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<h2 class="blog-post-title"><a href="/2016/02/beautiful-ligatures-in-serbian-cyrillic/">Beautiful Ligatures in Serbian Cyrillic</a></h2>
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<p class="blog-post-meta"><time datetime="2016-02-24T11:37:16Z">Wed Feb 24, 2016</time>
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in
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<a href="/categories/language/" rel="category tag">Language</a>, <a href="/categories/travel/" rel="category tag">Travel</a>
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<a href="/tags/cyrillic/" rel="tag">Cyrillic</a>, <a href="/tags/serbia/" rel="tag">Serbia</a>
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<p>Ligatures for “ль” and “нь” are unique to the Cyrillic alphabets of several Slavic languages in Southeastern Europe. We don’t have them in Bulgarian, so I can remember being confused the first time I saw them in Serbia. My confusion turned into fascination once I realized that their construction fused two characters that I knew how to use into one that we simply don’t have. You can see љ (<em><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lje">Lje</a></em>) on this road sign for Жељуша in Serbia (with the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaj%27s_Latin_alphabet">Serbo-Croatian Latin</a> representation below it):</p>
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sizes="(min-width: 35em) 1200px, 100vw"
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srcset='
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'
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src="/2016/02/beautiful-ligatures-in-serbian-cyrillic/2016-02-10_hu548ce2ededffa3eb0b61879a11636bba_229110_800x0_resize_q75_box.jpg"
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alt="Road sign for Жељуша town in Serbia showing the Cyrillic ligature for &ldquo;ль&rdquo;"/> <figcaption>
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<p>Road sign for Жељуша town in Serbia showing the Cyrillic ligature for “ль”</p>
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</figcaption>
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</figure>
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<p>It is a linguist by the name of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vuk_Karad%C5%BEi%C4%87">Vuk Karadžić</a> who created these ligatures during a major reformation of the Serbian language and alphabet during the early 1800s. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typographic_ligature">Typographic ligatures</a> themselves are an interesting concept dating back to the days of physical typesetting. The icing on the cake with these particular ligatures is their use of the beautifully subtle <em>er maluk</em> (ь) character, which is <a href="https://englishbulgaria.net/2016/01/finding-er-maluk/">slightly rare</a> in Bulgarian. I have recently seen these <a href="https://englishbulgaria.net/2016/02/beautiful-ligatures-in-macedonian-cyrillic/">ligatures in use in Macedonia</a> as well, but after learning about Vuk’s reforms it seems appropriate that it was in Serbia where I first noticed them.</p>
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<h2 id="a-tale-of-two-karadžićs">A Tale of Two Karadžićs</h2>
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<p>The Karadžić name became known worldwide after the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yugoslav_Wars">wars of independence in the former Yugoslav republics</a> during the 1990s. In a rather mind-blowing twist, it turns out that there are two well-known, directly related Karadžićs:</p>
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<!--Evstafiev-Radovan_Karadzic_3MAR94.jpg Вук_Стефановић_Караџић.око_1850.jpg-->
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<p>The first is, of course, the celebrated poet, ethnologist, and reformer of the Serbian language and writing system. The second is <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radovan_Karad%C5%BEi%C4%87">Radovan Karadžić</a>, a Bosnian Serb who is now being <a href="http://www.icty.org/case/karadzic/4">tried for war crimes</a> at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). His indictment includes the alleged direct responsibility for the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Srebrenica_massacre">Srebrenica massacre</a>.</p>
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<h4 class="fst-italic">About</h4>
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<p class="mb-0"><em>English Bulgaria</em>. Life in the Balkans… in English! <a href="/about">Read more →</a></p>
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<h4 class="fst-italic">Archives</h4>
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<li><a href="/2016/05/vratsa-is-a-picturesque-thracian-city/">Vratsa Is a Picturesque Thracian City</a></li>
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<li><a href="/2016/05/tanks-rolling-streets-sofia/">Tanks Rolling Down the Streets of Sofia</a></li>
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