Serbo-Croatian

Serbo-Croatian
srpskohrvatski / hrvatskosrpski српскохрватски / хрватскосрпски
Native to	Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, and Kosovo
Ethnicity	Bosniaks Croats Montenegrins Serbs
Native speakers	18 million (2011–2021)[1]
Language family	Indo-European Western South Slavic Serbo-Croatian
Standard forms	Serbian Croatian Bosnian Montenegrin
Dialects	Dialects of Serbo-Croatian: Shtokavian (standard) Torlakian Chakavian Kajkavian
Writing system	Latin (Gaj) Montenegrin; formerly Bosnian Cyrillic ) Yugoslav Braille Perso-Arabic (Arebica) (formerly) Glagolitic (formerly)
Official status
Official language in	Serbia (as Serbian) Croatia (as Croatian) Bosnia and Herzegovina (as Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian) Montenegro (as Montenegrin) Kosovo (as Serbian)[2] European Union (as Croatian)
Recognised minority language in	Austria (Burgenland)[3] Hungary[4][1] Molise)[5] Romania[6][1] (in Carașova, Lupac)[citation needed] Slovakia[7] Czech Republic[8] North Macedonia[9]
Regulated by	Institute of Croatian Language and Linguistics (Croatian) Board for Standardization of the Serbian Language (Serbian) Language Institute at University of Sarajevo (Bosnian) Faculty for Montenegrin language and literature (Montenegrin)
Language codes
Slavomolisano ckm – Chakavian kjv – Kajkavian
Glottolog	sout1528
Linguasphere	53-AAA-g
Areas where Serbo-Croatian is spoken by a plurality of inhabitants (as of 2005)[needs update ]

Serbo-Croatian (

South Slavic languages historically formed a dialect continuum. The turbulent history of the area, particularly due to the expansion of the Ottoman Empire, resulted in a patchwork of dialectal and religious differences. Due to population migrations, Shtokavian became the most widespread supradialect in the western Balkans, intruding westwards into the area previously occupied by Chakavian and Kajkavian (which further blended into Slovenian in the northwest). Bosniaks, Croats, and Serbs differ in religion and were historically often part of different cultural circles, although a large part of the nations have lived side by side under foreign overlords. During that period, the language was referred to under a variety of names, such as "Slavic" in general or "Serbian", "Croatian" or "Bosnian" in particular. In a classicizing manner, it was also referred to as "Illyrian".

The process of

Serbo-Croatian is typically referred to by names of its standardized varieties: Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian and Montenegrin; it is rarely referred to by names of its sub-dialects, such as Bunjevac.^[22]

In the language itself, it is typically known as srpskohrvatski/српскохрватски "Serbo-Croatian", hrvatskosrpski/хрватскoсрпски "Croato-Serbian", or informally naški/нашки "ours".^[15]

Throughout the history of the South Slavs, the vernacular, literary, and written languages (e.g. Chakavian, Kajkavian, Shtokavian) of the various regions and ethnicities developed and diverged independently. Prior to the 19th century, they were collectively called "Illyria", "Slavic", "Slavonian", "Bosnian", "Dalmatian", "Serbian" or "Croatian".^[23] Since the nineteenth century, the term Illyrian or Illyric was used quite often (thus creating confusion with the Illyrian language). Although the word Illyrian was used on a few occasions before, its widespread usage began after Ljudevit Gaj and several other prominent linguists met at Ljudevit Vukotinović's house to discuss the issue in 1832.^[24] The term Serbo-Croatian was first used by Jacob Grimm in 1824,^[25][26] popularized by the Viennese philologist Jernej Kopitar in the following decades, and accepted by Croatian Zagreb grammarians in 1854 and 1859.^[27] At that time, Serb and Croat lands were still part of the Ottoman and Austrian Empires. Officially, the language was called variously Serbo-Croat, Croato-Serbian, Serbian and Croatian, Croatian and Serbian, Serbian or Croatian, Croatian or Serbian. Unofficially, Serbs and Croats typically called the language "Serbian" or "Croatian", respectively, without implying a distinction between the two,^[28] and again in independent Bosnia and Herzegovina, "Bosnian", "Croatian", and "Serbian" were considered to be three names of a single official language.^[29] Croatian linguist Dalibor Brozović advocated the term Serbo-Croatian as late as 1988, claiming that in an analogy with Indo-European, Serbo-Croatian does not only name the two components of the same language, but simply charts the limits of the region in which it is spoken and includes everything between the limits ('Bosnian' and 'Montenegrin').^[30] Today, use of the term "Serbo-Croatian" is controversial due to the prejudice that nation and language must match.^[31][32][33] It is still used for lack of a succinct alternative,^[34] though alternative names have emerged, such as Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian (BCS),^[35] which is often seen in political contexts such as the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.

History

Early development

In the

Speech example

An example of Old Croatian used in Baška tablet.

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Problems playing this file? See media help.

Among the earliest attestations of Serbo-Croatian are: the

The luxurious and ornate representative texts of Serbo-Croatian Church Slavonic belong to the later era, when they coexisted with the Serbo-Croatian vernacular literature. The most notable are the "Missal of Duke Novak" from the Lika region in northwestern Croatia (1368), "Evangel from Reims" (1395, named after the town of its final destination), Hrvoje's Missal from Bosnia and Split in Dalmatia (1404),^[39] and the first printed book in Serbo-Croatian, the Glagolitic Missale Romanum Glagolitice (1483).^[36]

During the 13th century Serbo-Croatian vernacular texts began to appear, the most important among them being the "Istrian land survey" of 1275 and the "

In the mid-19th century, Serbian (led by self-taught writer and folklorist

In June 1941, the Nazi puppet Independent State of Croatia began to rid the language of "Eastern" (Serbian) words, and shut down Serbian schools.^[51] The totalitarian dictatorship introduced a language law that promulgated Croatian linguistic purism as a policy that tried to implement a complete elimination of Serbisms and internationalisms.^[52]

