Differences between English and Croatian and subsequent difficulties with the Croatian translation
Language differences aside for a second, a great Croatian translation can be hard to find because there just isn’t much demand for it. Croatian is one of the least used languages in the world with around 5.5 million speakers. That’s not to say the language isn’t beautiful and valuable, but it doesn’t have the same reach and demand as other languages like Spanish or Mandarin. The language is not taught in most English-speaking schools, and most people will go their lives without encountering Croatian documents directly, unless they travel to the former Yugoslavia and thus encounter no needs for Croatian translation.
If you see the written Croatian language, there will be some points of contention that effectively show the difficulties of the language. Like many Eastern European languages, Croatian has a tendency to clump together long, confusing strings of consonants within its vocabulary. Combined with the fact that there are subtle but significant changes in pronunciation within certain consonant strings that can vastly change the meaning of a word, it is no wonder that English speakers find the Croatian language so intimidating at first glance.
Croatian also features a number of seemingly subtle grammatical elements that wreak havoc on native English speakers trying to learn the basics of the language. One of the biggest and most frustrating elements of an English to Croatian translation is known as an “enclitic”. These are very small words that can drastically change the meaning of a sentence depending on their location. Also, many words in the Croatian language can appear in either long or short forms, and it can be very difficult for new speakers of the language to understand which form is appropriate to use at any given time.
Even the most standard vocabulary words within Croatian are often difficult for English speakers to learn due to their extremely foreign appearance. Just like in German, many Croatian words are made up of a single base word that is then built up with prefixes and suffixes that add to their meaning. Learning the most common base words and then understanding how they are combined to create new words is essential to understanding the Croatian language.
While learning Croatian is not impossible, spending the considerable time and effort required to personally learn the language is not a reasonable goal for most people. Due to the relative rarity and complexity of the language, most people find it much easier and more sensible to simply find a good quality professional when they need Croatian translation services.