© 2000 by Margaret H. Beissinger. All rights reserved.
This essay treats teaching and reference materials for the study of Serbo-Croatian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, and Slovenian. It provides a survey and review of textbooks currently available for classroom use and general linguistic reference works (including dictionaries). It also furnishes suggestions and possible objectives for pedagogues and linguists contemplating writing future works in these fields.
Teaching materials for the South Slavic languages are relatively new in the United States. It was not until the post-World War II period that scholarly textbooks began to be published. Volumes such as Horace Lunt’s Grammar of the Macedonian Literary Language (1952), Thomas Magner’s Introduction to the Croatian and Serbian Language (1956), and Albert Lord’s Beginning Bulgarian (1962) ushered in during an age when South Slavic languages began to be taught with a moderate degree of frequency at the university level. Unfortunately, the number and variety of really fine textbooks in any of these languages still remain frustratingly low, though during the 1990s, there has been a wave of new grammars, some of them quite creative and contemporary in their pedagogical approach.[1] Accessible reference works are also not particularly numerous; however, there are a number of articles and entire volumes devoted to the South Slavic languages which provide solid reference tools. The standard general reference work for South Slavic languages is now The Slavonic Languages (1993), edited by Bernard Comrie and Greville G. Corbett. It includes descriptive analyses of Serbo-Croatian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, and Slovenian, each written by a leading South Slavic linguist. The articles all systematically offer a brief history of each language, followed by discussions of phonology, morphology, syntax, lexis, and dialects. Also useful is Reginald G.A. de Bray’s Guide to the South Slavonic Languages (3rd. ed., 1980), in which an entire section is devoted to each language. De Bray treats history, alphabet and orthography, pronunciation, stress, dialects, vowels, Slavic characteristics, individual linguistic characteristics, morphology, and word order with clitics; he then provides representative sample texts.
Serbo-Croatian is the language spoken in Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia-Hercegovina, and Montenegro. The dialect spoken by most people in these areas ("shtokavian") includes two main sub-dialects–Serbian or eastern ("ekavski") and Croatian or western ("ijekavski").[2] Though the recent war in the former Yugoslavia (1991—1995) has resulted in an increased recognition among native speakers of the Serbian and Croatian sub-dialects as discreet languages and thus political tools of nation-building, linguistically Serbo-Croatian is a unified language with minor differences in the realm of pronunciation (mainly of the vowels e and je or ije), dependent verbal clause constructions, alphabets (both employ Latin, but Serbian also employs Cyrillic), and regional lexicon. Notwithstanding, negotiating which will be the primary sub-dialect for use in the classroom is an issue which must be resolved–be it through embracing one to the exclusion of the other or through recognizing both. Including both is quite typical: the teacher may choose to employ one sub-dialect regularly in the classroom while also consistently acknowledging both eastern and western variants when they arise; the students, in the meantime, opt for whichever they prefer. Selecting a textbook for a Serbian, Croatian, or Serbo-Croatian class, then, is critical in a sense, though ultimately the quality of a volume as a teaching tool should transcend whether it favors one sub-dialect over another.
Among the first English-language grammars for students of Serbo-Croatian were Thomas Magner’s Introduction to the Croatian and Serbian Language (1956), Albert Lord’s Beginning Serbo-Croatian (1956), Monica Partridge’s Serbo-Croat: Practical Grammar and Reader (1961),[3] and Serbo-Croat by Vera Javarek and Miroslava Sudjic (1963). By now all except Magner (which has been reissued several times, including in 1997) are out of print and, as a matter of fact, are not appropriate for courses focusing on the development of learners’ communicative competency. They all treat the grammar of the language in a thorough and accurate way, however, and both Magner and Partridge continue to be used in some university courses.
For advanced Slavic language students interested primarily in a grammatical and reading knowledge of Serbo-Croatian, Thomas Magner’s Introduction to the Croatian and Serbian Language is adequate. Furthermore, Magner features both Serbian and Croatian in a balanced and objective way. For example, word lists in each chapter include both Serbian and Croatian alphabets, spelling, and differing lexicon. Magner furnishes sample sentences and texts which are lined up as Serbian and Croatian variants such that students can compare them as well as select the variant they wish to master. Language tapes made years ago to accompany Magner were re-recorded in 1997 and now present a more versatile handling of the lesson materials, including separate Serbian and Croatian versions, as well as a version in which both are employed for comparison. Magner’s even-handed treatment of the two sub-dialects– matters that now can be seen as potentially divisive, even in the North American classroom–is commendable. His is the only textbook readily available in North America that embraces Serbian and Croatian so evenly. Furthermore, it has helpful glossaries (Serbo-Croatian/English and English/ Serbo-Croatian), which also include morphological, case, and aspect information. Unfortunately, Magner has a number of major drawbacks in other important regards. His text–popular in part because it is the only volume in print that objectively includes both Serbian and Croatian–nonetheless is organized in an unorthodox and confusing way. Chapters do not include grammar explanations, but rather simply reading texts and exercises. It is up to the teacher (and students) to find–in the lists of tables and explanations of grammar included at the back of the book–exactly which points should be included for each lesson, a formidable task when time could be better spent finding creative activities for the students. Texts–ostensibly to illustrate the grammar for each lesson–sometimes include advanced linguistic constructions far beyond the assumed level of the chapter. These texts are simply lists of numbered sentences–not even set up as dialogues, but rather often as non-sequiturs–which frequently include lexicon that appears irrelevant to what the students really want to be able to convey as they speak.
