Category:

Southern Slavic languages

Naš jezik at Munich Airport

I’m about to fly off to Australia transiting through Munich Airport 🇩🇪 … so I’m preparing myself to be ready to speak in “naš jezik” (“our language”).

👉 So what is this “naš jezik” (“our language”)?
👉 And why is it spoken at Munich Airport?

“Naš jezik” is the euphemism used by people from ex-Yugoslavia in diaspora communities, especially in western Europe, to describe their joint spoken 🗣️ (note, not written) language previously called “Serbo-Croatian”.

As a term, “naš jezik”:
🤝🏻 is more inclusive than using the ethnic-specific names of the individual successor languages: Serbian 🇷🇸, Croatian 🇭🇷, Bosnian 🇧🇦, Montenegrin 🇲🇪
🤝🏻 avoids potential animosity between the various speakers of these languages
🤝🏻 is easier than saying the names of all four languages (what a word salad!)
🤝🏻 reflects the near 100% mutual intelligibility between all four languages i.e. it’s a shared spoken language
🤝🏻 can only really be used by those who speak it

But if I’m going to Munich🍻, surely I should be brushing up on my German? 🤔

Well, you’d think that, but based on my last experience at Munich Airport (in transit to Belgrade 🇷🇸, of course), it seemed to me that everyone working there was from former Yugoslavia 🇸🇮🇭🇷🇧🇦🇷🇸🇲🇪🇲🇰. I was surprised to find almost all of the security officials, the cleaning staff, the people at the information desk and even the hospitality staff inside the lounge speaking to each other in “our language” that I even piped in and spoke “our language” to them and no one bat an eyelid 😃

This was not a unique experience. The word goes in former Yugoslavia that there are so many people from the region living in Vienna that you can negotiate the 🇦🇹 capital speaking solely “our language”. One time a Serbian TV crew decided to put that to the test. And the result? If the crew didn’t happen to encounter someone on the streets and shops of “Beč” (Vienna) who knew “our language” then it was easy for a local to rustle up someone who could.

I had a similar experience a few years ago when I was in Miami 🇺🇸, a city with a huge Spanish-speaking population. Granted, I was only a few miles away from Little Havana 🇨🇺 but still it was somewhat surreal to be in what otherwise superficially was typical US suburbia but interacting with bus drivers, going into chain stores and businesses (such as Target and Little Caesar’s Pizza) and asking for directions solely in Spanish.

Or the time I was on a public bus where all the passengers were speaking in Portuguese, including the bus driver, who had Portuguese radio blaring… on my way to Vianden, Luxembourg 🇱🇺 (Portuguese 🇵🇹 make up almost 15% of Luxembourg’s population).

✨ What made all these circumstances special is that there was no or little visible or physical presence of the dominant spoken language (such as signage).

Have you ever been in similar situations?

Share this post

Nick Nasev smiling

Hi, zdravo, bok, zdravei, g'day! I’m Nick Nasev, an Aussie of Balkan background living in the UK. I’ve been a translator and editor for 20+ years. If you have an interest in languages and all things Balkan, Eastern European, Australian and beyond, along with a dash of corny and irony, then stick with me as I rant about my experiences and stories.

Your text deserves to be taken seriously; have it translated and edited with confidence.

info@nicknasev.com

Contact me with the details of your text at info@nicknasev.com

Continue reading

International Translation Day and the Dragomans

How the Ottoman Empire granted its translators and interpreters, the Dragomans, with respect and status.

Read more

15 years cancer-free!!!

And I know because of an annual procedure a work colleague advised me to do...

Read more

Australian English: is it email and/or e-mail?

Welcome to confusion with "email" in Australia. It's generational...

Read more

"Can you identify the text here?"

Did you know that people regularly contact me to identify text they can't decipher. That's what happens when I know a number of languages.

Read more

Australian English: scull/skull, stinker, flow-on effect, rock up, slippery dip...

Here's the latest round up of some uniquely Aussie words to add to your vocabulary...

Read more

Meyk lov - not vor

Why you shouldn't trust automated translation on LinkedIn or anywhere else. And are the Macedonians being targeted?

