Serbo-Croatian

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This article is about the language. For other uses, see Serbo-Croatian
(disambiguation).

Serbo-Croatian

 Serbian
 Croatian
 Bosnian
 Montenegrin

 srpskohrvatski / hrvatskosrpski
 српскохрватски / хрватскосрпски
 naš jezik / наш језик

Native to Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and

Herzegovina, Montenegro, and Kosovo[a]

Ethnicity Bosniaks
Croats
Montenegrins
Serbs

Native 21 million (2011)[1]
speakers

Language Indo-European
family
 Balto-Slavic
o Slavic
 South Slavic
 We
ster
n
So
uth
Sla
vic
 Serb
o-
Cr
oat
ian

Standard Serbian
forms Croatian
Bosnian
 Montenegrin

Dialects  Dialects of Serbo-Croatian:

 Shtokavian (standard)
 Bunjevac
 Slavomolisano
 Torlakian

Writing system  Latin (Gaj)

 Cyrillic (Serbian and Montenegrin)
 Yugoslav Braille

Official status

Official   Serbia (as Serbian)

language in   Croatia (as Croatian)
  Bosnia and Herzegovina (as Bosnian,
Croatian, Serbian)
  Montenegro
(as Montenegrin)
  Kosovo[a] (as Serbian)[2]
  European Union
(as Croatian)

Recognised   Austria (Burgenland)[3]
minority   Hungary (in Baranya County)[citation
language in needed]

  Italy (Molise)[4]
  Romania (in Carașova, Lupac)[citation
needed]

  Slovakia[5]
  Czech Republic[6]
  North Macedonia[7]

Regulated by  Institute of Croatian Language and

Linguistics (Croatian)
 Board for Standardization of the Serbian
Language (Serbian)
 University of Sarajevo (Bosnian)

Language codes
sh  (deprecated)
ISO 639-1
hbs  – inclusive code
ISO 639-3
Individual codes:
 bos  – Bosnian
cnr  – Montenegrin
hrv  – Croatian
srp  – Serbian
svm  – Slavomolisano

sout1528
Glottolog
53-AAA-g
Linguasphere

  Areas where Serbo-Croatian is spoken by a plurality of inhabitants (as

of 2005)[needs update]

Note: a Kosovo independence disputed, see 2008 Kosovo declaration of

independence

South Slavic languages and dialects

show

Western South Slavic

show

Eastern South Slavic

show

Transitional dialects

show

Alphabets

 v
  t
 e

Serbo-Croatian (/ˌsɜːrboʊkroʊˈeɪʃən/ ( listen))[8][9] – also called Serbo-Croat (/ˌsɜːrboʊ

ˈkroʊæt/),[8][9] Serbo-Croat-Bosnian (SCB),[10] Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian (BCS),[11] and 
Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian (BCMS)[12] – is a South Slavic language and
the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro. It is
a pluricentric language with four[13] mutually intelligible standard varieties,
namely Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian and Montenegrin.[14][15]
South Slavic languages historically formed a continuum. The turbulent history of the
area, particularly due to expansion of the Ottoman Empire, resulted in a patchwork of
dialectal and religious differences. Due to population migrations, Shtokavian became
the most widespread dialect in the western Balkans, intruding westwards into the area
previously occupied by Chakavian and Kajkavian (which further blend 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 linguistic standardization of Serbo-Croatian was originally initiated in the
mid-19th-century Vienna Literary Agreement by Croatian and Serbian writers and
philologists, decades before a Yugoslav state was established. [16] From the very
beginning, there were slightly different literary Serbian and Croatian standards, although
both were based on the same dialect of Shtokavian, Eastern Herzegovinian. In the 20th
century, Serbo-Croatian served as the official language of the Kingdom of
Yugoslavia (when it was called "Serbo-Croato-Slovenian"), [17] and later as one of the
official languages of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The breakup of
Yugoslavia affected language attitudes, so that social conceptions of the language
separated along ethnic and political lines. Since the breakup of Yugoslavia, Bosnian has
likewise been established as an official standard in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and there
is an ongoing movement to codify a separate Montenegrin standard.
Like other South Slavic languages, Serbo-Croatian has a simple phonology, with the
common five-vowel system and twenty-five consonants. Its grammar evolved
from Common Slavic, with complex inflection, preserving seven grammatical cases in
nouns, pronouns, and adjectives. Verbs exhibit imperfective or perfective aspect, with a
moderately complex tense system. Serbo-Croatian is a pro-drop language with flexible
word order, subject–verb–object being the default. It can be written in Serbian
Cyrillic or Gaj's Latin alphabet, whose thirty letters mutually map one-to-one, and
the orthography is highly phonemic in all standards.