South Slavic languages historically formed adialect continuum. The region's turbulent history, particularly due to the expansion of theOttoman Empire, led to a complex dialectal and religious mosaic. Due to population migrations,Shtokavian became the most widespreadsupradialect in the western Balkans, encroaching westward into the area previously dominated byChakavian andKajkavian.[17]Bosniaks,Croats, andSerbs differ in religion and were historically often part of different cultural spheres, although large portions of these populations lived side by side under foreign rule. During that period, the language was referred to by various names, such as "Slavic" in general, or "Serbian", "Croatian" or "Bosnian" in particular. In a classicizing manner, it was also referred to as "Illyrian".
Thestandardization of Serbo-Croatian was initiated in the mid-19th-centuryVienna Literary Agreement by Croatian and Serbian writers and philologists, decades before a Yugoslav state was established.[18] From the outset, literary Serbian and Croatian exhibited slight differences, although both were based on the same Shtokavian dialect—Eastern Herzegovinian. In the 20th century, Serbo-Croatian served as thelingua franca of the country ofYugoslavia, being the sole official language in theKingdom of Yugoslavia (when it was called "Serbo-Croato-Slovenian"),[19] and afterwards the official language of four out of six republics of theSocialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Thebreakup of Yugoslavia influenced language attitudes, leading to theethnic and political division of linguistic identity. Since then, Bosnian has likewise been established as an official standard in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and efforts tocodify a separate Montenegrin standard continue.
Throughout the history of theSouth Slavs, thevernacular, literary, and written languages (e.g., Chakavian, Kajkavian, Shtokavian) of various regions and ethnic groups developed and diverged independently. Before the 19th century, these languages were collectively called "Illyrian", "Slavic", "Slavonian", "Bosnian", "Dalmatian", "Serbian", or "Croatian".[22] Since the 19th century, the termIllyrian orIllyric was frequently used, sometimes leading to confusion with the ancientIllyrian language. Althoughthe wordIllyrian was used occasionally before, its widespread usage began afterLjudevit Gaj and several other prominent linguists met atLjudevit Vukotinović's house to discuss the issue in 1832.[23] The termSerbo-Croatian was first used byJacob Grimm in 1824,[24][25] later popularized by the Viennese philologistJernej Kopitar, and adopted by Croatian grammarians inZagreb in 1854 and 1859.[26] At that time, Serb and Croat lands were still part of theOttoman andAustrian Empires.
Serbo-Croatian is typically referred to by the names of its standardized varieties—Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian, and Montenegrin.[27][28] It is rarely referred to by the names of its sub-dialects, such asBunjevac orŠokac.[29] In the language itself, it is formally known assrpskohrvatski,српскохрватски ("Serbo-Croatian") andhrvatskosrpski,хрватскoсрпски ("Croato-Serbian").[14] Historically, linguists and philologists, includingĐuro Daničić andTomislav Maretić, have referred to the language as "Serbian or Croatian" and "Croatian or Serbian". Serbo-Croatian is often colloquially callednaš jezik ("our language") ornaški (sic. "ourish" or "ourian") by native speakers. This term is frequently used by those who wish to avoid linguistic discussions.[30][31] Native speakers traditionally describe their language asjedan ali ne jedinstven ("one but not uniform").[32]
In 1988, Croatian linguistDalibor Brozović advocated the termSerbo-Croatian, stating that, by analogy with Indo-European, it not only denotes the two components of the same language but also delineates the geographical region in which it is spoken, encompassing all language varieties within these boundaries, including Bosnian and Montenegrin.[33] Croatian linguistMate Kapović suggestedStandard Shtokavian as the ethnically neutral and linguistically most precise term.[34] Nowadays, the use of the term "Serbo-Croatian" is controversial due to the widespread perception that national identity and language should correspond.[35][36][37] However, it is still used in academic and linguistic contexts due to the lack of a succinct alternative.[38] Following thebreakup of Yugoslavia, alternative designations have emerged, such asBosnian/Croatian/Serbian (BCS),[39] which is frequently used in political contexts, including by theInternational Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.
Đuro Daničić,Rječnik hrvatskoga ili srpskoga jezika (Croatian or Serbian Dictionary), 1882Gramatika bosanskoga jezika (Grammar of the Bosnian Language), 1890
In the mid-19th century, Serbian (led by self-taught writer and folkloristVuk Stefanović Karadžić) and most Croatian writers and linguists (represented by theIllyrian movement and led byLjudevit Gaj andĐuro Daničić), proposed the use of the most widespread dialect,Shtokavian, as the base for their common standard language. Karadžić standardised theSerbian Cyrillic alphabet, and Gaj and Daničić standardized theCroatian Latin alphabet, on the basis of vernacular speech phonemes and the principle of phonological spelling. In 1850 Serbian and Croatian writers and linguists signed theVienna Literary Agreement, declaring their intention to create a unified standard.[40] Thus a complex bi-variant language appeared, which the Serbs officially called "Serbo-Croatian" or "Serbian or Croatian" and the Croats "Croato-Serbian", or "Croatian or Serbian". Yet, in practice, the variants of the conceived common literary language served as different literary variants, chiefly differing in lexical inventory and stylistic devices. The common phrase describing this situation was that Serbo-Croatian or "Croatian or Serbian" was a single language. In 1861, after a long debate, theCroatian Sabor put up several proposed names to a vote of the members of the parliament; "Yugoslavian" was opted for by the majority and legislated as the official language of theTriune Kingdom. TheAustrian Empire, suppressing Pan-Slavism at the time, did not confirm this decision and legally rejected the legislation, but in 1867 finally settled on "Croatian or Serbian" instead.[41] During theAustro-Hungarian rule in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the language of all three nations in this territory was declared "Bosnian" until the death of administratorvon Kállay in 1907, at which point the name was changed to "Serbo-Croatian".[42][43][44]
With unification of the first theKingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes – the approach of Karadžić and the Illyrians became dominant. The official language was called "Serbo-Croato-Slovenian" (srpsko-hrvatsko-slovenački) in the 1921 constitution.[19] In 1929, the constitution was suspended,[45] and the country was renamed theKingdom of Yugoslavia, while the official language of Serbo-Croato-Slovene was reinstated in the 1931 constitution.[19]
In June 1941, the Nazi puppetIndependent State of Croatia began to rid the language of "Eastern" (Serbian) words, and shut down Serbian schools.[46] The totalitarian dictatorship introduced a language law that promulgatedCroatian linguistic purism as a policy that tried to implement a complete elimination of Serbisms and internationalisms.[47]
On January 15, 1944, the Anti-Fascist Council of the People's Liberation of Yugoslavia (AVNOJ) declared Croatian, Serbian, Slovene, and Macedonian to be equal in the entire territory of Yugoslavia.[48] In 1945 the decision to recognize Croatian and Serbian as separate languages was reversed in favor of a single Serbo-Croatian or Croato-Serbian language.[48] In theCommunist-dominatedsecond Yugoslavia, ethnic issues eased to an extent, but the matter of language remained blurred and unresolved.
