{{Short description|Standard variety of Serbo-Croatian}} {{Distinguish|text= the Sorbian languages}} {{Pp|small=yes}} {{Infobox language | name = Serbian | nativename = {{lang-sr-Cyrl-Latn|српски|srpski|separator=" / "|label=none}} | pronunciation = {{IPA|sr|sr̩̂pskiː|}} | map = Serbian language map.svg | mapcaption = {{legend|#004DFF|Countries where Serbian is an official language.}} {{legend|#88C4FF|Countries where Serbian is a recognized minority language.}} | states = Serbia<br>Bosnia-Herzegovina<br>Montenegro<br>Kosovo<br>Croatia | ethnicity = Serbs | region = Southeastern Europe | speakers = {{sigfig|8.233186|2}} million | date = 2022–23 | ref = <ref>{{e28|srp}}</ref> | speakers2 = | familycolor = Indo-European | fam2 = Balto-Slavic | fam3 = Slavic | fam4 = South Slavic | fam5 = Serbo-Croatian | iso1 = sr | iso2 = srp | iso3 = srp | glotto = serb1264 | glottorefname = Serbian Standard | lingua = part of 53-AAA-g | script = {{ubl|Cyrillic {{small|(Serbian Cyrillic)}}|Latin {{small|(Gaj's Latin)}}|Braille {{small|(Yugoslav Braille)}}}} | nation = Serbia<br/>Bosnia-Herzegovina{{efn|Serbian is a co-official language of Bosnia and Herzegovina along with Bosnian and Croatian.}}<br/>Kosovo{{efn|Serbian is a co-official language of Kosovo along with Albanian.}} | minority = {{ubl| Montenegro{{efn|Serbian was the official language of Montenegro until 2007 and the adoption of the new Constitution of Montenegro, when Montenegrin was made the sole official language of the country, while Serbian was granted the status of a "language in official use", a legal designation for recognized minority languages; the others are Albanian, Bosnian, and Croatian.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.snp.co.me/strana.asp?kat=1&id=1278|title=SNP CG|website=snp.co.me|access-date=27 April 2018|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180120000807/http://www.snp.co.me/strana.asp?kat=1&id=1278|archive-date=2018-01-20}}</ref>}}|Croatia| North Macedonia| Romania| Hungary| Czech Republic| Slovakia}} | agency = Board for Standardization of the Serbian Language | notice = IPA | map2 = Lang Status 99-NE.svg | mapcaption2 = {{center|{{small|Serbian is not endangered according to the classification system of the UNESCO ''Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger''}}}} }} {{South Slavic languages sidebar}} '''Serbian'''{{efn|{{lang-sr-Cyrl-Latn|српски|srpski|separator=" / "|label=none}} {{IPA|sh|sr̩̂pskiː|}}}} is the standard variety of the Serbo-Croatian language mainly used by Serbs.<ref>Multiple sources: {{bulleted list|David Dalby, ''Linguasphere'' (1999/2000, Linguasphere Observatory), pg. 445, 53-AAA-g, "Srpski+Hrvatski, Serbo-Croatian".|Benjamin W. Fortson IV, ''Indo-European Language and Culture: An Introduction'', 2nd ed. (2010, Blackwell), p. 431, "Because of their mutual intelligibility, Serbian, Croatian, and Bosnian are usually thought of as constituting one language called Serbo-Croatian."|Václav Blažek, "On the Internal Classification of Indo-European Languages: Survey" [http://www.phil.muni.cz/linguistica/art/blazek/bla-003.pdf retrieved 20 Oct 2010] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120204101748/http://www.phil.muni.cz/linguistica/art/blazek/bla-003.pdf |date=2012-02-04 }}, pp. 15–16.|{{cite journal|first=Jelena|last=Ćalić|title=Pluricentricity in the classroom: the Serbo-Croatian language issue for foreign language teaching at higher education institutions worldwide|journal=Sociolinguistica: European Journal of Sociolinguistics|publisher=De Gruyter|issn=0933-1883|doi=10.1515/soci-2021-0007|volume=35|issue=1|pages=113–140|year=2021|s2cid=244134335 |quote=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|doi-access=free}}|{{cite book|last=Mader Skender|first=Mia|title=Die kroatische Standardsprache auf dem Weg zur Ausbausprache|language=German|trans-title=The Croatian standard language on the way to ausbau language|chapter=Schlussbemerkung|trans-chapter=Summary|url=https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/215815/|format=PDF|publisher=University of Zurich, Faculty of Arts, Institute of Slavonic Studies|series=UZH Dissertations|pages=196–197|location=Zurich|year=2022|doi=10.5167/uzh-215815|accessdate=8 June 2022|type=Dissertation|quote=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.|archive-date=12 February 2025|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250212225841/https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/215815/|url-status=live}}|{{cite book|last=Kordić|first=Snježana|author-link=Snježana Kordić|title=Languages and Nationalism Instead of Empires|publisher=Routledge|series=Routledge Histories of Central and Eastern Europe|pages=168–169|chapter=Ideology Against Language: The Current Situation in South Slavic Countries|chapter-url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/372202077|chapter-format=PDF|language=en|location=London|year=2024|doi=10.4324/9781003034025-11|doi-access=|isbn=978-0-367-47191-0|lccn=|oclc=1390118985|s2cid=259576119|s2cid-access=|ssrn=4680766|ssrn-access=free|id={{COBISS.SR|125229577}}. {{COBISS|171014403}}|archive-url=https://archive.org/details/kordic-ideology-against-language|archive-date=2024-01-10|access-date=2024-01-23|url-status=live}}}}</ref> It is the national official language and literary standard of Serbia, one of the official languages in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo, and a recognized minority language in numerous countries.
