The Serbo-Croatian Wikipedia, known in the language as Srpskohrvatska Wikipedija, is the edition of the online encyclopedia that serves speakers of the South Slavic macrolanguage often called Serbo-Croatian. It is part of the Wikimedia family and follows the same general principles as Wikipedia worldwide: neutral point of view, verifiability and free licensing.
Characteristics
This edition accepts articles written in multiple literary standards and both Latin and Cyrillic scripts. Contributors may use variants typical for Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and diasporic communities. The project emphasizes mutual intelligibility and cross-standard linking while allowing localized spelling and terminology.
History and relation to other editions
The Serbo-Croatian edition developed alongside separate national-language Wikipedias. Today there are also distinct Croatian, Serbian and Bosnian Wikipedias, each serving readers and editors who prefer a single standardized norm: Croatian, Serbian and Bosnian. The coexistence of these projects reflects both linguistic continuity and differing editorial choices across communities.
Editors in the Serbo-Croatian project coordinate on style, orthography and article scope. The site has been notable for large article output and, at times, has ranked among the larger Wikipedias by article count.
Uses and significance
- Provides a resource accessible across several countries and dialect areas.
- Supports education, language documentation and cultural topics written in regional norms.
- Acts as a bridge for readers moving between different standardized forms of the language.
As with other multilingual communities, the Serbo-Croatian Wikipedia faces choices about standardization, naming and script conversion tools. Its continued value lies in offering a broad, inclusive space for information in closely related South Slavic varieties and in complementing the more narrowly focused national-language editions.