In 1954, major Serbian and Croatian writers, linguists and literary critics, backed byMatica srpska andMatica hrvatska signed theNovi Sad Agreement, which in itsfirst conclusion stated: "Serbs, Croats and Montenegrins share a single language with two equal variants that have developed around Zagreb (western) and Belgrade (eastern)". The agreement insisted on theequal status of Cyrillic and Latin scripts, and of Ekavian and Ijekavian pronunciations.[49] It also specified thatSerbo-Croatian should be the name of the language in official contexts, while in unofficial use the traditionalSerbian andCroatian were to be retained.[49] Matica hrvatska and Matica srpska were to work together on a dictionary, and a committee of Serbian and Croatian linguists was asked to prepare apravopis. During the sixties both books were published simultaneously in Ijekavian Latin in Zagreb and Ekavian Cyrillic in Novi Sad.[50] Yet Croatian linguists claim that it was an act of unitarianism. The evidence supporting this claim is patchy: Croatian linguist Stjepan Babić complained that the television transmission from Belgrade always used the Latin alphabet[51]— which was true, but was not proof of unequal rights, but of frequency of use and prestige. Babić further complained that the Novi Sad Dictionary (1967) listed side by side words from both the Croatian and Serbian variants wherever they differed,[51] which one can view as proof of careful respect for both variants, and not of unitarism. Moreover, Croatian linguists criticized those parts of the Dictionary for being unitaristic that were written by Croatian linguists.[52] And finally, Croatian linguists ignored the fact that the material for thePravopisni rječnik came from the Croatian Philological Society.[53][54] Regardless of these facts, Croatian intellectuals brought theDeclaration on the Status and Name of the Croatian Literary Language in 1967. On occasion of the publication's 45th anniversary, the Croatian weekly journalForum published the Declaration again in 2012, accompanied by a critical analysis.[55]
West European scientists judge the Yugoslav language policy as an exemplary one:[56][57] although three-quarters of the population spoke one language, no single language was official on a federal level.[58] Official languages were declared only at the level of constituent republics and provinces,[59][60][61] 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).[59][62] Newspapers, radio and television studios used sixteen languages,[63] fourteen were used as languages of tuition in schools, and nine at universities.[59][64] Only theYugoslav 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,[65] 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.[59] Both Serbian and Croatian variants were represented in respectively different grammar books, dictionaries, school textbooks and in books known aspravopis (which detail spelling rules).[66] Serbo-Croatian was a kind of soft standardisation.[67] 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.[68] And within Serbo-Croatian, the Serbian variant, with twice as many speakers as the Croatian,[69] enjoyed greater prestige, reinforced by the fact that Slovene and Macedonian speakers preferred it to the Croatian variant because their languages are also Ekavian.[70] 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.[71] 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".[72]
Legal status
1921 constitution of theKingdom 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.).[73][19]
1931 constitution of theKingdom of Yugoslavia, Article 3: "The official language of the Kingdom is Serbo-Croato-Slovene".[19]
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."[74]
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."[74]
1974 constitution of theSocialist 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."[75]
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."[76]
1993 constitution of theRepublic 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."[77]
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 theFederal Republic of Yugoslavia, in 2003 renamedSerbia 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."[78]
The term "Serbo-Croatian" (or synonyms) is not officially used in any of the successor countries of former Yugoslavia. The currentSerbian constitution of 2006 refers to the official language asSerbian,[79] while the currentMontenegrin constitution of 2007 proclaimsMontenegrin as the official language but also grants other Serbo-Croatian varieties the right to official use.[80] 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 ofVojvodina. A large Bosniak minority is present in the southwest region ofSandžak, but the "official recognition" of Bosnian is moot.[81] Bosnian is an optional course in first and second grade of the elementary school, while it is also in official use in the municipality ofNovi Pazar.[82] 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
A trilingual health warning printed in both Latin and Cyrillic scripts on a pack ofDrina cigarettes, with identical text across all three inscriptions
In 2017, numerous prominent writers, scientists, journalists, activists, and other public figures from Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, and Serbia signed theDeclaration on the Common Language, which states that all standard varieties are equal and belong to a commonpolycentric language,[83][84] just like German, English, and Spanish.[85][86][87][88]
Demographics
Countries where a standard form of Serbo-Croatian is an official language
Countries where one or more forms are designated as minority languages
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 inKosovo,North Macedonia and inRomania.[89] In Serbia, there are about 760,000 second-language speakers of Serbian, including Hungarians inVojvodina and the 400,000 estimated Roma.[citation needed] InKosovo, Serbian is spoken by the members of theSerbian minority which approximates between 70,000 and 100,000.[90][91] Familiarity ofKosovar Albanians with Serbian varies depending on age and education, and exact numbers are not available.
