Languagle #58: Serbian
Ако будеш мост, свако ће да те гази
Ako budeš most, svako će da te gazi
"If you make yourself a bridge, everyone will walk over you."
What it means
If you let people take advantage of you, they will. A bridge is there to be walked over, so if you make yourself into one, everyone will walk all over you.
How to say it
A-ko BOO-desh MOST, SVA-ko cheh da teh GA-zee
Ш is sh and ћ is a soft ch. Serbian uses pitch as well as stress, which no spelling shows.
Word by word
- Ако A-ko: if
- будеш BOO-desh: you are, you become
- мост most: bridge
- свако SVA-ko: everyone
- ће cheh: will
- да те гази da teh GA-zee: walk all over you
Ће да plus a verb is a typically Serbian way of saying 'will'. Croatian would say 'svatko će te gaziti'.
Where it was written down
A traditional proverb, in Serbian a poslovica (пословица), passed down by word of mouth. It belongs to the tradition collected by Vuk Karadžić in the 1800s.
Similar sayings
- English: Give them an inch and they'll take a mile
How to recognise Serbian
Serbian is the one language written in both Cyrillic and Latin, and in Cyrillic it has six letters you won't see in Russian: ђ, ћ, љ, њ, џ and ј. It also leaves out Russian's й, ы, э, щ, ъ and ь. Macedonian is close, but uses ѓ and ќ where Serbian has ђ and ћ. Bulgarian has щ and ъ, which Serbian never uses.
About the Serbian language
Serbian is a South Slavic language spoken by around 10 million people, mainly in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro. It is mutually intelligible with Croatian, Bosnian and Montenegrin. Serbian is one of the few languages officially written in two alphabets: Cyrillic and Latin are both in everyday use. Its Cyrillic alphabet, reformed by Vuk Karadžić in the 19th century, follows the rule 'write as you speak': one letter for each sound.
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