Monica Partridge’s Serbo-Croat: Practical Grammar and Reader has been used on occasion in various North American classrooms. Partridge, like Magner, presents a relatively balanced description of Serbian and Croatian and lines up texts to portray their variant forms; Partridge is linguistically dense, however, and intimidates students who are not already familiar with Slavic language concepts. Furthermore, her reading texts for each chapter (typically not oriented around real-life situations) include a significant amount of low-frequency vocabulary, and her exercises are not particularly creative.
Three other main textbooks are available for teachers of Serbo-Croatian. While they are generally set up in a more accessible, engaging and conversationally-oriented manner, they all focus primarily on one of the sub-dialects only, giving a small amount of lip service to the other. Slavna Babic’s two-volume Serbo-Croatian for Foreigners (2nd ed., 1981) is published in Belgrade; its outrageous price, however (as a paperback set it costs $185.00), makes it out of the question for use among university students. Moreover, it is quite difficult to order. It presents mainly Serbian spelling, verbal constructions, and lexicon, with Croatian variants furnished as alternatives. Its biggest pedagogical drawback is the slow pace that it employs. For example, in Volume I, which comprises 25 lessons and is intended for the study of first-year Serbo-Croatian, it is not until Lesson 11 that any verbs besides biti (to be) are introduced. Nonetheless, it is a textbook which has been and continues to be used.
By contrast, Celia Hawkesworth’s Colloquial Serbo-Croat and David A. Norris’s Serbo-Croat: A Complete Course for Beginners are readily available (as well as easy on students’ budgets) and paced for students who wish primarily to speak the language of everyday usage (in addition, of course, to reading and writing). Both texts are written by South Slavic language specialists: Hawkesworth teaches at the University of London and Norris is at the University of Nottingham. They are, in fact, the best choices at the present time for proficiency-based instruction, where speaking in real-life and up-to-date situations is among the top objectives. There is no doubt, however, that they lack the linguistic sophistication of volumes such as Magner and Partridge. The two books are actually quite similar in their organization and approach, though in general (particularly for the oral proficiency classroom), Norris’s treatment is overall somewhat more effective. Both books favor Croatian orthography, structures, and vocabulary, though they also present a brief treatment of Serbian. Both include relatively engaging main dialogues in which four main characters (two British visitors and two Croatian hosts) are followed from cover to cover as the foreigners begin their stay in Croatia and experience it together with their friends, the native speakers. Since both textbooks can theoretically be used as "teach-yourself" manuals, keys to the exercises are provided. Both also include a number of grammar appendices and both have accompanying tapes which illustrate the dialogues and allow for students to practice speaking. Each approach–though in many respects similar–also has various features which the other does not.
Hawkesworth’s Colloquial Serbo-Croat first came out in 1986 and has since been revised in a 1993 reissue (the second edition includes a slightly expanded Introduction that treats a number of linguistic points made conspicuous by the war in the former Yugoslavia). Her table of contents is useful, as it catalogues exactly what each lesson covers. The glossaries (both directions) in Hawkesworth are also quite good, with information on aspect and cases, as well as indications as to where each particular word figures in the book. Although Hawkesworth’s actual treatment of grammar and lexicon is not disorganized, one sometimes has the impression that her presentation of it is. The format of each lesson seems at times cluttered, since she jumps from texts to explanations, to exercises, back to more explanations, texts, then more exercises, and so on. One very helpful feature, however (that Norris unfortunately lacks), is a straightforward method that indicates stress patterns in each word throughout the book. Hawkesworth’s volume also includes installments in every chapter (starting with Chapter 2) of two short stories that present colloquial and conversational language ("Love Story" and "Detective Story") which the students follow as they proceed through the book; it is a creative idea that engages students well. She also inserts–in about half the lessons– lists of idiomatic, colloquial, and slang expressions. On the other hand, cultural information is neither plentiful nor prominent; commentary labeled "Behavior" (primarily grammar-oriented) is provided in only six of the 25 chapters. Finally, the pace of Hawkesworth is generally good, though some of the ordering of information is certainly debatable. For example, it is commendable that she presents verb types early on (in the second chapter), after which past and future tenses follow later in Chapters 9 and 11 respectively. On the other hand, though she introduces aspect already in Chapter 2 (very early, by most standards), she then does not return to it until Chapter 22. Hawkesworth’s distinction between the dative and prepositional/locative cases also makes far better sense than both Magner’s and Norris’s collapsing of dative and locative into one big case (which they prefer simply to call dative). Hawkesworth includes a text in the eastern (Serbian) variant in Lesson 24 (out of 25) and samples of the Cyrillic alphabet in an appendix.
