Serbo-Croatian | |
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Native to | Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, and Kosovo |
Ethnicity | Bosniaks Croats Montenegrins Serbs |
Native speakers | 18 million (2011–2021)[1] |
Standard forms | |
Dialects |
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Official status | |
Official language in |
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Recognised minority language in | |
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Language codes | |
ISO 639-1 | sh (deprecated) |
ISO 639-3 | hbs – inclusive codeIndividual codes: bos – Bosniancnr – Montenegrinhrv – Croatiansrp – Serbian Related codes: svm – Slavomolisanockm – Chakaviankjv – Kajkavian |
Glottolog | sout1528 |
Linguasphere | 53-AAA-g |
IETF | sh |
![]() Areas where Serbo-Croatian is spoken by a plurality of inhabitants (as of 2005)[needs update]
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South Slavic languages and dialects |
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Serbo-Croatian (/ˌsɜːrboʊkroʊˈeɪʃən/ SUR-boh-kroh-AY-shən)[10][11] – also called Serbo-Croat (/ˌsɜːrboʊˈkroʊæt/ SUR-boh-KROH-at),[10][11] Serbo-Croat-Bosnian (SCB),[12] Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian (BCS),[13] and Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian (BCMS)[14] – is a South Slavic language and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro.[15] It is a pluricentric language with four[16] mutually intelligible standard varieties, namely Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian, and Montenegrin.[17][15]
South Slavic languages historically formed a dialect continuum. The turbulent history of the area, particularly due to the expansion of the Ottoman Empire, resulted in a patchwork of dialectal and religious differences. Due to population migrations, Shtokavian became the most widespread supradialect in the western Balkans, intruding westwards into the area previously occupied by Chakavian and Kajkavian. Bosniaks, Croats, and Serbs differ in religion and were historically often part of different cultural circles, although a large part of the nations have lived side by side under foreign overlords. During that period, the language was referred to under a variety of names, such as "Slavic" in general or "Serbian", "Croatian" or "Bosnian" in particular. In a classicizing manner, it was also referred to as "Illyrian".
The process of linguistic standardization of Serbo-Croatian was originally initiated in the mid-19th-century Vienna Literary Agreement by Croatian and Serbian writers and philologists, decades before a Yugoslav state was established.[18] From the very beginning, there were slightly different literary Serbian and Croatian standards, although both were based on the same dialect of Shtokavian, Eastern Herzegovinian. In the 20th century, Serbo-Croatian served as the lingua franca of the country of Yugoslavia, being the sole official language in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia (when it was called "Serbo-Croato-Slovenian"),[19] and afterwards the official language of four out of six republics of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The breakup of Yugoslavia affected language attitudes, so that social conceptions of the language separated along ethnic and political lines. Since the breakup of Yugoslavia, Bosnian has likewise been established as an official standard in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and there is an ongoing movement to codify a separate Montenegrin standard.
Like other South Slavic languages, Serbo-Croatian has a simple phonology, with the common five-vowel system and twenty-five consonants. Its grammar evolved from Common Slavic, with complex inflection, preserving seven grammatical cases in nouns, pronouns, and adjectives. Verbs exhibit imperfective or perfective aspect, with a moderately complex tense system. Serbo-Croatian is a pro-drop language with flexible word order, subject–verb–object being the default. It can be written in either localized variants of Latin (Gaj's Latin alphabet, Montenegrin Latin) or Cyrillic (Serbian Cyrillic, Montenegrin Cyrillic), and the orthography is highly phonemic in all standards. Despite many linguistical similarities, the traits that separate all standardized varieties are clearly identifiable,[20] although these differences are considered minimal.[21]
ThomasOsipov
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).Serbo-Croatian, which features four ethnic variants: Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian, and Montenegrin
Busch2004
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).© MMXXIII Rich X Search. We shall prevail. All rights reserved. Rich X Search