Serbian language

How far off the beaten path do your expect to get?

I haven't been to Serbia but suggest learning the Cyrillic alphabet as the first step, so that you can sound out words you see, even if you don't study most vocabulary in that alphabet/format. Photos online show most major road signs and train stations using both alphabets (photo of Nis station). Smaller roads and towns that aren't normally tourist destinations may be the exception. Google Maps also shows both, so you can learn town spellings that way. Poking around web site links for a random small town, I found businesses like supermarkets, hotels, and car repair using the Latin alphabet but the local church using the Cyrillic alphabet.

Serbia uses Cyrillic. However, my experience is that signs are dual-script - road signs show both.

I took Russian in college. Serbian Cyrillic is similar to but not identical to Russian Cyrillic. Russian has 5 "slide" vowels not found in Serbian, Serbian has 3 "slide" consonents not found in Russian. I learned Cyrillic in about 3 days. It's the easiest part of the language. There are about 29 letters, and most correspond to an English letter. So, to be most comfortable in Serbia, bite the bullet, learn Cyrillic, but you can get by without it.

The more difficult part of Serbian/Croatian/Yugoslavian language is that it, like Russian and German, is a case-based language. This is the part that is more difficult. But learning words that are helpful is not difficult - "beo" - white "grad" city "stari" old

There is an old joke about traveling in Cyrillic lands. A traveller was using a cab, and wished to remember a business near his hotel to find the hotel again. He saw a bright lit sign near him - pectopah - and wrote that down. Later the taxi driver was quite confused.
p -> r
e -> e
c -> s
t -> t
o -> o
a -> a
h -> n

He had written down the Cyrillic form of "restaurant" - so it wasn't much help. So, learning the local script can be a help.

Plus, Russia, Bulgarian, Macedonia use Cyrillic.

Paul has given you good background information.

I passed through Serbia twice rather briefly in 2015, spending 2 nights in Beograd and one in Nis. At the time I observed that the Latin script had made major inroads. Some signs on shops seemed to have no Cyrillic at all. Still, I think it will be prudent to learn the Cyrillic alphabet so you can sound out things like geographical names if you need to. (There's some bleed-over to Greek as well.) Looking at the names of major cities may be helpful in memorization.

As another former student of Russian, I prefer dealing with Cyrillic because to me it fits better with the Slavic sounds of the language, but if your time is very limited, I think you'll manage pretty well if you spend a bit of time studying words in the Latin form. I'm heading to Hungary this year, and--though Hungarian theoretically uses our alphabet--I fear that they'll be lucky to hear "Good morning" and "please" from me in some semblance of their language, which is one of the screwiest things I've ever seen (no offence meant to any Hungarians who may read this post).

The good news is that Serbian and Croatian are essentially the same language, just historically written in different alphabets, or so I was told back in the 1970s. I think the same is true of what are now called "Bosnian" and "Macedonian". Slovenian is a totally different animal, though Slavic at its core; I'm not sure I understood a word. At a high level, I'd say Slovenian is to Serbo-Croatian (yes, there used to be a common name for the two languages, at least while Tito was in power) as Romanian is to Italian--not as close as a traveler might wish.

In a pinch, look for a young person to help you out in Serbia. Many will have studied English, though it was my impression that the language isn't as widely spoken as it is in Slovenia and Croatia, which simply seem to get a lot more western European and North American travelers.

Good luck trying to speak Serbian in Croatia and vice verse. Back in the 70's I learned Serbo-Croatian cause I was visiting my future husband in Croatia. That's what they taught at Berlitz. Even then people gave me a hard time, and these were people we knew. Not family, but school friends of my husband. Keep in mind, this was before the war and the breakup. The languages are similar but many words are different, just like different dialects on the islands. Here in the States everyone gets along, but not over there. And forget the Slovenians, they would love to block Croatia from joining the EU. They are not good neighbors. I don't want to be too discouraging, and I wouldn't not learn, just be aware of the differences and lasting resentments.

