Hmmm... How different? Sure - colloquilisms will have changed - they do in every city, but functional langauge, such as that used on phpBB?
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For the word "profile"
Hrvatski: Profil
Serbski: Profil
Actual serbian button images in
phpBBXS: Profile!
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For the word "author"
Hrvatski: autor
Serbski: autor
Actual Serbian lang file in
phpBBXS: autor.
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For the word "joined" e.g. date joined/registered.
Hrvatski: datum registriran / preporuèen / upisan
Serbski: datum registrovan / preporuèen / upisan
Actual Serbian lang file in
phpBBXS: Datum registracije
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For the word "post" e.g. mail - the word post itself being confusing in English as it has many meanings - e.g. a hat post, or an after event, e.g. "post 9/11" as you might hear on cnn.
Hrvatski: oklop / pošta / poštanska torba
Serbski: oklop / poštom / poštanska torba
Actual Serbian lang file in
phpBBXS: Poruke
I think its entirely possible to have a common language file that you former Yugoslavian dwellers can still understand. After all, there are bigger differences in other langauges, as I'm sure
MG can attest: there is "textbook Italian" and there are the many dialects that people normally use with just as many different words as Serbian and Croatian. And why stop there... "North German" and "Bavarian" as I'm sure
Tom could attest. And of course English, that we use in the UK, compared to Imbecile in the US. Hang on... no... thats what they speak in France.
Sources:
http://www.krstarica.com/dictionary/english-serbian/index.php
http://www.eudict.com/
Langenscheidt "Universal Croatian Dictionary"