A Very Good Book For the Serious Student, January 27, 2003

In preparation for a visit to Serbia, I have been learning Serbian. The first book I purchased did such a terrible job of distinguishing Serbian from Croatian, that I felt I needed a text which made the distinctions more transparent. Magner's book has some flaws, but at the very least, he clearly indicates where Serbian varies from Croatian, and he provides very direct parrallel texts to illustrate the differences. Magner's failure is in the grammar which is separated from the narrative text and quite dense. I have studied many languages, and even so, sometimes find the style and presentation of the grammar lacking clarity. In his defense, Magner did not intend this book for the casual tourist/learner and I imagine that with a teacher the combination of excellent original source texts, grammar and glossary would be unsurpassed. A very good book for the serious student, but tourists should look elsewhere.

Not for the independent learner, July 22, 2002
Reviewer: A reader
This book is not at all useful if you are trying to teach yourself the language; it may be useful in a classroom or as a reference. It is not organized for the person who is trying to learn conversational Croatian or Serbian. The dialogues are not immediately applicable to travel situations, and the audio cassettes are terrible; speakers speak at full speed and leave no time for the listener to try to repeat the phrases. The stilted dialogues are reminiscent of the old Chinese government texts for learning Mandarin.

needs a serious revision, July 1, 2001
Reviewer: A reader
Yes, indeed, this must have been one of the best books on Croatian and Serbian languages in the 70s and 80s, but not any more. The author needs to be aware of more recent changes in the two languages, and include them in the new edition. He needs to include examples from current literature (newspapers, etc), and keep his beliefs on politics and linguistics to himself. Only the Serbs and Croats can decide how they will speak and write. The author should actually write two books: An Introduction to Serbian Language and An Introduction to Croatian Language; he is a good writer and he is capable of achieving this quite easily.

the best reference and self-study grammar of serbo-croatian, June 21, 2000
Reviewer: A reader
Magner's book is one of several I have used for language instruction and reference in the last months, and I find it more complete and easier to use that any other self-study book in print. A close second is the Routledge book, but Magner's index and dictionary are far superior. The book is good as both a reference and as a beginning textbook. Excercises are given in both the latin and cyrillic variants, and represent the two major standard dialects (ijekavian/ekavian) they are associated with, so that the student has a choice or may become familiar with both. Overall, this is the most compact and useful book of its kind on the market. Highly recommended for students and linguists. The grammatical explanations are not very elaborate, but the examples given for the individual topics under discussion are among the more useful that i have seen.

Caution, imam probleme s knjigom, June 16, 2000
Reviewer: A reader
I am a student of the serbian croation language in which we use your book as our 'grammer' guide. i am taught by natives of the language, some of them doctors of the languge, at the greatest language school in the world....and i have to say that this book is not enuff to fully study the language and become functional. if you would like to dance around the language and tip tap around with few examples and minimal explanation, thus ensuring your typical average collegiate non-function-ablity after 4 years of education, than this books for you. it offers good explanation on the case system, however combines dative and locative into one like the russsian language system...an odd feat, however commonly done. i suggest use of this book w/a collection of others you can find.

An very complete book!, January 19, 2000
Reviewer: A reader
This book is full of information, and is for those who seriously want to speak the language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Montenegro. It addresses grammatical, vocabulary, and alphbetical differences of the two main dialectical variations - Eastern and Western (though I wish they would refrain from using the labels "Croatian" and "Serbian").

The book covers vocabulary and expains the language in detail. It includes an extensive glossary and a number of essays for reading practice. It goes way beyond the basic tourist phrases.

Though it can be a bit dry and doesn't take the snappy, fun approach of some other language instruction books, it is very useful, clear, and compete. A rarity for books on this language.