Croatian is spoken by 6.8 million people in the world, including 4.1 million in Croatia and 600,000 in Bosnia and Herzegovina.[92] A small Croatian minority that lives in Italy, known asMolise Croats, have somewhat preserved traces of Croatian. In Croatia, 170,000, mostlyItalians andHungarians, use it as asecond language.[citation needed]
Bosnian is spoken by 2.7 million people worldwide, chieflyBosniaks, including 2.0 million in Bosnia and Herzegovina, 200,000 in Serbia and 40,000 in Montenegro.[93]
Montenegrin is spoken by 300,000 people globally.[94] 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.
Serbo-Croatian is also asecond language of manySlovenians[95] andMacedonians, especially those born during the time of Yugoslavia. According to the 2002 census, Serbo-Croatian and its variants have the largest number of speakers of the minority languages in Slovenia.[96]
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 genitivesingular and genitiveplural 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 ofnoćju,borbi instead ofboraba and so forth.
Almost every Shtokavian number is indeclinable, and numbers after prepositions have not been declined for a long time.
Like most Slavic languages, there are mostly threegenders for nouns: masculine, feminine, and neuter, a distinction which is still present even in the plural (unlikeRussian and, in part, theČakavian dialect). They also have twonumbers: singular and plural. However, some consider there to be three numbers (paucal ordual, too), since (still preserved in closely relatedSlovene) after two (dva,dvije/dve), three (tri) and four (četiri), and all numbers ending in them (e.g. twenty-two, ninety-three, one hundred four, but not twelve through fourteen) the genitive singular is used, and after all other numbers five (pet) and up, the genitive plural is used. (The number one [jedan] is treated as an adjective.) Adjectives are placed in front of the noun they modify and must agree in both case and number with it.
In addition, like most Slavic languages, the Shtokavian verb also has one of twoaspects:perfective orimperfective. Most verbs come in pairs, with the perfective verb being created out of the imperfective by adding aprefix or making a stem change. The imperfective aspect typically indicates that the action is unfinished, in progress, or repetitive; while the perfective aspect typically denotes that the action was completed, instantaneous, or of limited duration. Some Štokavian tenses (namely, aorist and imperfect) favor a particular aspect (but they are rarer or absent in Čakavian and Kajkavian). Actually, aspects "compensate" for the relative lack of tenses, because verbal aspect determines whether the act is completed or in progress in the referred time.
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.
Inconsonant 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 toapproximants – a consonant cluster may contain voiced approximants and voiceless consonants; as well as to foreign words (Washington would be transcribed asVašinGton), 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, thetongue-twisternavrh brda vrba mrda involves four words with syllabic/r/. A similar feature exists inCzech,Slovak, andMacedonian. Very rarely other sonorants can be syllabic, like/l/ (inbicikl),/ʎ/ (surnameŠtarklj),/n/ (unitnjutn), as well as/m/ and/ɲ/ inslang.[citation needed]
Apart fromSlovene, Serbo-Croatian is the only Slavic language with apitch accent (simpletone) system. This feature is present in some otherIndo-European languages, such asNorwegian,Ancient Greek, andPunjabi. Neo-Shtokavian Serbo-Croatian, which is used as the basis for standard Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin, and Serbian, has four "accents", which involve either arising or falling tone on either long or short vowels, with optional post-tonic lengths:
The tone stressed vowels can be approximated in English withset vs.setting? said in isolation for a short tonice, orleave vs.leaving? for a long tonici, due to theprosody of final stressed syllables in English.
General accent rules in the standard language:
Monosyllabic words may have only a falling tone (or no accent at all –enclitics);
Falling tone may occur only on the first syllable of polysyllabic words;
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 "mobile paradigms"). The second rule is not strictly obeyed, especially in borrowed words.
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 fewminimal pairs where an error in accent can lead to misunderstanding.
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 accountallophones which occur as a result of interaction between words:
bit će – pronouncedbiće (and only written separately in Bosnian and Croatian)
od toga – pronouncedotoga (in many vernaculars)
iz čega – pronouncediščega (in many vernaculars)
Also, there are some exceptions, mostly applied to foreign words and compounds, that favor morphological/etymological over phonetic spelling:
One systemic exception is that the consonant clustersds anddš are not respelled asts andtš (althoughd tends to be unvoiced in normal speech in such clusters):
Only a few words are intentionally "misspelled", mostly in order to resolve ambiguity:
šeststo[ʃêːsto] (six hundred) – pronouncedšesto (to avoid confusion with "šesto" [sixth], pronounced the same)
prstni[př̩sniː] (adj., finger) – pronouncedprsni (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).
various modifications of theLatin andGreek alphabets.
The oldest texts since the 11th century are inGlagolitic, and the oldest preserved text written completely in the Latin alphabet isRed i zakon sestara reda Svetog Dominika, from 1345. The Arabic alphabet had been used byBosniaks; Greek writing is out of use there, and Arabic and Glagolitic persisted so far partly in religious liturgies.