Serbian is based on the most widespread supradialect of Serbo-Croatian, Shtokavian (more specifically on the dialects of Šumadija-Vojvodina and Eastern Herzegovina),<ref>{{citation |author1=Ljiljana Subotić |author2=Dejan Sredojević |author3=Isidora Bjelaković |title=Fonetika i fonologija: Ortoepska i ortografska norma standardnog srpskog jezika |language=sh |year=2012 |publisher=FILOZOFSKI FAKULTET NOVI SAD |url=http://digitalnabiblioteka.tk/digitalna-biblioteka?task=view&id=56&catid=903 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140103173557/http://digitalnabiblioteka.tk/digitalna-biblioteka?task=view&id=56&catid=903 |archive-date=2014-01-03 }}</ref> which is also the basis of other Serbo-Croatian standard varieties: Croatian, Bosnian, and Montenegrin.<ref>[https://www.rferl.org/a/Serbian_Croatian_Bosnian_or_Montenegrin_Many_In_Balkans_Just_Call_It_Our_Language_/1497105.html Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian, Or Montenegrin? Or Just 'Our Language'?] , ''Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty'', February 21, 2009</ref>
Serbian is a rare example of synchronic digraphia, using both Cyrillic and Latin scripts.<ref>{{cite journal| author=Dejan Ivković| year=2013| title=Pragmatics meets ideology: Digraphia and non-standard orthographic practices in Serbian online news forums| journal=Journal of Language and Politics| publisher=John Benjamins Publishing Company| volume=12| issue=3| doi=10.1075/jlp.12.3.02ivk}}</ref>
==History== {{more|Serbo-Croatian#History|l1=History of Serbo-Croatian}} The history of the Serbian language traces its origins through successive stages of differentiation within the South Slavic subgroup of Slavic languages. This process intensified after the Slavic migrations of the 6th and 7th centuries, leading to the emergence of Serbian alongside other South Slavic languages. As the ancestor of all Slavic languages, the Proto-Slavic language emerged between approximately 1500 and 1000 BC in the southern portion of the Proto-Balto-Slavic linguistic area.{{cn|date=January 2026}} Linguistic evidence, such as the consistent preservation of vocabulary related to local hydrology, flora, and fauna across modern Slavic languages, supports this location, roughly corresponding to areas of eastern Poland, southern Belarus, and northwestern Ukraine during classical antiquity (encompassing the Vistula, Bug, Dnieper, and Pripyat river basins).{{cn|date=January 2026}} The language reached its peak in the 5th and 6th centuries, expanding rapidly westward, southward, eastward, and northward during Slavic migrations.{{cn|date=January 2026}}
Dialectal differentiation began during this period, though mutual intelligibility persisted; by the 8th century, a largely uniform Proto-Slavic was spoken from Thessaloniki in the south to Veliky Novgorod in the north.{{cn|date=January 2026}} The final pan-dialectal changes occurred in the 9th century, after which individual Slavic languages gradually emerged. A degree of general Slavic mutual intelligibility continued for several centuries, as evidenced by the missionary work of Cyril and Methodius, who used a South Slavic dialect from the Thessaloniki region to evangelize Slavs in Great Moravia. The loss of weak jers (reduced vowels ъ and ь), occurring regionally between the 10th and 12th centuries, marks the conventional end of Proto-Slavic, coinciding with the appearance of written records showing significant divergences and the development of distinct recensions.{{cn|date=January 2026}}
The language used in works of Cyril and Methodius, and their later followers, became known as the Old Church Slavonic (also ''Old Slavonic'', or ''Old Slavic'').<ref>{{cite book |last1=Murzaku |first1=Ines Angeli |title=Monasticism in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Republics |date=2015 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9781317391050 |page=42 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rtZzCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA42}}</ref> As the earliest attested Slavic literary language, it was codified in the 9th century based on the South Slavic dialects spoken around Thessaloniki, using the Glagolitic and later Cyrillic scripts for translating biblical and liturgical texts.<ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Suarez |editor1-first=F. J. F. |editor2-last=Woudhuysen |editor2-first=H. R. |title=The Book: A Global History |date=2013 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780191668746 |page=503 |edition=Reprint |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=X4NpAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA503}}</ref> During the Middle Ages, it served as the primary literary and liturgical language for most Slavic peoples, influencing the development of subsequent vernacular literary traditions.
===Middle Ages=== [[File:Miroslav's_Gospel_001.jpg|left|thumb|Miroslav Gospel, 1186, one of the oldest manuscripts written in the Serbian recension of Church Slavic]] {{more|Serbian Church Slavic language|Medieval Serbian literature}} During the medieval and early modern periods, the use of Old Slavic literary language among Serbs was marked by various influences from the Serbian old vernacular language, thus creating a distinctive Serbian redaction of the Old Slavic. That redaction or recension is referred to as the old Serbian Church-Slavic literary language (also ''Serbian-Slavonic'' / ''Serbo-Slavonic'', or ''Serbian-Slavic'' / ''Serbo-Slavic''), and in that language works of the Medieval Serbian literature were created.{{sfn|Grickat-Radulović|1993|p=146–150}}{{sfn|Savić|2016|p=231–339}} In the same time, Old Serbian vernacular language was used in private letters and various documents, particularly during the late medieval and later (early modern) periods.{{sfn|Isailović|Krstić|2015|p=185–195}}{{sfn|Grković-Major|2021|p=271–279}}{{sfn|Polomac|2025|p=257-279}} Serbian redaction of Church Slavonic played a key role in medieval Serbian written culture before the later rise of vernacular-based standards. The oldest surviving manuscripts in this recension originate from regions such as Zeta and Zachlumia (Hum), though linguistic features suggest its development may have occurred farther east, nearer the early centres of Slavic literacy, Ohrid and Preslav. The area around the present-day border of Serbia and North Macedonia, north of the Kratovo-Skopje-Tetovo line, is considered to be the area of its origin. The oldest preserved written monuments, from the end of the 12th century, testify to the fact that the process of forming the Serbian Slavonic was already complete. It had three established orthographies:
*''Zeta-Hum'', which was the oldest and used in Serbia until the beginning of the 13th century *''Raška'', which succeeded Zeta-Hum in Serbia and was in use until the first decades of the 15th century *''Resava'', which originated in the 15th century
At the very end of the Middle Ages and the start of the early Modern Period, in the second half of the XV century, ie right after Serbia became a part of the Ottoman Empire, Serbian was used as one of the four imperially important languages in the Arabic-Persian-Greek-Serbian Conversation Textbook ie a phrasal dictionary in two volumes, one just under and the other just over 100 pages long.
