Classification of Serbo-Croatian

Background: Classification of Serbo-Croatian


Serbian is derived from the Slavic branch of the Indo-German languages. Within this, it is attributed to the south Slavic languages. Serbian is spoken as the mother tongue by more than 8 million people. Serbs live primarily in Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Serbian has been chosen as the national official language in these states. Over and above this, Serbs live as a minority in Croatia (above all, in the regions of the earlier military border) and are also a minority since recently in Slovenia and Macedonia.

Both the Cyrillic and Latin alphabets are used in Serbian. As a matter of fact, the Cyrillic font has been fixed in the Serbian state for official use, but, however, both fonts are used in day-to-day applications. Thus, for example, religious or traditional pieces of text and official documents have been created primarily with the Cyrillic font, whereas the Latin font is used more extensively in business correspondence, the Boulevard Press and also in the printing of books.

Serbo-Croatian was the official national language in former Yugoslavia until the time of its disintegration at the beginning of the 90's in the 20th century. In fact, in communist Yugoslavia, in the initial years after 1945, Serbian and Croatian were recognised as two independent languages, so that at that time there were four official languages coexisting in Yugoslavia (Serbian, Croatian, Slovenian and Macedonian), Hungarian translators but, however, the official political line changed in the years to follow. In 1954, a uniform language was fixed for Croats, Serbs, Bosnians, Herzegovinians and Montenegrins – Serbo-Croatian or Croato-Serbian. The Government tolerated merely the differences in the pronunciation and the use of the two different alphabets (Cyrillic and Latin). Thereafter, Serbian was usually called the eastern and Croatian the western variant of Serbo-Croatian. In contrast, Slovenian and Macedonian retained their official status as independent languages.

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With the break-up of Yugoslavia, even its languages separated, and Serbian, Bosnian, Croatian and Montenegrin are considered to be autonomous languages since then. The term "Serbo-Croatian" is barely used in the former Serbo-Croatian speaking countries.

Both the Cyrillic and Latin alphabets are used in Serbian. As a matter of fact, the Cyrillic font has been fixed in the Serbian state for official use, but, however, both fonts are used in day-to-day applications. Thus, for example, religious or traditional pieces of text and official documents have been created primarily with the Cyrillic font, whereas the Latin font is used more extensively in business correspondence, the Boulevard Press and also in the printing of books.