Read more

Australian English, Olympics edition: "Boomers croak in medal tilt"

Do you get what is being said here? Unless you're Australian, it's not what you think...

Read more

Jumping Jai Taurima, Australian Olympic Legend...

Because of, or despite, his very unconventional but trés Aussie approach to training, he won silver at the 2000 Olympics. You won't believe how...

Read more

Makedonium is 50 today!

One of the world's most emblematic monuments is 50 years old!

Read more

Australian (Olympics) English: battered sav, hello boys, crazy date, flat bags, goose...

How a comedy routine during the 2000 Sydney Olympics provided Australia with its own, very naughty, gymnastics lexicon!

Read more

25 years since the death of Bulgarian chalga star Rumyana

How the life and death of a popular chalga singer embodied the nature of post-Communist Bulgaria

Read more

Why are Aussies so good at swimming?

To get away from the sharks! Nah, it's more than that.

Read more

61 years since the Skopje Earthquake

At 4:17 am on 26 July 1963, Skopje, the capital of Macedonia, was almost fully destroyed in an earthquake measuring 6.1, killing thousands.

Read more

The [enter place name] Olympics are going to be a disaster...

Or perhaps not. It wouldn't be an Olympics if there wasn't impending doom. But how has it actually turned out?

Read more

"They're gonna shoot a plane down, I tell you"

The story of one of the freakiest things to have happened to me, involving what a Russian dedushka told me in Estonia and what later happened soon after I arrived in Ukraine.

Read more

Who's gonna win: Sunderland or Newcastle? Fancy a Democracy Sausage? Or take a ride on the "Bulgarian Train"

Vote-count competitions between rival cities? How a mundane sausage in generic white bread is the epitome of mass democratic participation in Australia. And why a Bulgarian train is not a train. The weird world of election traditions.

Read more

Accadacca at 50!

One of the world's biggest ever rock bands has turned 50!

Read more

Pets on public transport: yes or no? 👍👎

Australians adore pets... but not on public transport. How come?

Read more

Australian English: "We're de factos!"

Many Australians are in "de facto relationships". What are these and how do they differ from marriage?

Read more

What would you do if...

World Refugee Day today. What would you if this happened to you?

Read more

Australian English: is it email and/or e-mail?

Welcome to confusion with "email" in Australia. It's generational...

Read more

Australian English: scull/skull, stinker, flow-on effect, rock up, slippery dip...

Here's the latest round up of some uniquely Aussie words to add to your vocabulary...

Read more

Jumping Jai Taurima, Australian Olympic Legend...

Because of, or despite, his very unconventional but trés Aussie approach to training, he won silver at the 2000 Olympics. You won't believe how...

Read more

Australian (Olympics) English: battered sav, hello boys, crazy date, flat bags, goose...

How a comedy routine during the 2000 Sydney Olympics provided Australia with its own, very naughty, gymnastics lexicon!

Read more

Why are Aussies so good at swimming?

To get away from the sharks! Nah, it's more than that.

Read more

The [enter place name] Olympics are going to be a disaster...

Or perhaps not. It wouldn't be an Olympics if there wasn't impending doom. But how has it actually turned out?

Read more

Who's gonna win: Sunderland or Newcastle? Fancy a Democracy Sausage? Or take a ride on the "Bulgarian Train"

Vote-count competitions between rival cities? How a mundane sausage in generic white bread is the epitome of mass democratic participation in Australia. And why a Bulgarian train is not a train. The weird world of election traditions.

Read more

Accadacca at 50!

One of the world's biggest ever rock bands has turned 50!

Read more

Pets on public transport: yes or no? 👍👎

Australians adore pets... but not on public transport. How come?

Read more

Australian English: "We're de factos!"

Many Australians are in "de facto relationships". What are these and how do they differ from marriage?

Read more

Burger King vs Hungry Jacks. Is there a difference?

Is Burger King the drama? How come there's no Burger King in Australia but you can still get a Whopper? A story of how a technicality turned an alternative brand into a part of local Australian identity, and how that was almost usurped.

Read more

Poor Gina...