===Early modern period=== {{main|Slavonic-Serbian}} During the 16th and 17th centuries, Serbian Church Slavic language continued to be used as the liturgical and literary language within the Serbian Patriarchate of Peć, and those traditions continued up to the beginning of the 18th century. In works of the early modern Serbian printing, from the end of the 15th century to the middle of the 17th century, liturgical contents were printed in Serbian Church Slavic, while colophons with introductions were composed under the influence of Serbian vernacular language, that was commonly used both in official and private epistolography.{{sfn|Ivić|Pešikan|1995|p=137-145}}{{sfn|Isailović|Krstić|2015|p=185–195}}{{sfn|Ivić|2024|p=143-144}}
During the 18th century, among Eastern Orthodox Serbs in the Habsburg Monarchy, various influences from the earlier Russian ecclesiastical and literary reforms (known as the Nikon's reforms) were accepted within the Serbian Orthodox Metropolitanate of Karlovci, thus leading to several major changes: Serbian redaction of the Church Slavic was gradually replaced in liturgical use by the official (synodical, or neo-Moscowian) Russian Church Slavonic redaction, and those changes also influenced the Serbian literary language, making it more distinctive from the common Serbian vernacular language.{{sfn|Paxton|1981|p=107–109}}{{sfn|Ivić|2024|p=144-147, 265}} The use of Russian-Slavonic language among Serbs consequently led to the creation of a specific Slavonic-Serbian language (also known as ''Slavo-Serbian'', a hybrid language that was used during the second half of the 18th century and the first half of the 19th century by Serbian educated elites.{{sfn|Albin|1970|p=483–491}}{{sfn|Albijanić|1985|p=115-123}}{{sfn|Ćirković|2004|p=162-167}}
===Modern period=== [[File:Вук Стефановић Караџић.око 1850..jpg|thumb|Vuk Karadžić, reformer of the Serbian language]] In the early 19th century, Vuk Karadžić reformed the Serbian literary language by basing it on the vernacular folk speech, adopting the principle 'Write as you speak.' He also standardized the Serbian Cyrillic alphabet by following strict phonemic principles on the Johann Christoph Adelung's model and Jan Hus's Czech alphabet. Karadžić's reforms of the Serbian literary language modernized it and distanced it from the Slavonic-Serbian and Church Slavonic, bringing it closer to common folk speech. For example, Karadžić discarded earlier letters and signs that had no match in common Serbian speech and introduced six new Cyrillic letters to make writing the Serbian language simpler.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Azbuka (ćirilica) – Opšte obrazovanje |url=https://www.opsteobrazovanje.in.rs/srpski-jezik/gramatika/azbuka/ |access-date=2022-08-03 |language=sr-RS}}</ref>
Because the Slavonic-Serbian written language of the early 19th century contained many words connected to the Orthodox church and a large number of loanwords from Church Slavonic, Karadžić proposed to abandon this written language and to create a new one, based on the Eastern Herzegovinian dialect which he spoke. Some Serbian clergy and other linguists opposed him, for example, the high clergy based in the Serbian Orthodox Church seat in Sremski Karlovci (near Novi Sad), who viewed the grammar and vocabulary of the Eastern Herzegovinian dialect as almost a foreign tongue, unacceptable as a basis for a modern language.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Alexander |first=Ronelle |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6HTdZ5rxJ-cC |title=Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian, a Grammar: With Sociolinguistic Commentary |date=2006-08-15 |publisher=Univ of Wisconsin Press |isbn=978-0-299-21193-6 |language=en |archive-date=2024-09-28 |access-date=2025-12-29 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240928024341/https://books.google.com/books?id=6HTdZ5rxJ-cC |url-status=live }}</ref> But Karadžić successfully insisted that his linguistic standard was closer to popular speech and could be understood and written by more people. He called his dialect Herzegovinian because, as he wrote, "Serbian is spoken most purely and correctly in Herzegovina and in Bosnia." Karadžić never visited those lands, but his family roots and speech came from Herzegovina.<ref>{{Citation |last=Hajdarpasic |first=Edin |chapter=The Land of the People |date=2015-09-03 |chapter-url=http://dx.doi.org/10.7591/cornell/9780801453717.003.0002 |title=Whose Bosnia? |pages=23–35 |publisher=Cornell University Press |doi=10.7591/cornell/9780801453717.003.0002 |isbn=9780801453717 |access-date=2022-08-03|chapter-url-access=subscription }}</ref> Ultimately, Vuk Karadžić's ideas and linguistic standard won against his clerical and scientific opponents. Karadžić was, together with Đuro Daničić, the main Serbian signatory to the Vienna Literary Agreement of 1850, which, encouraged by Austrian authorities, laid the foundation for the Serbo-Croatian language; Karadžić himself only ever referred to the language as "Serbian".
The Vukovian effort of language standardization lasted the remainder of the century. Before then the Serbs had achieved an independent state (1878), and a flourishing national culture based in Belgrade and Novi Sad. Despite the Vienna Literary Agreement, the Serbs had by this time developed an Ekavian pronunciation, which was the native speech of their two cultural capitals as well as the great majority of the Serb population. Vuk Karadžić greatly influenced South Slavic linguists across Southeast Europe: in Croatia, the linguist Tomislav Maretić acknowledged Karadžić's work as foundational to his codification of Croatian grammar.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Barac |first=Antun |date=2006 |title=Iz bliske prošlosti hrvatskoga jezika, O hrvatskim vukovcima |url=https://hrcak.srce.hr/16637 |access-date=3 August 2022 |journal=Jezik: Časopis Za Kulturu Hrvatskoga Književnog Jezika|volume=53 |issue=2 |pages=60–63 }}</ref>
==Geographic distribution== {| class="wikitable" style="float:right; margin:0 0 0 1em; text-size:80%; text-align:left" |+ !Country/territory !Speakers !Share |- | {{flag|Serbia}} | 5,607,558<ref>{{cite web | title=Dissemination database search | url=https://data.stat.gov.rs/Home/Result/3104020302?languageCode=en-US }}</ref> | 84.3% |- | {{flag|Bosnia and Herzegovina}} | 1,086,027<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.popis.gov.ba/popis2013/knjige.php?id=2|title=Popis 2013 BiH|website=www.popis.gov.ba|access-date=2025-12-29|archive-date=2021-04-07|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210407103505/https://www.popis.gov.ba/popis2013/knjige.php?id=2|url-status=live}}</ref> | 30.8% |- | {{flag|Montenegro}} |269,307<ref name="Monstat">{{cite web|title=Census of Population, Households and Dwellings in Montenegro 2023|url=https://monstat.org/uploads/files/popis%202021/saopstenja/SAOPSTENJE_Popis%20stanovnistva%202023%20II_cg.pdf|publisher=Monstat|access-date=15 October 2024|archive-date=9 November 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241109003907/https://monstat.org/uploads/files/popis%202021/saopstenja/SAOPSTENJE_Popis%20stanovnistva%202023%20II_cg.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> | 43.2% |- | {{flag|Kosovo}} | 95,000<ref name="esi">{{cite web |title=Statistics, lies and confusion in Kosovo |url=https://www.esiweb.org/sites/default/files/reports/pdf/ESI_Invented%20pogroms%20-%20Statistics%20and%20the%20vanishing%20of%20Serbs%20-%2019%20Feb%202024.pdf |website=esiweb.org |publisher=European Stability Initiative |date=19 February 2024 |access-date=29 December 2025 |archive-date=9 May 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250509111841/http://www.esiweb.org/sites/default/files/reports/pdf/ESI_Invented%20pogroms%20-%20Statistics%20and%20the%20vanishing%20of%20Serbs%20-%2019%20Feb%202024.