Gaj's Latin alphabet

{{Short description|Form of Latin script used to write Serbo-Croatian}}

{{Infobox writing system | name = Gaj's Latin alphabet | native_name = {{lang-sh-Latn-Cyrl|Gajeva latinica|Гајева латиница|separator=" / "|label=none}} | type = [[Alphabet]] | languages = {{plainlist| * [[Serbo-Croatian]] * [[Bosnian language|Bosnian]] * [[Croatian language|Croatian]] * [[Montenegrin language|Montenegrin]] * [[Serbian language|Serbian]] }} | time = early 19th century – present | fam1 = [[Egyptian hieroglyphs]] | fam2 = [[Proto-Sinaitic alphabet]] | fam3 = [[Phoenician alphabet]] | fam4 = [[Greek alphabet]] | fam5 = [[Old Italic scripts]] | fam6 = [[Latin alphabet]] | fam7 = [[Czech alphabet]] | children = [[Slovene alphabet]] [[Montenegrin Latin alphabet]] [[Romanization of Macedonian#Romanization systems|Macedonian Latin alphabet]] [[Romanization of Bulgarian|Bulgarian Latin alphabet]] | sisters = [[Slovak alphabet]] [[Latvian alphabet]] | unicode = subset of [[Unicode Latin|Latin]] | sample = File:Serbo-Croatian Latin alphabet (Gaj's Latin alphabet).svg | imagesize = 400px }}

'''Gaj's Latin alphabet'''{{efn|{{lang-sh-Latn-Cyrl|Gajeva latinica|Гајева латиница|separator=" / "}}, {{IPA|sh|ɡâːjeva latǐnit͡sa|pron}}}}{{efn|Also known as '''{{lang|sh-Latn|abeceda}}''', {{lang-sh-Cyrl|абецеда}}, {{IPA|sh|abet͡sěːda|pron}}, '''{{lang|sh-Latn|gajica}}''', {{lang-sh-Cyrl|гајица|link=no}}, {{IPA|sh|ɡǎjit͡sa|pron}} and '''{{lang|sh-Latn|latinica}}''', {{lang-sh-Cyrl|латиница}}}} is the form of the [[Latin script]] used for writing all four [[standard varieties]] of [[Serbo-Croatian]]: [[Bosnian language|Bosnian]], [[Croatian language|Croatian]], [[Montenegrin language|Montenegrin]], and [[Serbian language|Serbian]]. It contains 30 letters: 22 letters of [[ISO basic Latin alphabet|basic Latin alphabet]] (excluding Q, W, X, Y), 5 letters with diacritics (Č, Ć, Đ, Š, Ž) and 3 digraphs (Dž, Lj, Nj). Each letter (including digraphs) represents one [[Serbo-Croatian phonology|Serbo-Croatian phoneme]], yielding a highly [[phonemic orthography]]. It closely corresponds to the [[Serbian Cyrillic alphabet]].

The alphabet was initially devised by Croatian linguist [[Ljudevit Gaj]] during the [[Illyrian movement]]. The alphabet's final form was defined in the late 19th century with contributions from other linguists, and it has since been in standard use. It was also the basis for a number of other Latin alphabets and romanizations in southeastern Europe. In Serbia, where Cyrillic is more prestigious, Gaj's Latin is nevertheless very common in media and everyday life.

==Letters==

The alphabet consists of thirty [[Capital letters|upper]] and [[lower case]] letters:

{|class=wikitable style=text-align:center |- |bgcolor="#EFEFEF" colspan="30" | '''[[Capital letters|Majuscule forms]]''' (also called '''uppercase''' or '''capital letters''') |- | width=15|[[A]] || width=15|[[B]] || width=15|[[C]] || width=15|[[Č]] || width=15|[[Ć]] || width=15|[[D]] || width=15|[[Dž]] || width=15|[[Đ]] | width=15|[[E]] || width=15|[[F]] || width=15|[[G]] || width=15|[[H]] || width=15|[[I]] || width=15|[[J]] || width=15|[[K]] || width=15|[[L]] | width=15|[[Lj (digraph)|Lj]] || width=15|[[M]] || width=15|[[N]] || width=15|[[Nj (digraph)|Nj]] || width=15|[[O]] || width=15|[[P]] || width=15|[[R]] || width=15|[[S]] | width=15|[[Š]] || width=15|[[T]] || width=15|[[U]] || width=15|[[V]] || width=15|[[Z]] || width=15|[[Ž]] |- |bgcolor="#EFEFEF" colspan="30" | '''[[Lower case|Minuscule forms]]''' (also called '''lowercase''' or '''small letters''') |- |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 |- |bgcolor="#EFEFEF" colspan="30" | '''Broad IPA Value''' |- |{{IPAslink|a}}||{{IPAslink|b}} ||{{IPAslink|t͡s}} ||{{IPAslink|t͡ʃ}} ||{{IPAslink|t͡ɕ}} ||{{IPAslink|d}} ||{{IPAslink|d͡ʒ}} ||{{IPAslink|d͡ʑ}} |{{IPAslink|e}} ||{{IPAslink|f}} ||{{IPAslink|ɡ}} ||{{IPAslink|x}} ||{{IPAslink|i}} ||{{IPAslink|j}} ||{{IPAslink|k}} ||{{IPAslink|l}} |{{IPAslink|ʎ}} ||{{IPAslink|m}} ||{{IPAslink|n}} ||{{IPAslink|ɲ}} ||{{IPAslink|o}} ||{{IPAslink|p}} ||{{IPAslink|r}} ||{{IPAslink|s}} |{{IPAslink|ʃ}} ||{{IPAslink|t}} ||{{IPAslink|u}} ||{{IPAslink|ʋ}} ||{{IPAslink|z}} ||{{IPAslink|ʒ}} |}