On January 15, 1944, the Anti-Fascist Council of the People's Liberation of Yugoslavia (

West European scientists judge the Yugoslav language policy as an exemplary one:[61]^[62] although three-quarters of the population spoke one language, no single language was official on a federal level.^[63] Official languages were declared only at the level of constituent republics and provinces,^[64][65][66] and very generously: Vojvodina had five (among them Slovak and Romanian, spoken by 0.5 per cent of the population), and Kosovo four (Albanian, Turkish, Romany and Serbo-Croatian).^[64][67] Newspapers, radio and television studios used sixteen languages,^[68] fourteen were used as languages of tuition in schools, and nine at universities.^[64][69] Only the Yugoslav People's Army used Serbo-Croatian as the sole language of command, with all other languages represented in the army's other activities—however, this is not different from other armies of multilingual states,^[70] or in other specific institutions, such as international air traffic control where English is used worldwide. All variants of Serbo-Croatian were used in state administration and republican and federal institutions.^[64] Both Serbian and Croatian variants were represented in respectively different grammar books, dictionaries, school textbooks and in books known as pravopis (which detail spelling rules).^[71] Serbo-Croatian was a kind of soft standardisation.^[72] However, legal equality could not dampen the prestige Serbo-Croatian had: since it was the language of three quarters of the population, it functioned as an unofficial lingua franca.^[73] And within Serbo-Croatian, the Serbian variant, with twice as many speakers as the Croatian,^[74] enjoyed greater prestige, reinforced by the fact that Slovene and Macedonian speakers preferred it to the Croatian variant because their languages are also Ekavian.^[75] This is a common situation in other pluricentric languages, e.g. the variants of German differ according to their prestige, the variants of Portuguese too.^[76] Moreover, all languages differ in terms of prestige: "the fact is that languages (in terms of prestige, learnability etc.) are not equal, and the law cannot make them equal".^[77]

Legal status

• 1921 constitution of the
  Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, Article 3: "The official language of the Kingdom is Serbo-Croato-Slovene." (Latin script: Službeni jezik Kraljevine je srpsko-hrvatski-slovenački.; Cyrillic script: Службени језик Краљевине је српско-хрватски-словеначки.).^[78][19]
• 1931 constitution of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, Article 3: "The official language of the Kingdom is Serbo-Croato-Slovene".^[19]
• 1963 constitution of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia:
  • Article 42: "The languages of the peoples of Yugoslavia and their scripts shall be equal. Members of the peoples of Yugoslavia on the territories of republics other than their own shall have the right to school instruction in their own languages, in conformity with republican law. As an exception, in the Yugoslav People's Army, commands, military drill and administration shall be in the Serbo-Croatian language."^[79]
  • Article 131: "The federal laws and other general acts of the federal organs shall be made public in the official gazette of the Federation, in the authentic texts in the languages of the peoples of Yugoslavia: in Serbo-Croatian and Croato-Serbian, Slovene and Macedonian. In official communication the organs of the Federation shall abide by the principle of equality of languages of the peoples of Yugoslavia."^[79]
• 1974 constitution of the Socialist Autonomous Province of Kosovo, Article 5: "In the Socialist Autonomous Province of Kosovo, the equality of the Albanian, Serbo-Croatian and Turkish languages and their scripts is guaranteed."^[80]
• 1990 constitution of the (Socialist) Republic of Serbia, Article 8: "In the Republic of Serbia, the Serbo-Croatian language and the Cyrillic alphabet are in official use, while the Latin alphabet is in official use in the manner established by law."^[81]
• 1993 constitution of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Article 4: "In the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Serbo-Croatian or Croatian-Serbian language with the Ijekavian pronunciation is in official use. Both scripts — Latin and Cyrillic, are equal."^[82]

The 1946, 1953, and 1974 constitutions of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia did not name specific official languages at the federal level. The 1992 constitution of the

In 2017, the "Declaration on the Common Language" (Deklaracija o zajedničkom jeziku) was signed by a group of NGOs and linguists from former Yugoslavia. It states that all standardized variants belong to a common polycentric language with equal status.^[84][85]

Demographics

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About 18 million people declare their native language as either 'Bosnian', 'Croatian', 'Serbian', 'Montenegrin', or 'Serbo-Croatian'.^[1]

Serbian is spoken by 10 million people around the world, mostly in Serbia (7.8 million), Bosnia and Herzegovina (1.2 million), and Montenegro (300,000). Besides these, Serbian minorities are found in

Croatian is spoken by 6.8 million people in the world, including 4.1 million in Croatia and 600,000 in Bosnia and Herzegovina.^[89] A small Croatian minority that lives in Italy, known as Molise Croats, have somewhat preserved traces of Croatian. In Croatia, 170,000, mostly Italians and Hungarians, use it as a second language.

Bosnian is spoken by 2.7 million people worldwide, chiefly Bosniaks, including 2.0 million in Bosnia and Herzegovina, 200,000 in Serbia and 40,000 in Montenegro.^[90]

Montenegrin is spoken by 300,000 people globally.^[91] The notion of Montenegrin as a separate standard from Serbian is relatively recent. In the 2011 census, around 229,251 Montenegrins, of the country's 620,000, declared Montenegrin as their native language. That figure is likely to increase, due to the country's independence and strong institutional backing of the Montenegrin language.

