Problem
What are all those signs above the letters in Croatian?
What's a Diacritic?
(The technical term is diacritics. The ones above are called accents. The ones below are cedillas. How do you remember the word diacritics? It sounds like dire critics!)
Croatian is easy when it comes to accents. They only have signs above, and only two, the bowls and the tiny forward slash, like the French acute sign. (Plus a horizontal line on the D. Apart from teh funny D, the only letters with the signs are c, s and z.
You are going to want to read the signs if you go to Croatia. Why would you want to go there? Croatia is one of the fifty best holidays chosen from those suggested by an assortment of travel writers including myself, from a list chosen by judges for flightnetwork.com/blog.
They have a lovely sliding slideshow of pictures of Croatia scenery.
https://www.flightnetwork.com/blog/dalmatian-coast-of-croatia/
Majuscule forms (also called uppercase or capital letters)
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A
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B
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C
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Č
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Ć
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D
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Dž
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Đ
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E
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F
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G
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H
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I
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J
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K
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L
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Lj
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M
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N
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Nj
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O
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P
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R
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S
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Š
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T
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U
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V
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Z
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Ž
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Minuscule forms (also called lowercase or small letters)
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a
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b
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c
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č
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ć
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d
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dž
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đ
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e
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f
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g
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h
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i
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j
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k
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l
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lj
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m
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n
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nj
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o
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p
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r
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s
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š
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t
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u
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v
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z
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ž
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To type the characters, hold down the key on your laptop keyboard. Select the number by the image of the letter you want.
č the c hit on the head with a bowl is a hard c, pronounced as in charm, church or match or watch.
ć the soft c is like tu in tune or the ts in cats. You might write it as ty.
dž d followed by a z with a bowl above it sound like the j on joy but said strongly.
The funny d, which I have not yet managed to add to my keyboard, looks like a d crossed like a t, and is pronounced as the d in duke or dune, or the d in schedule like dy.
j is like y in yolk or the double ll in million
r is pronounced like er but you roll the r, as in the word earth if you pulled your tongue back across the roof of your mouth.
š is easy, the sh sound like she or shoe or show (or sure).
ž is like the s in measure or pleasure.
QUICK RECAP
Diacritics
Apart from the c, all the signs are the bowls. č, dž, š,ž
How do you type the special signs? Hold down the keys for c and 3, z and 1, s and 3. So the Z is turned into ž by tapping the 1. C and S are turned into č and š by keeping your finger on the key for the consonant tapping the number 3. Tap one for the zed or zee and three for the other two, the c and s.
č
ć
dž
š
ž
z
My memory aid for the bowls, which I just made up, is choose joy for pleasure.
You can hear the pronunciation of words here:
http://žalora.sg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zagorski_Štrukli Recipe for savoury cheese pancake.
https://wikitravel.org/en/Croatia
Wikipedia and even Simple Wikipedia complicate the information on the alphabet with more detail than the average tourist needs. However, if you like reading about people, you can find out how the language was created and how it differs from the languages in nearby countries. For a simple guide to how to read it and say it, see:
https://www.learncroatian.eu/blog/basic-croatian-for-your-holiday-in-croatia
https://www.learncroatian.eu/blog/the-croatian-letters
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/croatian.htm has useful links, such as the BBC news in Croatian.
If you think this is really handy and helpful, please bookmark it and share the links to the blog post with your friends.
Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and phtographer, author and speaker. Teacher of English and other languages.
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