Pronunciation

The pronunciation of Serbo-Croat words was, until recently, rather mysterious to the foreign reader. Nowadays we are all too familiar with the pronunciation of names such as Sarajevo, Karadjić, and Milošević. I have everywhere adopted the Serbo-Croat spelling in Latin script except for the names of the Serb and Croat paramilitary organisations, the Chetniks and Ustasha (pronounced oostasha). Although the second of these should strictly be declined, I have preferred to use it unchanged as a singular, collective and plural noun, and also as an adjective.

The following simple notes on pronunciation are borrowed from Anne Kindersley’s The Mountains of Yugoslavia, in turn adapted from W. A. Morison’s The Revolt of the Serbs against the Turks.

	c		ts in ts in cats
	č		ch in church
	ć		between ch in church and t in tune
	dj, dž		j in jug
	g		g in get
	j		y in yes
	lj		lli in million
	nj		ni in minion
	r		always rolled; between consonants it becomes a vowel; ur in Scottish burn
	s		s in sad
	š		sh in shin
	ž		s in pleasure
	a		a in far
	e		e in bed
	i		i in give
	o		o in for
	u		u in push