Bosnian Keyboard Layouts

By admin • April 13, 2009 • Filed in: Virtual Keyboard

Bosnian language

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bosnian (bosanski jezik [ˈbɔsanskiː] (help·info)) is a South Slavic language native to the Bosniak people and all other citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina who consider it to be their mother tongue. The language is notably spoken in the areas of Bosnia, the Bosniak-dominated region of Sandžak (in Serbia and Montenegro) and elsewhere. It is one of the standard versions of the Central-South Slavic diasystem which covers the region that was once known as Serbo-Croat from the 19th century until the early 1990s. The standard Serbian, Croatian, and Bosnian languages are all mutually intelligible.

The Bosnian alphabet is based on the Latin alphabet. The Cyrillic alphabet is accepted (chiefly to accommodate for its usage in Bosnia in the past, especially in former Yugoslavia), but seldom used in today’s practice. The name Bosnian language is the commonly accepted name among Bosniak linguists, and the name used by the ISO-639 standard.

Vowels

The Bosnian vowel system is simple, with only five vowels. All vowels are monophthongs. The oral vowels are as follows:

Latin script	Cyrillic script	IPA	Description	English approximation
i	и	[i]	front closed unrounded	seek
e	е	[ɛ]	front half open unrounded	ten
a	а	[a]	central open unrounded	father
o	о	[ɔ]	back half open rounded	tote
u	у	[u]	back closed rounded	boom

It should also be mentioned the that letter “R” stands as both a consonant and a vowel. It is considered a vowel when surrounded by two other consonants. For example in the words: brzo (quick), trn (thorn), mrk (dark), vrlo (very).

Consonants

The consonant system is more complicated, and its characteristic features are series of affricate and palatal consonants. As in English and most other Indo-European languages west of India, voicedness is phonemic, but aspiration is not.

Latin script	Cyrillic script	IPA	Description	English approximation
trill
r	р	[r]	alveolar tap	rolled r as in Spanish carro
approximants
v	в	[ʋ]	labiodental approximant	vase
j	ј	[j]	palatal approximant	yes
laterals
l	л	[l]	lateral alveolar approximant	lock
lj	љ	[ʎ]	palatal lateral approximant	volume
nasals
m	м	[m]	bilabial nasal	man
n	н	[n]	alveolar nasal	not
nj	њ	[ɲ]	palatal nasal	canyon
fricatives
f	ф	[f]	voiceless labiodental fricative	phase
s	с	[s]	voiceless alveolar fricative	some
z	з	[z]	voiced alveolar fricative	zero
š	ш	[ʃ]	voiceless postalveolar fricative	sheer
ž	ж	[ʒ]	voiced postalveolar fricative	vision
h	х	[x]	voiceless velar fricative	loch (Scottish)
affricates
c	ц	[ʦ]	voiceless alveolar affricate	pots
dž	џ	[ʤ]	voiced postalveolar affricate	judge
č	ч	[ʧ]	voiceless postalveolar affricate	chair
đ	ђ	[ɟj]	voiced alveolo-palatal affricate	schedule
ć	ћ	[cç]	voiceless alveolo-palatal affricate	nature
plosives
b	б	[b]	voiced bilabial plosive	abuse
p	п	[p]	voiceless bilabial plosive	top
d	д	[d]	voiced alveolar plosive	dog
t	т	[t]	voiceless alveolar plosive	talk
g	г	[g]	voiced velar plosive	god
k	к	[k]	voiceless velar plosive	duck

In consonant clusters all consonants are either voiced or voiceless. All the consonants are voiced (if the last consonant is normally voiced) or voiceless (if the last consonant is normally voiceless). This rule does not apply to approximants — a consonant cluster may contain voiced approximants and voiceless consonants; as well as to foreign words (Washington would be transcribed as VašinGton/ВашинГтон), personal names and when consonants are not inside of one syllable.

R can be syllabic, playing the role of a vowel in certain words (occasionally, it can even have a long accent). For example, the tongue-twister na vrh brda vrba mrda involves four words with syllabic r. A similar feature exists in Serbian, Croatian, Macedonian, Slovene, Czech, and Slovak. Very rarely, l can be syllabic (in the name for the river “Vltava”, ‘l’ is syllabic) as well as lj, m, n and nj in jargon.

Bosnian bosanski jezik
Pronunciation:	[ˈbɔsanskiː]
Spoken in:	Bosnia and Herzegovina Serbia Montenegro Croatia Kosovo and immigrant groups in various countries
Region:	Southern Europe

Total speakers:	2,700,000 ^[1]
Language family:	Indo-European Balto-Slavic Slavic South Slavic Western South Slavic Bosnian
Official status
Official language in:	Bosnia and Herzegovina Montenegro Serbia Regional or local official language in: Kosovo
Regulated by:	No official regulation
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	`bs`
ISO 639-2:	`bos`
ISO 639-3:	`bos`