Serbo-Croatian is also a

Serbo-Croatian is a highly

• For all nouns and adjectives, the instrumental, dative, and locative forms are identical (at least orthographically) in the plural: ženama, ženama, ženama; očima, očima, očima; riječima, riječima, riječima.
• There is an accentual difference between the genitive
  singular and genitive plural of masculine and neuter nouns, which are otherwise homonyms (seljáka, seljaka) except that on occasion an "a"
  (which might or might not appear in the singular) is filled between the last letter of the root and the genitive plural ending (kapitalizma, kapitalizama).
• The old instrumental ending "ju" of the feminine consonant stems and in some cases the "a" of the genitive plural of certain other sorts of feminine nouns is fast yielding to "i": noći instead of noćju, borbi instead of boraba and so forth.
• Almost every Shtokavian number is indeclinable, and numbers after prepositions have not been declined for a long time.

Vowels

The Serbo-Croatian vowel system is simple, with only five vowels in Shtokavian. All vowels are monophthongs. The oral vowels are as follows:

The vowels can be short or long, but the phonetic quality does not change depending on the length. In a word, vowels can be long in the stressed syllable and the syllables following it, never in the ones preceding it.

Consonants

The

In consonant clusters all consonants are either voiced or voiceless. All the consonants are voiced if the last consonant is normally voiced or voiceless if the last consonant is normally voiceless. This rule does not apply to approximants – a consonant cluster may contain voiced approximants and voiceless consonants; as well as to foreign words (Washington would be transcribed as VašinGton), personal names and when consonants are not inside of one syllable.

/r/ can be syllabic, playing the role of the syllable nucleus in certain words (occasionally, it can even have a long accent). For example, the

The tone stressed vowels can be approximated in English with set vs. setting? said in isolation for a short tonic e, or leave vs. leaving? for a long tonic i, due to the prosody of final stressed syllables in English.

General accent rules in the standard language:

1. Monosyllabic words may have only a falling tone (or no accent at all –
   enclitics
   );
2. Falling tone may occur only on the first syllable of polysyllabic words;
3. Accent can never occur on the last syllable of polysyllabic words.

There are no other rules for accent placement, thus the accent of every word must be learned individually; furthermore, in inflection, accent shifts are common, both in type and position (the so-called "

Comparative and historical linguistics offers some clues for memorising the accent position: If one compares many standard Serbo-Croatian words to e.g. cognate Russian words, the accent in the Serbo-Croatian word will be one syllable before the one in the Russian word, with the rising tone. Historically, the rising tone appeared when the place of the accent shifted to the preceding syllable (the so-called "Neo-Shtokavian retraction"), but the quality of this new accent was different – its melody still "gravitated" towards the original syllable. Most Shtokavian (Neo-Shtokavian) dialects underwent this shift, but Chakavian, Kajkavian and the Old-Shtokavian dialects did not.

Accent diacritics are not used in the ordinary orthography, but only in the linguistic or language-learning literature (e.g. dictionaries, orthography and grammar books). However, there are very few minimal pairs where an error in accent can lead to misunderstanding.

Orthography

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Serbo-Croatian orthography is almost entirely phonetic. Thus, most words should be spelled as they are pronounced. In practice, the writing system does not take into account allophones which occur as a result of interaction between words:

• bit će – pronounced biće (and only written separately in Bosnian and Croatian)
• od toga – pronounced otoga (in many vernaculars)
• iz čega – pronounced iščega (in many vernaculars)

Also, there are some exceptions, mostly applied to foreign words and compounds, that favor morphological/etymological over phonetic spelling:

• postdiplomski (postgraduate) – pronounced [pôzdiploːmskiː]

One systemic exception is that the consonant clusters ds and dš are not respelled as ts and tš (although d tends to be unvoiced in normal speech in such clusters):

• predstava [prětstaʋa] (show)
• odšteta [ôtʃteta] (damages)

Only a few words are intentionally "misspelled", mostly in order to resolve ambiguity:

• šeststo [ʃêːsto] (six hundred) – pronounced šesto (to avoid confusion with "šesto" [sixth], pronounced the same)
• prstni [př̩sniː] (adj., finger) – pronounced prsni (to avoid confusion with "prsni" [pr̩̂sniː] [adj., chest]), differentiated by tone in some areas (where the short rising tone contrasts with the short falling tone).

Writing systems

Through history, this language has been written in a number of writing systems:

• Glagolitic alphabet, chiefly in Croatia
  .
• Bosančica, Arebica (mostly in Bosnia and Herzegovina
  ).
• Cyrillic script.
• various modifications of the Latin and Greek alphabets.

The oldest texts since the 11th century are in

The latter digraphs, however, are unused in the literary standard of the language. All in all, this makes Serbo-Croatian the only Slavic language to officially use both the Latin and Cyrillic scripts, albeit the Latin version is more commonly used.

In both cases, spelling is phonetic and spellings in the two alphabets map to each other one-to-one:

Latin to Cyrillic

A

a

B

b

C

c

Č

č

Ć

ć

D

d

Dž

dž

Đ

đ

E

e

F

f

G

g

H

h

I

i

J

j

K

k

А

а

Б

б

Ц

ц

Ч

ч

Ћ

ћ

Д

д

Џ

џ

Ђ

ђ

Е

е

Ф

ф

Г

г

Х

х

И

и

Ј

ј

К

к

L

l

Lj

lj

M

m

N

n

Nj

nj

O

o

P

p

R

r

S

s

Š

š

T

t

U

u

V

v

Z

z

Ž

ž

Л

л

Љ

љ

М

м

Н

н

Њ

њ

О

о

П

п

Р

р

С

с

Ш

ш

Т

т

У

у

В

в

З

з

Ж

ж

Cyrillic to Latin

А

а

Б

б

В

в

Г

г

Д

д

Ђ

ђ

Е

е

Ж

ж

З

з

И

и

Ј

ј

К

к

Л

л

Љ

љ

М

м

A

a

B

b

V

v

G

g

D

d

Đ

đ

E

e

Ž

ž

Z

z

I

i

J

j

K

k

L

l

Lj

lj

M

m

Н

н

Њ

њ

О

о

П

п

Р

р

С

с

Т

т

Ћ

ћ

У

у

Ф

ф

Х

х

Ц

ц

Ч

ч

Џ

џ

Ш

ш

N

n

Nj

nj

O

o

P

p

R

r

S

s

T

t

Ć

ć

U

u

F

f

H

h

C

c

Č

č

Dž

dž

Š

š

Sample collation

Latin collation order		Cyrillic collation order
Latin	Cyrillic equivalent
Ina	Ина	Ина
Injekcija	Инјекција	Инјекција
Inverzija	Инверзија	Инверзија
Inje	Иње	Иње