The lady doth protest too much, methinks. Australia's richest woman, mining magnate Gina Rinehart got more than what she bargained for when she wanted a portrait of her taken down. And how does wine figure into this too?

Read more

ABBA can thank Australia for the music!

50 years after ABBA won the Eurovision Song Content, it was Australia that set the tone for ABBA's fortunes over the decades. This is their Australian story.

Read more

Australian etiquette: the Outback Driving Wave

It’s all about being friendly when driving out in “woop woop” (the middle of nowhere) 🤗

Read more

Homonyms maketh the sentence…

How do you say in Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin or Serbian this: “Up there, the mountains burn worse”?👉 Gore gore gore gore.

Read more

Happy 50th anniversary to the Adelaide Festival Centre!

🎉 50 years ago today, the Adelaide Festival Centre, the premier performing and visual arts venue and precinct in Adelaide, Australia, opened. The centre to this day remains one of the symbols of Adelaide. 🇦🇺

Read more

Tina Turner… Major Australian Cultural Contributor!

Did you know that Tina Turner has been one of the biggest contributors to Australian culture? 🦘 Honestly, her impact has been huge! Here’s how…

Read more

How come Australia is at Eurovision? It’s actually a perfect marketing opportunity…

Time to get out the sequins and huge props. The world’s most watched non-sports TV show is on, the Eurovision Song Contest 🎤. Tonight is the second semi-final, with 16 acts from Europe… and Australia.

Read more

Vale Barry Humphries!

Last Saturday Australian 🇦🇺 🎭 comedy legend Barry Humphries passed away aged 89.

Read more

Eshays and Adlays: Australia’s answer to London’s Roadmen

Eshays and Adlays: the latest bunch of Pig-Latin-speaking, Nike-wearing young bogans (vilified poor working-class people) to cause massive moral panic in Australia 🇦🇺

Read more

Move over Easter Bunny 🐇 … make way for the Easter Bilby! 🪃

Bunnies are considered cute and loveable… except in Australia 🇦🇺, where they’re a major scourge🤬.

Read more

Hand gestures, i.e. the time when George Bush Senior figuratively told the Aussies where to go…

Have you unwittingly done a hand gesture that meant something completely different in another country? Here’s a true story…

Read more

International Women’s Day (IWD). A day of campaigning ♀ … or a day to buy flowers 💐

🪃 In Australia, IWD is a day of campaigning and awareness, elements that are much closer to the day’s original purpose of bringing mainstream attention to issues affecting women.

Read more

Australian English: is it email and/or e-mail?

Welcome to confusion with "email" in Australia. It's generational...

Read more

Australian English: scull/skull, stinker, flow-on effect, rock up, slippery dip...

Here's the latest round up of some uniquely Aussie words to add to your vocabulary...

Read more

Australian English, Olympics edition: "Boomers croak in medal tilt"

Do you get what is being said here? Unless you're Australian, it's not what you think...

Read more

Australian (Olympics) English: battered sav, hello boys, crazy date, flat bags, goose...

How a comedy routine during the 2000 Sydney Olympics provided Australia with its own, very naughty, gymnastics lexicon!

Read more

Why are Aussies so good at swimming?

To get away from the sharks! Nah, it's more than that.

Read more

Australian English: "We're de factos!"

Many Australians are in "de facto relationships". What are these and how do they differ from marriage?

Read more

Burger King vs Hungry Jacks. Is there a difference?

Is Burger King the drama? How come there's no Burger King in Australia but you can still get a Whopper? A story of how a technicality turned an alternative brand into a part of local Australian identity, and how that was almost usurped.

Read more

Poor Gina...

The lady doth protest too much, methinks. Australia's richest woman, mining magnate Gina Rinehart got more than what she bargained for when she wanted a portrait of her taken down. And how does wine figure into this too?

Read more

Australian etiquette: the Outback Driving Wave

It’s all about being friendly when driving out in “woop woop” (the middle of nowhere) 🤗

Read more

Three everyday words that exist in Australian English only!