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> | 5.7% |- | {{flag|Croatia}} | 45,004<ref>{{cite web |title=Census of Population, Households and Dwellings in 2021 |url=https://dzs.gov.hr/u-fokusu/popis-2021/popisni-upitnik/english/results/1501 |website=dzs.gov.hr |access-date=2025-12-29 |archive-date=2026-01-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20260114023633/https://dzs.gov.hr/u-fokusu/popis-2021/popisni-upitnik/english/results/1501 |url-status=live }}</ref> | 1.1% |- | {{flag|North Macedonia}} |11,252<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://makstat.stat.gov.mk/PXWebPXWeb/pxweb/en/MakStat/MakStat__Popisi__Popis2021__NaselenieVkupno__NaseleniePopis2021__EtnoKulturniKarakteristiki/T1015P21.px/|title=Total resident population in the Republic of North Macedonia by mother tongue and sex, by municipalities, Census 2021|website=PxWeb}}</ref> | 0.6% |- | {{flag|Romania}} | 10,058<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.recensamantromania.ro/rezultate-rpl-2021/rezultate-definitive-caracteristici-etno-culturale-demografice/|title=Rezultate definitive: Caracteristici etno-culturale demografice – Recensamantul Populatiei si Locuintelor|access-date=2025-12-29|archive-date=2023-08-05|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230805020348/https://www.recensamantromania.ro/rezultate-rpl-2021/rezultate-definitive-caracteristici-etno-culturale-demografice/|url-status=live}}</ref> | 0.05% |- | {{flag|Hungary}} | 4,249<ref name="database">{{Cite web|url=https://nepszamlalas2022.ksh.hu/en/database/#/table/WBS026/N4IgFgpghgJiBcBtAugGhAZwJYwgl6GEAxgC5YD2AdvmiAGZYA2pEAThgqANZZVzwQAWSgAHEOghVSbLBE5JEIACoBJIQFEA-gAUNAJVUB5ACIBGMxJ58BIAMoRSEkADcoTAK7z8IAEwAGX18QZABfNCVlAwBVABktAHENIwBWLQAxIwTYqxBefgR7R2c3T28kEAAJaLMAkPCw0KA===|title=Census database – Hungarian Central Statistical Office|website=nepszamlalas2022.ksh.hu|access-date=2025-12-29|archive-date=2025-12-07|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20251207134619/https://nepszamlalas2022.ksh.hu/en/database/#/table/WBS026/N4IgFgpghgJiBcBtAugGhAZwJYwgl6GEAxgC5YD2AdvmiAGZYA2pEAThgqANZZVzwQAWSgAHEOghVSbLBE5JEIACoBJIQFEA-gAUNAJVUB5ACIBGMxJ58BIAMoRSEkADcoTAK7z8IAEwAGX18QZABfNCVlAwBVABktAHENIwBWLQAxIwTYqxBefgR7R2c3T28kEAAJaLMAkPCw0KA===|url-status=live}}</ref> | 0.04% |- | {{flag|Czech Republic}} | 2,914<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://scitani.gov.cz/language-mother-tongue|title=Language (Mother tongue)|website=Census 2021}}</ref> | 0.02% |- | {{flag|Slovakia}} | 1,229<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.scitanie.sk/en/population/basic-results/structure-of-population-by-mother-tongue/SR/SK0/SR|title=SODB2021 - Population - Basic results|website=www.scitanie.sk|access-date=2025-10-31|archive-date=2022-01-23|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220123100715/https://www.scitanie.sk/en/population/basic-results/structure-of-population-by-mother-tongue/SR/SK0/SR|url-status=live}}</ref> | 0.02% |} The Serbian language holds status of official or recognized minority language in ten countries, where over 7 million people have declared it as their mother tongue. It serves as the official language of Serbia, where it is the native tongue of 84% of the population.<ref>{{Cite web | title = Population by mother tongue, 2022 Census of Population, Households and Dwellings | publisher = Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia (SORS) | url = https://data.stat.gov.rs/Home/Result/3104020302?languageCode=en-US | access-date = 29 December 2025 | language = en-US }}</ref> Serbian is a co-official language in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo, where it is spoken almost exclusively by the ethnic Serb population, representing roughly one-third and 5% of the total population in each entity, respectively.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://www.popis.gov.ba/popis2013/doc/Knjiga2/K2_B_E.pdf |title=Ethnicity/National Affiliation, Mother Tongue and Religion: Census of Population, Households and Dwellings in Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2013 |publisher=Agency for Statistics of Bosnia and Herzegovina |date=2016 |access-date=2025-12-29 |archive-date=2019-12-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191220231833/https://www.popis.gov.ba/popis2013/doc/Knjiga2/K2_B_E.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="esi"/> In Montenegro, Serbian remains the most widely spoken language, with 43% of the population declaring it as their mother tongue, despite its legal status as a recognized minority language; it is declared mother tongue not only by ethnic Serbs but also by approximately one-quarter of those identifying as Montenegrins.<ref name="Monstat"/> Furthermore, Serbian enjoys recognized minority language status in Croatia,<ref>{{cite web |title=Ustavni zakon o pravima nacionalnih manjina |url=https://mpudt.gov.hr/ustavni-zakon-o-pravima-nacionalnih-manjina-24413/24413 |website=mpudt.gov.hr}}</ref> North Macedonia,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.minorityrights.org/?lid=4021 |title= Macedonia Overview |publisher=Minority Rights Group International |access-date=2012-10-24 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121026011843/http://www.minorityrights.org/?lid=4021 |archive-date=2012-10-26 }}</ref> Romania,<ref>{{cite web |title=News about the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages |url=https://www.coe.int/en/web/european-charter-regional-or-minority-languages/-/minority-languages-in-romania-strong-support-in-education-but-the-population-threshold-for-their-use-in-the-public-administration-is-too-high |website=coe.int |date=14 September 2023 |access-date=30 December 2025 |archive-date=30 December 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20251230131917/https://www.coe.int/en/web/european-charter-regional-or-minority-languages/-/minority-languages-in-romania-strong-support-in-education-but-the-population-threshold-for-their-use-in-the-public-administration-is-too-high |url-status=live }}</ref> Hungary,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://ec.europa.eu/education/policies/lang/languages/langmin/euromosaic/hu_de.pdf|title=Ec.Europa.eu|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071130221600/http://ec.europa.eu/education/policies/lang/languages/langmin/euromosaic/hu_de.pdf |archive-date=2007-11-30|url-status=dead}}</ref> the Czech Republic,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.vlada.cz/assets/ppov/rnm/dokumenty/mezinarodni-dokumenty/duvodova_zprava_vlada_2005.pdf |title=Národnostní menšiny v České republice a jejich jazyky |trans-title=National Minorities in Czech Republic and Their Language |publisher=Government of Czech Republic |page=2 |quote=Podle čl. 3 odst. 2 Statutu Rady je jejich počet 12 a jsou uživateli těchto menšinových jazyků: ..., srbština a ukrajinština |language=cs |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160315225857/http://www.vlada.cz/assets/ppov/rnm/dokumenty/mezinarodni-dokumenty/duvodova_zprava_vlada_2005.pdf |archive-date=2016-03-15 }}</ref> and Slovakia.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.b92.net/eng/news/society-article.php?yyyy=2010&mm=02&dd=09&nav_id=65083|title=B92.net|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131110174015/http://www.b92.net/eng/news/society-article.php?yyyy=2010&mm=02&dd=09&nav_id=65083 |archive-date=2013-11-10|url-status=dead}}</ref>
The language is also represented among the Serb diaspora in Europe and overseas. Countries with significant numbers of speakers include Germany, Austria, United States, France, Switzerland, Canada, Australia, and Sweden.