Letters are referred to by their name: ''a, be, ce, če, će, de, dže, đe, e, ef, ge, ha, i, je, ka, el, elj, em, en, enj, o, pe, er, es, eš, te, u, ve, ze, že'',{{Sfn|Babić|Brozović|Škarić|Težak|2007|p=173}}{{sfn|Žagarová|Pintarić|1998|p=129}} or, in the case of consonants, by being appended by [[schwa]], e.g. {{IPA|/fə/}}.{{Sfn|Babić|Brozović|Škarić|Težak|2007|p=115, 173}}{{sfn|Žagarová|Pintarić|1998|p=130}}{{sfn|Пипер|Клајн|Драгичевић|2022|p=19}} In mathematics, {{angbr|j}} is commonly pronounced ''jot'',<ref>{{Cite AV media |last=Pašić |first=Mervan |date=24 October 2021 |title=Uvod u kombinatoriku na faksu |trans-title=Introduction to university-level combinatorics |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2Ae1aA6z68&t=4173s |via=[[YouTube]] |location=[[Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing, University of Zagreb]] |time=1:03:33 |time-caption=Quote stats at |quote=Prebrojavamo sve uređene četvorke a-jedan, a-dva, a-tri, a-četiri, pri čemu ovi a-jot idu po skupu dečki. |trans-quote=We're counting all ordered quadruples a-one, a-two, a-three, a-four, where these a-jay go over the set of boys.}}</ref> as in [[German Standard German]].{{Citation needed|date=March 2025}}

===Foreign letters=== Various foreign letters are utilised in orthographically unadapted [[Loanword|loanwords]] and foreign proper names, such as ''Québec''.{{sfn|Badurina|Marković|Mićanović|2008|p=5}}{{sfn|Halilović|2017|p=11, 141}}{{sfn|Пешикан|Јерковић|Пижурица|2010|p=17}} Orthographically unadapted spelling of foreign names and some loanwords is standard in Croatia, whereas Serbians prefer to use orthographically adapted spellings. Non-native letters [[Q]], [[W]], [[X]], and [[Y]] appear on the [[Gaj's Latin alphabet#Keyboard_layout|Serbo-Croatian keyboard]]. These four letters are usually named as follows: {{angbr|q}} as ''kve'' or ''ku'', {{angbr|w}} as ''duplo ve'' or ''dvostruko ve'', {{angbr|x}} as ''iks'', and {{angbr|y}} as ''ipsilon''.{{sfn|Badurina|Marković|Mićanović|2008|p=5}}<ref>{{Cite journal |title=Internetsko nazivlje u govornim medijima |journal=Govor |last=Mihaljević |first=Milica |url=https://hrcak.srce.hr/179380 |volume=20 |issue=1-2 |pages=267 |year=2003 |location=Zagreb |publisher=Hrvatsko filološko društvo}}</ref>{{sfn|Halilović|2017|p=11}}

==Digraphs== [[Digraph (orthography)|Digraphs]] {{angbr|[[dž]]}}, {{angbr|[[Lj (letter)|lj]]}} and {{angbr|[[Nj (letter)|nj]]}} are considered to be single letters, and they signify single phonemes. However, they are distinguished from occurrences of two such letters that signify two distinct phonemes: ''džep'' ({{ipa|/d͡ʒêp/}}, Cyrillic џеп) uses the digraph, while ''nadživjeti'' ({{ipa|/nadʒǐːvjeti/}}, Cyrillic надживјети, morphological boundary: prefix ''nad-'' + base ''živjeti'') uses two separate letters. * In dictionaries, ''njegov'' comes after ''novine'', in a separate {{angbr|nj}} section after the end of the {{angbr|n}} section; ''bolje'' comes after ''bolnica''; ''nadžak'' (digraph {{angbr|dž}}) comes after ''nadživjeti'' ({{angbr|d}}+{{angbr|ž}} sequence), and so forth. *If only the initial letter of a word is capitalized, only the first of the two component letters is capitalized: ''Njemačka'' ('[[Germany]]'), not ''NJemačka''. Uppercase is used only if the entire word was capitalized: ''NJEMAČKA''.{{sfn|Badurina|Marković|Mićanović|2008|p=3}} In [[Unicode]], the form {{angbr|Nj}} is referred to as ''[[titlecase]]'', as opposed to the uppercase form {{angbr|NJ}}, representing one of the few cases in which titlecase and uppercase differ. {| align="right" style="float: right; text-align: center; border: 2px solid green; padding: 0 0.3em 0 0.3em; margin: 1em;" |- | valign="top" | U LJ E | valign="top" | M J E NJ A Č N I C A |} *In vertical writing (such as on signs), {{angbr|dž}}, {{angbr|lj}}, {{angbr|nj}} are written horizontally, as a unit. For instance, if ''ulje'' ('oil') is written vertically, {{angbr|lj}} appears on the second line. In [[crossword]] puzzles, {{angbr|dž}}, {{angbr|lj}}, {{angbr|nj}} each occupy a single square. The word ''mjenjačnica'' ('[[bureau de change]]') is written vertically with {{angbr|nj}} on the fourth line, while {{angbr|m}} and {{angbr|j}} appear separately on the first and second lines, respectively, because {{angbr|mj}} contains two letters, not one. *If words are written with a space between each letter (such as on signs), each digraph is written as a unit. For instance: ''U LJ E'', ''M J E NJ A Č N I C A''.

