In this video, we compare some of the similarities between Turkish and Serbian, two languages that belong to different families. Contact us on Instagram if you have any questions or feedback:
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The Turkish language (Türkçe), which is also referred to as Istanbul Turkish, is the most widely spoken of the Turkic languages, with most of its native speakers living in Western Asia, and significant group of speakers in Germany, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Northern Cyprus, Greece, the Caucasus, and other parts of Europe and Central Asia. Ottoman Turkish, which was a variation of the Turkish spoken today, influenced many parts of Europe during the time that the Ottoman Empire expanded. When the modern Turkish republic was established, one of Atatürk's Reforms consisted of changing the Ottoman Turkish alphabet with a Latin alphabet. Today, Turkish is recognized as a minority language in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Greece, Iraq, Macedonia, and Romania. The Serbian language (српски / srpski) is the standardized variety of the SerboCroatian language mainly used by Serbs, and the official language of Serbia, and one of the three official languages of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is a minority language in Montenegro, as well as in Croatia, Macedonia, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic. Serbian is the only European standard language uses both Cyrillic and Latin alphabets.
The Serbian Revolution in the early 19th century, which was a rebellion against the Ottomans as a struggle for independence led to the formation of an autonomous Serbia, marking the foundation of modern Serbia. Two centuries have passed since that time, and the Serbs were never influenced by the religion of Islam, having maintained Orthodox Christianity. However, the Serbian language and cuisine has been heavily influenced by Turkish. The Ottoman conquest led to linguistical contact between Turkish and South Slavic. Besides Turkish loanwords, also many Arabic and Persian words which had been adopted by the Turks, called "Orientalisms", entered the languages of the Balkans. Many of these words are no longer considered loan words.