| Serbian Cyrillic alphabet Српска ћирилица,Srpska ćirilica | |
|---|---|
 Serbian Cyrillic alphabet | |
| Script type | |
Period | 10th century – present |
| Direction | Left-to-right |
| Official script | Serbia Kosovo Montenegro Bosnia and Herzegovina Greece (Mount Athos,Hilandar Monastery) |
| Languages | Serbian Bosnian |
| Related scripts | |
Parent systems | Egyptian hieroglyphs[1]
|
Child systems | Macedonian alphabet (partly) Montenegrin Cyrillic alphabet (partly) |
| ISO 15924 | |
| ISO 15924 | Cyrl(220), Cyrillic |
| Unicode | |
Unicode alias | Cyrillic |
| Subset ofCyrillic (U+0400–U+04FF) | |
| This article containsphonetic transcriptions in theInternational Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, seeHelp:IPA. For the distinction between[ ],/ / and ⟨ ⟩, seeIPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters. | |
| South Slavic languages and dialects | ||||||
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Western South Slavic
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Transitional dialects
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TheSerbian Cyrillic alphabet (Serbian:Српска ћирилица,Srpska ćirilica,IPA:[sr̩̂pskaːt͡ɕirǐlitsa]), also known as theSerbian script,[2][3][4] (Српско писмо,Srpsko pismo,Serbian pronunciation:[sr̩̂pskopǐːsmo]), is a standardized variation of theCyrillic script used to writeSerbo-Croatian, namely itsSerbian andBosnian (mainly inRepublika Srpska)standard varieties. It originated inmedieval Serbia and was significantly reformed in the 19th century by the Serbian philologist and linguistVuk Karadžić.
The Serbian Cyrillic alphabet is one of the two official scripts used to write modern standard Serbian, the other beingGaj's Latin alphabet. Karadžić based his reform on the earlier 18th-centurySlavonic-Serbian script. Following the principle of "write as you speak and read as it is written" (piši kao što govoriš, čitaj kao što je napisano), he removed obsolete letters, eliminated redundant representations ofiotated vowels, and introduced the letter⟨J⟩ from the Latin script. He also created new letters for sounds unique to Serbian phonology. Around the same time,Ljudevit Gaj led the standardization of the Latin script for use in western South Slavic languages, applying similar phonemic principles.
As a result of these parallel reforms, Serbian Cyrillic and Gaj’s Latin alphabet have a one-to-one correspondence. The Latindigraphs Lj, Nj, and Dž are treated as single letters, just as their Cyrillic counterparts are. The reformed Serbian Cyrillic alphabet was officially adopted in thePrincipality of Serbia in 1868 and remained the sole official script into theinterwar period. Both scripts were recognized in theKingdom of Yugoslavia and theSocialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. During the latter period, Gaj’s Latin alphabet gained greater prominence, especially in urban and multiethnic contexts.
Today, both scripts are in official use for Serbian. InSerbia, Cyrillic has the constitutional status of "official script", while the Latin script is designated as "script in official use" for minority and practical purposes. Cyrillic is also an official script inMontenegro andBosnia and Herzegovina, alongside the Latin alphabet.
Serbian Cyrillic is in official use inSerbia,Montenegro, andBosnia and Herzegovina.[5] Although Bosnia and Herzegovina officially recognizes both the Cyrillic and Latin scripts,[5] the Latin alphabet is predominantly used in theFederation of Bosnia and Herzegovina,[5] while Cyrillic is more commonly used inRepublika Srpska.[5][6] InCroatia, the Serbian language is officially recognized as a minority language, and the use of Serbian Cyrillic is legally protected in areas with significant Serbian populations. However, the use of Cyrillic on bilingual signs has provokedprotests and acts of vandalism in some communities.
Serbian Cyrillic is widely regarded as a key symbol of Serbian national and cultural identity.[7] In Serbia, all official documents are printed in Cyrillic only,[8] even though, according to a 2014 survey, 47% of Serbian citizens reported primarily using theLatin script, while 36% reported using Cyrillic.[9]
The following table provides the upper and lower case forms of the Serbian Cyrillic alphabet, along with the equivalent forms in theSerbian Latin alphabet and theInternational Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) value for each letter. The letters do not have names, andconsonants are normally pronounced as such when spelling is necessary (or followed by a shortschwa, e.g. /fə/).:
Summary tables
| 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 |
| 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 |
According to tradition, theGlagolitic script was created in the 860s by theByzantine Christian missionaries Cyril and Methodius, during the period of theChristianization of the Slavs. The Glagolitic alphabet is considered the older of the two Slavic scripts and may have existed in some form before the official adoption of Christianity, though it was formalized and systematized by Cyril to represent Slavic sounds not found in Greek.
