SACE Stage 2 Bosnian Continuers flashcards

32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Štokavian dialect

The dialect group on which standard Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian, and Montenegrin are based; named after the interrogative pronoun 'što' (what).

Four pitch accents

Bosnian has short falling, long falling, short rising, and long rising accents; they distinguish meaning in some words and are marked in dictionaries.

Seven cases

Nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, vocative, instrumental, and locative; case endings vary by gender, number, and declension type.

Clitic order

In a clitic cluster, the order is: li, auxiliary verbs (sam, si, je...), dative pronouns, accusative pronouns, and reflexive 'se'.

Aspect pairs

Perfective verbs denote completed actions (e.g., 'napisati'), imperfective verbs denote ongoing or repeated actions (e.g., 'pisati'); aspect is lexical, not grammatical tense.

Double negation

Bosnian requires double negation: 'Nisam nikoga vidio' (I didn't see anyone); 'ne' plus a negative pronoun is standard, unlike English.

Formal 'Vi'

Polite address uses 'Vi' (capitalized) with second-person plural verb forms, e.g., 'Kako ste?' (How are you?); informal uses 'ti' with singular forms.

Conditional for politeness

Requests often use the conditional: 'Biste li mi mogli pomoći?' (Could you help me?) or 'Molim Vas' (please) plus conditional verb.

Vocative case use

Used for direct address: 'profesore' (professor!), 'Ano' (Ana!); masculine nouns often add -e, feminine -o or -e.

Opinion phrases

Common expressions: 'Mislim da...' (I think that...), 'Po mom mišljenju...' (In my opinion...), 'Smatram da...' (I consider that...).

Greetings by time

'Dobro jutro' (morning), 'Dobar dan' (day), 'Dobra večer' (evening); informal 'Zdravo' or 'Ćao' used among friends.

Imperative formation

Formed from present stem: 'radi' (work!), 'govori' (speak!); negation uses 'ne' + imperfective present or 'nemoj' + infinitive.

Turn-taking markers

Discourse markers like 'Pa...' (well), 'Dakle...' (so), 'Znate...' (you know), and 'Naime...' (namely) manage conversation flow.

Expressing feelings

Use 'osjećam se' + adverb (e.g., 'osjećam se dobro') or 'sretan/sretna sam' (I am happy, masculine/feminine).

Perfect tense

Present of 'biti' (sam, si, je...) + past participle (e.g., 'vidio sam' = I saw); the most common past tense in narrative texts.

Passive with 'se'

Reflexive passive: 'Knjiga se piše' (The book is being written); common in impersonal and passive constructions.

Reported speech

Often uses 'da' + present tense after verbs of saying/thinking (e.g., 'Rekao je da dolazi'); tense backshift is optional.

Cohesive devices

Pronoun reference, conjunctions (i, a, ali, pa), discourse markers (međutim, stoga), and lexical repetition create text cohesion.

Text types

Vijest (news), esej (essay), priča (story), pismo (letter), oglas (ad); 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').

Aorist and imperfect

Literary past tenses: aorist for completed actions, imperfect for ongoing past actions; used for stylistic effect in narratives.

Inference in reading

Authors imply meaning through modality ('trebalo bi' = should), hedging ('možda', 'vjerojatno'), and evaluative adjectives.

Two scripts

Bosnian uses Latin and Cyrillic scripts; Latin is official in the Federation, Cyrillic in Republika Srpska; both are constitutionally protected.

Thirty letters

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').

Ivo Andrić

Bosnian writer, Nobel Prize in Literature 1961 for 'The Bridge on the Drina'; his works explore Bosnian history and interethnic relations.

Sevdalinka

Traditional Bosnian urban love song genre, characterized by slow tempo, emotional lyrics, and melismatic ornamentation; a symbol of Bosnian cultural identity.

Stećci

Medieval tombstones found across Bosnia and Herzegovina, inscribed with epitaphs in Bosančica script; a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Bosančica script

Medieval Bosnian Cyrillic script used in religious and legal texts; also called 'bosanica' or 'arvatica'; distinct from modern Cyrillic.

Mutual intelligibility

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

Ottoman influence

Bosnian cuisine and culture reflect Ottoman influence: ćevapi, burek, sogan-dolma, baklava, and words like 'čaršija' (bazaar).

Multi-faith holidays

Bosnia's multi-faith heritage includes Ramadan and Kurban Bayram (Muslim), Christmas and Easter (Christian), and Yom Kippur (Jewish).

Meša Selimović

Bosnian writer best known for 'Death and the Dervish' (Derviš i smrt), a novel exploring power, morality, and identity in Ottoman Bosnia.