David Norris’s Serbo-Croat: A Complete Course for Beginners was published in 1993. Norris presents a clear and predictable agenda in each chapter, where simple, straightforward grammar explanations are illustrated by colloquial dialogues. His grammar explanations are sometimes alarmingly simple, though students in general understand them well, such that additional fine-tuning by the teacher often can be kept to a minimum. His exercises–which serve to reinforce the grammar–are generally more creative than Hawkesworth’s perennial English-to-Serbo-Croatian translations, though in many respects it would be helpful to have even more for each lesson. The dialogues in Norris are somewhat more amusing than Hawkesworth’s more serious (though real-life) conversations. Norris purposefully includes characters who are humorous, such as the mother of one of the central Croatian characters, who is a real busybody with the foreign guests and then complains that her son is still not married. In Lesson 16 (out of 18), he cleverly introduces eastern variant lexicon and verbal structures by having the foreign guests (who have been featured throughout the book) travel to Belgrade and then meet and speak with people there; he also includes the Cyrillic alphabet in this lesson.
Although Norris is an overall better and more engaging textbook, it lacks a number of important features. For instance, it unfortunately does not include a detailed table of contents, though there is a brief grammatical index. Another weakness of Norris is his glossary: it is only Serbo-Croatian/English, thus frustrating students considerably. And, it is not particularly thorough, though some indications of aspect, gender, and cases with prepositions are included. Particularly conspicuous is the total absence of any indications of stress in the lessons (a surprising omission, considering that the book is marketed as a "teach yourself" manual). Norris’s pacing of material is generally quite good, though at times uneven. For instance, his approach in the first third of the book–which seeks to lay down the rules and concentrate on verb and noun usage during the first six lessons–is excellent. Verb types are explained in Chapter 3 and by Chapter 6, aspect has been discussed and the cases have all been presented. In the following chapters, however, the pace with regard to verbs is comparatively unbalanced. He waits until Chapter 11 to introduce the perfect tense–somewhat too late for students who are, already by the middle of the book, quite anxious to start talking about things in the past. Future tense follows right away in Chapter 12, and by Chapter 14 the conditional is treated (as are several low-frequency verb tenses). Students actually need somewhat more time to digest these constructions. Past and future are the two major tenses besides present for students of Serbo-Croatian to master, and these tenses bring with them a significant amount of aspect and clitic baggage which also must be absorbed. Yet Norris’s overall exposition of cultural and current linguistic information is outstanding. He includes colorful and useful cultural commentary (as well as functional everyday expressions) in each lesson, where students are told about important topics such as addressing others, being a guest at someone’s house, making a phone call, and so on–an invaluable enhancement to his presentation. Photographs, maps, pictures, charts, sample posters, schedules, and so on are also provided, bringing students closer to the culture than is the case with most other texts.
There is presently no perfect Serbo-Croatian textbook, needless to say. If only the best features of the books reviewed here were somehow blended into one, teachers of Serbo-Croatian would have little to complain about. What is needed? The ideal would be a dynamic, conversational, proficiency-oriented volume–moderately linguistic in its presentation, with engaging and entertaining texts and exercises (as well as varied and colorful cultural illustrations)–which treats both Serbian and Croatian evenly and indeed teaches Cyrillic from the outset. In other words, such a volume would ideally include a sophisticated–but crystal-clear–level of grammar explanation (including, for example, assertive approaches to aspect early on and a recognition of the dative and prepositional/locative as discreet cases), indications of stress in each word, and two-directional glossaries that aid students in knowing more about the grammar of each entry. Finally, such a textbook would also contain engaging texts such as personal-interest narratives that entice students to read and draw them into accessible learning contexts. One solution for finding a balanced approach to teaching the language is to combine–selectively– two texts (such as Magner and Norris).
As for general reference works for teachers of Serbo-Croatian, the best place to start is with Wayles Browne’s thorough and informative article "Serbo-Croat" in Comrie and Corbett. Browne offers a concise description of Serbo-Croatian, complete with many examples and helpful tables. Gramatika srpskohrvatskog jezika za strance by Pavica Mrazovic and Zora Vukadinovic (1990) - a longer monograph - is likewise thorough and practical.[4] Because their grammar treatments are so extensive, the textbooks by Partridge and Magner are also good aids for reference questions; both have fine indices. Furthermore, the article on Serbo-Croatian in de Bray is useful.
Morton Benson’s Serbocroatian-English Dictionary and English-Serbocroatian Dictionary are model dictionaries in their inclusion of significant grammatical data (especially stress patterns and morphological information) as well as indications as to whether lexicon is eastern or western. Due to their scope, the volumes by Benson actually can also function as reference volumes. The best monolingual dictionary is Vladimir Anic’s Rjecnik hrvatskoga jezika (1991). [5] Finally, Abdulah Skaljic’s 1966 Turcizmi u spskohrvatskom jeziku is invaluable - especially for more advanced classes of Serbo-Croatian, where students are reading literature that contains Turkic lexicon.
The first major grammar of Bulgarian to appear in the United States was Albert Lord’s Beginning Bulgarian in 1962 (by now out of print). In 1983, Slavica Publishers reprinted a two-volume Bulgarian text originally published in Sofia in the 1960s by Milka Hubenova, Ana Dzhumadanova, and Milka Marinova: A Course in Modern Bulgarian, Parts 1 and 2. This set was the standard text in classrooms for years. It provides thorough and comparatively clear grammar explanations, but by now its socialist ideological tone is out of date. Indeed, there was a time when this could be exploited by teachers in the classroom (as "factory" and "dam" emerged among the first words to learn in Lesson 1, for instance) but not even the memories of the communist world seem pertinent anymore to today’s students. In 1987, Charles Gribble published - also through Slavica - Reading Bulgarian through Russian, a volume designed for students who already know Russian and thus can use it as a springboard from which to understand Bulgarian. It is accurate and useful for students with a prior knowledge of Russian who wish to learn to read Bulgarian, but it is a dry and detailed account and not recommended for courses in which a speaking knowledge of colloquial Bulgarian is desired.