==Differences from other Serbo-Croatian standard varieties== {{Main|Comparison of Serbo-Croatian standard varieties}} Serbian is a standard variety of Serbo-Croatian with other standard varieties being Bosnian, Croatian, and Montenegrin. These varieties are based on the same Shtokavian supradialect and are fully mutually intelligible - speakers can understand each other without difficulty, with intelligibility often exceeding that of variants in other pluricentric languages like English, German, or Spanish. The differences are minor and comparable to regional variants of English (e.g., British vs. American English) rather than separate languages like Spanish and Italian. Grammar, syntax, and core vocabulary are nearly identical.<ref>{{cite journal|title=To what degree are Croatian and Serbian the same language? Evidence from a Translation Study|last=Bailyn|first=John Frederick|journal=Journal of Slavic Linguistics|year=2010|volume=18|issue=2|pages=181–219|url=https://linguistics.stonybrook.edu/people/_bios/_linguistics-faculty/_faculty-files/bailyn/publications/JSLBCS2.pdf|access-date=9 October 2019|issn=1068-2090|archive-date=9 October 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191009113158/https://linguistics.stonybrook.edu/people/_bios/_linguistics-faculty/_faculty-files/bailyn/publications/JSLBCS2.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref>
==Writing system== {{main|Serbian Cyrillic alphabet|Gaj's Latin alphabet|Yugoslav Braille}} [[File:George Washington Street sign Belgrade.JPG|thumb|Street sign in Belgrade, using Cyrillic and Latin scripts]] Serbian language uses both Cyrillic ({{lang|sh-Cyrl|ћирилица}}, {{lang|sh-Latn|ćirilica}}) and Latin script ({{lang|sh-Cyrl|латиница}}, {{lang|sh-Latn|latinica}}). Serbian is a rare language with active digraphia, a situation where all literate members of a society have two interchangeable writing systems available to them.
Serbian Cyrillic, widely regarded as a key symbol of Serb cultural identity, was devised in 1814 by Serbian linguist Vuk Karadžić, who designed it according to strict phonemic principles (one letter per sound).<ref>{{cite book| author=Mojca Ramšak| editor=Donald Haase| year=2008| chapter=Karadžić, Vuk Stefanović (1787–1864)| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-sj5cJz0_OsC| title=The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Folktales and Fairy Tales: G-P| location=Westport, Connecticut| publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group| isbn=978-0-313-33443-6| page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=-sj5cJz0_OsC&pg=PA531 531]| url-status=live| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170203063228/https://books.google.com/books?id=-sj5cJz0_OsC| archive-date=3 February 2017}}</ref> The Latin alphabet used for Serbian was designed by the Croatian linguist Ljudevit Gaj in the 1830s based on the Czech system with a one-to-one grapheme-phoneme correlation between the Cyrillic and Latin orthographies, resulting in a parallel orthographic system.<ref name="ComrieCorbett2003">{{cite book|last1=Comrie|first1=Bernard|author-link1=Bernard Comrie|last2=Corbett|first2=Greville G.|title=The Slavonic Languages|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uRF9Yiso1OIC&pg=PA45|access-date=23 December 2013|date=1 September 2003|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-0-203-21320-9|page=45|quote=Following Vuk's reform of Cyrillic (see above) in the early nineteenth century, Ljudevit Gaj in the 1830s performed the same operation on Latinica, using the Czech system and producing a one-to-one symbol correlation between Cyrillic and Latinica as applied to the Serbian and Croatian parallel system.}}</ref>
In Serbia, the Constitution designates Serbian Cyrillic as the official script, mandating its application in the legal and administrative domains.<ref name="auto">{{cite web | title = Constitution of the Republic of Serbia | publisher = The Constitutional Court of the Republic of Serbia | url = https://ustavni.sud.rs/eng/constitution-and-regulations-on-the-court/constitution-of-the-republic-of-serbia | access-date = 2024-11-26 | url-status = live | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20240422215613/https://ustavni.sud.rs/eng/constitution-and-regulations-on-the-court/constitution-of-the-republic-of-serbia | archive-date = 2024-04-22 }}</ref> However, the law does not regulate scripts in standard language, or standard language itself by any means, leaving the choice of script as a matter of personal preference and to the free will in all aspects of life (publishing, media, trade and commerce, etc.), except in the legal and government sphere, where Cyrillic is required.<ref name="auto"/> In general, the alphabets are used interchangeably; media and publishers typically select one alphabet or the other. In the public sphere, with logos, outdoor signage and retail packaging, the Latin script predominates, although both scripts are commonly seen. Traffic signs and directional signs, as well as place names on roads are written with both Cyrillic and Latin script.<ref>{{cite web|title=Закон о службеној употреби језика и писама, 47/18|date=2018|url=https://mduls.gov.rs/wp-content/uploads/ZAKON-O-SLUZBENOJ-UPOTREBI-JEZIKA-I-PISAMA040718.pdf|access-date=2024-11-26|archive-date=2024-12-04|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241204125119/https://mduls.gov.rs/wp-content/uploads/ZAKON-O-SLUZBENOJ-UPOTREBI-JEZIKA-I-PISAMA040718.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> To most Serbs, the Latin script tends to imply a cosmopolitan or neutral attitude, while Cyrillic appeals to a more traditional or vintage sensibility.<ref name="marketing-localization">{{Cite web|url=https://ciklopea.com/blog/localization/should-you-localize-to-serbian-latin-or-to-serbian-cyrillic/|title=Should you Localize to Serbian Latin or to Serbian Cyrillic?|date=17 November 2016}}</ref> A survey from 2014 showed that 47% of the Serbian population favors the Latin alphabet whereas 36% favors the Cyrillic one.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.b92.net/kultura/vesti.php?nav_category=1087&yyyy=2014&mm=12&dd=16&nav_id=936784|title=Ivan Klajn: Ćirilica će postati arhaično pismo|website=b92.net|date=16 December 2014 |access-date=27 April 2018|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171011114445/http://www.b92.net/kultura/vesti.php?nav_category=1087&yyyy=2014&mm=12&dd=16&nav_id=936784|archive-date=11 October 2017}}</ref>
Serbian Cyrillic is also script in official use in both Montenegro and Bosnia-Herzegovina, alongside the Latin alphabet.
===Alphabetic order=== The sort order of the {{lang|sr-Latn|ćirilica}} ({{lang|sr-Cyrl|ћирилица}}) alphabet: * Cyrillic order called {{lang|sr-Latn|Azbuka}} ({{lang|sr-Cyrl|азбука}}): 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 sort order of the {{lang|sr-Latn|latinica}} ({{lang|sr-Cyrl|латиница}}) alphabet: * Latin order called {{lang|sr-Latn|Abeceda}} ({{lang|sr-Cyrl|абецеда}}): 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
== Grammar == {{main|Serbo-Croatian grammar}} Serbian is a highly inflected language, with grammatical morphology for nouns, pronouns and adjectives as well as verbs.{{sfn|Hawkesworth|Ćalić|2006|p=}}
=== Nouns === Serbian nouns are classified into three declensional types, denoted largely by their nominative case endings as "-a" type, "-i" and "-e" type. Into each of these declensional types may fall nouns of any of three genders: masculine, feminine or neuter. Each noun may be inflected to represent the noun's grammatical case, of which Serbian has seven:
* Nominative * Genitive * Dative * Accusative * Vocative * Instrumental * Locative
Nouns are further inflected to represent the noun's number, singular or plural.
=== Pronouns === Pronouns, when used, are inflected along the same case and number morphology as nouns. Serbian is a pro-drop language, meaning that pronouns may be omitted from a sentence when their meaning is easily inferred from the text. In cases where pronouns may be dropped, they may also be used to add emphasis. For example:
{| class="wikitable" |- ! Serbian !! English equivalent |- | ''Kako si?'' || How are you? |- | ''A kako si ti?'' || And how are ''you''? |}
=== Adjectives === Adjectives in Serbian may be placed before or after the noun they modify, but must agree in number, gender and case with the modified noun.