TheCyrillic script gradually replaced Glagolitic over the following centuries. It was likely developed by the disciples of Cyril and Methodius, possibly at thePreslav Literary School in theFirst Bulgarian Empire toward the end of the 9th century.[11]
The earliest form of the Cyrillic script was known asustav, a monumental script based on Greekuncial writing. It incorporatedligatures and additional letters adapted from the Glagolitic script to represent sounds not present in Greek. At this stage, there was no distinction between uppercase and lowercase letters. The literary language used was based on the Slavic dialect spoken in the region ofThessaloniki.[11]
Part of theSerbian medieval literary heritage includes important works such as theMiroslav Gospel,Vukan Gospels,St. Sava's Nomocanon,Dušan's Code, and theMunich Serbian Psalter, among others. The first printed book in Serbian was theCetinje Octoechos, published in 1494. A notable feature of Serbian medieval writing, particularly associated with theResava literary school, was the extensive use ofdiacritical signs and the use of theDjerv (Ꙉꙉ) to represent Serbian phonological reflexes ofProto-Slavic *tj and *dj — corresponding to the modern sounds[t͡ɕ],[d͡ʑ],[d͡ʒ], and[t͡ɕ]. Over time, these sounds were more systematically represented by the modern Serbian Cyrillic lettersDje (Ђђ) andTshe (Ћћ).
During theSerbian Revolution,Vuk Stefanović Karadžić fled Serbia in 1813 and settled in Vienna, where he metJernej Kopitar, a Slovene linguist and slavist. With the encouragement and support of Kopitar andSava Mrkalj, Karadžić began reforming the Serbian language and its orthography. He finalized his reformed alphabet in 1818 with the publication of theSerbian Dictionary (Srpski rječnik). Karadžić reformed the standard Serbian language and standardized the Serbian Cyrillic alphabet based on the phonemic principle of “write as you speak and read as it is written” (piši kao što govoriš, čitaj kao što je napisano), following the model ofJohann Christoph Adelung and the influence ofJan Hus’s reforms of theCzech alphabet. His reforms modernized Serbian and moved it away from the older Church Slavonic tradition (particularly the Serbian recension and Russian Church Slavonic), bringing the literary language closer to the vernacular of the common people—specifically, theEastern Herzegovinian dialect, which he spoke natively.
Karadžić, along withĐuro Daničić, was one of the principal Serbian signatories of theVienna Literary Agreement in 1850. Encouraged by the Austrian authorities, this agreement laid the foundation for the modern standard literary language shared by Serbs, Croats, Bosniaks, and Montenegrins, varieties of which are used inSerbia,Montenegro,Bosnia and Herzegovina, andCroatia today. Karadžić also translated theNew Testament into Serbian, which was published posthumously in 1868. He authored several influential books during the reform process, includingMala prostonarodna slaveno-serbska pesnarica andPismenica serbskoga jezika (1814), followed by additional works in 1815 and 1818, while the alphabet was still being developed. In his letters from 1815 to 1818, Karadžić occasionally used archaic letters such asЮ,Я,Ы, andѲ, though he had already droppedѢ by the time of his 1815 songbook.[12] The reformed Serbian Cyrillic alphabet was officially adopted in 1868, four years after his death.[13]
From the Old Church Slavonic script, Vuk Karadžić retained the following 24 letters:
| А а | Б б | В в | Г г | Д д | Е е | Ж ж | З з |
| И и | К к | Л л | М м | Н н | О о | П п | Р р |
| С с | Т т | У у | Ф ф | Х х | Ц ц | Ч ч | Ш ш |
He adopted one letter from theLatin alphabet:
| Ј ј |
He also created five new letters to represent specific Serbian phonemes:
| Ђ ђ | Љ љ | Њ њ | Ћ ћ | Џ џ |
The following archaic letters were removed from use:
| Ѥ ѥ (je) | Ѣ ѣ (jat) | І ї (i) | Ѵ ѵ (i) | Оу оу (u) | Ѡ ѡ (o) | Ѧ ѧ (little yus) | Ѫ ѫ (big yus) | Ы ы (yery, hard i) | |
| Ю ю (ju) | Ѿ ѿ (ot) | Ѳ ѳ (th) | Ѕ ѕ (dz) | Щ щ (št) | Ѯ ѯ (ks) | Ѱ ѱ (ps) | Ъ ъ (hard sign) | Ь ь (soft sign) | Я я (ja) |
Orders issued on 3 and 13 October 1914 prohibited the use of the Serbian Cyrillic alphabet in theKingdom of Croatia-Slavonia, restricting its use solely to religious instruction. A decree issued on 3 January 1915 extended the ban to all public use of Serbian Cyrillic. Furthermore, an imperial order dated 25 October 1915 banned the use of Serbian Cyrillic in theCondominium of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with the sole exception of usage "within the scope ofSerbian Orthodox Church authorities."[14][15]
In 1941, theIndependent State of Croatia, apuppet state established byNazi Germany, banned the use of the Serbian Cyrillic alphabet.[16] The use of Cyrillic had already been restricted by regulations issued on 25 April 1941.[17] In June 1941, the regime began purging so-called "Eastern" (i.e. Serbian) words from the Croatian language and closed Serbian schools.[18][19] Separately, the Serbian Cyrillic alphabet served as the foundation for the development of the modernMacedonian alphabet through the work ofKrste Misirkov andVenko Markovski.