The digraphs Lj, Nj and Dž represent distinct phonemes and are considered to be single letters. In crosswords, they are put into a single square, and in sorting, lj follows l and nj follows n, except in a few words where the individual letters are pronounced separately. For instance, nadživ(j)eti "to outlive" is composed of the prefix nad- "out, over" and the verb živ(j)eti "to live". The Cyrillic alphabet avoids such ambiguity by providing a single letter for each phoneme: наджив(ј)ети.

Đ used to be commonly written as Dj on typewriters, but that practice led to too many ambiguities. It is also used on car

license plates

. Today Dj is often used again in place of Đ on the Internet as a replacement due to the lack of installed Serbo-Croat keyboard layouts.

Serbian, Bosnian and Montenegrin standards officially use both alphabets, while Croatian uses the Latin only.

Latin script has been

digital age and Internet in Serbia,^[96] whether due to restraints (Cyrillic letters use up twice the space and therefore cost on SMS^[97]), accessibility (intention to be readable internationally, as Latin is taught in all four countries speaking the language) or ease of use. This has been perceived by Serbian government officials as a suppression and threat for existence of the national script that is Cyrillic, with the Ministry of Culture and Information of Serbia pushing for more tight language laws on top of those stipulated by the existing Constitution.^[96]

Montenegrin alphabet, adopted in 2009, provides replacements of sj and zj with digraphs ⟨ś⟩ and ⟨ź⟩ in both Latin and Cyrillic, but they remain largely unused, even by the Parliament of Montenegro which introduced them.^[98]

Unicode has separate characters for the digraphs lj (LJ, Lj, lj), nj (NJ, Nj, nj) and dž (DŽ, Dž, dž).

Dialects

Main article: Dialects of Serbo-Croatian

See also: South Slavic dialect continuum

South Slavic historically formed a dialect continuum, i.e. each dialect has some similarities with the neighboring one, and differences grow with distance. However, migrations from the 16th to 18th centuries resulting from the spread of Ottoman Empire on the Balkans have caused large-scale population displacement that broke the dialect continuum into many geographical pockets. Migrations in the 20th century, primarily caused by urbanization and wars, also contributed to the reduction of dialectal differences.

The primary dialects are named after the most common question word for what:

Kajkavian (kajkavski)

, kaj or kej. In native terminology they are referred to as nar(j)ečje, which would be equivalent of "group of dialects", whereas their many subdialects are referred to as dijalekti "dialects" or govori "speeches".

The pluricentric Serbo-Croatian standard language and all four contemporary standard variants

Torlakian dialect

is often added to the list, though sources usually note that it is a transitional dialect between Shtokavian and the Bulgaro-Macedonian dialects.

The Serbo-Croatian dialects differ not only in the question word they are named after, but also heavily in phonology, accentuation and intonation, case endings and tense system (morphology) and basic vocabulary. In the past, Chakavian and Kajkavian dialects were spoken on a much larger territory, but have been replaced by Štokavian during the period of migrations caused by Ottoman Turkish conquest of the Balkans in the 15th and the 16th centuries. These migrations caused the koinéisation of the Shtokavian dialects, that used to form the West Shtokavian (more closer and transitional towards the neighbouring Chakavian and Kajkavian dialects) and East Shtokavian (transitional towards the Torlakian and the whole Bulgaro-Macedonian area) dialect bundles, and their subsequent spread at the expense of Chakavian and Kajkavian. As a result, Štokavian now covers an area larger than all the other dialects combined, and continues to make its progress in the enclaves where non-literary dialects are still being spoken.^[99]

The differences among the dialects can be illustrated on the example of Schleicher's fable. Diacritic signs are used to show the difference in accents and prosody, which are often quite significant, but which are not reflected in the usual orthography.

Neo-Štokavian Ijekavian/Ekavian Óvca i kònji Óvca koja níje ìmala vȕnē vȉd(j)ela je kònje na br(ij)égu. Jèdan je òd njīh vȗkao téška kȍla, drȕgī je nòsio vèliku vrȅću, a trȅćī je nòsio čòv(j)eka. Óvca rȅče kònjima: «Sȑce me bòlī glȅdajūći čòv(j)eka kako jȁšē na kònju». A kònji rȅkoše: «Slȕšāj, ȏvco, nȃs sȑca bòlē kada vȉdīmo da čòv(j)ek, gospòdār, rȃdī vȕnu od ovácā i prȁvī òd(j)eću zá se. I ȍndā óvca nȇmā vȉše vȕnē. Čȗvši tō, óvca pȍb(j)eže ȕ polje.

Old Štokavian (Orubica, Posavina): Óvca i kònji Óvca kòjā nî ìmala vȕnē vȉdla kònje na brîgu. Jèdān od njȉjū vũkō tȇška kȍla, drȕgī nosȉjo vȅlikū vrȅću, a trȅćī nosȉjo čovȉka. Óvca kȃza kȍnjima: «Svȅ me bolĩ kad glȅdām kako čòvik na kònju jȁšī». A kònji kāzȁše: «Slȕšāj, ȏvco, nãs sȑca bolũ kad vȉdīmo da čòvik, gȁzda, prȁvī vȕnu od ovãc i prȁvī rȍbu zá se od njẽ. I ȍndā ōvcȁ néma vȉšē vȕnē. Kad tȏ čȕ ōvcȁ, ȕteče ȕ polje.

