Serbo-Croatian

Serbo-Croatian, also called Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian (BCMS), is a Western South Slavic language. People mainly speak it in Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro. It is a pluricentric language with four forms that people can understand each other with: Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian, and Montenegrin.

The history of this language is linked to the western Balkans. Different groups like Bosniaks, Croats, and Serbs lived together. Sometimes they were ruled by other empires, such as the Ottoman Empire. This created a rich but varied language background.

In the mid-1800s, writers and language experts from Croatia and Serbia worked together to make the language more standard through the Vienna Literary Agreement. Later, it became the main language of Yugoslavia. After Yugoslavia broke apart, the language split into several standards, but they are still very similar.

Serbo-Croatian has a simple sound system. It has five main vowel sounds and twenty-five consonant sounds. It uses either the Latin or Cyrillic alphabet. The language has a flexible way of structuring sentences. Even with some differences, the four forms of the language are easy for speakers of one to understand others.

Name

The languages spoken by South Slavs have changed over time. Before the 1800s, they were called names like "Illyrian," "Slavic," or "Serbian." The name "Illyrian" became popular in the 1800s.

The term "Serbo-Croatian" was first used in 1824 by a writer named Jacob Grimm. Today, people usually call the language by its four main forms: Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian, and Montenegrin. Some people call it "our language" to avoid talking about differences. After the breakup of Yugoslavia, some started using the term "Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian" (BCS) instead. Even though the name "Serbo-Croatian" can be sensitive, it is still used by teachers and language experts.

History

Early history

See also: Shtokavian § Early history of Shtokavian

Standardization

In the mid-1800s, writers and language experts from Serbia and Croatia wanted to create one shared language. They chose the most common dialect, called Shtokavian, as the base. Serbian writers used the Cyrillic alphabet, while Croatian writers used the Latin alphabet. In 1850, they signed an agreement to work together on this shared language.

Over time, the language was used in different ways in each country. In 1861, a vote in Croatia suggested calling the language "Yugoslavian," but this wasn’t accepted. Later, during rule by Austria-Hungary, the language in Bosnia and Herzegovina was called "Bosnian."

After World War I, the new country of the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes used a version called "Serbo-Croato-Slovene." In 1929, the country became the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, and the language name stayed the same.

During World War II, a Nazi-controlled area called the Independent State of Croatia tried to remove words from other languages and focused only on Croatian words.

After the war, leaders in Yugoslavia said Croatian, Serbian, Slovene, and Macedonian were all equal. In 1954, experts from Serbia and Croatia signed an agreement saying these languages shared one language with two versions. They agreed to use both Cyrillic and Latin letters and two ways of speaking.

In 1967, some Croatian experts said they wanted their language to be called its own. In the 1970s and 1980s, each part of Yugoslavia could choose its own official language. Serbo-Croatian was still widely used, but each republic had its own version.

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.).
• 1931 constitution of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, Article 3: "The official language of the Kingdom is Serbo-Croato-Slovene".
• 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."
  • 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."
• 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."
• 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."
• 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."

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 Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, in 2003 renamed Serbia and Montenegro, stated in Article 15: "In the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, the Serbian language in its ekavian and ijekavian dialects and the Cyrillic script shall be official, while the Latin script shall be in official use as provided for by the Constitution and law."

The term "Serbo-Croatian" (or synonyms) is not officially used in any of the successor countries of former Yugoslavia. The current Serbian constitution of 2006 refers to the official language as Serbian, while the current Montenegrin constitution of 2007 proclaims Montenegrin as the official language but also grants other Serbo-Croatian varieties the right to official use. 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 varieties are recorded as official.

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. 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. However, its nomenclature is controversial, as there is incentive that it is referred to as "Bosniak" (bošnjački) rather than "Bosnian" (bosanski) (see also: Bosnian language#Controversy and recognition).

Modern developments

In 2017, many important people from Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, and Serbia signed a statement saying all versions of the language are equal and part of one shared language, like German, English, and Spanish.

Demographics

About 18 million people say their first language is Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian, Montenegrin, or Serbo-Croatian.

Serbian is spoken by around 10 million people, mainly in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro. There are also Serbian speakers in Kosovo, North Macedonia, and Romania. In Kosovo, about 70,000 to 100,000 people from the Serbian minority speak Serbian.

Croatian is spoken by about 6.8 million people, with most living in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. There is a small group of Croatian speakers in Italy called the Molise Croats.

Bosnian is spoken by around 2.7 million people, mostly by Bosniaks, with most living in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and some in Serbia and Montenegro.