Two texts that are presently widely available include Bulgarian: A Complete Course for Beginners (1993) by Michael Holman (University of Leeds) and Mira Kovatcheva (Sofia University) and George D. Papantchev’s Colloquial Bulgarian: A Complete Language Course (1994). Both - like the Serbo-Croatian texts in the same publication series - are effective teaching volumes since they furnish clear, simple grammar explanations and appropriate texts based on realistic situations in Bulgaria, as well as valuable cultural information. They also include accompanying cassettes. In both cases, however, the grammatical explanations are linguistically elementary.
As a whole, Holman and Kovatcheva is a more effective textbook. As a tool for the development of communicative competency, it is commendable. For the dialogues, three main foreign (British) visitors (characters we come to know well) stay in Sofia for a period of time and interact with a number of Bulgarian colleagues and friends. Cultural information includes an array of photographs, pictures, examples of identification cards, street signs, and much more (such as tips on how nodding and shaking the head represent the opposite in Bulgaria of what they do elsewhere) - useful materials for proficiency-oriented instruction. A section called "Belezhki;" (Notes) consisting of cultural information, is included in Chapters 1 through 11 (out of 20); "Zapomnete!" (Remember!) - containing typical everyday expressions and sentences - is another section present in all of the chapters of the book. Many good exercises at the end of each lesson serve well to reinforce the previous grammar and vocabulary. Stress is indicated for each word, which is very helpful for students. The appendices at the end of the book comprise 20 pages of grammar charts, including a valuable list of close to 100 high-frequency verbal aspect pairs. The glossary, unfortunately, is Bulgarian/English only and is sparse on grammatical information. The presentation of the grammar in the 20 chapters of the book, however, is by and large clear and logical, though not geared to the Slavic language sophisticate. Verbs - especially past tense verbs - are the most difficult high-frequency grammar of Bulgarian to master. The authors lay the initial groundwork by establishing "sum" (be), the three conjugations of verbs, aspect as it functions in the present tense and "da" clause, and the fundamental noun and adjective forms (singulars, plurals, and definite articles) during the first nine chapters. By Chapter 10, students are ready to take on the future tense (which in any case simply employs an auxiliary verb and present tense forms they already know). This may not necessarily be the first additional tense that students wish to know after the present, but pedagogically it makes sense, since it is relatively easy to master before the more challenging past tense is approached. The first really substantial discussion of aspect is made in Chapter 12 - somewhat late, considering that "da" clauses (which should include a discussion of aspect) are presented six chapters earlier. At least it precedes the introduction of past tense constructions, however, that begin in Chapter 13. The rest of the book (Chapters 13 through 20) treats past tenses - from all the forms of the aorist (though, unfortunately, this term is not employed), to the past imperfect, and present and past perfect - as well as the re-narrated and conditional moods.
George Papantchev’s Colloquial Bulgarian, like the volume by Holman and Kovatcheva, is simple in its presentation of grammar; it includes dialogues and a good deal of cultural information and high-frequency expressions. The dialogues include numerous different characters (each an encounter between a British visitor and a Bulgarian), such that there is not a great deal of continuity from chapter to chapter. This does not diminish the credibility of the situations presented, though students usually prefer to follow a given set of characters through a textbook, especially when they are reasonably well-developed (or amusing) personalities and are themselves working out realistic issues within the dialogues which fit into a larger "narrative." The exercises in Papantchev are adequate, as are his appendices and glossary. He indicates stress on all words presented in grammar explanations, word lists, and exercises but, regrettably, not in the dialogues themselves. The ordering of grammar points is conventional, that is, the present tense and the three verbal conjugations, as well as basic forms for nouns and adjectives, are featured in Chapters 1 through 5. In Chapter 6, aspect and the future tense are introduced. Chapters 7 through 18 (the end of the book) are devoted to the array of past tenses, other future constructions, and conditional and re-narrated forms.
The latest Bulgarian textbook is Ronelle Alexander’s excellent two-volume Intensive Bulgarian: A Textbook and Reference Grammar (2000). Alexander is a prominent South Slavic linguist at Berkeley whose tomes are comprehensive and linguistically sophisticated. The volumes include grammatical explanations that are both more inclusive and more articulate than in any other Bulgarian text presently available; each contains fifteen chapters. Every chapter begins with a dialogue that features two Americans who are visiting Bulgaria and a relatively stable cast of Bulgarian characters with whom they interact. The dialogues convincingly present the contemporary colloquial spoken language while effectively illustrating the grammar points of each lesson. Each lesson also contains additional reading materials, such as sample sentences, letters, and prose excerpts (both fiction and non-fiction) designed to give students exposure to various styles in the written language.