==Accent marks== The vowels {{lang|sh|a}}, {{lang|sh|e}}, {{lang|sh|i}}, {{lang|sh|o}}, {{lang|sh|u}}, along with the [[syllabic consonant]]s {{lang|sh|r}} and {{lang|sh|l}}, can take one of 5 accents: the [[double grave accent]] (◌̏) for a short vowel with falling tone, the [[inverted breve]] (◌̑) for a long vowel with falling tone, the [[grave accent]] (◌̀) for a short vowel with rising tone, the [[acute accent]] (◌́) for long vowel with rising tone, and [[macron (diacritic)|macron]] (◌̄) for a non-tonic long vowel. These diacritic accents are typically used in dictionaries and linguistic publications, and in poetry to denote [[Metre (poetry)|metrically]] correct reading. In ordinary prose they occur when needed to resolve semantic ambiguity between [[homograph]]s: {{lang|sh|kod}} ('at') vs. {{lang|sh|kȏd}} ('code'), {{lang|sh|sam}} ('am') vs. {{lang|sh|sȃm}} ('alone'). For the same reason, the length of an unaccented syllable can be marked with ⟨◌̄⟩ or [[circumflex]] ⟨◌̂⟩, without accentuating the rest of the word. This is typically used to distinguish homographic nominative or genitive singular and genitive plural forms of nouns, where the genitive plural has a long final vowel: {{lang|sh|knjiga}} ('book' {{Abbr|Nsg.|nominative singular}}) vs. {{lang|sh|knjigâ}} or {{lang|sh|knjigā}} ('books' {{Abbr|Gpl.|genitive plural}}), {{lang|sh|prijatelja}} ('friend' {{Abbr|Gsg.|genitive singular}}) vs. {{lang|sh|prijateljâ}} or {{lang|sh|prijateljā}} ('friends' {{Abbr|Gpl.|genitive plural}}).{{sfn|Badurina|Marković|Mićanović|2008|p=107-108}}{{sfn|Пешикан|Јерковић|Пижурица|2010|p=139-140}}

==History== ===Croatian Latin alphabet before Gaj=== In Croatian writing the Latin alphabet became dominant in the 16th century, marginalising the [[Cyrillic]] and the [[Glagolitic]] alphabets.{{sfn|Badurina|2012|p=69}} In the 17th century there coalesced two major orthographic practices for using the Latin alphabet. [[Dalmatia]] used a system based on the [[Italian orthography]], whereas the continental [[Kaykavian]] writing was based on [[Hungarian alphabet|Hungarian]]. In the 18th century the [[Slavonia]]n orthography arose as well, a mixture of the previous two.{{sfn|Badurina|2012|p=73, 77}} However, the specifics of the alphabetic systems tended to vary from writer to writer.{{sfn|Maretić|1889|loc=passim}}

In addition to these three widely used systems, multiple individual writers attempted their own reforms of the alphabet. These include [[Rajmund Đamanjić]] (1639), the early 1700s Dubrovnik academy work led by [[Đuro Matijašević]] and [[Ignjat Đurđević]], as well as the early 1700s ''Lexicon Latino-Illyricum'' by [[Pavao Ritter Vitezović]].

[[File:Ljudevit Gaj (Knjižnica Gajeva 1875).png|thumb|200px|left|Croatian linguist [[Ljudevit Gaj]]]]

===Gaj's reform and its revisions=== The alphabet was initially devised by Croatian linguist [[Ljudevit Gaj]] in 1835 during the [[Illyrian movement]] in [[Croats|ethnically Croatian]] parts of the [[Austrian Empire]]. It was meant to serve as a unified orthography for [[Triune Kingdom|three Croat-populated kingdoms]] within the Austrian Empire at the time, namely [[Kingdom of Croatia (Habsburg)|Croatia]], [[Kingdom of Dalmatia|Dalmatia]] and [[Kingdom of Slavonia|Slavonia]], and their three dialect groups, [[Kajkavian]], [[Chakavian]] and [[Shtokavian]], which historically utilized different spelling rules.

It was largely based on [[Jan Hus]]'s [[Czech alphabet]], (č, ž, š) and [[Polish alphabet|Polish]] (ć). Gaj invented {{angbr|lj}}, {{angbr|nj}} and {{angbr|dž}}, according to similar solutions in [[Hungarian alphabet|Hungarian]] (ly, ny and dzs, although dž combinations exist also in Czech (and Polish as dż)). In 1830 in [[Buda (city)|Buda]], he published the book ''Kratka osnova horvatsko-slavenskog pravopisanja'' ("Brief basics of the Croatian-Slavonic orthography"), which was the first common Croatian [[orthography]] book.

Gaj followed the example of Pavao Ritter Vitezović and the [[Czech alphabet|Czech orthography]], making one letter of the Latin script for each sound in the language. Following [[Vuk Karadžić]]'s reform of Cyrillic in the early nineteenth century, in the 1830s Ljudevit Gaj did the same for ''latinica'', using the Czech system and producing a one-to-one grapheme-phoneme correlation between the Cyrillic and Latin orthographies, resulting in a parallel system.<ref name="ComrieCorbett2003">{{cite book |editor-last1=Comrie |editor-first1=Bernard |editor-link1=Bernard Comrie |editor-last2=Corbett |editor-first2=Greville G. |title=The Slavonic Languages |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uRF9Yiso1OIC&pg=PA45 |access-date=23 December 2013 |date=2003 |location=London |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>

[[Image: Djura danicic.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Đuro Daničić]] added the letter "Đ" instead of "Dj" in ''Croatian Academy'' 1882.]]

In 1878 [[Đuro Daničić]] proposed a replacement of the digraphs {{angbr|dž}}, {{angbr|dj}},{{efn|At the time {{angbr|gj}} was also in use.{{sfn|Babić|Brozović|Škarić|Težak|2007|p=176}}{{sfn|Maretić|1963|p=25}}}} {{angbr|lj}} and {{angbr|nj}} with single letters: {{angbr|ģ}}, {{angbr|đ}}, {{angbr|ļ}} and {{angbr|ń}} respectively.{{sfn|Daničić|1975–1976|pp=5-9|loc=Dodatak: Materijali o rječniku}} Of the four, {{angbr|đ}} was accepted in [[Ivan Broz]]'s 1892 ''Hrvatski pravopis'' ("Croatian Orthography") and it thus became a part of the standard alphabet, though it was not immediately accepted by all writers and publishers.{{sfn|Moguš|2009|p=185}}{{sfn|Maretić|1963|p=25}} The other three letters remained in use only in certain philological publications.{{sfn|Babić|Brozović|Škarić|Težak|2007|p=176}}{{sfn|Maretić|1963|p=25}} Names of individual people have sometimes retained the pre-''đ'' spelling: ''[[Ksaver Šandor Gjalski]]'' ({{IPA|/d͡ʑâːlskiː/}}),<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Ђа̑лскӣ |encyclopedia=Речник српскохрватског књижевног и народног језика. Књига V (дугуљан—закључити) |year=1968 |publisher=Институт за српскохрватски језик |location=Београд}}</ref> ''[[Gjuro Szabo]]'' ({{IPA|/d͡ʑǔːro/}}).<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Đúro |encyclopedia=Hrvatsko ili srpsko-talijanski rječnik |last1=Deanović |first1=Mirko |year=1975 |publisher=Školska knjiga |location=Zagreb |edition=4th |last2=Jernej |first2=Josip}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=Uvod u hrvatsko imenoslovlje |last=Šimunović |first=Petar |publisher=Golden Marketing - Tehnička knjiga |year=2009 |location=Zagreb |pages=129}}</ref>