We visited to do some family history touring. I visited the TI in Beograd. Our guide, Djani (pronounced "Jonni" with a hard J) was very helpful. He drove us to the Vojvodinja, the part of Serbia which was part of Austria-Hungary before 1918. His English was quite good. In Serbia, there is much less English in the hinterlands than in Croatia or Slovenia, which are far more touristic, and thus far more English-oriented. Also they don't seem to speak much of other common European languages, such as German or French. If you plan on going off to the countryside, I'd think about a guide. In 2014, our guide was a very good value. He also drove us to Sarajevo, at a price (for 2 of us) competitive with air travel, and we got to see some country as well.

In all of the Balkans, the use of Cyrillic is associated with Serbian influence. So, in Bosnia-Herzogovenia, there is Republika Srbska, the rump Serbian-dominated eastern 1/3 of the country. You can immediately tell when you get there, as signage is exclusively in Cyrillic. They are a bit more hard-line due to the war and all that stuff.

Thanks, Barbara. I had been under the misunderstanding that Serbian, Croatian, Slovenian, Bosnian were quite similar, but following your comment I looked on the Internet to find that they are distinct. I would guess that Montenegrin is similar to Serbian. In Kosova, which is dominated by Albanians, i wonder if Serbian is spoken much? And apparently Macedonian is very very different. Perhaps it is a Greek-family language, rather than a Slavic language?

In Kosova, which is dominated by Albanians, i wonder if Serbian is
spoken much?

The Serbs were expelled from Kosovo and very few remain. Highly doubtful you'll hear Serbian spoken there.

Macedonian is a Slavic language. I have recently returned from Croatia, and the way it was explained to me by guides on some short tours that I took, was that Croatian, Serbian, Bosnian and Montenegrin speakers can all understand each other. One of the guides said that the differences were like the differences between American and British English. On the other hand, the guide said that Croatians struggle to understand what Slovenians and Macedonians say, and can only understand half of what they say. So the languages are related.

I have certainly noticed some common words such as "Dobar Dan" for hello (or "good day" more literally) in both Slovenia and Croatia. My barber here in Sydney is Macedonian and when I came back I noticed the use of "da" and "ne" for "yes" and "no" when he was talking to his Macedonian friends. These are words they have in common with Croatian.

Yes, learn Cyrillic. It will only take a little while (it was the first few days of our Russian class in college) and then you will be set. It's not that hard if you put your mind to it, and so many letters are similar to English, or what you know of Greek (a "gamma" equivalent for "G", for example).

Plus I would imagine most of the learning materials for Serbian to be in Cyrillic, so I'm not sure how you would read it otherwise.

You just have to drill on it for a while - and then you will have it down, and it will make everything that follows so much easier. If you were leaving next week, I'd recommend the same thing. And with 18 months' lead time -- no question.

I encourage you to learn Cyrillic, it will come in handy in Serbia and Serb areas of Bosnia, as well as in Macedonia. Knowing the language will be of great use in Croatia, less so in Slovenia. The Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian and Montenegrin languages are different standardized varieties of essentially the same language. They are almost completely mutually intelligible, even if there are some differences in vocabulary. On the other hand, Slovene and Macedonian are completely different languages of the Slavic family. Specifically, Slovene does share or has similar words to Croatian and Serbian, but the syntax is different to the point where mutual intelligibility is not as high as you might expect.

In practice, most Slovenes will understand Serbian/Croatian as they have been exposed to it and older generations had to learn it in school, but do keep in mind that almost three decades have passed since the breakup of Yugoslavia. Young people simply don't speak it as well as older folks, they may understand what you say, but will often struggle to find the words to reply and might resort to replying in Slovene. There are immigrant communities of Serbs, Bosnians and Croats in the country which will of course speak the language, but Slovenes of a younger age will probably find it easier to speak with you in English.

My husband is Croatian, grew up there so he learned the Cyrillic alphabet and has no trouble understanding Slovenian, Serbian, Montenegrin. Albanian not so much. When we were in Prague he could understand most of what was said and written. Here in the States he has friends from each country but Slovenia, not as many emigrated to the US, more toward Austria. In Chicago and Cleveland you find many Croatians, more then in NY. Many of the people from the islands came to the US, my sister-in-law is from Olib and lives in Astoria, Queens, as does most of the island. We have other relatives outside of Cleveland. They were stone cutters and came here for work.