The ordering of linguistic materials throughout the volumes is logical. The first half of Volume I addresses the sounds, Cyrillic alphabet, nouns and adjectives, clitics, definite articles, pronouns, the verbs "sum" (be), "imam/ima" (have/there is, are) and the three present-tense conjugations, aspect, the imperative, "da" clauses, the aorist, and the future (all by Lesson 7). From Lesson 8 through the end of Volume II, Alexander presents numerous additional grammar points but, most importantly, further detailed explanations of the aorist and meticulous treatments of the remaining Bulgarian tenses and moods. All grammar points are generously substantiated, and stress patterns are indicated for each word. Alexander leaves no grammatical subtlety unaddressed. Indeed, as her title indicates, the volumes comprise both a textbook and reference grammar. While Alexander excels in grammar explanations, she devotes less space to exercises for the students. There are usually only three - and at times even just two - written activities per lesson (primarily structural pattern drills), plus a number of sentences for translation. These are all useful, but more written drills in the target language would be preferable, not to mention some exercises that focus on students’ communicative skills and creative abilities to generate linguistic constructions.
The Bulgarian-English glossaries in Intensive Bulgarian (one in every lesson as well as at the end of each volume) are thorough and contain valuable grammatical information. Alexander also provides an English-Bulgarian glossary at the end of Volume I. An exhaustive index and table of contents are also furnished in each volume.
Alexander also includes extensive cultural information on Bulgaria and Bulgarians in a section found in virtually every chapter titled "Cultural Commentary." Each "Cultural Commentary" highlights several topics: language issues and conventions, city and village life, the educational system, tourist spots, family life, hospitality, guest etiquette, history, cultural figures, music, folk customs, food and drink, and numerous others. Moreover, audio-tapes and CDs - one per volume - are available for use with the textbook. Alexander’s text is "intensive" in both scope and size; it truly breaks new ground in its intelligible, sweeping approach. The volumes are sure to supercede all other linguistically-oriented Bulgarian textbooks.
Teachers seeking reference materials for Bulgarian should begin with the article titled "Bulgarian" by Ernest Scatton in Comrie and Corbett. Other useful sources include Scatton’s earlier Reference Grammar of Modern Bulgarian (1984); here he systematically treats the structure, phonology, orthography, morphology, and syntax of contemporary standard Bulgarian. The article titled "Bulgarian" in de Bray’s Guide is informative as well. Prakticheska bulgarska gramatika (2nd ed., 1994) by Petar Minkov Pashov is likewise a compact and handy volume. [6] Reliable dictionaries are Bulgarsko-anglijski rechnik (2nd ed.) compiled by Teodora Atanasova et al. (1983) and Marija Rankova et al.’s Anglijsko-bulgarski rechnik (1987-88). For monolingual Bulgarian dictionaries, Pravogovoren rechnik na bulgarskija ezik by Petar Pashov and Xristo Parvev is recommended.
No review of Macedonian textbooks can start without mention of Horace Lunt’s seminal Grammar of the Macedonian Literary Language (1952). It treats the language from "a strictly linguistic point of view" (viii) and though it is long out of print, it is an invaluable and erudite introduction to Macedonian by an eminent South Slavic linguist. Lunt spends the first half of the book discussing the grammar in detail, including phonology, orthography, morphology, and the verb. The second part of the book is devoted to excerpts from texts in Macedonian (folk prose, the Gospel of Luke, expository and narrative prose, and drama).
Two other Macedonian textbooks are available (with a bit of effort) from their university distributors. Ilija Casule’s Let’s Learn Macedonian (1990) includes dialogues with vocabulary, grammatical explanations, numerous exercises and drills, other short texts, and a reasonably large Macedonian/English dictionary. In addition to an introduction and preliminary lesson, there are eight lessons. Marija Kusevska and Liljana Mitkovska are the authors of Zboruvate li makedonski? Pocheten kurs za stranici, a text that is accompanied by a workbook and tape and was published in 1995 in Skopje. [7] The 36-chapter textbook and tapes emphasize communication skills of elementary Macedonian through real-life situational texts that seek to develop reading, listening, speaking, and writing and are reinforced by corresponding workbook exercises.
Christina E. Kramer’s Macedonian: A Textbook for Beginning and Intermediate Students (1999) is the most recent Macedonian textbook. Kramer, a well-known South Slavic linguist at the University of Toronto, combines sophisticated linguistic understanding with texts, grammar explanations, and cultural information that are compatible with proficiency-based teaching. The volume, comprised of sixteen chapters, is organized in an intelligent and straightforward manner. Kramer does not shy away from using linguistic terminology in her grammar explanations, yet she conveys the grammar points in a clear and articulate fashion. Chapters 1 through 5 introduce students to pronunciation, writing, and stress, as well as personal pronouns, nouns, adjectives, the definite article, the verb "e" (be), and the three conjugations. By Chapter 6 she has approached clitics, aspect, and the future tense and by Chapter 8 she is discussing the aorist. Later chapters include treatments of other past tense forms, more on clitics, the conditional, and various other verbal constructions.
Kramer’s volume also contains diverse texts that effectively illustrate the grammar points in each chapter. The dialogues present a continuing story throughout the book. Also included are short prose sections, conversations, letters, folktales, poems, and a variety of up-to-date, vernacular texts such as excerpts from newspaper articles, television and airport schedules, currency bills, and weather forecasts. There are, in addition, six supplementary texts following Chapter 16 which, combined with the readings within chapters, offer a representative cross-section of written Macedonian. Moreover, cultural commentary is sprinkled throughout the volume; students read, for instance, about customs surrounding the life cycle, calendrical-cycle celebrations, how to serve Turkish coffee, and so on. Other useful features include a grammatical summary (including all verb forms), a table of grammatical terminology, and both Macedonian-English and English-Macedonian glossaries. The table of contents provides a thorough guide to what is covered in the volume.