Čakavian (Matulji near Rijeka): Ovcȁ i konjı̏ Ovcȁ kȃ ni imȅla vȕni vȉdela je konjȉ na brȇge. Jedȃn je vȗkal tȇški vȏz, drȕgi je nosîl vȅlu vrȅt'u, a trȅt'i je nosîl čovȅka. Ovcȁ je reklȁ konjȇn: «Sȑce me bolĩ dok glȅdan čovȅka kako jȁše na konjȅ». A konjȉ su reklȉ: «Poslȕšaj, ovcȁ, nȃs sȑca bolẽ kad vȉdimo da čovȅk, gospodãr dȅla vȕnu od ovãc i dȅla rȍbu zȃ se. I ȍnda ovcȁ nĩma vȉše vȕni. Kad je tȏ čȕla, ovcȁ je pobȅgla va pȍje.

Kajkavian (Marija Bistrica): õfca i kȍjni õfca tera nı̃je imȅ̩la vȕne vȉdla je kȍjne na briẽgu. Jȇn od nîh je vlẽ̩ke̩l tẽška kȍla, drȕgi je nȍsil vȅliku vrȅ̩ču, a trẽjti je nȍsil čovȅ̩ka. õfca je rȇkla kȍjnem: «Sȑce me bolĩ kad vîdim čovȅka kak jȃše na kȍjnu». A kȍjni su rȇkli: «Poslȕhni, õfca, nȃs sȑca bolĩju kad vîdime da čȍve̩k, gospodãr, dȇ̩la vȕnu ot õfci i dȇ̩la oblȅ̩ku zȃ se. I ȏnda õfca nȇma vȉše vȕne. Kad je to čȗla, õfca je pobȇ̩gla f pȍlje.

English language The Sheep and the Horses [On a hill,] a sheep that had no wool saw horses, one of them pulling a heavy wagon, one carrying a big load, and one carrying a man quickly. The sheep said to the horses: "My heart pains me, seeing a man driving horses". The horses said: "Listen, sheep, our hearts pain us when we see this: a man, the master, makes the wool of the sheep into a warm garment for himself. And the sheep has no wool". Having heard this, the sheep fled into the plain.

Division by jat reflex

Main article: yat

A series of isoglosses crosscuts the main dialects. The modern reflexes of the long Common Slavic vowel jat, usually transcribed *ě, vary by location as /i/, /e/, and /ije/ or /je/. Local varieties of the dialects are labeled Ikavian, Ekavian, and Ijekavian, respectively, depending on the reflex. The long and short jat is reflected as long or short */i/ and /e/ in Ikavian and Ekavian, but Ijekavian dialects introduce a ije/je alternation to retain a distinction.

Standard Croatian and Bosnian are based on Ijekavian, whereas Serbian uses both Ekavian and Ijekavian forms (Ijekavian for Bosnian Serbs, Ekavian for most of Serbia). Influence of standard language through state media and education has caused non-standard varieties to lose ground to the literary forms.

The jat-reflex rules are not without exception. For example, when short jat is preceded by r, in most Ijekavian dialects developed into /re/ or, occasionally, /ri/. The prefix prě- ("trans-, over-") when long became pre- in eastern Ijekavian dialects but to prije- in western dialects; in Ikavian pronunciation, it also evolved into pre- or prije- due to potential ambiguity with pri- ("approach, come close to"). For verbs that had -ěti in their infinitive, the past participle ending -ěl evolved into -io in Ijekavian Neo-Štokavian.

The following are some examples:

English	Predecessor	Ekavian	Ikavian	Ijekavian	Ijekavian development
beautiful	*lěp	lep	lip	lijep	long ě → ije
time	*vrěme	vreme	vrime	vrijeme
faith	*věra	vera	vira	vjera	short ě → je
crossing	*prělaz	prelaz	prеlaz or prijelaz	prеlaz or prijelaz	pr + long ě → prije
times	*vrěmena	vremena	vrimena	vremena	r + short ě → re
need	*trěbati	trebati	tribat(i)	trebati
heat	*grějati	grejati	grijati	grijati	r + short ě → ri
saw	*viděl	video	vidio	vidio	ěl → io
village	*selo	selo	selo	selo	e in root, not ě

Present sociolinguistic situation

The nature and classification of Serbo-Croatian has been the subject of long-standing sociolinguistic debate.^[100] The question is whether Serbo-Croatian should be called a single language or a cluster of closely related languages.^{[101][13][102][103]}

Comparison with other pluricentric languages

See also: Declaration on the Common Language

Linguist Enisa Kafadar argues that there is only one Serbo-Croatian language with several varieties.^[104] This has made it possible to include all four varieties in new grammars of the language.^[14][105] Daniel Bunčić concludes that it is a pluricentric language, with four standard variants spoken in Serbia, Croatia, Montenegro, and Bosnia-Herzegovina.^[106] The mutual intelligibility between their speakers "exceeds that between the standard variants of English, French, German, or Spanish".^[107] "There is no doubt of the near 100% mutual intelligibility of (standard) Croatian and (standard) Serbian, as is obvious from the ability of all groups to enjoy each others' films, TV and sports broadcasts, newspapers, rock lyrics etc."^[108] Other linguists have argued that the differences between the variants of Serbo-Croatian are less significant than those between the variants of English,^[109] German,^[110] Dutch,^[111] and Hindustani.^[112]

Among pluricentric languages,^[113][114] Serbo-Croatian was the only one with a pluricentric standardisation within one state.^[115][116] The dissolution of Yugoslavia has made Serbo-Croatian even more of a typical pluricentric language, since the variants of other pluricentric languages are also spoken in different states.^[117][118]

