View source for Serbo-Croatian

{{POV|date=August 2011}}
{{pp-semi|small=yes}}
{{Refimprove|date=October 2010}}
{{Infobox language
|name        = Serbo-Croatian
|nativename  = {{lang|sh|''srpskohrvatski, hrvatskosrpski''}}<br>{{lang|sh-Cyrl|српскохрватски, хрватскосрпски}}
|states      = {{SRB}}<br>''{{flag|Kosovo}}''{{smallsup|a}}<br>{{HRV}}<br>{{BIH}}<br>{{MNE}}
|ethnicity   = [[Serb]], [[Croat]], [[Bosniak]], [[Montenegrin]]
|region      = the Western [[Balkans]]
|speakers    = 16.3 million<ref>{{cite web |title = Serbo-Croatian|publisher = Ethnologue|url=http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=hbs}}</ref>
|familycolor = Indo-European
|fam1        = [[Indo-European languages|Indo-European]]
|fam2        = [[Balto-Slavic languages|Balto-Slavic]]
|fam3        = [[Slavic languages|Slavic]]
|fam4        = [[South Slavic languages|South]]
|fam5        = Western
|stand1      = [[Serbian language|Serbian]]
|stand2      = [[Croatian language|Croatian]]
|stand3      = [[Bosnian language|Bosnian]]
|stand4      = [[Montenegrin language|Montenegrin]]
|stand5      = Standard Serbo-Croatian (defunct)
|dia3        = [[Shtokavian dialect|Štokavian]] (standard)
|dia1        = [[Chakavian dialect|Čakavian]]
|dia2        = [[Kajkavian dialect|Kajkavian]]
|dia4        = [[Torlakian dialect|Torlakian]]
|script      = [[Latin alphabet]]<br>[[Cyrillic alphabet]]
|iso1        = sh (deprecated)
|iso2        = scr, scc (deprecated)
|iso3        = hbs
|lc1         = srp|ld1=Serbian|ll1=Serbian language
|lc2         = hrv|ld2=Croatian|ll2=Croatian language
|lc3         = bos|ld3=Bosnian|ll3=Bosnian language
|lingua      = 53-AAA-g
|nation={{BIH}} (as Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian)<br>{{HRV}} (as Croatian)<br>''{{flag|Kosovo}}'' (as Serbian)<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.kosovoconstitution.info/repository/docs/DraftConstitutionEnglish.pdf |title=Draft Constitution of the Republic of Kosovo |format=PDF |date= |accessdate=2010-09-17}}</ref><br>{{flagcountry|Montenegro}} (as Montenegrin)<br>{{SRB}} (as Serbian)
|agency=[[Council for Standard Croatian Language Norm]]<br>
[[Board for Standardization of the Serbian Language]]
|map         = Serbo croatian language2005.png
|mapcaption  = {{legend|#a7f0f0|Areas where Serbo-Croatian is spoken by a plurality of speakers (as of 2005).}}<br>
----
<small>'''Note:''' <sup>a</sup> [[Kosovo]] independence disputed, see [[2008 Kosovo declaration of independence]]</small>
|notice=IPA
}}
{{South Slavic languages sidebar}}

'''Serbo-Croatian''' or '''Serbo-Croat''', less commonly '''Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian''' ('''BCS'''),<ref>[http://www.seelrc.org/webliography/bcs.ptml Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian]</ref><ref>''bosanski/hrvatski/srpski'', [[Cyrillic alphabet|Cyrillic script]]: српскохрватски или хрватскосрпски; бошњачки/хрватски/српски</ref> is a [[South Slavic languages|South Slavic language]] with [[Pluricentric language|multiple standards]] and the primary language of [[Serbia]], [[Croatia]], [[Bosnia and Herzegovina]], and [[Montenegro]]. [[Croats]] and [[Serbs]] differ in religion and have historically lived under different empires, and have adopted slightly different [[standard language|literary forms]] as the [[official language]]s of their respective republics. Since independence, [[Bosnian language|Bosnian]] has likewise been established as an official [[standard language|standard]] in [[Bosnia and Herzegovina]]. Currently, there is a movement to create a [[Montenegrin language]], separating it from Serbian. Thus Serbo-Croatian generally goes by the ethnic names '''Serbian''', '''Croatian''', '''Bosnian''', and '''Montenegrin'''.<ref>"The same language [Croatian] is referred to by different names, Serbian (srpski), Serbo-Croat (in Croatia: hrvatsko-srpski), Bosnian (bosanski), based on political and ethnic grounds. [...] the names Serbian, Croatian, and Bosnian are politically determined and refer to the same language with possible slight variations." ([[#refBrown2006|Brown 2006]], p. 294.)</ref> All four standards are based on the same dialect, which had served as the official language of the [[Kingdom of Yugoslavia]], and later of the [[Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia]], from 1918 to 1991.