The Croatian Latin alphabet (Gajica) followed suit shortly afterwards, whenLjudevit Gaj defined it as standardLatin with five extra letters that haddiacritics, apparently borrowing much fromCzech, but also fromPolish, and inventing the uniquedigraphs⟨lj⟩,⟨nj⟩ and⟨dž⟩. These digraphs are represented as⟨ļ⟩,⟨ń⟩ and⟨ǵ⟩ respectively in theRječnik hrvatskog ili srpskog jezika, published by the formerYugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts inZagreb.[98] 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
ThedigraphsLj,Nj andDž represent distinctphonemes and are considered to be single letters. In crosswords, they are put into a single square, and insorting, 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 prefixnad- "out, over" and the verbživ(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 asDj on typewriters, but that practice led to too many ambiguities. It is also used on carlicense plates. TodayDj is often used again in place ofĐ 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 beenrising in popularity in Serbia with the advent of thedigital age andInternet in Serbia,[99] whether due to restraints (Cyrillic letters use up twice the space and therefore cost onSMS[100]), accessibility (intention to be readable internationally, as the Latin alphabet 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 theMinistry of Culture and Information of Serbia pushing for more tight language laws on top of those stipulated by the existingConstitution.[99]
Montenegrin alphabet, adopted in 2009, provides replacements ofsj andzj with an addition ofacute accent ons andz, forming⟨ś⟩ and⟨ź⟩ in both Latin and Cyrillic, but they remain largely unused, even by theParliament of Montenegro which introduced them.[101]
An experimental alphabet called 'Slavica [sh]' fusing Latin and Cyrillic was devised by linguistic amateurRajko Igić in 1986 and published in his 1987 bookNova slovarica in a quixotic attempt to mend the linguistic differences and ambiguities between the two alphabets, carefully avoidinggraphemes that look alike and following the principle of 'onesound, oneletter' already accomplished by the Cyrillic alphabet.[102][103]
Unicode has separate characters for the digraphs lj (LJ, Lj, lj), nj (NJ, Nj, nj) and dž (DŽ, Dž, dž).
South Slavic historically formed adialect 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 ofOttoman 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 byurbanization and wars, also contributed to the reduction of dialectal differences.
The primary dialects are named after the most common question word forwhat:Shtokavian uses the pronounšto oršta,Chakavian usesča orca,Kajkavian (kajkavski),kaj orkej. In native terminology they are referred to asnar(j)ečje, which would be equivalent of "group of dialects", whereas their many subdialects are referred to asdijalekti"dialects" orgovori"speeches".
The pluricentric Serbo-Croatian standard language and all four contemporary standard variantsare based on theEastern Herzegovinian subdialect of Neo-Shtokavian. Other dialects are not taught in schools or used by the state media. TheTorlakian dialect is often added to the list, though sources usually note that it is a transitional dialect between Shtokavian and the Bulgaro-Macedonian dialects.
Likely distribution of major dialects prior to the 16th-century migrations
Shtokavian subdialects (Pavle Ivić, 1988). Yellow is the widespread Eastern Herzegovinian subdialect that forms the basis of all national standards, though it is not spoken natively in any of the capital cities.
Mid-20th-century distribution of dialects in Croatia
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.[104]
The differences among the dialects can be illustrated on the example ofSchleicher'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.»
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."
A series ofisoglosses crosscuts the main dialects. The modern reflexes of the longCommon Slavic voweljat, 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 shortjat is reflected as long or short */i/ and /e/ in Ikavian and Ekavian, but Ijekavian dialects introduce aije/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 shortjat is preceded byr, in most Ijekavian dialects developed into /re/ or, occasionally, /ri/. The prefixprě- ("trans-, over-") when long becamepre- in eastern Ijekavian dialects but toprije- in western dialects; in Ikavian pronunciation, it also evolved intopre- orprije- due to potential ambiguity withpri- ("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
longě →ije
time
*vrěme
vreme
vrime
vrijeme
faith
*věra
vera
vira
vjera
shortě →je
crossing
*prělaz
prelaz
prilaz
prеlazor prijelaz
pr + longě →prije
times
*vrěmena
vremena
vrimena
vremena
r + shortě →re
need
*trěbati
trebati
tribat(i)
trebati
heat
*grějati
grejati
grijati
grijati
r + shortě →ri
saw
*viděl
video
vidio
vidio
ěl →io
village
*selo
selo
selo
selo
e in root, notě
Sociolinguistic debate
The nature and classification of Serbo-Croatian has been the subject of long-standingsociolinguistic debate.[105] The question is whether Serbo-Croatian should be called a single language or a cluster of closely related languages.[106][12][107][108]
Views of linguists in the former Yugoslavia
Views of Croatian linguists
A prevailing view among Croatian linguists is that there has never been a Serbo-Croatian language, but two different standard languages that overlapped sometime in the course of history. However, Croatian linguistSnježana Kordić has been leading an academic discussion on this issue in the Croatian journalKnjiževna republika[109] from 2001 to 2010.[110][111] In the discussion, she shows that linguistic criteria such as mutual intelligibility, the huge overlap in the linguistic system, and the same dialect basis of the standard language are evidence that Croatian, Serbian, Bosnian and Montenegrin are four national variants of the pluricentric Serbo-Croatian language.[112][113] In 2010, Croatian writerIgor Mandić described the debate as "the longest, the most serious and most acrid (...) in 21st-century Croatian culture".[114] Inspired by that discussion, amonograph on language and nationalism has been published.[115]
Some Croatian linguists, like Kordić, continue to argue that Serbo-Croatian is a single language. They argue that the Serbo-Croatian standard varieties—Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin, and Serbian—are completely mutually intelligible.[116][117] In addition,Gaj's Latin andSerbian Cyrillic alphabets perfectly match each other due to the work ofLjudevit Gaj andVuk Karadžić. Linguists supporting this perspective often cite theSwadesh list of 100 basic vocabulary items, which are identical across all four Serbo-Croatian varieties.[118] According to Swadesh's criteria, an 81% overlap is sufficient to classify varieties as a single language.[119] Furthermore, the standard varieties are typologically and structurally nearly identical in terms of grammar, including morphology and syntax.[120][121] Serbo-Croatian was standardized in the mid-19th century, and subsequent efforts to dissolve its linguistic unity are seen by some scholars as politically motivated. According tophonology,morphology, andsyntax, these standard varieties are considered part of the single language as they are all based on theŠtokavian dialect.[122]