As in other pluricentric languages, all Serbo-Croatian standard varieties are based on the same dialect (the

Ausbau languages^[119]).^[120] According to linguist John Bailyn, "An examination of all the major 'levels' of language shows that BCS is clearly a single language with a single grammatical system."^[108]

In 2017, numerous prominent writers, scientists, journalists, activists and other public figures from Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia signed the

polycentric standard language is used, consisting of several standard varieties, such as German, English or Spanish.^{[121][122][123][124]}

Contemporary names

The use of Serbo-Croatian as a linguistic label has been the subject of long-standing controversy. Linguist Wayles Browne calls it a "term of convenience" and notes the difference of opinion as to whether it comprises a single language or a cluster of languages.^[103] Ronelle Alexander refers to the national standards as three separate languages, but also notes that the reasons for this are complex and generally non-linguistic. She calls BCS (her term for Serbo-Croatian) a single language for communicative linguistic purposes, but three separate languages for symbolic non-linguistic purposes.^[125][102]

The current Serbian constitution of 2006 refers to the official language as Serbian,^[126] while the Montenegrin constitution of 2007 proclaimed Montenegrin as the primary official language, but also grants other languages and dialects the right of official use.^[127]

• Most Bosniaks refer to their language as Bosnian.
• Most Croats refer to their language as Croatian.
• Most Serbs refer to their language as Serbian.
• Montenegrins refer to their language either as Serbian or Montenegrin
  .
• Ethnic Bunjevci refer to their language as Croatian, or Bunjevac, or as a sub-dialect of Serbo-Croatian.

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has specified different Universal Decimal Classification (UDC) numbers for Croatian (UDC 862, abbreviation hr) and Serbian (UDC 861, abbreviation sr), while the cover term Serbo-Croatian is used to refer to the combination of original signs (UDC 861/862, abbreviation sh). Furthermore, the ISO 639 standard designates the Bosnian language with the abbreviations bos and bs.

While it operated, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, which had English and French as official languages, translated court proceedings and documents into what it referred to as "Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian", usually abbreviated as BCS. Translators were employed from all regions of the former Yugoslavia and all national and regional variations were accepted, regardless of the nationality of the person on trial (sometimes against a defendant's objections), on the grounds of mutual intelligibility.^[128]

For utilitarian purposes, Serbo-Croatian is often called "naš jezik" ("our language") or "naški" (sic. "ourish" or "ourian") by native speakers. This term is frequently used to describe Serbo-Croatian by those who wish to avoid nationalistic and linguistic discussions.^[129][130] Native speakers traditionally describe their language as "jedan ali ne jedinstven"—"one but not uniform".^[131]

Views of linguists in the former Yugoslavia

Serbian linguists

In 2021, the

Bunjevac language as a standard minority language in 2018^[134] and was approved by the Serbian Ministry of Education for learning in schools.^[135]

Croatian linguists

The opinion of the majority of Croatian linguists^[

monograph on language and nationalism has been published.^[142]

The view of the majority of Croatian linguists that there is no single Serbo-Croatian language but several different standard languages has been sharply criticized by German linguist Bernhard Gröschel in his monograph^[143] Serbo-Croatian Between Linguistics and Politics.^[144]

A more detailed overview, incorporating arguments from Croatian philology and contemporary linguistics, would be as follows:

Serbo-Croatian is a language

One still finds many references to Serbo-Croatian, and proponents of Serbo-Croatian who deny that Croats, Serbs, Bosniaks and Montenegrins speak different languages. The usual argument generally goes along the following lines:

• Standard Croatian, Serbian, Bosnian, and Montenegrin are completely mutually intelligible.^[145][146] In addition, they use two alphabets that perfectly match each other (Latin and Cyrillic), thanks to Ljudevit Gaj and Vuk Karadžić. Croats exclusively use Latin script and Serbs equally use both Cyrillic and Latin. Although Cyrillic is taught in Bosnia, most Bosnians, especially non-Serbs (Bosniaks and Croats), favor Latin.
• The list of 100 words of the basic Croatian, Serbian, Bosnian, and Montenegrin vocabulary, as set out by Morris Swadesh, shows that all 100 words are identical.^[147] According to Swadesh, 81 per cent are sufficient to be considered as a single language.^[148]
• Typologically and structurally, these standard variants have virtually the same grammar, i.e. morphology and syntax.^[149][150]
• Serbo-Croatian was standardised in the mid-19th century, and all subsequent attempts to dissolve its basic unity have not succeeded.
• The affirmation of distinct Croatian, Serbian, Bosnian, and Montenegrin languages is politically motivated.
• According to
  Štokavian dialect.^[151]

Serbo-Croatian is not a language

Similar arguments are made for other official standards which are drawn from identical or nearly identical material bases and which therefore constitute pluricentric languages, such as

Standard Hindi and Urdu (together called Hindustani or Hindi-Urdu).^[153]

However, some argue that these arguments have flaws:

• Phonology, morphology, and syntax are not the only dimensions of a language: other fields (semantics, pragmatics, stylistics,
  General American and Received Pronunciation in English, which are closer to each other than the latter is to other dialects which are subsumed under "British English
  ".
• Since the Croatian as recorded in Držić and Gundulić's works (16th and 17th centuries) is virtually the same as the contemporary standard Croatian (understandable archaisms apart), it is evident that the 19th-century formal standardization was just the final touch in the process that, as far as Croatian is concerned, had lasted more than three centuries. The radical break with the past, characteristic of modern Serbian (whose vernacular was likely not as similar to Croatian as it is today), is a trait completely at variance with Croatian linguistic history. In short, formal standardization processes for Croatian and Serbian had coincided chronologically (and, one could add, ideologically), but they have not produced a unified standard language. Gundulić did not write in "Serbo-Croatian", nor did August Šenoa. Marko Marulić and Marin Držić wrote in a sophisticated idiom of Croatian some 300–350 years before "Serbo-Croatian ideology" appeared. Marulić explicitly called his Čakavian-written Judita as u uerish haruacchi slosena ("arranged in Croatian stanzas") in 1501, and the Štokavian grammar and dictionary of Bartol Kašić written in 1604 unambiguously identifies the ethnonyms Slavic and Illyrian with Croatian.