Each chapter in Kramer’s Macedonian contains about twelve exercises, though some have up to eighteen. They include a broad array of both traditional assignments (such as translations, fill-in-the-blanks, and substitution drills) as well as proficiency-oriented activities that focus on communicative competency and cultural content. Kramer’s overall treatment of the exercises is laudable - especially for the variety of creative ways devised to help students learn new structures and put them into practice, not to mention the sheer number of activities provided in each chapter.[8] In addition, a CD-ROM accompanies the textbook. Its format is interactive (with self-correction features), and it offers a variety of highly useful activities and materials: exercises (including listening and comprehension drills), the alphabet, a dictionary, games, maps, photographs, video clips, folk music, and an array of other facts and cultural information. All of the texts have voice-overs on the CD. Kramer’s Macedonian (complete with CD-ROM) is the most creative and resourceful South Slavic textbook currently available; it is an exemplary volume.
Lunt’s Grammar of the Macedonian Literary Language is, of course, fundamental as a reference source for teachers of Macedonian. Excellent as a guide - and more compact - is Victor Friedman’s article "Macedonian" in Comrie and Corbett. The article on Macedonian in de Bray is also instructive. Gramatika na makedonskiot literaturen jazik (2nd ed. reprinted, 1987) by Blaze Koneski is a classic in its comprehensive treatment.[9] The Macedonian-English Dictionary by Dushan Crvenkovski and Branislav Gruik (1965) and their English-Macedonian Dictionary (1975) are among the few available dictionaries.[10] The standard monolingual dictionary is Rechnik na makedonskiot jazik (reprinted, 1986) by Blazhe Koneski.
Textbooks for Slovenian, like Macedonian, are few. Milena Gobetz and Breda Loncar’s two-volume Slovenian Language Manual: Ucbenik slovenskoga jezika was published in 1976 and 1977, but it is has long been out of print. It is developed for total beginners of foreign language-learning and includes a "simplified, step-by-step approach" (iv), one characteristic of which is numerous lists of very repetitive, rote-like drills. In the meantime, in the mid-1990s, two volumes have been issued in the "Colloquial" and "Teach Yourself" series, both by Andrea Albretti. Albretti’s Colloquial Slovene, published in 1995, is designed for students who are not familiar with Slavic languages and are learning Slovenian in an oral proficiency context. Though Colloquial Slovene is ostensibly arranged like the other volumes of the "Colloquial" series discussed here (Serbo-Croat and Bulgarian), it is far inferior. Each of its 13 chapters presents several real-life situational dialogues (typically between a small cast of characters including the proverbial British visitors and Slovenians), grammar explanations, much cultural information, and many exercises; tapes also accompany the volume. The greatest weakness of the book, however, is that, in an attempt to simplify the grammar, Albretti ignores fundamental linguistic concepts and terminology. For example, in discussing quintessential Slavic verbal aspect - a topic that she finally arrives at in Chapter 9 out of 13 (after both past and future tenses have been introduced) - she does not even mention the word "aspect," and indeed, after a one-page discussion, the matter is never brought up again. The treatment of clitics (in Chapter 11) is similarly poor. In 1997, Albretti authored a second Slovenian textbook: Slovene: A Complete Course for Beginners. It also has 13 chapters and also presents dialogues, this time with no core group of characters, but rather various speakers who are put in real-life situations in Slovenia. While there is much cultural information, the pace of the volume is slow, and - as in the competing volume from 1995 - important linguistic information is minimized (for instance, again aspect is introduced late in the book with little embellishment, meriting only one-half page of discussion).
Teachers seeking reference materials will find a concise and informative review in Tom Priestly’s article "Slovene" in Comrie and Corbett. William Derbyshire’s Basic Reference Grammar of Slovene, published in 1993, is thorough and useful. After a brief history of the language and discussion of the alphabet, sounds, and spelling rules, Derbyshire systematically proceeds through the grammar. An important general study of Slovenian can be found in Rado Lencek’s Structure and History of the Slovene Language (1982). The article on Slovenian in de Bray’s Guide is also informative. Finally, Slovenska slovnica by Joze Toporisic (1984) is a practical handbook. Anton Grad and Henry Leeming’s Slovensko-angleski slovar: Slovene-English Dictionary (1994) and Veliki anglesko-slovenski slovar (1986) are the standard bilingual dictionaries. The most comprehensive monolingual dictionary is Slovar slovenskega knjiznega jezika (1970—91) by Anton Bajec et al.
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Informative and accessible reference works authored by knowledgeable linguists are, for the most part, readily available for instructors of South Slavic languages. The more pressing problem has always been where to find satisfactory teaching materials. Really excellent textbooks do not presently exist for the study of Serbo-Croatian or Slovenian nor did they, until very recently, for Macedonian or Bulgarian (a situation that is by and large rectified with the recent publications of Kramer and Alexander respectively). This is because - to put it very simply - in books in which elegant linguistic explanations are found, students must put up with boring, often irrelevant texts and a virtual absence of contemporary materials and proficiency-oriented tasks; and, where real-life vocabulary and situations are presented - along with up-to-date teaching aids and texts - linguistic explanations are often miserably simplified or even just minimized. Intelligent students want to communicate with ease about the world around them, which is, after all, what most of language is about. But they also want to understand the workings of the constructions that they are taught which indeed allow them to communicate. In other words, they want to be presented with systematic means of knowing what they are saying and why. When these two perspectives - dynamic, context-oriented strategies and sensible, sophisticated linguistic approaches - are skillfully and effectively merged in the instructional media for South Slavic languages, we will finally be equipped with truly fine teaching materials that respond to the fundamental needs of students.