[[Serbo-Croatian]] was regarded as a single language since the 1850 [[Vienna Literary Agreement]], to be written in two forms: one ([[Serbs|Serb]]) in the adapted Serbian Cyrillic alphabet, ''{{lang|sh-Latn|ćirilica}}''; the other ([[Croats|Croat]]) in the adapted Croatian Latin alphabet,<ref>The World and Its Peoples 2009 - Page 1654 "Until modern times, Serbo-Croat was regarded as a single language, written in two forms: one (Serb) in the Cyrillic alphabet; the other (Croat) in ...</ref> that is to say Gaj's Latin alphabet, {{lang|sh-Latn|latinica}}.

===Introduction in Serbian=== [[File: Scripts in Europe (1901).jpg|thumb|250px|Main alphabets used in Europe around 1900: {{legend|#84CFEE|outline=#ccc|[[Latin script]]: [[Fraktur (script)|Fraktur]] variant}} {{legend|#F8D2D1|outline=#ccc|Latin script: [[Antiqua (typeface class)|Antiqua]] variant}} {{legend|#DAF6D0|outline=#ccc|[[Cyrillic script]]}} {{legend|#D4CAA7|outline=#ccc|[[Greek alphabet]]}} {{legend|#FEFF88|outline=#ccc|[[Arabic script]]}} {{legend|#ffffff|outline=#ccc|[[Clear script|Kalmyk]]–[[Mongolian script|Mongolian]] script}} ]]

The Latin alphabet was not initially taught in schools in Serbia when it became independent in the 19th century. After a series of efforts by Serbian writers [[Ljubomir Stojanović]] and [[Jovan Skerlić]], it became part of the school curriculum after 1914.<ref>{{cite book | title = Yugoslavia and Its Historians: Understanding the Balkan Wars of the 1990s | first1 = Norman M. | last1 = Naimark | first2 = Holly | last2 = Case | publisher = Stanford University Press | year = 2003 | isbn = 0804745943 | pages = 95–96 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=u5tUbUyXtToC&pg=PA95 | access-date = 2012-04-18}}</ref>

During World War I, [[Austria-Hungary]] banned the Cyrillic alphabet in [[Austro-Hungarian rule in Bosnia and Herzegovina|Bosnia]]<ref name="Horne2010">{{cite book|author=John Horne|title=A Companion to World War I|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AGpUuWvQXkQC&pg=PA375|access-date=26 April 2013|date=16 March 2010|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|isbn=978-1-4443-2364-1|page=375}}</ref> and its use in occupied Serbia was banned in schools.<ref name="Serbia's Great War 1914-1918">{{cite book|title=Serbia's Great War 1914-1918|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=viqqqQ2KT7kC&pg=PA231|access-date=26 April 2013|year=2007|publisher=Purdue University Press|isbn=978-1-55753-477-4|page=231}}</ref> Cyrillic was banned in the [[Independent State of Croatia]] in World War II.<ref name="Copley1992">{{cite book|author=Gregory R. Copley|title=Defense & Foreign Affairs Strategic Policy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AFExAQAAIAAJ|access-date=26 April 2013|year=1992|publisher=Copley & Associates|page=17}}</ref>

The government of [[SFR Yugoslavia]] made some initial effort to promote romanization, use of the Latin alphabet even in the [[Orthodox Serbian]] and [[Socialist Republic of Montenegro|Montenegrin]] parts of Yugoslavia, but met with resistance.<ref>The Social construction of written communication Bennett A. Rafoth, Donald L. Rubin - 1988 "Yugoslavian efforts to romanize Serbian (Kalogjera, 1985) and Chinese efforts to romanize Mandarin (De Francis, 1977b, 1984; Seybolt & Chiang, 1979) reveal that even authoritarian regimes may have to accept only limited success when the price of complete victory is too high."</ref> The use of ''latinica'' did however become more common among Serbian speakers, and the Serbian language became an example of [[digraphia]].

===Modern history===

In late 1980s, a number of articles had been published in Serbia about a danger of Cyrillic being fully replaced by Latin, thereby endangering what was deemed a Serbian national symbol.<ref>{{cite journal | url = https://hrcak.srce.hr/index.php?show=clanak&id_clanak_jezik=319260&lang=en | page = 51 | first = Artur | last = Bagdasarov | title = Ethnolinguistic policy in socialist Yugoslavia | journal = Filologija | issue = 71 | year = 2018 | publisher = [[Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts]] | doi = 10.21857/m8vqrtze29 | issn = 1848-8919 | access-date = 15 August 2021}}</ref>

Following the [[breakup of Yugoslavia]], Gaj's Latin alphabet remained in use in [[Bosnian language|Bosnian]] and [[Croatian language|Croatian]] standards of [[Serbo-Croatian]]. Another standard of Serbo-Croatian, [[Montenegrin language|Montenegrin]], uses a slightly modified version of it, the [[Montenegrin Latin alphabet]].