On the other hand, a number of Croatian linguists argue against the view that Serbo-Croatian constitutes a single language. They acknowledge that similar arguments are made for other official standards derived from nearly identical material bases, such asMalaysian Malay andIndonesian (together calledMalay),[123] orHindi andUrdu (together calledHindustani).[124] However, they argue that these arguments have flaws, as phonology, morphology, and syntax are not the only defining features of a language. Other fields—semantics, pragmatics, stylistics, andlexicology—also exhibit differences. However, that is the case with other pluricentric languages.[125] Some comparisons are drawn to the closely relatedNorth Germanic languages, although these languages are not fully mutually intelligible as the Serbo-Croatian standard varieties are.[126]
Additionally, it is argued that the standardization of the Croatian language was a gradual process spanning several centuries. Croatian drew on Chakavian and Kajkavian influences, on theDubrovnik subdialect—a specific western idiom of theEastern Herzegovinian dialect rooted in Western Shtokavian—and on Western Shtokavian more generally. By contrast, Serbian draws primarily from Eastern Shtokavian, which includes the Eastern Herzegovinian dialect.[127][128][129] Since the Croatian used in earlyRagusan literature (e.g., in the works ofDržić andGundulić in the 16th and 17th centuries) is virtually the same as the contemporary standard Croatian, aside from archaisms, the 19th-century formal standardization is considered by Croatian linguists as the final step in a process that had already lasted for over three centuries.[130]
Views of Serbian linguists
In 2021, theBoard for Standardization of the Serbian Language issued an opinion that Serbo-Croatian is one language, and that it should be referred to as "Serbian language", while "Croatian", "Bosnian" and "Montenegrin" are to be considered merely local names for Serbian language. This opinion was widely criticized byCroatian government and representatives of theCroatian minority in Serbia.[131] Serbian linguistRanko Bugarski called this opinion "absurd" and "legacy of the 19th century linguistics". He said that Serbo-Croatian should be considered one language in a scientific sense under the "Serbo-Croatian" label, but four different languages in an administrative sense.[132] Legally, Croatian, Bosnian and Montenegrin are all officially recognized minority languages in Serbia.[132] TheSerbian Government also officially recognizedBunjevac language as a standard minority language in 2018[133] and was approved by theSerbian Ministry of Education for learning in schools.[134]
In nationalist linguistics exist conflicting views on shared or related linguistical heritage. Those 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 literary and lexicographic tradition of popular language among Croats, somehow "borrowed" their standard languages from them (e.g.Serbian literature until early-19th century was primarily written in Serbian recension ofChurch Slavonic andSlavonic-Serbian[135]). There's a common debate about positive or negative influence of theCroatian Vukovians, and perception thatVuk Karadžić invented theGreater Serbian linguistic ideology which is culturally appropriating Croatian language/dialects and literary tradition (although a great part of the criticism should be directed to the early Slavists instead).[136] Bosniak nationalists claim that both Croats and Serbs have "appropriated" theBosnian language, since Ljudevit Gaj and Vuk Karadžić preferred the Neo-Štokavian Ijekavian dialect, widely spoken inBosnia and Herzegovina, as the basis for language standardization. Whereas the nationalists among the Serbs claim either that any divergence in the standard language is artificial, and that the whole Shtokavian dialect is Serbian (and hence the Croatian, Bosnian and Montenegrin standard languages are variations of the Serbian language), and only the Chakavian and Kajkavian dialects are Croatian, in more extreme formulations accusing the Croats to have "taken" or "stolen" their language from the Serbs.[136][137]
Views of international linguists
Linguist Enisa Kafadar argues that there is only one Serbo-Croatian language with several varieties.[138] This has made it possible to include all four varieties in new grammars of the language.[11][139] Daniel Bunčić concludes that it is a pluricentric language, with four standard variants spoken in Serbia, Croatia, Montenegro, and Bosnia-Herzegovina.[140] The mutual intelligibility between their speakers "exceeds that between the standard variants of English, French, German, or Spanish".[141] "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."[142] Other linguists have argued that the differences between the variants of Serbo-Croatian are less significant than those between the variants of English,[143] German,[144] Dutch,[145] andHindustani.[146]
Among pluricentric languages,[147][148] Serbo-Croatian was the only one with a pluricentric standardisation within one state.[149][150] 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.[151][152]
As in other pluricentric languages, all Serbo-Croatian standard varieties are based on the same dialect (theEastern Herzegovinian subdialect of theShtokavian dialect) and consequently, according to the sociolinguistic definitions, constitute a single pluricentric language (and not, for example, severalAusbau languages[153]).[154] 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."[142]
The prevailing view among Croatian linguists—that there is no single Serbo-Croatian language but rather several different standard languages—has been criticized by German linguistBernhard Gröschel in his monographSerbo-Croatian Between Linguistics and Politics.[155][156]
The use ofSerbo-Croatian as a linguistic label has been the subject of long-standing controversy. LinguistWayles 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.[108] 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.[157][107]
Views of international organizations
While it operated, theInternational Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia 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.[158]
Since 18 February 2000, theISO 639 classification has recognized Serbo-Croatian as amacrolanguage, deprecating its originalISO 639-1 codesh.[159] InISO 639-3, Serbo-Croatian is assigned the codehbs, which has no equivalent inISO 639-2.[160]
Although the ISO 639‑1 codesh has been deprecated, it remains recognized as anIETF language tag under BCP 47.[161]
Cravat, from Frenchcravate "Croat", by analogy with FlemishKrawaat and GermanKrabate, from Serbo-CroatianHrvat,[163] as cravats were characteristic of Croatian dress
Slivovitz, from GermanSlibowitz, from Bulgarianslivovitza or Serbo-Croatianšljivovica "plum brandy", from Old Slavic *sliva "plum" (cognate with Englishsloe)[165]
Tamburitza, Serbo-Croatian diminutive oftambura, from Turkish, from Persianṭambūr "tanbur"[166]
^abcOfficially codifiedMontenegrin alphabet for the standardMontenegrin language expands on Gaj's Latin and Serbian Cyrillic alphabets with two additional letters (see the section§ Writing systems); these language reforms, however, have not entered everyday use.