Ask what’s most unique about Australian English 🪃, the answers usually are our accent and slang✔️. However, there are also a number of uniquely Australian English words in regular use, even in formal situations, that Australians are surprised to find are not used everywhere else in the English-speaking world (OK, sometimes also in New Zealand🥝, […]

Read more

Watch out, here comes the Aussie version of The Office…

Are you a fan of the cult TV comedy show The Office?🕺And which version: the UK one 🇬🇧? The US one 🇺🇸? The French one 🇫🇷? The Indian one 🇮🇳 or any of the other 13 variants made? 📣 News in is that an Australian 🇦🇺 version of The Office will be hitting our screens […]

Read more

What’s a “bank holiday”? Do Aussies say that too?

Today (Monday), 29 May 2023 is a “bank holiday” in the United Kingdom, our third this month! 📆Now this term “bank holiday” often confuses many people not from the UK or Ireland. Does this mean that it’s a holiday for banks only? 🧐

Read more

Eshays and Adlays: Australia’s answer to London’s Roadmen

Eshays and Adlays: the latest bunch of Pig-Latin-speaking, Nike-wearing young bogans (vilified poor working-class people) to cause massive moral panic in Australia 🇦🇺

Read more

Move over Easter Bunny 🐇 … make way for the Easter Bilby! 🪃

Bunnies are considered cute and loveable… except in Australia 🇦🇺, where they’re a major scourge🤬.

Read more

Hand gestures, i.e. the time when George Bush Senior figuratively told the Aussies where to go…

Have you unwittingly done a hand gesture that meant something completely different in another country? Here’s a true story…

Read more

Calisthenics: body strength training or a performance art for girls?

💪🏼 Calisthenics (US English) or Callisthenics (UK English), one the biggest crazes in fitness worldwide, is a form of strength training using bodyweight exercises and minimal equipment…

Read more

Seachange, Treechange, E-change

Something Australian (but no way uniquely) today…Do you fancy an escape from the rat race and going for a seachange 🌊, treechange 🌳 or e-change 💻?

Read more

Луд купон, the “crazy coupon” Bulgarian party

So who’s having a “crazy coupon” this weekend? 🎉 Wait!✋ A crazy coupon?🎟️😲 What’s that?

Read more

Oldtajmer, evergrin, rekorder, golman… the world of Balkan pseudo-anglicisms

Did you hear about the man who collects “old-timers”? 👴🏽 Or that Frank Sinatra has many “evergreens”? 🌲

Read more

Homonyms maketh the sentence…

How do you say in Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin or Serbian this: “Up there, the mountains burn worse”?👉 Gore gore gore gore.

Read more

Naš jezik at Munich Airport

I’m about to fly off to Australia transiting through Munich Airport 🇩🇪 … so I’m preparing myself to be ready to speak in “naš jezik” (“our language”).

Read more

Ramadan or Ramazan?

The Muslim holy month of Ramadan starts today ☪️

Read more

Trileche, the not-so-traditional Balkan dish

How thanks to the Albanians, a Latin American cake conquered the Balkans.

Read more

"Can you identify the text here?"

Did you know that people regularly contact me to identify text they can't decipher. That's what happens when I know a number of languages.

Read more

25 years since the death of Bulgarian chalga star Rumyana

How the life and death of a popular chalga singer embodied the nature of post-Communist Bulgaria

Read more

Who's gonna win: Sunderland or Newcastle? Fancy a Democracy Sausage? Or take a ride on the "Bulgarian Train"

Vote-count competitions between rival cities? How a mundane sausage in generic white bread is the epitome of mass democratic participation in Australia. And why a Bulgarian train is not a train. The weird world of election traditions.

Read more

Луд купон, the “crazy coupon” Bulgarian party

So who’s having a “crazy coupon” this weekend? 🎉 Wait!✋ A crazy coupon?🎟️😲 What’s that?

Read more

Oldtajmer, evergrin, rekorder, golman… the world of Balkan pseudo-anglicisms

Did you hear about the man who collects “old-timers”? 👴🏽 Or that Frank Sinatra has many “evergreens”? 🌲

Read more

Ramadan or Ramazan?

The Muslim holy month of Ramadan starts today ☪️

Read more

International Women’s Day (IWD). A day of campaigning ♀ … or a day to buy flowers 💐

🪃 In Australia, IWD is a day of campaigning and awareness, elements that are much closer to the day’s original purpose of bringing mainstream attention to issues affecting women.