In 1993, the authorities of [[Republika Srpska (1992–1995)|Republika Srpska]] under [[Radovan Karadžić]] and [[Momčilo Krajišnik]] decided to proclaim [[Ekavian]] and [[Serbian Cyrillic]] to be official in Republika Srpska, which was opposed both by native [[Serbs of Bosnia and Herzegovina|Bosnian Serb]] writers at the time and the general public, and that decision was rescinded in 1994.<ref>{{cite book | title = Language and Identity in the Balkans: Serbo-Croatian and Its Disintegration | first = Robert D. | last = Greenberg | publisher = Oxford University Press | year = 2004 | isbn = 0191514551 | pages = 78–79 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=_lNjHgr3QioC&pg=PA78 | access-date = 2012-04-18}}</ref> Nevertheless, it was reinstated in a milder form in 1996, and today still the use of Serbian Latin is officially discouraged in [[Republika Srpska]], in favor of Cyrillic.<ref>{{cite book | title = Language and Identity in the Balkans: Serbo-Croatian and Its Disintegration | first = Robert D. | last = Greenberg | publisher = Oxford University Press | year = 2004 | isbn = 0191514551 | pages = 82–83 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=_lNjHgr3QioC&pg=PA82 | access-date = 2012-04-18}}</ref>

[[File: Beograd in 25.jpg|thumb|A road sign in Serbia using Cyrillic and Latin alphabets. The towns are [[Šid]] (pronounced [ʃiːd]), [[Novi Sad]] and [[Belgrade]].]]

Article 10 of the [[Constitution of Serbia]]<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.srbija.gov.rs/cinjenice_o_srbiji/ustav_odredbe.php?id=217 | access-date = 2013-04-26 | work = Constitution of the Republic of Serbia | title = Constitution Principles | publisher = [[Government of Serbia]] }}</ref> adopted by a referendum in 2006 defined Cyrillic as the official script in [[Serbia]], while Latin was given the status of "Script in official use".

A survey from 2014 showed that 47% of the Serbian population favors the Latin alphabet whereas 36% favors Cyrillic; the remaining 17% has no preference.<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|date=16 December 2014 }}</ref>

Today, Serbian is more likely to be written in Latin in [[Montenegro]] than in Serbia.<ref>One thousand languages: living, endangered, and lost - Page 46 Peter Austin - 2008 "Croatian and Bosnian are written in the Latin alphabet; Serbian in both Serbia and Bosnia is written in the Cyrillic alphabet. Both scripts are used for Serbian in Montenegro."</ref> Exceptions to this include Serbian websites where use of Latin alphabet is often more convenient, and increasing use in tabloid and popular media such as ''[[Blic]]'', ''[[Danas (newspaper)|Danas]]'' and ''Svet''.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.svet.rs/ |title=Home |website=svet.rs}}</ref> More established media, such as the formerly state-run {{Lang|sr-latn|[[Politika]]}}, and [[Radio Television of Serbia]],<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.tanjug.rs/index1.aspx|title = ТАНЈУГ | Новинска агенција}}</ref> or foreign [[Google News]],<ref>https://news.google.com/{{nonspecific|date=May 2022}}</ref> [[Voice of Russia]]<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://serbian.ruvr.ru/ |title=Глас Русије |access-date=2013-04-26 |archive-date=2013-04-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130424081834/http://serbian.ruvr.ru/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> and [[Facebook]] tend to use Cyrillic script.<ref>Hitting the headlines in Europe: a country-by-country guide Page 166 Cathie Burton, Alun Drake - 2004 "The former state-run paper, Politika, which kept its retro style until very recently, using Serbian Cyrillic rather than the Latin alphabet, has been bought by a German company and is modernizing rapidly. There are a host of tabloids, .."</ref> Some websites offer the content in both scripts, using Cyrillic as the source and auto generating Romanized version.

In 2013 in Croatia there were [[Anti-Cyrillic protests in Croatia|massive protests against official Cyrillic signs]] on local government buildings in [[Vukovar]].<ref>Agence France-Presse, April 7, 2013 [http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/afp/130407/croatians-protest-against-cyrillic-signs-vukovar] ''Croatians protest against Cyrillic signs in Vukovar''</ref>

==Correspondence between Cyrillic and Latin alphabets== Each Cyrillic and Latin Serbo-Croatian letter has its exact counterpart in the other alphabet, although Latin digraphs {{angbr|lj}}, {{angbr|nj}} and {{angbr|dž}} correspond to Cyrillic single letters {{angbr|љ}}, {{angbr|њ}} and {{angbr|џ}}, so knowledge of Serbian is sometimes required to do proper transliteration from Latin back to Cyrillic. This is the case in relatively rare instances when what appears like a digraph in Latin in fact represents two separate letters. Transliteration from Cyrillic to Latin does not pose such challenges as Cyrillic does not employ digraphs.

The following table provides the upper and lower case forms of Gaj's Latin alphabet, along with the equivalent forms in the Serbo-Croatian Cyrillic alphabet.

