• @[email protected]OP
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    211 months ago

    Yes, you can write Serbian in latin, but not on any documents… as in, you can do it, but informally.

    You are correct about the politics part. Serbs and Croats understand each other perfectly, so do Bosnisnas. The odd balls out were Slovenian and Macedonian, with Slovenian (IMO) being a little bit harder to decypher than Macedonian.

    • @MeanEYE
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      311 months ago

      Government issued documents are in Cyrillic by default in Serbia, but official documents can be written in Latin as well. It’s not forbidden to use either of the alphabets. Most of the ads, signs and similar material are written indeed in Latin.

      • @[email protected]OP
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        211 months ago

        For “backwards compatibility” I presume… and also catering to Croats and Bosnians that live in Serbia.

        • @MeanEYE
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          211 months ago

          I’d say it’s a habit now more than anything. It’s also more convenient not having to configure computer and phone, etc. Latin has become dominant. Everyone still learns both and has to know how to write in print and cursive. But no one writes print Cyrillic by hand anymore, or at least very few. I still prefer cursive Cyrillic to anything else, because it flows better. But print Latin is what most kids write these days from what I’ve seen. There has been suggestions of government incentive to keep Cyrillic. Proposal was to give some tax deductions if companies use Cyrillic for most things. Probably didn’t go far. But it is a cultural heritage worth keeping.

          • @[email protected]OP
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            11 months ago

            Cyrillic is a must here (Macedoia). Sure, we text and may write in Latin (not all the time though), but other than that, yeah, we still use Cyrillic.

            I just text in Latin. Can’t really get accustomed to the Cyrillic keboard, 4 more letters and my fingers are thick 😂.

            Russians are die hard though, they don’t write Russian in Latin… ever 😂.

            • @MeanEYE
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              111 months ago

              I should probably start typing more in Cyrillic, even my messages. Most people will laugh at me for doing so.

              • @[email protected]OP
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                111 months ago

                Yeah, mine as well 😂… cuz most know I type texts and chat client messages in latin only 😂.

    • @force
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      11 months ago

      Ye AFAIK Slovenian is considered a very different language by most and Macedonian is significantly more grammatically similar to Bulgarian. I’m not very sure about Macedonian tho.

      • @[email protected]OP
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        11 months ago

        Yes, gramatically, it’s similar to Bulgarian (we don’t have cases like the others, we solve that with adverbs and adjectives), but in terms of words, it’s similar to Serbian and Croatian. Regarding sentence structure, yes, it’s similar to Bulgarian, with emphasis sounding more like Serbian or Croatian (Bulgarian sounds more like Russian).

        Slovenia was under Austro-Hungary during the last 5 centuries (20th century excluded), so they have a lot of German (Austrian) lingo in their vocabulary, plus sentence formation is also kind of confusing (for me at least).