Albretti, Andrea. Colloquial Slovene: A Complete Language Course. London, New York: Routledge, 1995.
–––. Slovene: A Complete Course for Beginners. Lincolnwood, Illinois: NTC Publishing Group, 1997.
Alexander, Ronelle, with the assistance of Olga M. Mladenova. Intensive Bulgarian: A Textbook and Reference Grammar. 2 vols. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2000.
Anic, Vladimir. Rjecnik hrvatskoga jezika. Zagreb: Novi Liber, 1991.
Atanasova, Teodora et al. Anglijsko-bulgarski recnik. 3rd ed. Sofia: Izdatelstvo na Bulgarskata Akademija na Naukite, 1985.
–––. Bulgarsko-anglijski Rechnik. 2nd ed. Sofia: Izdatelstvo Nauka i Izkustvo, 1983.
Babic, Slavna. Serbo-Croatian for Foreigners, Books One and Two. Belgrade: Kolarcev Narodni Univerzitet, 1964 (2nd ed., 1981).
Bajec, Anton et al. Slovar slovenskega knjiznega jezika. 5 vols. Ljubljana: Slovenska akademija znanosti i umetnosti, 1970—91.
Benson, Morton. An English-SerboCroatian Dictionary. 3rd ed. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990.
–––. Serbocroatian-English Dictionary. With the collaboration of Biljana Sljivic-Simsic. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1971.
–––. Srpskohrvatsko-engleski recnik. Uz saradnju Biljane Sljivic-Simsic. 2nd ed. Belgrade: Prosveta, 1981.
Brozovic, Dalibor and Pavle Ivic. Jezik srpskohrvatski/hrvatosrpski, hrvatski ili srpski. Izvadak iz II izdanja Enciklopedije Jugoslavije. Zagreb: Jugoslavenski leksikografski zavod, 1988.
Buzharovska, Eleni and Tatjana Gochkova Stojanovska. Zboruvate li makedonski? Rabotna Tetratka. Skopje: MEDIS-Informatika, 1995.
Comrie, Bernard and Greville G. Corbett. The Slavonic Languages. London and New York: Routledge, 1993.
Casule, Ilija. Let’s Learn Macedonian (textbook for MCD 102, Introduction to Macedonian). Sydney: Macquarie University, 1990.
Crvenkovski, Dushan and Branislav Gruik. Anglijsko-makedonski recnik. English-Macedonian Dictionary. Skopje: "Prosvetno delo," 1971.
–––. Macedonian-English Dictionary. Skopje-Cetinje, 1965.
De Bray, Reginald G.A. Guide to the South Slavonic Languages: (Guide To The Slavonic Languages, Third Edition, Revised and Expanded, Part 1). Columbus: Slavica Publishers, 1980.
Derbyshire, William W. A Basic Reference Grammar of Slovene. Columbus: Slavica Publishers, 1993.
Friedman, Victor. Grammatical Categories of the Macedonian Indicative. Columbus: Slavica Publishers, 1977.
Gobetz, Milena and Breda Loncar. Slovenian Language Manual: Ucbenik slovenskoga jezika. 2 vols. Willoughby Hills, Ohio: Slovenian Research Center of America, 1976 and 1977.
Grad, Anton and Henry Leeming. Slovensko-angleski slovar/Slovene-English Dictionary. Ljubljana: Drzavna zalozba Slovenije, 1994.
Grad, Anton, Ruzena Skerlj, and Nada Vitorovic. Veliki anglesko-slovenski slovar. Ljubljana: Drzavna zalozba Slovenije, 1986.
Gribble, Charles. Reading Bulgarian Through Russian. Columbus: Slavica Publishers, 1987.
Hawkesworth, Celia. Colloquial Serbo-Croat. 2nd ed. London and New York: Routledge, 1993.
Holman, Michael and Mira Kovatcheva. Bulgarian: A Complete Course for Beginners. Lincolnwood, Illinois: NTC Publishing Group, 1993.
Hrvatski jezicni savjetnik. Institut za hrvatski jezik. Zagreb: Pergamenakolske novine, 1999.
Hubenova, Milka, Ana Dzhumadanova, and Milka Marinova. A Course in Modern Bulgarian. Parts 1 and 2. Columbus: Slavica Publishers, 1983 (original titles: Bulgarski ezik, Prva chast and Bulgarski ezik, Vtora chast. Sofia: Narodna Prosveta, 1964, 1968).
Javarek, Vera and Miroslava Sudjic. Serbo-Croat. London: The English Universities Press, 1963.
Koneski, Blazhe. Gramatika na makedonskiot literaturen jazik. 2nd ed. Skopje: Kultura, 1987.
