Serbian language

The Serbian language (Serbian српски језик srpski jezik) is a standard variety from the South Slavic branch of Slavic languages and, like Croatian and Bosnian, is based on a štokav dialect.

Serbian is spoken as a mother tongue by about 6.7 million people in Serbia, where it is the official language. It is also spoken by about 2 million people in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Croatia, Montenegro and northern Macedonia. In Central and Western Europe, Australia and the USA, where there is a large Serbian diaspora, it is spoken by about 3.5 million emigrants, with varying degrees of proficiency. Both the Latin alphabet and the Cyrillic alphabet are used. According to the constitution that came into force in November 2006, the language in Serbia is officially written in Cyrillic script, although the Latin form is also often used in everyday life and in the media.

According to grammatical criteria as well as in vocabulary and pronunciation, the Serbian language is so similar to the Croatian and Bosnian languages that all Serbian speakers can easily communicate with speakers of Bosnian and Croatian (see also: Declaration on the Common Language and Serbocroatian Language).

Distribution

Serbian is spoken as a mother tongue by over eight million people, mainly in Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and Croatia. In Romania, Hungary, Albania and Northern Macedonia, there are smaller communities with Serbian as their mother tongue. Serbian is the national official language in Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo and Bosnia and Herzegovina. At the regional and local level, it is the official language in Croatia and Northern Macedonia. There is also a large Serbian diaspora.

Variants

The Serbian language exists today for the most part in two pronunciation variants.

• Ekavian: in most of Serbia,
• (I)jekavian (also half-jekavian): in southwestern, western Serbia as well as in Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia. For an explanation of some differences from Croatian and Bosnian, see the article Differences between standard Serbo-Croatian varieties.
• Ikavian, as almost third pronunciation variant, which is used, however, almost only in semi Ikavian form and after the almost complete expulsion especially of the young Serbian population from Croatia in the use among the Serbs falls back strongly, beside this no written language represents and is threatened with extinction.

Regardless of the pronunciation variant, most speakers belong to the štokavian dialect group. Torlak dialects are spoken in the southeast of Serbia.

Scripture

Cyrillic and Latin script

While the Serbian constitution enshrines the Cyrillic script as the script for official use in the Republic of Serbia, both the Cyrillic and Latin scripts are used in everyday life. Also, the Serbian government website states, "The official language in Serbia is Serbian and the officially used script is Cyrillic, while the Latin script is also in use. In the areas inhabited by ethnic minorities, the languages and scripts of these minorities are officially in use, as ensured by law."

This circumstance is also noticeable in everyday life. While in some newspapers both scripts are mixed, or on shop windows sometimes the Latin, sometimes the Cyrillic script is present, official documents are mostly written in Cyrillic.

The use of the different fonts depends on several factors. The respective script forms are preferred in different regions. Central Serbia and the Bosnian Republika Srpska in particular tend to use the Cyrillic script, while the Serbs of Croatia and the northern Serbian Vojvodina prefer the Latin script. In Montenegro, the Cyrillic script was used almost exclusively in all forms of society until about 2004. Nowadays, however, Latin script is also increasingly used. The political orientation of the writer also plays a role. Conservative newspapers, for example, tend to use the Cyrillic script. The use of script also depends on the subject of the text. Religious and traditional texts tend to be written in Cyrillic script, while modern content tends to be written in Latin script.

Alphabets

The Serbian alphabet (Азбука Azbuka or Ћирилица Ćirilica) in Cyrillic spelling includes 30 letters in the following order:

• А Б В Г Д Ђ Е Ж З И Ј К Л Љ М Н Њ О П Р С Т Ћ У Ф Х Ц Ч Џ Ш
• а б в г д ђ е ж з и ј к л љ м н њ о п р с т ћ у ф х ц ч џ ш

The order different from this in Latin spelling is:

• A B C Č Ć D Dž Đ E F G H I J K L Lj M N Nj O P R S Š T U V Z Ž
• a b c č ć d dž đ e f g h i j k l lj m n nj o p r s š t u v z ž

The digraphs dž, lj and nj are each listed as a single letter in the alphabetical order. There are only a very small number of words in which these groups of characters denote two separate sounds and must therefore be treated as two letters. Foreign names in Serbian are usually written as they are spoken e.g.: Grace Kelly - Grejs Keli or Shakespeare - Šekspir. In Croatian, on the other hand, names and proper names are taken in their original form.

Representation in computer systems

The special characters can be created in Unicode with the following encodings from the Unicode block Latin, extended-A, although the letter Đ must not be confused with the Icelandic Ð (Eth), as its lowercase letter has a different form (ð):

Č:	U+010C (268) /	č:	U+010D (269)
Ć:	U+0106 (262) /	ć:	U+0107 (263)
Đ:	U+0110 (272) /	đ:	U+0111 (273)
Š:	U+0160 (352) /	š:	U+0161 (353)
Ž:	U+017D (381) /	ž:	U+017E (382)

Serbian script

Some letters differ in Serbian cursive and handwriting from the corresponding letters of the internationally dominant Russian script form. Small Б and Г occur in this form only in Serbian and Macedonian cursive; the remaining letter forms of Д, И, П, Т, and Ш may also occur in Russian handwriting.

Thus, to display Serbian texts containing italic text, a special font is required. Some OpenType fonts automatically select the appropriate local form if the text language is known to the display program.

The lowercase letters Б, Д, Г, И, П, Т, and Ш in Russian (left, blue), Bulgarian (center, red), and Serbian script (right, yellow), respectively, normal section and italics.