Read more

Hugging and cheek-kissing in southeast Europe. The does and don’ts

Do you know what to do with hugging and cheek-kissing in southeast Europe? Do you know which countries kiss twice and others three times?

Read more

Out today! Elixir, In the Valley at the End of Time

The latest book that I played a part in its fruition (no, I’m not in it this time), by my dear friend, the award-winning writer Kapka Kassabova, is now available for purchase.

Read more

"Can you identify the text here?"

Did you know that people regularly contact me to identify text they can't decipher. That's what happens when I know a number of languages.

Read more

Five common myths about raising bilingual children

Surprising as it may be, I was once a child, but one who happened to grow up in a multilingual environment but dominated by English.

Read more

International Translation Day and the Dragomans

How the Ottoman Empire granted its translators and interpreters, the Dragomans, with respect and status.

Read more

Meyk lov - not vor

Why you shouldn't trust automated translation on LinkedIn or anywhere else. And are the Macedonians being targeted?

Read more

Any place, any time…

👍The best thing about being a freelance translator is being able to work at any place at any time. 👎The worst thing about being a freelancer translator is being able to work at any place at any time.

Read more

English language translation tips: use of long forms of country names

Republic of Serbia 🇷🇸, Republic of Croatia 🇭🇷, Kingdom of Norway 🇳🇴, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland 🇬🇧, Oriental Republic of Uruguay 🇺🇾, Plurinational State of Bolivia 🇧🇴 …

Read more

"Can you identify the text here?"

Did you know that people regularly contact me to identify text they can't decipher. That's what happens when I know a number of languages.

Read more

You know that time when Madonna was interviewed by a Hungarian tabloid? Or when translation goes hilariously bad…

We all know how some translations can be so bad that they’re unintentionally hilarious, like the viral examples from Engrish.com...

Read more

Working in IT? What do you call yourself? An IT-ian, a Hitechist…?

Working in IT? 👩🏻‍💻 Would you call yourself an IT-ian, Hitechist or Startupist?

Read more

Watch out for the killer squirrels! It’s “silly season”… or is that “cucumber season”?

Watch out for the killer squirrels! 🐿️ We’re very much in “silly season” right now in the UK 🤪

Read more

Tina Turner… Australian cultural icon!

Did you know that Tina Turner has been one of the biggest contributors to Australian culture? 🦘 Honestly, her impact has been huge! Here’s how…

Read more

You do Montenegrin and Bosnian, right?

Two more language directions have been added to my Institute of Translation and Interpreting profile

Read more

Generic or specific? The issue stopping the free-trade agreement between the EU and Australia

Would you believe that the names of all these famous products are the cause for the deadlock in the free-trade agreement negotiations between the EU 🇪🇺 and Australia 🇦🇺. How come?

Read more

Smoker’s remorse… or how false friends can be deeply expressive

🟰 Words that look the same or similar in two languages but have two, at times radically, different meanings are called “false friends”.

Read more

So what are Fantales?

They are chocolate-covered chewy caramels 🍬 that were often so hard to bite into that they kept many dentists in business 🦷. Nothing particularly unique so far, you might think.

Read more

The personal touch

Translation can often be a very sedentary existence, plugging away in front of a laptop, with little or no face-to-face contact with clients👨🏻‍💻

Read more

“You can find the Doonas in Manchester”

Now this might sound a bit random 🤨 but this is something you’ll hear all the time, in all places… in department stores in Australia 🇦🇺. How come? 🧐

Read more

15 years cancer-free!!!

And I know because of an annual procedure a work colleague advised me to do...

Read more

It's Men's Health Week... and I'm 15 years cancer-free!!!

The story of how I found out by chance that I no longer had cancer

Read more

Cancer and gallows humour: Thank you for the flowers 💐; I hope they die before I do! 😏

WARNING: potentially triggering material. Very, very dark humour about cancer ahead. 4 February is World Cancer Day and… erm… conveniently, the day after is the anniversary (15 years now) of being given the oh so exciting news that I had testicular cancer…

Read more