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center; table-layout:fixed; width:100%;" |- ! style="width:10%;" | Cyrillic | {{lang|sr|[[A (Cyrillic)|А а]]}} | {{lang|sr|[[Be (Cyrillic)|Б б]]}} | {{lang|sr|[[Ve (Cyrillic)|В в]]}} | {{lang|sr|[[Ge (Cyrillic)|Г г]]}} | {{lang|sr|[[De (Cyrillic)|Д д]]}} | {{lang|sr|[[Dje|Ђ ђ]]}} | {{lang|sr|[[Ye (Cyrillic)|Е е]]}} | {{lang|sr|[[Zhe (Cyrillic)|Ж ж]]}} | {{lang|sr|[[Ze (Cyrillic)|З з]]}} | {{lang|sr|[[I (Cyrillic)|И и]]}} | {{lang|sr|[[Je (Cyrillic)|Ј ј]]}} | {{lang|sr|[[Ka (Cyrillic)|К к]]}} | {{lang|sr|[[El (Cyrillic)|Л л]]}} | {{lang|sr|[[Lje|Љ љ]]}} | {{lang|sr|[[Em (Cyrillic)|М м]]}} |- ! Latin | A a | B b | V v | G g | D d | Đ đ | E e | Ž ž | Z z | I i | J j | K k | L l | Lj lj | M m |} {| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center; table-layout:fixed; width:100%;" |- ! style="width:10%;" | Cyrillic | {{lang|sr|[[En (Cyrillic)|Н н]]}} | {{lang|sr|[[Nje|Њ њ]]}} | {{lang|sr|[[O (Cyrillic)|О о]]}} | {{lang|sr|[[Pe (Cyrillic)|П п]]}} | {{lang|sr|[[Er (Cyrillic)|Р р]]}} | {{lang|sr|[[Es (Cyrillic)|С с]]}} | {{lang|sr|[[Te (Cyrillic)|Т т]]}} | {{lang|sr|[[Tshe|Ћ ћ]]}} | {{lang|sr|[[U (Cyrillic)|У у]]}} | {{lang|sr|[[Ef (Cyrillic)|Ф ф]]}} | {{lang|sr|[[Kha (Cyrillic)|Х х]]}} | {{lang|sr|[[Ce (Cyrillic)|Ц ц]]}} | {{lang|sr|[[Che (Cyrillic)|Ч ч]]}} | {{lang|sr|[[Dzhe|Џ џ]]}} | {{lang|sr|[[Sha (Cyrillic)|Ш ш]]}} |- ! Latin | N n | Nj nj | O o | P p | R r | S s | T t | Ć ć | U u | F f | H h | C c | Č č | Dž dž | Š š |}

=== Practical correspondence ===

[[File:George Washington Street sign Belgrade.JPG|thumb|Sign of [[George Washington]] street in [[Belgrade]]]] Serbian personal and place names are consistently mapped between ''ćirilica'' and ''latinica''. A problem is presented by the letter [[Đ]]/[[đ]] that represents the [[affricate]] {{IPAblink|dʑ}} (the same sound written as {{Angle bracket|j}} in most romanizations of [[Japanese language|Japanese]], similar, though not identical to English {{Angle bracket|j}} as in "jewel"), which is still sometimes represented by {{Angle bracket|dj}}. A [[transcription (linguistics)|transcribed]] "Dj" is still sometimes encountered in rendering Serbian names into English (e.g. [[Novak Djokovic]]), though strictly Đ should be used (as in Croatian). Conversely, in Serbian, foreign names are phonetically [[transliterated]] into both Latin and Cyrillic. For example, in Serbian, [[George Washington]] becomes {{lang|sr-Latn|Džordž Vašington}} or {{lang|sr-Cyrl|Џорџ Вашингтон}}.<ref>Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian, a grammar: with sociolinguistic commentary - Page 3 Ronelle Alexander - 2006 -"... name in original Serbian (Cyrillic) Serbian (Latin) Croatian George Џорџ Džordž; George Mary Мери Meri Mary; Winston Churchill Винстон Черчил Vinston Čerčil Winston Churchill; Charles de Gaulle Шарл де Гол Šarl de Gol Charles de Gaulle;"</ref> An exception to this are place names which are so well known as to have their own form ([[exonym and endonym|exonym]]): just as English has ''[[Vienna]], [[Austria]]'' (and not [[German language|German]] {{Lang|de|Wien}}'', {{Lang|de|Österreich}}'') so Croatian and Serbian have {{lang|sr-Latn|Beč, Austrija}} ({{lang-sr-Cyrl|Беч, Аустрија}}).

==Computing== In the 1990s, there was a general confusion about the proper [[character encoding]] to use to write text in Latin Croatian on computers.

*An attempt was made to apply the 7-bit "[[YUSCII]]", later "CROSCII", which included the five letters with diacritics at the expense of five non-letter characters ([, ], {, }, @), but it was ultimately unsuccessful. Because the ASCII character @ sorts before A, this led to jokes calling it ''žabeceda'' (''žaba''=frog, ''abeceda''=alphabet). *Other short-lived vendor-specific efforts were also undertaken.{{which|date=July 2010}} *The [[8-bit]] [[ISO 8859-2]] (Latin-2) standard was developed by ISO. *[[MS-DOS]] introduced 8-bit encoding CP852 for Central European languages, disregarding the ISO standard. *[[Microsoft Windows]] spread yet another 8-bit encoding called [[CP1250]], which had a few letters mapped one-to-one with ISO 8859-2, but also had some mapped elsewhere. *[[Apple computer|Apple]]'s [[Macintosh Central European encoding]] does not include the entire Gaj's Latin alphabet. Instead, a separate codepage, called [[MacCroatian encoding]], is used. *[[EBCDIC]] also has a Latin-2 encoding.<ref>{{Cite web |title=IBM Knowledge Center |url=https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/cics-ts/5.2?topic=documentation-knowledge-center |url-status=dead |website=www.ibm.com/us-en |access-date=2023-09-29 |archive-date=2022-11-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221109015244/https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/cics-ts/5.2?topic=documentation-knowledge-center }}</ref> The preferred [[character encoding]] for Croatian today is either the [[ISO 8859-2]], or the [[Unicode]] encoding [[UTF-8]] (with two bytes or 16 bits necessary to use the letters with diacritics). However, {{as of|2010|lc=on}}, one can still find programs as well as databases that use [[CP1250]], CP852 or even CROSCII.

