>I've studied a few languages over the years, some more in depth than others, and now when I'm listening to a conversation in any of those, I have to listen to the entire conversation (due to the word order difference as you mentioned) before I completely understand what is being said. Still I often get it wrong :o)

Now let's start some confusion :).

In Serbian (et al), the order of words is not exactly arbitrary, but out of n! possible orders, I'd say at least one third make sense. Actually, multiple senses.

Dženet je nosila plavu bluzu. (Janet wore blue blouse)

Plavu bluzu nosila je Dženet (blue blouse wore Janet - same meaning, slightly poetic rhythm)

Plavu je bluzu nosila Dženet ('je' is the auxiliary verb, means 'is', but 'je nosila' is for perfect tense - again, same meaning, but sounds even more poetic or as a way to emphasise _who_ wore the blue blouse)

Bluzu plavu je nosila Dženet (almost the same as previous, except putting the adjective after the noun is poetry only, or in kitsch wannabe poetic phrases)

Nosila je Dženet plavu bluzu, also Nosila plavu Dženet je bluzu (another poetic aberration with the same meaning)

Dženet je plavu bluzu nosila (wore it, wasn't washing it or keeping it packed - the emphasis is on the last word)

Dženet je bluzu nosila plavu (not the green nor the pink one, emphasis is on the last word)

And this is a rather unambiguous sentence. When it comes to more complicated constructions, it can radically change the meaning:

Volela tebe samo sam ja (loved you only I have - a song by "Ambasadori" from Sarajevo) literally means "and nobody else loved you"

Volela samo tebe sam ja (loved only you I have) is probably what they had in mind when they wrote the lyrics

Samo volela tebe sam ja (I only loved you but didn't feed you, show you in public etc)

Note that I moved only one word / I only moved one word / only I moved one word / I moved one word only...