===Verbs=== Serbian verbs are conjugated in four past forms—perfect, aorist, imperfect, and pluperfect—of which the last two have a very limited use (imperfect is still used in some dialects, but the majority of native Serbian speakers consider it archaic), one future tense (also known as the first future tense, as opposed to the second future tense or the future exact, which is considered a tense of the conditional mood by some contemporary linguists), and one present tense. These are the tenses of the indicative mood. Apart from the indicative mood, there is also the imperative mood. The conditional mood has two more tenses: the first conditional (commonly used in conditional clauses, both for possible and impossible conditional clauses) and the second conditional (without use in the spoken language—it should be used for impossible conditional clauses). Serbian has active and passive voice.
As for the non-finite verb forms, Serbian has one infinitive, two adjectival participles (the active and the passive), and two adverbial participles (the present and the past).
==Dialects== {{Main|Dialects of Serbo-Croatian}} Serbian is based on Shtokavian, the prestige supradialect of Serbo-Croatian. The primary subdivisions of Shtokavian are based on two principles: one is the way the old Slavic phoneme ''yat'' has changed (in the case of Serbian, Ekavian or Ijekavian), second in different accents (whether the subdialect is Old-Shtokavian or Neo-Shtokavian).
* in Ekavian pronunciation (''ekavski'' {{IPA|sh|ěːkaʋskiː|}}), ''yat'' has conflated into the vowel ''e''. Ekavian is dominant among speakers of Serbian in Serbia, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Romania, and Hungary. * in Ijekavian pronunciation (''ijekavski'' {{IPA|sh|ijěːkaʋskiː|}}), ''yat'' has come to be pronounced ''ije''. Ijekavian is dominant among speakers of Serbian in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro, and Croatia.
The dialects of Shtokavian, regarded traditionally as Serbian, include: * Šumadija–Vojvodina (Ekavian, Neo-Shtokavian): central and northern Serbia * Eastern Herzegovinian (Ijekavian/Ekavian, Neo-Shtokavian): southwestern Serbia, western half of Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia * Kosovo–Resava (Ekavian, Old-Shtokavian): eastern-central Serbia, northern Kosovo * Smederevo–Vršac (Ekavian, Old-Shtokavian): northern-central Serbia * Prizren–Timok (Ekavian, Old-Shtokavian): southeastern Serbia, eastern Kosovo * Zeta–Raška (Ijekavian, Old-Shtokavian): eastern half of Montenegro, southwestern Serbia
==Vocabulary== {{See also|Loanwords in Serbian}} Most Serbian words are of native Slavic lexical stock, tracing back to the Proto-Slavic language. The classical languages Latin and Greek are the source of many words, used mostly in international terminology. Many Latin terms entered Serbian during the time when present-day territories populated by Serbs were part of the Roman Empire and also in the later centuries through Romanian and Aromanian. The loanwords of Greek origin in Serbian are a product of the influence of the liturgical language of the Orthodox Church. Many of the numerous loanwords from another Turkic language, Ottoman Turkish and, via Ottoman Turkish, from Arabic were adopted into Serbian during the long period of Ottoman rule.{{sfn|Nomachi|2015|p=48}}
==Dictionaries== Vuk Karadžić's "Serbian Dictionary" (''Srpski rječnik''), published in 1818, is the earliest dictionary of modern literary Serbian. The "Dictionary of Croatian or Serbian language" (''Rječnik hrvatskoga ili srpskoga jezika''), published by Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts in twenty-three volumes from 1880 to 1976, is the only general historical dictionary of Serbo-Croatian. There are older, pre-standard dictionaries, such as the German–Serbian dictionary, published in 1791, and the above mentioned 15th century-Arabic-Persian-Greek-Serbian conversation textbook.
Standard dictionaries include: *"Dictionary of Serbo-Croatian Literary and Vernacular Language" ({{lang|sh-Latn|Rečnik srpskohrvatskog književnog i narodnog jezika}}), published by the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts is the most comprehensive dictionary of Serbian (and Serbo-Croatian as a whole). It remains unfinished, with publication ongoing since 1959. As of 2025, 22 volumes were published, containing around 250,000 entries, while the complete dictionary is expected to comprise 40 volumes with around 500,000 entries, making it one of the most comprehensive in the world, surpassing the "Oxford English Dictionary" (around 300,000 entries), the German "Deutsches Wörterbuch" (around 350,000), and the Dutch "Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal" (about 430,000).<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.isj.sanu.ac.rs/2021/10/07/%D0%BF%D1%80%D0%B5%D0%B4%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B0%D0%B2%D1%99%D0%B0%D1%9A%D0%B5-21-%D1%82%D0%BE%D0%BC%D0%B0-%D1%80%D0%B5%D1%87%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%BA%D0%B0-%D1%81%D0%B0%D0%BD%D1%83-%D1%83-%D1%81%D1%80%D0%BF/ |title=Predstavljanje 21. Toma Rečnika SANU u Srpskoj akademiji nauka i umetnosti |trans-title=Presentation of the 21st volume of Dictionary SANU at the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts |date=7 October 2021 |access-date=2 June 2022 |archive-date=2 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220602042552/https://www.isj.sanu.ac.rs/2021/10/07/%D0%BF%D1%80%D0%B5%D0%B4%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B0%D0%B2%D1%99%D0%B0%D1%9A%D0%B5-21-%D1%82%D0%BE%D0%BC%D0%B0-%D1%80%D0%B5%D1%87%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%BA%D0%B0-%D1%81%D0%B0%D0%BD%D1%83-%D1%83-%D1%81%D1%80%D0%BF/ |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="SANU">{{cite web | url=https://www.isj.sanu.ac.rs/projekti/rsanu/ | title=Речник САНУ | publisher=Институт за српски језик САНУ | date=2017 | access-date=30 December 2019 | archive-date=2 June 2022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220602042555/http://www.isj.sanu.ac.rs/projekti/rsanu/ | url-status=dead }}</ref> * "Dictionary of Serbo-Croatian Literary Language" ({{lang|sh-Latn|Rečnik srpskohrvatskoga književnog jezika}}), published in six volumes from 1967 to 1976, began as a joint project between Matica srpska (which issued it in Cyrillic script) and Matica hrvatska (which issued it in Latin script), but only the first three volumes were published by Matica hrvatska due to negative feedback from Croatian linguists. * "Dictionary of the Serbian language" ({{lang|sh-Latn|Rečnik srpskog jezika}}) in one volume, published in 2007 by Matica srpska, containing more than 85,000 entries.
The only completed etymological dictionary of Serbian is "Etymological Dictionary of Croatian or Serbian language" ({{lang|sh-Latn|Etimologijski rječnik hrvatskoga ili srpskoga jezika}}), published in four volumes from 1971 to 1974. There is also a new monumental "Etymological Dictionary of Serbian language" ({{lang|sh-Latn|Etimološki rečnik srpskog jezika}}), which is currently work in progress, with two volumes published.