Digraphs {{angbr|dž}}, {{angbr|lj}} and {{angbr|nj}} in their upper case, title case and lower case forms have dedicated Unicode code points as shown in the table below, However, these are included chiefly for backwards [[Unicode compatibility characters|compatibility with legacy encodings]] which kept a one-to-one correspondence with Cyrillic; modern texts use a sequence of characters. {|class=wikitable style="text-align: center;" !Character sequence ![[Precomposed character|Composite character]] !Unicode code point |- |DŽ ||Ǆ || U+01C4 |- |Dž || ǅ ||U+01C5 |- |dž ||ǆ ||U+01C6 |- |LJ ||Ǉ || U+01C7 |- |Lj ||ǈ || U+01C8 |- |lj ||ǉ ||U+01C9 |- |NJ ||Ǌ ||U+01CA |- |Nj ||ǋ || U+01CB |- |nj ||ǌ || U+01CC |}

It's possible to also use the [[English alphabet]], by dropping diacritics. This is sometimes known as "ASCII Serbian". It is commonly used in SMS messages, comments on the Internet or e-mails, mainly when users do not have a Serbian keyboard installed. In its ASCII form, the number of used letters drops down to 22, as the letters "q", "w", "x" and "y" are not used. This leads to some ambiguity due to [[homographs]], however, context is usually sufficient to clarify these issues.

Using such an incomplete ''latinica'' does not allow for easy transliteration back to Cyrillic without significant manual work. Google tried using a machine learning approach to solving this problem and developed an interactive text input tool that enables typing Serbian in ASCII and auto-converting to Cyrillic.<ref>[https://www.google.com/intl/sr/inputtools/cloud/try/ Google input tools for Serbian]</ref> However, manual typing is still required with occasional disambiguation selection from the pop-up menu.

Serbian text can be converted from Cyrillic to Latin and vice versa automatically by computer. There are add-in tools available for [[Microsoft Word]]<ref>[http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=1438 Office 2003 Add-in: Latin and Cyrillic Transliteration]</ref> and [[OpenOffice.org]],<ref>[http://oootranslit.info/download/ OOoTranslit add-on for OpenOffice]</ref> as well as command line tools for Linux, MacOS and Windows.

==Usage for Slovene== {{Main|Slovene alphabet}} Since the early 1840s, Gaj's alphabet was increasingly used for [[Slovene language|Slovene]]. In the beginning, it was most commonly used by Slovene authors who treated Slovene as a variant of Serbo-Croatian (such as [[Stanko Vraz]]), but it was later accepted by a large spectrum of Slovene-writing authors. The breakthrough came in 1845, when the Slovene conservative leader [[Janez Bleiweis]] started using Gaj's script in his journal ''[[Kmetijske in rokodelske novice]]'' ("Agricultural and Artisan News"), which was read by a wide public in the countryside. By 1850, Gaj's alphabet (known as ''gajica'' in Slovene) became the only official [[Slovene alphabet]], replacing three other writing systems that had circulated in the [[Slovene Lands]] since the 1830s: the traditional ''[[bohoričica]]'', named after [[Adam Bohorič]], who codified it; the ''[[dajnčica]]'', named after [[Peter Dajnko]]; and the ''[[metelčica]]'', named after [[Franc Serafin Metelko]].

The Slovene version of Gaj's alphabet differs from the Serbo-Croatian one in several ways: *The Slovene alphabet does not have the characters {{angbr|ć}} and {{angbr|đ}}; the sounds they represent do not occur in Slovene. *In Slovene, the digraphs {{angbr|lj}} and {{angbr|nj}} are treated as two separate letters and represent separate sounds (the word [[polje]] is pronounced {{IPA|sl|ˈpóːljɛ|}} or {{IPA|sl|pɔˈljéː|}} in Slovene, as opposed to {{IPA|sh|pôʎe|}} in Serbo-Croatian). *While the phoneme {{IPA|/dʒ/}} exists in modern Slovene and is written {{angbr|dž}}, it is used in only borrowed words and so {{angbr|d}} and {{angbr|ž}} are considered separate letters, not a digraph.

As in Serbo-Croatian, Slovene orthography does not make use of diacritics to mark accent in words in regular writing, but [[headword]]s in dictionaries are given with them to account for [[homographs]]. For instance, letter {{angbr|e}} can be pronounced in four ways ({{IPA|/eː/}}, {{IPA|/ɛ/}}, {{IPA|/ɛː/}} and {{IPA|/ə/}}), and letter {{angbr|v}} in two ({{IPA|[ʋ]}} and {{IPA|[w]}}, though the difference is not [[phoneme|phonemic]]). Also, it does not reflect consonant voicing assimilation: compare e.g. Slovene {{angbr|odpad}} and Serbo-Croatian {{angbr|otpad}} ('junkyard', 'waste').

==Usage for Macedonian== {{Main|Romanization of Macedonian}}

[[Romanization]] of [[Macedonian language|Macedonian]] is done according to Gaj's Latin alphabet<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lunt |first=Horace G. |title=Grammar of the Macedonian Literary Language |date=1952 |location=Skopje |publisher=none}}</ref><ref>Macedonian Latin alphabet, Pravopis na makedonskiot literaturen jazik, B. Vidoeski, T. Dimitrovski, K. Koneski, K. Tošev, R. Ugrinova Skalovska - Prosvetno delo Skopje, 1970, p.99</ref> with slight modification. Gaj's ''ć'' and ''đ'' are not used at all, with ''ḱ'' and ''ǵ'' introduced instead. The rest of the letters of the alphabet are used to represent the equivalent Cyrillic letters. Also, Macedonian uses the letter ''dz'', which is not part of the Serbo-Croatian phonemic inventory. As per the orthography, both ''lj'' and ''ĺ'' are accepted as romanisations of љ and both ''nj'' and ''ń'' for њ. For informal purposes, like texting, most Macedonian speakers will omit the diacritics or use a digraph- and trigraph-based system for ease as there is no Macedonian Latin keyboard supported on most systems. For example, ''š'' becomes ''sh'' or ''s'', and ''dž'' becomes ''dzh'' or ''dz''.

==Influence on Romani alphabets==

This alphabet influenced [[Romani alphabets|alphabets of Romani languages]] that are spoken in [[Southeast Europe]], namely [[Vlax Romani language|Vlax]] and [[Balkan Romani]].

