How we get possessive adjectives of personal names in Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian (BCS) is different from English. Although they are also affected by the seven-case rule, this text will deal only with the first case. In English, we take any personal name and add the apostrophe and the letter ‘s’. So, if a book belongs to Maria, we say that this is Maria’s book.

However, if an apartment belongs to Zoyka, we say that this is Zoyka’s apartment. Given that ‘Zoyka’s Apartment’ (‘Зойкина квартира’) is a play written by Mikhail Bulgakov, we are not going to analyze the script, but rather to learn how we get the adjective ‘Zoyka’s’ in BCS which is, in this context, ‘Zojkina/Зојкинa’. Even the Russian adjective ‘Зойкина’ is irrelevant to us at the moment.

Short Ending Story

Let’s start with male personal names. We can take a few names as an example. We know that male names in BCS end with a consonant or a vowel. If a man is called ‘Mark’, we will add the ending ‘ov’ and get ‘Markov’.

• Singular. Markov (m) – Markova (f) – Markovo (n)
  Plural. Markovi (m) – Markove (f) – Markova (n)

The same ending ‘ov’ goes for male names ending with the vowel ‘o’, such as ‘Marko’ or ‘Darko’. In this case, we add the ending ‘v’. On the other hand, if a personal name ends with ‘e’, we can often add ‘v’. That’s it! For example, if a guy is called ‘Đorđe’, ‘Đorđe’s friend’ is ‘Đorđev prijatelj’. Do not forget that there are some male consonant-ending names that require the suffix ‘(j)ev’.

BCS contains a bunch of male names ending with the letter ‘a’ too. Some of them are ‘Luka’, ‘Nikola’, ‘Siniša’ etc. As we know, masculine nouns are always masculine, even when they seem feminine. However, when we encounter these nouns, we apply the feminine-noun-grammar rule to them. In this case, we get rid of the last letter ‘a’ and add the ending ‘in’.

• Singular. Nikolin (m) – Nikolina (f) – Nikolino (n)
  Plural. Nikolini (m) – Nikoline (f) – Nikolina (n)

Here we are! There is one more secret. Many Slavic (Bosnian, Bulgarian, Croatian, Russian, Serbian, Ukrainian…) surnames are based on this rule. That’s why you can easily find people whose surname is Romanov, Abramov, Markov, Jovanov etc. Let me skip an additional explanation on the endings ‘ić’ and ‘ski’ that we can find among the South Slavs and Poles. Anyway, this initial ending and surname structure implies whose family someone belongs to and is similar to how the ‘di’ preposition works in many Italian surnames (di Stefano, di Caprio, di Pietro…) or the noun ‘ben’ (בֵּן) and ‘bin’ (بن.) in Hebrew and Arabic.

Now, it is easy to understand how to construct possessive adjectives based on female names. Female names make possessive adjectives like male names ending with ‘a’. Thus, if a girl is called Ana (or Zojka), we get:

• Singular. Anin (m) – Anina (f) – Anino (n)
  Plural. Anini (m) – Anine (f) – Anina (n)

There is a vocal change in some names, such as Milica, Slavica etc. This change is affected by the letter ‘c’ in front of the last letter ‘a’. We are going to deepen this issue in class. It is also important to take into consideration the origin of different male and female names. Foreign, non-Slavic, non-Jewish and non-Muslim names might pass through a slightly different process, especially if we talk about female names ending with ‘o’ (Miwako, Noriko…) or those ending with a consonant when transcribed in Serbian: ‘Jane’ for instance which is ‘Džejn’/’Џејн’.

Let’s Go Home

You can take a few Slavic names and make possessive adjectives. You can also send me a message. I will be glad to check it out and leave my feedback. If you are already my learner, do not hesitate to contact me via Slack.

NOTICE: This text is not peer-reviewed. It aims to inspire and motivate language learners of Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian to think about possible cultural patterns when learning this/these language(s).