^BCMS expands on earlier designations such asBosnian-Croatian-Serbian (BCS)[12] orSerbo-Croat-Bosnian (SCB),[13] following the codification and gradual recognition of Montenegrin as a standard language variety distinct from Serbian. These designations have also been alternatively separated with aforward slash (/), i.e.Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian orBosnian/Croatian/Montenegrin/Serbian.
^Wells, John C. (2008),Longman Pronunciation Dictionary (3rd ed.), Longman,ISBN978-1-4058-8118-0
^Jones, Daniel (2003) [1917], Peter Roach; James Hartmann; Jane Setter (eds.),English Pronouncing Dictionary, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,ISBN978-3-12-539683-8
^abThomas, Paul-Louis; Osipov, Vladimir (2012).Grammaire du bosniaque, croate, monténégrin, serbe [Grammar of Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin, and Serbian]. Collection de grammaires de l'Institut d'études slaves (in French). Vol. 8. Paris: Institut d'études slaves. p. 624.ISBN9782720404900.OCLC805026664.
^Greenberg 2004, p. 33, chpt. 2. 3. The power of competing dialects: "Over the past few hundred years, the Štokavian dialects have expanded at the expense of both Čakavian and Kajkavian [...]"
^Ćalić 2021, In contrast with the prevalence of language-external criteria that determine attitudes about the status of Serbo-Croatian as well as about its description, attitudes to language-internal criteria show there is almost unanimous agreement that differences between the standards are minimal. Overall, 96.3 % of respondents considered Serbo-Croatian varieties to be mutually intelligible [...].
^"In 1993 the authorities in Sarajevo adopted a new language law (Službeni list Republike Bosne i Hercegovine, 18/93): In the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Ijekavian standard literary language of the three constitutive nations is officially used, designated by one of the three terms: Bosnian, Serbian, Croatian." (Bugarski & Hawkesworth 2006, p. 142)
^"The same language [Croatian] is referred to by different names, Serbian (srpski), Serbo-Croat (in Croatia: hrvatsko-srpski), Bosnian (bosanski), based on political and ethnic grounds. […] the names Serbian, Croatian, and Bosnian are politically determined and refer to the same language with possible slight variations." (Brown & Anderson 2006, p. 294)
^Brozović, Dalibor (1988). "Jezik, srpskohrvatski/hrvatskosrpski, hrvatski ili srpski" [Language, Serbo-Croatian/Croato-Serbian, Croatian or Serbian : Extract From the Second Edition of the Encyclopedia of Yugoslavia].Jezik, srpskohrvatski/hrvatskosrpski, hrvatski ili srpski : izvadak iz II izdanja Enciklopedije Jugoslavije (in Serbo-Croatian). Zagreb: Jugoslavenski Leksikografski zavod "Miroslav Krleža". p. 4.ISBN978-86-7053-014-0.OCLC645757653.
^Kapović, Mate (2019). "Bosnian/Croatian/Montenegrin/Serbian: Notes on contact and conflict".European Pluricentric Languages in Contact and Conflict. ByMuhr, Rudolf[in German]; et al. Muhr, Rudolf; Mas Castells, Josep Angel; Rueter, Jack (eds.). Österreichisches Deutsch – Sprache der Gegenwart. Vol. 21. pp. 171–184.doi:10.3726/b16182.ISBN978-3-631-80297-7.CROSBI 66007.The common pluricentric standard dialect6 in question would today best be called, in an ethnically neutral and lingustically most precise manner, Standard Štokavian,7 though that name is not very suitable for wider, non-linguistic use due to obscureness of the dialectal term Štokavian outside the region. [...] ("Serbo-Croatian" is considered politically incorrect by many and "Standard Štokavian" is still not common)
^Obst, Ulrich (2004). "Zum genitivus qualitatis und zu alternativen Möglichkeiten in den drei 'Buddenbrooks'-Übersetzungen aus dem kroatischen und serbischen Sprachgebiet". In Okuka, Miloš; Schweier, Ulrich (eds.).Festschrift für Peter Rehder zum 65. Geburtstag. Welt der Slaven; vol. 21 (in German). Munich: Otto Sagner. p. 212.OCLC55018584.
