Bujanovac – As part of the project "Let's Meet, Let's Be Tolerant, the Organization for Democracy and Development (ODD) from Bujanovac organized a panel discussion "Linguistic Similarities between Serbian and Albanian."  

The project is supported by the OSCE Mission to Serbia, and as Joseph Melot, Deputy Chief of the Mission, said in his welcoming speech, that international organization worked intensively on preventing any kind of radicalization and extremism by supporting projects such as that one.

Speakers on the similarities between Serbian and Albanian included Aleksandar Nikolic, a Serbian language teacher at the "Branko Radičevic" elementary school in Bujanovac, Jelena Randjelovic, a teacher of Serbian as a non-mother tongue at the "Sezai Surroi" secondary school in Bujanovac and Enkel Redzepi, a teacher of the Albanian language at the "Ibrahim Kelmendi" elementary school in Presevo.

"Of course there are similarities between the two languages, because we live together, and the more we get to know the language of those with whom we live – the better we will live together," Mr. Nikolic said, and explained that the similarities were also reflected in the use of a large number of Turkish words.

“The Prizren-Timok dialect of the Serbian language, which is spoken in the region, has been in contact with the Albanian language for the longest time, and in addition to a multitude of words from the Turkish language, we should not neglect the influence of modern words, which have become common and understandable to the speakers of both languages, " Mr. Nikolic said.  

Speaking of the similarities, Jelena Randjelovic pointed out that words were read as they were written in both the languages

“There are 36 letters in the Albanian language, so that six letters, which are non-existent in the Serbian language, and the way they are prononced, are most often problematic when learning Albanian," Ms. Randjelovic said. She told the attendees of the meeting "learn both the languages, get to know the culture of each other, because our wealth lies in it."

Apart from students from the Serbian and Albanian schools, the panel discussion was attended by representatives of the local self-government, the Coordination Body of the Government of the Republic of Serbia for the Municipalities of Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja and the OSCE Office in Bujanovac.

Source: Jugpress and Coordination Body