==Keyboard layout== {{See also|QWERTZ#South Slavic Latin}} The standard Gaj's Latin alphabet [[keyboard layout]] for personal computers is as follows:

[[File:KB Slovene.svg|540px|center|Gaj's Latin alphabet keyboard layout]]

== Polling == {{Serbian alphabets poll}}

==See also== {{South Slavic languages sidebar}} *[[Glagolitic alphabet]] *[[Yugoslav braille]] *[[Yugoslav manual alphabet]]

==Notes== {{Notelist}}

==References== {{Reflist}}

==Sources== *{{cite book |last=Anić |first=Vladimir |authorlink=Vladimir Anić |last2=Silić |first2=Josip| language = hr | title = Pravopisni priručnik hrvatskoga ili srpskoga jezika | year = 1987 |publisher=Liber / Školska knjiga |location=Zagreb |edition=2nd}} *{{Cite book |title=Glasovi i oblici hrvatskoga književnoga jezika |last=Babić |first=Stjepan |publisher=Globus / HAZU |year=2007 |isbn=978-953-167-202-3 |location=Zagreb |last2=Brozović |first2=Dalibor |last3=Škarić |first3=Ivo |last4=Težak |first4=Stjepko |author-link=Stjepan Babić |author-link2=Dalibor Brozović |author-link3=Ivo Škarić |series=Velika hrvatska gramatika |volume=1 }} *{{Cite book |title=Hrvatski pravopis |last=Badurina |first=Lada |publisher=Matica hrvatska |year=2008 |edition=2nd |location=Zagreb |last2=Marković |first2=Ivan |last3=Mićanović |first3=Krešimir}} *{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Hrvatski slovopis i pravopis u predstandardizacijskome razdoblju |encyclopedia=Povijest hrvatskoga jezika / Književnost i kultura devedesetih: Zbornik radova 40. seminara Zagrebačke slavističke škole |last=Badurina |first=Lada |year=2012 |publisher=Zagrebačka slavistička škola |location=Zagreb |url=https://www.hrvatskiplus.org/upload/zbornici/ZSS_2012.pdf |editor-last=Mićanović |editor-first=Krešimir |page=65-96 |isbn=978-953-175-431-6}} * {{Cite encyclopedia |title=Ogled |encyclopedia=Rječnik hrvatskoga ili srpskoga jezika: Dio XXIII (2. zlotvor – žvuknuti / popis izvora, dodatak) |last=Daničić |first=Đuro |author-link=Đuro Daničić |year=1975–1976 |publisher=JAZU |location=Zagreb |editor-last=Pavešić |editor-first=Slavko |editor-last2=Jonke |editor-first2=Ljudevit |editor-link2=Ljudevit Jonke |orig-date=1878 }} *{{Cite book |title=Pravopis bosanskoga jezika |last=Halilović |first=Senahid |publisher=Slavistički komitet |year=2017 |edition=2nd |location=Sarajevo }} *{{Cite book |title=Istorija hrvatskoga pravopisa latinskijem slovima |last=Maretić |first=Tomo |author-link=Tomo Maretić |publisher=JAZU |year=1889 |location=Zagreb |url=https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mareti%C4%87,_Tomo_-_Istorija_hrvatskoga_pravopisa_latinskijem_slovima.pdf}} * {{Cite book |title=Gramatika hrvatskoga ili srpskoga književnog jezika |last=Maretić |first=Tomo |author-link=Tomo Maretić |publisher=Matica hrvatska |year=1963 |edition=3rd |location=Zagreb |orig-date=1899 }} *{{cite book |last=Jojić |first=Ljiljana| language = hr | title = Pravopisni priručnik - dodatak Velikom rječniku hrvatskoga jezika | year = 2003 |publisher=Novi liber |location=Zagreb }} *{{Cite journal |title=Latinica u Hrvata |journal=Radovi Zavoda za slavensku filologiju |last=Moguš |first=Milan |volume=11 |pages=61-81 |last2=Vončina |first2=Josip |year=1969 |location=Zagreb |publisher=Sveučilište u Zagrebu, Filozofski fakultet}} * {{Cite book |title=Povijest hrvatskoga književnoga jezika |last=Moguš |first=Milan |publisher=Globus |year=2009 |edition=3rd |location=Zagreb}} * {{Cite book |title=Правопис српскога језика |last=Пешикан |first=Митар |publisher=Матица српска |year=2010 |location=Нови Сад |last2=Јерковић |first2=Јован |last3=Пижурица |first3=Мато}} * {{Cite book |title=Нормативна граматика српског језика |last=Пипер |first=Предраг |publisher=Матица српска |year=2022 |isbn=978-86-7946-377-7 |edition=4th |location=Нови Сад |last2=Клајн |first2=Иван |last3=Драгичевић |first3=Рајна |author-link2=Ivan Klajn |orig-date=2013 |url=https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12528/1956}} *{{Cite journal |title=Temelji i putovi Gajeve grafijske reforme |journal=Filologija |last=Vončina |first=Josip |url=https://hrcak.srce.hr/173130 |volume=13 |pages=7-88 |year=1985 |location=Zagreb |publisher=JAZU}} *{{Cite journal |last=Žagarová |first=Margita |last2=Pintarić |first2=Ana |date=July 1998 |title=O nekim sličnostima i razlikama između hrvatskoga i slovačkoga jezika |trans-title=On some similarities and differences between Croatian and Slovakian |url=https://hrcak.srce.hr/31868 |journal=Jezikoslovlje |language=hr |publisher=Filozofski fakultet u Osijeku |volume=1 |pages=129–134 |issn=1331-7202 |number=1}}

==External links==

{{Commons category|Gaj's Latin alphabet}} * [http://www.omniglot.com/writing/croatian.htm Omniglot]

[[Category:1835 introductions]] [[Category:Bosnian language]] [[Category:Croatian language|Alphabet]] [[Category:Latin alphabets]] [[Category:Serbian language|Alphabet]] [[Category:Serbo-Croatian]] [[Category:Slovene alphabet]] [[Category:Writing systems introduced in the 19th century]]