^Tomasz Kamusella.The Politics of Language and Nationalism in Modern Central Europe. Palgrave Macmillan, 2008. pp. 228, 297.
^Ramet, Sabrina P. (2008). "Nationalism and the 'Idiocy' of the Countryside: The Case of Serbia".Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia at Peace and at War: Selected Writings, 1983–2007. LIT Verlag Münster. pp. 74–76.ISBN978-3-03735-912-9.
^abJonke, Ljudevit (1968). "Razvoj hrvatskoga književnog jezika u 20. stoljeću" [The Development of the Croatian language in the 20th century].Jezik (in Serbo-Croatian).16 (1): 18.ISSN0021-6925.
^Jonke, Ljudevit (1955). "Drugi i treći sastanak Pravopisne komisije" [The second and third meeting of The Orthographic Commission].Jezik (in Serbo-Croatian).4 (2): 59.ISSN0021-6925.
^abcdGak, Vladimir G. (1989). "K tipologii form jazykovoj politiki" [Towards a typology of language policy].Voprosy Jazykoznanija (in Russian).5:122–123.
^"die Tatsache, dass Sprachen (in ihrem Prestige, ihrer Erlernbarkeit etc.) nicht gleich sind und auch per Gesetz nicht gleich gemacht werden können" (Blum 2002, p. 170)
^"Kushtetuta e Kosoves 1974".Internet Archive (in Albanian). 1974. Retrieved21 July 2023.Neni 5. Në Krahinën Socialiste Autonome të Kosovës sigurohet barazia e gjuhës shqipe, serbokroate e turke dhe e shkrimeve të tyre.
^"Устав Републике Србије (1990)".Викизворник (in Serbian). Retrieved20 July 2023.У Републици Србији у службеној је употреби српскохрватски језик и ћириличко писмо, а латиничко писмо је у службеној употреби на начин утврђен законом.
^Constitution of Montenegro, 2007,The official language in Montenegro shall be Montenegrin.[…]Serbian, Bosniac, Albanian and Croatian shall also be in the official use.
^Official communique, 27 December 2004, Serbian Ministry of Education(in Serbian)
^"SMS poruke na ćirilici skuplje" [SMS messages in Cyrillic are more expensive] (in Serbo-Croatian). 021.rs. 29 December 2011. Retrieved6 March 2023.
^Šćepanović, Lela (2 February 2017)."Crnogorski se govori i bez ś" [Montenegrin is also spoken without ś].Radio Slobodna Evropa (in Serbo-Croatian).Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Retrieved29 October 2022.Slova ś i ź odnedavno ne koristi ni Skupština Crne Gore, prva i jedina državna institucija koja ih je nakon reforme crnogorskog jezika koristila u zvaničnoj komunikaciji. [The letters ś and ź have recently not been used even by the Parliament of Montenegro, the first and only state institution that used them in official communication after the reform of the Montenegrin language.]
^E.g., big coastal Croatian citiesRijeka andSplit together with their hinterland become basically completely Štokavianised during the 20th century, which had been Čakavian-speaking urban centres.
^Ćalić 2021, The debate about the status of the Serbo-Croatian language and its varieties has recently shifted (again) towards a position which looks at the internal variation within Serbo-Croatian through the prism of linguistic pluricentricity [...].
^Brozović, Dalibor (2002). "Europske integracije i hrvatski jezik" [European integration and the Croatian language].Jezik (in Serbo-Croatian).49 (4): 124.ISSN0021-6925.
^Kloss, Heinz (1976). "Abstandsprachen und Ausbausprachen" [Abstand-languages and Ausbau-languages]. In Göschel, Joachim; Nail, Norbert; van der Els, Gaston (eds.).Zur Theorie des Dialekts: Aufsätze aus 100 Jahren Forschung. Zeitschrift für Dialektologie and Linguistik, Beihefte, n.F., Heft 16. Wiesbaden: F. Steiner. p. 303.OCLC2598722.
^Kordić, Snježana (2024)."Ideology Against Language: The Current Situation in South Slavic Countries"(PDF). InNomachi, Motoki;Kamusella, Tomasz (eds.).Languages and Nationalism Instead of Empires. Routledge Histories of Central and Eastern Europe. London:Routledge. pp. 167–179.doi:10.4324/9781003034025-11.ISBN978-0-367-47191-0.OCLC1390118985.S2CID259576119.SSRN4680766.COBISS.SR125229577.COBISS171014403.Archived from the original on 10 January 2024. Retrieved23 January 2024. p. 168–169:the mutual intelligibility between the standard varieties spoken in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia is at the highest level, meaning that it is significantly higher than between spoken standard Danish, Norwegian and Swedish. Research conducted by the Nordic Culture Fund (Nordiska kulturfonden) and the Nordic Council of Ministers (Nordiska ministerrådet) from 2002 to 2005 with native speakers of Danish, Norwegian and Swedish under the age of twenty-five showed that Copenhagen's youth understand only 36 percent of spoken Swedish and 41 percent of spoken Norwegian; Oslo's youth understand 71 percent of spoken Swedish and 65 percent of spoken Danish; Stockholm's youth understand 55 percent of spoken Norwegian and 34 percent of spoken Danish.
^Brozović, Dalibor (2007). "Hrvatski jezik, njegovo mjesto unutar južnoslavenskih i drugih slavenskih jezika, njegove povijesne mijene kao jezika hrvatske književnosti".Neka bitna pitanja hrvatskoga jezičnog standarda (in Croatian).Školska knjiga. pp. 155–278.ISBN978-953-0-50840-8.
