Serbian C2 — brand-new words, and how Serbian decides what to do with them.
Bukstagramer and buktjuber are about as new as Serbian words get. They came from English within the last decade or so, and watching what the language does to them is a short lesson in how Serbian absorbs anything.
Three things happen, in order.
First, the spelling is rewritten. Serbian transcribes rather than borrows: YouTuber becomes jutjuber, so BookTuber becomes buktjuber. This is a rule, not a habit — Serbian orthography writes foreign words as they sound.
Second, it is assigned a gender and made to decline, immediately and without ceremony:
| Padež | Jednina | Množina |
|---|---|---|
| nominativ | buktjuber | buktjuberi |
| genitiv | buktjubera | buktjubera |
| dativ / lokativ | buktjuberu | buktjuberima |
| instrumental | buktjuberom | buktjuberima |
Third, it grows a feminine form and a verb. Buktjuberka follows within about a week, and lajkovati, guglašiti, skrolovati show what happens to borrowed verbs: they take -ovati or -irati and conjugate like anything else.
People argue about whether this is damage or health. The grammar has an opinion of its own: a word that declines is a word the language has swallowed. The ones to watch are the ones that refuse to decline — those are still guests.
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Drag the words from the top into the gaps, then press Submit.
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SR (lat): Prevuci reči odozgo u prazna polja, pa pritisni Submit.
СР (ћир): Превуци речи одозго у празна поља, па притисни Submit.
EN: Drag the words from the top into the gaps, then press Submit.