The Serbian Cyrillic script was one of the two official scripts used to writeSerbo-Croatian inYugoslavia from its establishment in 1918, alongsideGaj's Latin alphabet (latinica). Following thebreakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s, Serbian Cyrillic ceased to be used at the national level in Croatia. However, it has remained an official script inSerbia,Bosnia and Herzegovina, andMontenegro.[20]
Under theConstitution of Serbia adopted in 2006, the Cyrillic script is defined as the sole official script for use in government and official communication.[21]
The followingtypographical ligatures were developed specifically for the Serbian Cyrillic alphabet:
| Ђ ђ | Љ љ | Њ њ | Ћ ћ | Џ џ |
Serbian Cyrillic differs from other Slavic Cyrillic alphabets by omitting several letters. It does not use the hard sign (ъ) or soft sign (ь), due to the absence of a phonemic distinction between iotated and non-iotated consonants. Instead, it employs unique letters that historically arose as ligatures. It also lacks letters such as Russian/BelarusianЭ, Ukrainian/BelarusianІ, the semivowelsЙ andЎ, and the iotated vowelsЯ (ya),Є (ye),Ї (yi),Ё (yo), andЮ (yu). These sounds are instead represented using digraphs withЈ, as inЈа, Је, Ји, Јо, Ју. The letterЈ also functions as a semivowel, replacingЙ. The letterЩ is not used in Serbian; when necessary, it is transliterated asШЧ,ШЋ, orШТ.
Serbianitalic andcursive forms of certain lowercase Cyrillic letters—б, г, д, п, т—differ significantly from their counterparts in Russian and other Cyrillic scripts. In the Serbian Cyrillic script, these letters take on distinct shapes:б, г, д, п, т. However, their upright (non-italic) forms are generally standardized across languages, with no officially recognized national variants.[22][23]
This poses challenges inUnicode rendering, as the italic variants are the only ones that differ, and Unicode assigns the same code points regardless of visual style. Professional Serbian typography addresses this through dedicated fonts, but most texts displayed on consumer devices use East Slavic (e.g., Russian) glyphs even when Serbian language codes are applied. Some modern font families—such as those developed byAdobe,[24]Microsoft (from Windows Vista onward), and others[citation needed]—support Serbian-specific Cyrillic shapes in both regular and italic styles.
When supported by the font and rendering engine, correct glyphs can be displayed by marking text with appropriate language codes. For example:
<span lang="sr">бгдпт</span> produces Serbian forms:бгдпт<span lang="ru">бгдпт</span> produces Russian forms:бгдптIn italic:
<span lang="sr">бгдпт</span> produces:бгдпт<span lang="ru">бгдпт</span> produces:бгдптSinceUnicode does not distinguish between these national glyph variants at the character level,[25] font and language-tag support is required to render the correct form.
The standard Serbiankeyboard layout for personal computers is as follows:
_-_%25D0%25A1%25D1%2580%25D0%25BF%25D1%2581%25D0%25BA%25D0%25B8_%25D1%259B%25D0%25B8%25D1%2580%25D0%25B8%25D0%25BB%25D0%25B8%25D1%2587%25D0%25BD%25D0%25B8_%25D1%2580%25D0%25B0%25D1%2581%25D0%25BF%25D0%25BE%25D1%2580%25D0%25B5%25D0%25B4_%25D1%2582%25D0%25B0%25D1%2581%25D1%2582%25D0%25B0%25D1%2582%25D1%2583%25D1%2580%25D0%25B5.svg)
Several polls have been conducted regarding the preferred writing script in Serbia. Polls ask respondents to identify the script they tend to use more.
Latin is predominant in online spaces, while official documentation favours the Cyrillic script. North and west of Serbia tend to use Latin more than South and East. Younger people are more likely to use Latin, while older people are more likely to use Cyrillic. People in urban areas are more likely to use Latin, whilst people in rural areas are more likely to use Cyrillic.[26]
| Year | Pollster | Result | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cyrilic | Latin | Both | ||
| 2002[26] | 21.9% | 39.8% | 38.3% | |
| 2011[26] | 35% | 35% | 25% | |
| 2014[27] | Politika | 36.2% | 47.3% | 16% |
| 2018[26] | 63% | 18% | 18% | |
... who usesSerbian script ...
Serbian script is the Cyrillic (similar to the Russian script)...
In addition, today, neither Bosniaks nor Croats, but only Serbs use Cyrillic in Bosnia.
Types ofhandwritten Europeanscripts | ||
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| Cyrillic alphabets |
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| Cyrillization of | |||||||||||||||||
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