Montenegrin is spoken by about 300,000 people around the world. Many people in Montenegro now see Montenegrin as its own language, not just a version of Serbian.

Grammar

Serbo-Croatian is a language where words can change a lot. It has special ways to show who is doing something, who it is done to, and where it is done. Words change their endings to show these ideas.

Words in Serbo-Croatian also have gender — like masculine, feminine, and neuter. They can be singular (one) or plural (more than one). Verbs, which are action words, change to show when something happens — in the past, now, or later. They also show if an action is finished or still happening.

Phonology

Vowels

Serbo-Croatian has five simple vowels. These vowels can be short or long, but they sound the same no matter how long they are. In a word, long vowels usually appear in the stressed syllable or the next one.

Consonants

The consonant sounds in Serbo-Croatian are more complex. They include special sounds like affricates and palatal consonants. Like in English, some consonants can be voiced or unvoiced, but they do not use strong breaths called aspiration.

Pitch accent

Besides Slovene, Serbo-Croatian is the only Slavic language that uses a pitch accent system. This means the meaning of a word can change based on the rise or fall in tone of the voice. For example, a rising or falling tone on a long or short vowel changes the word's meaning. There are rules for where these accents can appear in words, but each word's accent must be learned separately.

Orthography

Serbo-Croatian writing is mostly phonetic, meaning words are spelled close to how they sound. Some sounds change slightly when words come together, and some foreign words keep special spellings.

This language has used many writing systems over time, including Glagolitic alphabet in Croatia, Bosančica and Arebica in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Cyrillic script. Today, it uses both the Latin and Cyrillic alphabets. The Latin alphabet, known as Gajica, includes special extra letters, while Cyrillic also works well. Both alphabets match each other closely in spelling.

The letters Lj, Nj, and Dž represent single sounds and are treated as individual letters. In Serbian, Bosnian, and Montenegrin, both alphabets are used, but Croatian mainly uses Latin. In Serbia, Latin letters are becoming more popular with computers and the internet, even though Cyrillic remains important.

Dialectology

Main article: Dialects of Serbo-Croatian

See also: Dialect continuum § South Slavic continuum

South Slavic languages used to blend together, with nearby dialects sharing similarities. But big movements of people from the 16th to 18th centuries, caused by the growth of the Ottoman Empire in the Balkans, split these dialects into separate groups. Later moves in the 20th century also changed the dialects.

The main dialects are named after their common question word for "what": Shtokavian uses "što" or "šta", Chakavian uses "ča" or "ca", and Kajkavian (kajkavski) uses "kaj" or "kej". These dialects vary in sounds, word endings, and basic words. Now, Shtokavian is the most widespread.

The dialects differ in sounds, word endings, and vocabulary. One way to see these differences is through an old story called Schleicher's fable. Special marks show how accents and sounds change.

Classification by jat reflex

Main article: yat

Different areas change an old vowel from Common Slavic in different ways, leading to labels like Ikavian, Ekavian, and Ijekavian. Standard Croatian and Bosnian use Ijekavian, while Serbian uses both Ekavian and Ijekavian. Schools and media help these standard forms stay strong.

Sociolinguistic debate

The nature and classification of Serbo-Croatian has been widely discussed. Some believe it is one language, while others think it is a group of closely related languages.

Croatian linguists have different views. Some say there has never been a single Serbo-Croatian language, but instead two different standard languages that overlapped in history. Others argue that Serbo-Croatian is one language with four national variants: Croatian, Serbian, Bosnian, and Montenegrin. These variants are very similar and can be easily understood by speakers of each other’s languages.

Serbian linguists also have differing opinions. In 2021, a group in Serbia said Serbo-Croatian should be called the Serbian language, with Croatian, Bosnian, and Montenegrin as local names. This was criticized by Croatian officials. Some Serbian linguists believe Serbo-Croatian is one language scientifically, but four different languages administratively.

International linguists generally see Serbo-Croatian as one pluricentric language with four standard varieties. They note that speakers of these varieties can usually understand each other very well, similar to how speakers of different types of English or German can understand each other.

International organizations like the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia have treated Serbo-Croatian as a single language for practical purposes, using the term "Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian" (BCS). The ISO standards also recognize Serbo-Croatian as a macrolanguage.

Derived words in English

Some English words come from Serbo-Croatian. For example, the word cravat comes from a French word that means "Croat." The word polje means "field" in Serbo-Croatian. Slivovitz is a type of brandy that comes from a word meaning "plum" in Serbo-Croatian. The musical instrument tamburitza also has roots in Serbo-Croatian. The word uvala means "hollow," and vampire also comes from Serbo-Croatian.