———, ed. Rechnik na makedonskiot literaturen jazik. 3 vols. Skopje: Institut za Makedonski Jazik, 1961—66 (Photo-reprinted as a single volume in 1986).
Kramer, Christina. Macedonian: A Textbook for Beginning and Intermediate Students. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1999.
Kusevska, Marija and Liljana Mitkovska. Zboruvate li makedonski? Pocheten kurs za stranci. Skopje: MEDIS-Informatika, 1995.
Lencek, Rado. The Structure and History of the Slovene Language. Columbus: Slavica Publishers, 1982.
Lord, Albert B. Beginning Bulgarian. The Hague: Mouton, 1962.
–––. Beginning Serbo-Croatian. The Hague: Mouton, 1956.
Lunt, Horace G. A Grammar of the Macedonian Literary Language. Skopje: Drzhavno Knigoizdatelstvo, 1952.
Magner, Thomas. Introduction to the Croatian and Serbian Language. University Park and London: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1956 (reprinted 1997).
Mrazovic, Pavica and Zora Vukadinovic. Gramatika srpskohrvatskog jezika za strance. Sremski Karlovci/Novi Sad: Izdavacka Zorana Stojanovica/Dobra vest, 1990.
Norris, David. Serbo-Croat: A Complete Course for Beginners. Lincolnwood, Illinois: NTC Publishing Group, 1993.
Papantchev, George. Colloquial Bulgarian: A Complete Language Course. London and New York: Routledge, 1994.
Partridge, Monica. Serbo-Croat: Practical Grammar and Reader. Belgrade: Izdavacki Zavod Jugoslavija, 1961.
Pashov, Petar Minkov. Prakticheska bulgarska gramatika. 2nd ed. Sofia: Prosveta, 1994.
Pashov, Petar and Khristo Parvev. Pravogovoren rechnik na bulgarskija ezik. Sofia: Nauka i izkustvo, 1979.
Rankova, Mariia, Teodora Atanasova, and Ivanka Xarlakova. Anglijsko-bulgarski rechnik. 2 vols. Sofia: Izdatelstvo Nauka i izkustvo, 1987—88.
Scatton, Ernest A. A Reference Grammar of Modern Bulgarian. Columbus: Slavica Publishers, 1984.
Skaljic, Abdulah. Turcizmi u srpskohrvatskom jeziku. Sarajevo: Svetlost, 1966.
Tezak, Stjepko and Stjepan Babic. Gramatika hrvatskoga jezika: prirucnik za osnovno jezicno obrazovanje. Zagreb: Skolska knjiga, 1992.
Tilkov, Dimitar, Stojan Stojanov, and Konstantin Popov. Gramatika na suvremennija bulgarski knizoven ezik. 2nd. ed. Sofia: Bulgarska Akademija na Naukite, 1993.
Toporisic, Joze. Slovenska slovnica. 2nd ed. Maribor: Zalozba Obzorja, 1984.
Department of Slavic Lang. & Lit.
University of Wisconsin, Madison
Van Hise Hall 1432
Madison, WI 53706
[!] For maximum compatibility this page has been prepared without any special symbols and diacritic marks (webmaster).
* I wish to thank Ronelle Alexander, Stephen Batalden, Wayles Browne, Ilija Casule, Ellen Elias-Bursac, Victor Friedman, Christina Kramer, Tom Priestly, and Cynthia Vakareliyska for their much-appreciated advice and information on South Slavic language teaching and reference materials. I would also like to express my gratitude to Stephen Salemson (of the University of Wisconsin Press) as well as to Ronelle Alexander and Christina Kramer for permitting me to review their then unpublished textbooks respectively - Intensive Bulgarian: A Textbook and Reference Grammar and Macedonian: A Textbook for Beginning and Intermediate Students.
[1] This essay will by and large not treat grammars published in the target language countries. A reasonable number of such textbooks have been and continue to be published, but most are not marketed for sales in North America; the few that are mentioned here can be obtained (though at times with difficulty) through North American distributors.
[2] Since the break-up of Yugoslavia, "Bosnian" is also included by some as a language spoken by inhabitants of Bosnia who do not consider themselves either Serbs or Croats yet speak what is otherwise known as Serbo-Croatian.
[3] Partridge was reissued in 1991 by Prosveta in Belgrade but is now out of print.
[4] See also Brozovic and Ivic (1988) for a comprehensive grammar of Serbo-Croatian and Tezak and Babic (1992) and Hrvatski jezicni savjetnik (1999) for systematic treatments of Croatian.
[5] I purposefully exclude here the massive monolingual dictionaries customarily issued by the various Academies of Arts and Sciences in the South Slavic languages; these publications typically span decades and include numerous volumes.
[6] See also Tilkov et al. (1993).
[7] The workbook that accompanies this text is by Eleni Buzharovska and Tatjana Gochkova Stojanovska. The textbook, workbook, and tape are available through the Arizona State University Russian and East European Studies Consortium (Tempe, Arizona 85287).
[8] The CD-ROM has been developed by Christina Kramer and Grace Fielder.
[9] Friedman's Grammatical Categories of the Macedonian Indicative (1977) is a more specialized, but useful, discussion of verbal formation.
[10] A Macedonian-English and English-Macedonian dictionary have been published more recently by Zoze Murkovski; but though they are generally better than the earlier Crvenkovski and Gruik volumes, they are not available in the standard North American market.