== Sample text == thumb|Serbian pronunciation Article 1 of the ''Universal Declaration of Human Rights'' in Serbian, written in the Cyrillic script:<ref>{{cite web|title=Universal Declaration of Human Rights - Serbian (Cyrillic)|website=unicode.org|url=https://unicode.org/udhr/d/udhr_srp_cyrl.html|access-date=2022-01-09|archive-date=2022-05-21|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220521041511/http://unicode.org/udhr/d/udhr_srp_cyrl.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>
<blockquote>Сва људска бића рађају се слободна и једнака у достојанству и правима. Она су обдарена разумом и свешћу и треба једни према другима да поступају у духу братства.</blockquote>
Article 1 of the ''Universal Declaration of Human Rights'' in Serbian, written in the Latin script:<ref>{{cite web|url=https://unicode.org/udhr/d/udhr_srp_latn.html|title=Universal Declaration of Human Rights - Serbian (Latin)|website=unicode.org|access-date=2022-01-09|archive-date=2021-07-27|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210727225155/https://www.unicode.org/udhr/d/udhr_srp_latn.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>
<blockquote>Sva ljudska bića rađaju se slobodna i jednaka u dostojanstvu i pravima. Ona su obdarena razumom i svešću i treba jedni prema drugima da postupaju u duhu bratstva.</blockquote>
Article 1 of the ''Universal Declaration of Human Rights'' in English:<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights|title=Universal Declaration of Human Rights|newspaper=United Nations|archive-date=2021-03-16|access-date=2022-01-09|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210316050452/https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights|url-status=live}}</ref>
<blockquote>''All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.''</blockquote>
==See also== * Language secessionism in Serbo-Croatian * Abstand and ausbau languages * Pluricentric language * Mutual intelligibility
==Notes== {{notelist}}
==References== {{reflist|colwidth=30em}}
==Sources and further reading== === Books === {{Div col}} * {{Cite book|last=Albijanić|first=Aleksandar|chapter=The Demise of Serbian Church Slavic and the advent of the Slaveno-Serbski Literary Dialect|title=The Formation of the Slavonic literary Languages|year=1985|location=Columbus, Ohio|publisher=Slavica Publishers|pages=115–123|isbn=978-0-89357-143-6 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0XVhAAAAMAAJ}} * {{Cite book|last=Bubalo|first=Đorđe|title=Pragmatic Literacy in Medieval Serbia|year=2014|location=Turnhout|publisher=Brepols|isbn=978-2-503-54961-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mUiXngEACAAJ}} * {{Cite book|last=Ćirković|first=Sima|author-link=Sima Ćirković|year=2004|title=The Serbs|location=Malden|publisher=Blackwell Publishing|isbn=978-1-4051-4291-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2Wc-DWRzoeIC&pg=PR3}} *{{Cite book|last=Greenberg|first=Robert D.|title=Language and Identity in the Balkans: Serbo-Croatian and its Disintegration|year=2004|location=New York|publisher=Oxford University Press|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_lNjHgr3QioC|isbn=9780191514555}} * {{Cite book|last=Grickat-Radulović|first=Irena|chapter=Serbian Medieval Literary Language|title=Serbs in European Civilization|year=1993|location=Belgrade|publisher=Nova, Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Institute for Balkan Studies|pages=146–150|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O3MtAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA146}} * {{Cite book|last=Grković-Major|first=Jasmina|chapter=Serbian Church Slavonic influence on the Old Serbian language|title=Old Church Slavonic Heritage in Slavonic and Other Languages|year=2021|location=Praha|publisher=Nakladatelství Lidové noviny|pages=271–279|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZWGezgEACAAJ}} * {{Cite book|last1=Hawkesworth|first1=Celia|last2=Ćalić|first2=Jelena|title=Colloquial Serbian: The Complete Course for Beginners|year=2006|location=London and New York|publisher=Routledge|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GJ579owamDoC&pg=PP5}} * {{Cite book|last1=Isailović|first1=Neven G.|last2=Krstić|first2=Aleksandar R.|chapter=Serbian Language and Cyrillic Script as a Means of Diplomatic Literacy in South Eastern Europe in 15th and 16th Centuries|title=Literacy Experiences concerning Medieval and Early Modern Transylvania|year=2015|location=Cluj-Napoca|publisher=George Barițiu Institute of History|pages=185–195|chapter-url=http://rih.iib.ac.rs/294/1/Isailovic_Krstic_Serbian_Language_and_Cyrillic_Script_as.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240607042222/http://rih.iib.ac.rs/294/1/Isailovic_Krstic_Serbian_Language_and_Cyrillic_Script_as.pdf |archive-date=7 June 2024 }} * {{Cite book|last=Ivić|first=Pavle|author-link=Pavle Ivić|chapter=Standard Language as an Instrument of Culture and the Product of National History|title=The History of Serbian Culture|year=1995|location=Edgware|publisher=Porthill Publishers|pages=41–51|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7nItAQAAIAAJ}} * {{Cite book|last=Ivić|first=Pavle|author-link=Pavle Ivić|title=The Serbian people and their language|year=2024|location=Novi Sad|publisher=Matica Srpska|url=https://www.maticasrpska.org.rs/stariSajt/casopisi/Ivic%20Serbian%20people.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20251229184257/https://www.maticasrpska.org.rs/stariSajt/casopisi/Ivic%20Serbian%20people.pdf |archive-date=29 December 2025 }} * {{Cite book|last1=Ivić|first1=Pavle|author-link1=Pavle Ivić|last2=Pešikan|first2=Mitar|chapter=Serbian printing|title=The History of Serbian Culture|year=1995|location=Edgware|publisher=Porthill Publishers|pages=137–145|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7nItAQAAIAAJ}} *{{cite book|last=Okuka|first=Miloš|author-link=Miloš Okuka|title=Srpski dijalekti|year=2008|location=Zagreb|publisher=Prosvjeta|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eVwqAQAAIAAJ|isbn=9789537611064}} * {{Cite book|last=Paxton|first=Roger V.|chapter=Identity and Consciousness: Culture and Politics among the Habsburg Serbs in the Eighteenth Century|title=Nation and Ideology: Essays in Honor of Wayne S. Vucinich|year=1981|location=Boulder, Colorado|publisher=East European Monographs|pages=101–120|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4OBoAAAAMAAJ}} * {{Cite book|last=Polomac|first=Vladimir R.|chapter=The Serbian language in the diplomatic correspondence of the Hungarian kings and court officials in the 15th and 16th centuries: A philological perspective|title=The Eternal Cycle: neighbours, allies and/or rivals: Serbo/Hungarian relations in the Middle Ages (895–1541)|year=2025|location=Belgrade-Budapest|publisher=The Institute of History; HUN-REN Research Centre for Humanities, Institute of History|pages=257–279|chapter-url=https://www.iib.ac.rs/ZR/assets/files/TheEternalCycle2025.