegovinian subdialect.

The four pitch accents are short falling (kratkosilazni), long falling (dugosilazni), short rising (kratkouzlazni), and long rising (dugouzlazni); they are marked with ˘, ˉ, ȁ, and ȃ respectively.

Bosnian has seven cases: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, vocative, instrumental, and locative; case use is governed by prepositions, verbs, and syntactic role.

The verb 'to be' (biti) is enclitic in present tense (sam, si, je, smo, ste, su) and attaches to the first stressed word in the clause, following Wackernagel's law.

Word order is free but information structure determines position: new or focused information tends to occur clause-finally, while topic (given information) appears early.

Aspect is lexical: perfective verbs denote completed or bounded actions, imperfective verbs denote ongoing, repeated, or unbounded actions; tense and aspect interact but are distinct categories.

The conjunction 'da' introduces subordinate clauses (e.g., 'Mislim da je dobro') and is followed by the present tense where English uses an infinitive or different tense.

Clitic clusters follow a fixed order: li, auxiliary verbs (sam, si, je...), dative pronouns, accusative pronouns, and the reflexive 'se'; e.g., 'Dao mi ga je' (He gave it to me).

Negation is expressed with 'ne' before the verb; double negation is standard in Bosnian (e.g., 'Nisam nikoga vidio' = I didn't see anyone).

Formal address uses 'Vi' (capitalized in writing) with the appropriate verb form; informal address uses 'ti' with the second-person singular verb form.

Greetings vary by time of day and formality: 'Dobar dan' (good day), 'Dobro jutro' (good morning), 'Dobra večer' (good evening), and 'Zdravo' or 'Ćao' for informal contexts.

Polite requests often use the conditional: 'Molim te' or 'Molim Vas' (please) + conditional verb, e.g., 'Možeš li mi pomoći?' (Can you help me?) or 'Biste li mi mogli pomoći?' (Could you help me?).

The imperative is formed from the present stem: 'radi' (work!), 'govori' (speak!); negation of the imperative is expressed with 'ne' + imperfective present or 'nemoj' + infinitive.

Expressions of opinion commonly use 'Mislim da...' (I think that...), 'Smatram da...' (I consider that...), or 'Po mom mišljenju...' (In my opinion...).

Agreement and disagreement: 'Slažem se' (I agree), 'Ne slažem se' (I disagree), 'Apsolutno' (absolutely), 'Nije istina' (that's not true).

Turn-taking markers include 'Pa...' (well...), 'Dakle...' (so/therefore...), 'Znate...' (you know...), and 'Naime...' (namely...).

The vocative case is used for direct address: 'Marko' → 'Marko' (unchanged), 'profesor' → 'profesore', 'Ana' → 'Ana' or 'Ano' (colloquial).

Self-expression of feelings often uses 'osjećam se' + adverb (e.g., 'osjećam se dobro/loše') or 'sretan/sretna sam' (I am happy, masculine/feminine).

Text cohesion in Bosnian is achieved through pronoun reference, conjunctions (i, a, ali, pa, te), and discourse markers (međutim, stoga, dakle, na primjer).

Narrative texts typically use the perfect tense (present of 'biti' + past participle) for past events; the aorist and imperfect are literary tenses used for stylistic effect.

The passive voice is formed with 'biti' + passive participle (e.g., 'Knjiga je napisana') or with the reflexive 'se' (e.g., 'Knjiga se piše').

Reported speech often uses 'da' + present tense after verbs of saying/thinking, with tense backshift optional; direct quotes use quotation marks and original tense.

Text types include vijest (news report), esej (essay), priča (story), pismo (letter), and oglas (advertisement); each has characteristic structure and register.

Register variation: formal texts use full forms and complex syntax; informal texts use clitics, abbreviations, and colloquial vocabulary (e.g., 'fakat' for 'in fact').

Cohesive devices include lexical repetition, synonymy, antonymy, and hyponymy; identifying these helps trace topic development.

Inference in reading: authors may imply meaning through modality (e.g., 'trebalo bi' = should), hedging ('možda', 'vjerojatno'), and evaluative adjectives.

Bosnian is a South Slavic language of the Štokavian dialect group, written in both Latin and Cyrillic scripts; the Latin script is official in the Federation, Cyrillic in Republika Srpska.

The Bosnian alphabet has 30 letters: 5 vowels (a, e, i, o, u) and 25 consonants; each letter represents one phoneme (e.g., 'lj', 'nj', 'dž', 'đ').

The language has four pitch accents and a post-tonic length distinction; vowel length is phonemic (e.g., 'grad' city vs. 'grād' of the city, though orthographically unmarked in standard writing).

Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian, and Montenegrin are mutually intelligible and based on the same dialect; differences are lexical and stylistic (e.g., 'hljeb' vs. 'kruh' for bread).

Key cultural figures: Ivo Andrić (Nobel Prize 1961, 'The Bridge on the Drina'), Mak Dizdar ('Stone Sleeper'), and Meša Selimović ('Death and the Dervish').

Sevdalinka is a traditional Bosnian urban love song genre, characterized by slow tempo, emotional lyrics, and melismatic ornamentation.

The Stećci are medieval tombstones found across Bosnia and Herzegovina, inscribed with epitaphs in Bosančica script; they are a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Bosnian cuisine reflects Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian influences: ćevapi, burek, sogan-dolma, and sweets like baklava and tufahija.

Religious and cultural holidays include Ramadan and Kurban Bayram (Muslim), Christmas and Easter (Christian), and Yom Kippur (Jewish), reflecting Bosnia's multi-faith heritage.