The linguistic debate in this region is more about politics than about linguistics per se.

The topic of language for writers from Dalmatia and Dubrovnik prior to the 19th century made a distinction only between speakers of Italian or Slavic, since those were the two main groups that inhabited Dalmatian city-states at that time. Whether someone spoke Croatian or Serbian was not an important distinction then, as the two languages were not distinguished by most speakers.

However, most intellectuals and writers from Dalmatia who used the Štokavian dialect and practiced the Catholic faith saw themselves as part of a Croatian nation as far back as the mid-16th to 17th centuries, some 300 years before Serbo-Croatian ideology appeared. Their loyalty was first and foremost to Catholic Christendom, but when they professed an ethnic identity, they referred to themselves as "Slovin" and "Illyrian" (a sort of forerunner of Catholic baroque pan-Slavism) and Croat – these 30-odd writers over the span of c. 350 years always saw themselves as Croats first and never as part of a Serbian nation. In the pre-national era, Catholic religious orientation did not necessarily equate with Croat ethnic identity in Dalmatia. A Croatian follower of Vuk Karadžić, Ivan Broz, noted that for a Dalmatian to identify oneself as a Serb was seen as foreign as identifying oneself as Macedonian or Greek. Vatroslav Jagić pointed out in 1864:

As I have mentioned in the preface, history knows only two national names in these parts—Croatian and Serbian. As far as Dubrovnik is concerned, the Serbian name was never in use; on the contrary, the Croatian name was frequently used and gladly referred to ...

At the end of the 15th century [in Dubrovnik and Dalmatia], sermons and poems were exquisitely crafted in Croatian by those men whose names are widely renowned by deep learning and piety.

— The History of the Croatian Language, Zagreb, 1864.

On the other hand, the opinion of Jagić from 1864 is argued not to have firm grounds. When Jagić says "Croatian", he refers to a few cases referring to the Dubrovnik vernacular as ilirski (Illyrian). This was a common name for all Slavic vernaculars in Dalmatian cities among the Roman inhabitants. In the meantime, other written monuments are found that mention srpski, lingua serviana (= Serbian), and some that mention Croatian.

editorializing] on the Dubrovnik language issue, Milan Rešetar, who was born in Dubrovnik himself, wrote behalf of language characteristics: "The one who thinks that Croatian and Serbian are two separate languages must confess that Dubrovnik always (linguistically) used to be Serbian."^[156]

Finally, the former medieval texts from Dubrovnik and Montenegro dating before the 16th century were neither true Štokavian nor Serbian, but mostly specific a Jekavian-

Čakavian that was nearer to actual Adriatic islanders in Croatia.^[157]

Political connotations

Nationalists have conflicting views. The nationalists among the Croats conflictingly claim either that they speak an entirely separate language from Serbs and Bosniaks or that these two peoples have, due to the longer lexicographic tradition among Croats, somehow "borrowed" their standard languages from them.^[

Čakavian Croats'— in more extreme formulations Croats have "taken" or "stolen" their language from the Serbs. ^{[citation needed}

]

Proponents of unity among Southern Slavs claim that there is a single language with normal dialectal variations. The term "Serbo-Croatian" (or synonyms) is not officially used in any of the successor countries of former Yugoslavia.

In Serbia, the Serbian standard has an official status countrywide, while both Serbian and Croatian are official in the province of Vojvodina. A large Bosniak minority is present in the southwest region of Sandžak, but the "official recognition" of Bosnian is moot.^[158] Bosnian is an optional course in first and second grade of the elementary school, while it is also in official use in the municipality of Novi Pazar.^[159] However, its nomenclature is controversial, as there is incentive that it is referred to as "Bosniak" (bošnjački) rather than "Bosnian" (bosanski) (see Bosnian language#Controversy and recognition for details).

Croatian is the official language of Croatia, while Serbian is also official in municipalities with significant Serb population.

In Bosnia and Herzegovina, all three standard languages are recorded as official. Confrontations have on occasion been absurd. The academic Muhamed Filipović, in an interview to Slovenian television, told of a local court in a Croatian district requesting a paid translator to translate from Bosnian to Croatian before the trial could proceed.^{[citation needed]}

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia referred to the language as "Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian", usually abbreviated as BCS. Translators were employed from all regions of the former Yugoslavia and all national and regional variations were accepted, regardless of the nationality of the person on trial (sometimes against a defendant's objections), on the grounds of mutual intelligibility.^[128]

ISO classification

Since the year 2000,

macrolanguage', having removed its original codes from ISO 639-1 and ISO 639-2 standards.^[160] That left the ISO 639-3 'macrolanguage' (a book-keeping device in the ISO 639-3 standard to keep track of which ISO 639-3 codes correspond with which ISO 639-2 codes)^[161]

stranded without a corresponding ISO 639-2 code.

Words of Serbo-Croatian origin

Wiktionary has a category on English terms derived from Serbo-Croatian.