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20260107231559/https://www.iib.ac.rs/ZR/assets/files/TheEternalCycle2025.pdf |archive-date=7 January 2026 }} * {{Cite book|last=Popović|first=Ljubomir|chapter=From standard Serbian through standard Serbo-Croatian to standard Serbian|title=Language in the Former Yugoslav Lands|year=2004|location=Columbus|publisher=Slavica Publishers|pages=25–40|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GPVwAAAAIAAJ}} * {{Cite book|last1=Radovanović|first1=Milorad|last2=Bugarski|first2=Nataša|chapter=Serbian Language at the End of the Century|title=Lexical Norm and National Language: Lexicography and Language Policy in South-Slavic Languages After 1989|year=2002|location=München|publisher=Verlag Otto Sagner|pages=164–172|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f58XAQAAIAAJ8}} * {{Cite book|last=Stojanović|first=Jelica R.|title=The development path of the Serbian language and script|year=2020|location=Podgorica|publisher=Matica srpska|url=https://maticasrpskacg.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/THE-DEVELOPMENT-PATH-OF-THE-SERBIAN-LANGUAGE-AND-SCRIPT.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240815110309/https://maticasrpskacg.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/THE-DEVELOPMENT-PATH-OF-THE-SERBIAN-LANGUAGE-AND-SCRIPT.pdf |archive-date=15 August 2024 }} * {{Cite book|last=Dimković-Telebaković|first=Gordana|title=English and Serbian Language in Contact|year=2017|location=Belgrade|publisher=Svet knjige|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=a4zsyAEACAAJ}} {{Div col end}}
=== Journals === {{Div col}} * {{Cite journal|last=Albijanić|first=Aleksandar|title=Serbian Church Slavic Elements in 18th-Early 19th Century Vojvodina Sources|journal=Die Welt der Slaven|year=1978|volume=23|number=2|pages=268–283|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cZxUuX2NO0AC}} * {{Cite journal|last=Albin|first=Alexander|title=The Creation of the Slaveno-Serbski Literary Language|journal=The Slavonic and East European Review|year=1970|volume=48|number=113|pages=483–491|jstor=4206278 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4206278}} *{{cite journal|editor-last=Belić|editor-first=Aleksandar|journal=Srpski dijalektološki zbornik [Recueil de dialectologie serbe]|volume=2|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=V2wwAQAAMAAJ|year=1911|title=Српски дијалектолошки зборник}} * {{Cite journal|last=Greenberg|first=Robert D.|year=2000|title=Language Politics in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia: The Crisis over the Future of Serbian|journal=Slavic Review|volume=59|number=3|pages=625–640|doi=10.2307/2697348|jstor=2697348|s2cid=155546040|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2697348|url-access=subscription}} *{{cite journal|author=Gröschel, Bernhard|author-link=Bernhard Gröschel|title=Postjugoslavische Amtssprachenregelungen – Soziolinguistische Argumente gegen die Einheitlichkeit des Serbokroatischen?|trans-title=Post-Yugoslav Official Languages Regulations – Sociolinguistic Arguments Against Consistency of Serbo-Croatian?|url=https://archive.org/details/Postjugoslavische_Amtssprachenregelungen_Bernhard_Groeschel_2003|language=de |journal=Srpski Jezik|volume=8|issue=1–2|pages=135–196|year=2003|issn=0354-9259|id=[http://www.vbs.rs/scripts/cobiss?command=DISPLAY&base=99999&rid=121971724&fmt=11&lani=sr COBISS 121971724]|access-date=4 April 2015}} *{{cite journal|last=Kovačević|first=M.|year=2007|title=Srpski jezik i njegove varijante|journal=Srpsko Pitanje I Srbistika|pages=255–262}} *{{cite journal|last=Mišić Ilić|first=B.|year=2015|title=Srpski jezik u dijaspori: pogled iz lingvističkog ugla|trans-title=Serbian language in the diaspora|journal=Srpski Jezik|volume=20|pages=289–307}} * {{Cite journal|last=Nomachi|first=Motoki|title="East" and "West" as Seen in the Structure of Serbian: Language Contact and Its Consequences|journal=Slavic Eurasian Studies|year=2015|volume=28|page=29-63|url=http://src-h.slav.hokudai.ac.jp/coe21/publish/no28_ses/Chapter1_2.pdf}} *{{cite journal|last=Okuka|first=M.|year=2009|title=Srpski jezik danas: sociolingvistički status|journal=Jezični varijeteti i nacionalni identiteti|pages=215–233}} *{{cite journal|last=Petrović|first=T.|year=2001|title=Speaking a different Serbian language: Refugees in Serbia between conflict and integration|journal=Journal of Liberal Arts|volume=6|issue=1|pages=97–108}} *{{cite journal|last1=Radić|first1=Jovanka|last2=Miloradović|first2=Sofija|editor=Piper, P.|title=Српски језик у контексту националних идентитета: поводом српске мањине у Мађарској|journal=ЈУЖНОСЛОВЕНСКИ Филолог|volume=LXV|year=2009|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vAWXBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA153|pages=153–179|id=GGKEY:00RD5D429DG}} * {{Cite journal|last=Radovanović|first=Milorad|title=From Serbo-Croatian to Serbian|journal=Multilingua|year=2000|volume=19|number=1–2|pages=21–35|doi=10.1515/mult.2000.19.1-2.21|s2cid=143260283|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oQkLAQAAMAAJ|url-access=subscription}} * {{Cite journal|last=Savić|first=Viktor|title=The Serbian Redaction of the Church Slavonic Language: From St. Clement, the Bishop of the Slavs, to St. Sava, the Serbian Archbishop|journal=Slověne: International Journal of Slavic Studies|volume=5|number=2|year=2016|pages=231–339|language=sr|url=https://slovene.ru/2016_2_Savic.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240904103419/https://slovene.ru/2016_2_Savic.pdf |archive-date=4 September 2024 }} * {{Cite journal|last=Sorescu-Marinković|first=Annemarie|title=Serbian Language Acquisition in Communist Romania|journal=Balcanica|year=2010|issue=41|pages=7–31|doi=10.2298/BALC1041007S|url=http://www.doiserbia.nb.rs/img/doi/0350-7653/2010/0350-76531041007S.pdf|doi-access=free}} *{{cite journal|last=Vučković|first=M.|year=2009|title=Савремена дијалектолошка истраживања у српској лингвистици и проблематика језика у контакту|journal=Јужнословенски Филолог|volume=65|pages=405–423}} {{Div col end}}
==External links== {{InterWiki|code=sr}} {{Wikibooks}} {{Wikisource|Category:Works originally in Serbian}} {{Commons category}} {{Wikivoyage|Serbian phrasebook}} * [http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:Serbian_Swadesh_list Swadesh list of basic vocabulary words] (from Wiktionary's Appendix:Swadesh lists) * [https://web.archive.org/web/20130623102722/http://www.rastko.org.rs/isk/pivic-standard_language.html Standard language as an instrument of culture and the product of national history]{{spaced ndash}}an article by linguist Pavle Ivić at ''Project Rastko'' * [http://www.serbiatravelers.org/en/index.php/basics/42-basics/414-serbian-phrasebook A Basic Serbian Phrasebook] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081229190922/http://www.serbiatravelers.org/en/index.php/basics/42-basics/414-serbian-phrasebook |date=2008-12-29 }}
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