What Are Spomeniks?

Post by tomca32 » Tue, Apr 07, 2020, 2:55 PM UTC

CodeMage wrote: post #23

tomca32 wrote: post #11

Funny to see those are referred to in English as "Spomeniks". After living in the US for a decade, looking at this definitely brings an incredible feeling of nostalgia. Damn it. I want to go back in time, and back to Sarajevo.

Although it's a very unpopular sentiment these days, I also want to go back in time to Old Yugoslavia. I still remember reading "Moj Mikro" and "Svet Kompjutera", attending JUDEF in Šibenik and making friends with kids from all over Yugoslavia. My generation, at least, believed in brotherhood and unity.

Post by franga2000 » Tue, Apr 07, 2020, 4:12 PM UTC

hari_seldon_ wrote: post #49

franga2000 wrote: post #33

HN is the last place I expected to find this, but thanks! The anglicised use of the word "spomenik" really caught me off guard (I'm from Slovenia), but it makes enough sense after reading the article. I'll definitely try to check this map whenever I travel around the region - the design and sheer scale of some of these was always fascinating to me and I'd love to see more if I happen to be around.

Is it Anglicized, or is it just using that Latin alphabet that some parts of former Yugoslavia employ (including Serbia and Croatia)?

Post by necovek » Tue, Apr 07, 2020, 5:30 PM UTC

arethuza wrote: post #32

tomca32 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Keep in mind that Yugoslavia was a completely different thing during the cold war. It was a communist country that was not part of the Comintern, or the Warsaw pact. It, in fact, had open borders with the west. This caused it to be in a much better place economically than the rest of the communist world. There's an old nostalgic american tourist piece about it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RRnCnO1Y2c&has_verified…

I travelled from Italy into Yugoslavia in 1988 by train and I wouldn't exactly describe it as a pleasant experience - train stopped in the middle of nowhere and was surrounded by soldiers and everyone had to endure a very thorough check of our travel documents. Travelling from Yugoslavia into Hungary on the same trip I don't think the train even stopped.

Post by pvg » Tue, Apr 07, 2020, 11:40 PM UTC

dang wrote: post #20

Traxus wrote: post #2

Is there not a perfectly fine English translation, "Memorial"?

Of course, but it's a cool word and it's being used in this context to indicate a specific kind of a memorial from a specific part of the world, which is what makes this post interesting. "Memorials" generically wouldn't make as interesting a topic. Generic words are often adopted into other languages to carry a more specific meaning, though damned if I can think of an example right now. I'm sure the title "What Are…

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Apr 08, 2020, 12:57 AM UTC

babuskov wrote: post #36

eric_bullington wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. As someone who at one time spoke fluent Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian, I can confirm that "spomenik" can be (and sometimes is!) translated as "memorial". Indeed, the root of the word is a verb that in its archaic sense can mean "to remember", as does the verbal root of "memorial". Furthermore, "spomenik" can also be translated as "monument". So while the word often is used in the context of the WWII socialist memoria…

Native speaker here. Spomenik comes from "spomen", which translates to "recalling /remembering someone dead or some event from the past". It's basically a memorial that should invoke the viewer to recall the events past and/or people who were involved. While spomenik is used for all monuments around the world, when someone just says "spomenik" the first thing that comes to my mind are those post-WWII spomeniks - prob…