• Cravat, from French cravate "Croat", by analogy with Flemish Krawaat and German Krabate, from Serbo-Croatian Hrvat,^[162] as cravats were characteristic of Croatian dress
• Polje, from Serbo-Croatian polje "field"^[163]
• sloe)^[164]
• Tamburitza, Serbo-Croatian diminutive of tambura, from Turkish, from Persian ṭambūr "tanbur"^[165]
• Uvala, from Serbo-Croatian uvala "hollow"^[166]
• Vampire, from Serbo-Croatian vampir via German Vampir or French Vampire^[167]

Sample text

Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Serbo-Croatian, written in the Latin alphabet:^[168][169]

Sva ljudska bića rađaju se slobodna i jednaka u dostojanstvu i pravima. Ona su obdarena razumom i sv(ij)ešću i treba jedni prema drugima da postupaju u duhu bratstva.

Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Serbo-Croatian, written in the Cyrillic script:^[170]

Сва људска бића рађају се слободна и једнака у достојанству и правима. Она су обдарена разумом и св(иј)ешћу и треба једни према другима да поступају у духу братства.

Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in English:^[171]

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

See also

• Comparison of standard Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin and Serbian
• Relative clause § Serbo-Croatian
• Serbo-Croatian kinship

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Sources

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• Lencek, Rado (1976). "A few remarks for the history of the term 'Serbocroatian' language". Zbornik Za Filologiju I Lingvistiku. 19 (1): 45–53.
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Further reading

• Banac, Ivo: Main Trends in the Croatian Language Question. Yale University Press, 1984.
• Bunčić, D., 2016. Serbo-Croatian/Serbian: Cyrillic and Latin. Biscriptality: A Sociolinguistic Typology, pp. 231–246.
• Franolić, Branko: A Historical Survey of Literary Croatian. Nouvelles éditions Latines, Paris, 1984.
• Franolić, B., 1983. The development of literary Croatian and Serbian. Buske Verlag.
• Franolić, Branko (1988). Language Policy in Yugoslavia with special reference to Croatian. Paris: Nouvelles Editions Latines.
• Franolić, Branko; Žagar, Mateo (2008). A Historical Outline of Literary Croatian & The Glagolitic Heritage of Croatian Culture. London & Zagreb: Erasmus & CSYPN.
  ISBN 978-953-6132-80-5
  .
• Greenberg, Robert D. (1999). "In the Aftermath of Yugoslavia's Collapse: The Politics of Language Death and Language Birth". International Politics. 36 (2): 141–158.
• Greenberg, Robert D. (2013). "Language, Religion, and Nationalism: The Case of the Former Serbo-Croatian". Typen slavischer Standardsprachen: Theoretische, methodische und empirische Zugaenge. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag. pp. 217–231.
  ISBN 9783447100281
  .
• Ivić, Pavle: Die serbokroatischen Dialekte. the Hague, 1958.
• Jakobsen, Per (2008). "O strukturalno-lingvističkim konstantama srpskohrvatskog jezika (inventar fonema i fonotaktička struktura)" [Serbocroatian structural-linguistic constants (inventory of phonemes and phonotactic structure)]. In Ostojić, Branislav (ed.). Jezička situacija u Crnoj Gori – norma i standardizacija (in Serbo-Croatian). Podgorica: Crnogorska akademija nauka i umjetnosti. pp. 25–34.
  ISBN 978-86-7215-207-4. (COBISS-CG) Archived 2018-10-05 at the Wayback Machine
  .
• Kristophson, Jürgen (2000). "Vom Widersinn der Dialektologie: Gedanken zum Štokavischen" [Dialectological Nonsense: Thoughts on Shtokavian]. Zeitschrift für Balkanologie (in German). 36 (2): 178–186.
  ZDB-ID 201058-6
  .
• Magner, Thomas F.: Zagreb Kajkavian dialect. Pennsylvania State University, 1966.
• Magner, Thomas F. (1991). Introduction to the Croatian and Serbian Language (Revised ed.). Pennsylvania State University.
• Merk, Hening (2008). "Neka pragmatična zapažanja o postojanju srpskohrvatskog jezika". In Ostojić, Branislav (ed.). Jezička situacija u Crnoj Gori – norma i standardizacija (in Serbo-Croatian). Podgorica: Crnogorska akademija nauka i umjetnosti. pp. 295–299.
  ISBN 978-86-7215-207-4. (COBISS-CG) Archived 2018-10-05 at the Wayback Machine
  .
• Murray Despalatović, Elinor: Ljudevit Gaj and the Illyrian Movement. Columbia University Press, 1975.
• Spalatin, C., 1966. Serbo-Croatian or Serbian and Croatian?: Considerations on the Croatian Declaration and Serbian Proposal of March 1967. Journal of Croatian Studies, 7, pp. 3–13.
• Scando-Slavica, Volume 68, 2022 - Issue 1. 2022. Scando-Slavica, Volume 68, 2022 - Issue 1
• Vergunova, Ludmila: The geographic distribution of Proto-Slavic dialectisms and the genesis of the South Slavic languages. 1996. (UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN LIBRARY)
• Vukotić, Vuk: On the Discursive Construction of Dialectal Varieties: The Case of Central South Slavic ‘Supradialects’. Scando-Slavica, Volume 68, 2022 - Issue 1
• Zekovic, Sreten & Cimeša, Boro: Elementa montenegrina, Chrestomatia 1/90. CIP, Zagreb 1991.

External links

Serbo-Croatian edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Wikiquote has quotations related to Serbo-Croatian.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Serbo-Croatian language.

• Ethnologue – the 15th edition of Ethnologue (released 2005) shows changes in this area:
  • Previous Ethnologue entry for Serbo-Croatian
  • Ethnologue 15th Edition report on western South Slavic languages
• Serbian and Croatian alphabets at Omniglot.
• "Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian, Or Montenegrin? Or Just 'Our Language'?",
  Radio Free Europe
  , February 21, 2009
• Browne, Wayles; Alt, Theresa (2004), A Handbook of Bosnian, Serbian, and Croatian (PDF), SEELRC