^Ronelle Alexander,Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian: A Grammar with Sociolinguistic Commentary (2006, The University of Wisconsin Press)
^Bunčić, Daniel (2008). "Die (Re-)Nationalisierung der serbokroatischen Standards" [The (Re-)Nationalisation of Serbo-Croatian Standards]. In Kempgen, Sebastian (ed.).Deutsche Beiträge zum 14. Internationalen Slavistenkongress, Ohrid, 2008. Welt der Slaven (in German). Munich: Otto Sagner. p. 93.OCLC238795822.
^Mader Skender, Mia (2022). "Schlussbemerkung" [Summary].Die kroatische Standardsprache auf dem Weg zur Ausbausprache [The Croatian standard language on the way to ausbau language](PDF) (Dissertation). UZH Dissertations (in German). Zurich: University of Zurich, Faculty of Arts, Institute of Slavonic Studies. pp. 196–197.doi:10.5167/uzh-215815. Retrieved8 June 2022.Obwohl das Kroatische sich in den letzten Jahren in einigen Gebieten, vor allem jedoch auf lexikalischer Ebene, verändert hat, sind diese Änderungen noch nicht bedeutend genug, dass der Terminus Ausbausprache gerechtfertigt wäre. Ausserdem können sich Serben, Kroaten, Bosnier und Montenegriner immer noch auf ihren jeweiligen Nationalsprachen unterhalten und problemlos verständigen. Nur schon diese Tatsache zeigt, dass es sich immer noch um eine polyzentrische Sprache mit verschiedenen Varietäten handelt.
^Zanelli, Aldo (2018).Eine Analyse der Metaphern in der kroatischen Linguistikfachzeitschrift Jezik von 1991 bis 1997 [Analysis of Metaphors in Croatian Linguistic JournalLanguage from 1991 to 1997]. Studien zur Slavistik; 41 (in German). Hamburg: Kovač. p. 21.ISBN978-3-8300-9773-0.OCLC1023608613.(NSK).(FFZG)
Ammon, Ulrich (1995).Die deutsche Sprache in Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz: das Problem der nationalen Varietäten [German Language in Germany, Austria and Switzerland: The Problem of National Varieties] (in German). Berlin & New York:Walter de Gruyter. p. 575.OCLC33981055.
Blum, Daniel (2002).Sprache und Politik : Sprachpolitik und Sprachnationalismus in der Republik Indien und dem sozialistischen Jugoslawien (1945–1991) [Language and Policy: Language Policy and Linguistic Nationalism in the Republic of India and the Socialist Yugoslavia (1945–1991)]. Beiträge zur Südasienforschung (in German). Vol. 192. Würzburg: Ergon. p. 200.ISBN978-3-89913-253-3.OCLC51961066.
Brown, Edward Keith; Anderson, Anne, eds. (2006).Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics. Amsterdam: Elsevier.ISBN978-0-08-044299-0.OCLC3945869.
Gröschel, Bernhard (2009).Das Serbokroatische zwischen Linguistik und Politik: mit einer Bibliographie zum postjugoslavischen Sprachenstreit [Serbo-Croatian Between Linguistics and Politics: With a Bibliography of the Post-Yugoslav Language Dispute]. Lincom Studies in Slavic Linguistics (in German). Vol. 34. Munich: Lincom Europa. p. 451.ISBN978-3-929075-79-3.LCCN2009473660.OCLC428012015.OL15295665W.COBISS43144034.Contents.
Lencek, Rado (1976). "A few remarks for the history of the term 'Serbocroatian' language".Zbornik Za Filologiju I Lingvistiku.19 (1):45–53.ISSN0514-6143.
Mappes-Niediek, Norbert (2005).Die Ethno-Falle: der Balkan-Konflikt und was Europa daraus lernen kann [The Ethnic Trap: the Balkan conflict and what Europe can learn from it] (in German). Berlin: Ch. Links Verlag. p. 224.ISBN978-3-86153-367-2.OCLC61665869.
Pohl, Hans-Dieter (1996). "Serbokroatisch – Rückblick und Ausblick" [Serbo-Croatian – Looking backward and forward]. In Ohnheiser, Ingeborg (ed.).Wechselbeziehungen zwischen slawischen Sprachen, Literaturen und Kulturen in Vergangenheit und Gegenwart : Akten der Tagung aus Anlaß des 25jährigen Bestehens des Instituts für Slawistik an der Universität Innsbruck, Innsbruck, 25. – 27. Mai 1995. Innsbrucker Beiträge zur Kulturwissenschaft, Slavica aenipontan (in German). Vol. 4. Innsbruck: Non Lieu. pp. 205–219.OCLC243829127.
Thomas, Paul-Louis (2003). "Le serbo-croate (bosniaque, croate, monténégrin, serbe): de l'étude d'une langue à l'identité des langues" [Serbo-Croatian (Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin, Serbian): from the study of a language to the identity of languages].Revue des études slaves (in French).74 (2–3):311–325.doi:10.3406/slave.2002.6801.ISSN0080-2557.OCLC754204160.ZDB-ID208723-6.
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, 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.ISBN978-953-6132-80-5.
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.
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.ISBN978-86-7215-207-4.(COBISS-CG)Archived 2018-10-05 at theWayback 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.ISSN0044-2356.ZDB-ID201058-6.
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.ISBN978-86-7215-207-4.(COBISS-CG)Archived 2018-10-05 at theWayback 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.
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
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