The basis of the modern standards was established in the late 19th century, when the Eastern Herzegovinian subdialect of the [[Shtokavian dialect|Štokavian dialect]] was selected as a unified literary language of the Serbian and Croatian peoples. Later Yugoslav standard Serbo-Croatian was based on both literary traditions, Serbian (unofficially called "Eastern") and Croatian (unofficially called "Western"), as these were never fully unified. The dissolution of [[Yugoslavia]] spelled the end of attempts at a unified standard, and [[sociolinguistics|social conceptions]] of the language separated on ethnic and political lines.

==Name==
The term ''Serbo-Croatian'' was officially established with the joint [[Vienna Literary Agreement]] of 1850 while Serb and Croat lands were still part of the [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]] and [[Habsburg Empire]]s. Officially, the language was called variously ''Serbo-Croat, Croato-Serbian, Serbian and Croatian, Croatian and Serbian, Serbian or Croatian, Croatian or Serbian.'' <!-- more data needed: in which periods and where? --> From the end of the 1960s until the [[breakup of Yugoslavia]] in the 1990s, Serbs and Croats typically called the language "Serbian" or "Croatian", respectively, without implying a distinction between the two,<ref>[[#refBrown2006|Brown 2006]], p. 259.</ref> and indeed in newly independent Bosnia and Herzegovina, "Croatian", "Bosnian", and "Serbian" were considered to be three names of a single official language.<ref>"In 1993 the authorities in Sarajevo adopted a new language law (Sluzbeni list Republike Bosne i Hercegovine, 18/93): In the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Ijekavian standard literary language of the three constitutive nations is officially used, designated by one of the three terms: Bosnian, Serbian, Croatian." ([[#refBugarski2004|Bugarski 2004]], p. 142.)</ref> Today, use of the term "Serbo-Croatian" is controversial due to memories of Yugoslav politics and the [[Ausbausprache, Abstandsprache and Dachsprache|variable meanings of the word ''language'']]. It is still used for lack of succinct alternative, though alternate names have been used, such as ''Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian'' (BCS), which is often seen in political contexts such as the Hague War Crimes tribunal.

==History==
{{See also|Differences between standard Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian}}
Throughout the history of the South Slavs, the vernacular, literary, and written languages of the various regions and ethnicities developed and diverged independently. Prior to the 19th century, these languages, self-referred to themselves as "Illyric", "Slavic", "Slavonian", "Bosnian", "Serbian" or "Croatian", were unstandardized despite the presence of an extensive [[vernacular literature]] developed in the different local dialects.

[[Image:Rjecnik hrvatskoga ili srpskoga jezika.jpg|left|thumb|200px|[[Đuro Daničić]], ''Rječnik hrvatskoga ili srpskoga jezika'' (Croatian or Serbian Dictionary) 1882.]]
The term ''Serbo-Croatian'' was mentioned for the first time by [[Slovenes|Slovene]] philologist [[Jernej Kopitar]] in a letter from 1836, although it cannot be ruled out that he had become acquainted with the term by reading the Slovak philologist [[Pavel Jozef Šafárik]]'s manuscript "Slovanské starožitnosti" printed 1837.{{Citation needed|date=July 2010}} In the mid 19th century, Serbian (led by self-taught writer and folklorist [[Vuk Stefanović Karadžić]]) and most Croatian writers and linguists (represented by the [[Illyrian movement]] and led by [[Ljudevit Gaj]] and [[Đuro Daničić]]), proposed the use of the most widespread Štokavian dialect as the base for their common standard language. Karadžić standardised the [[Serbian Cyrillic alphabet]], and Gaj and Daničić standardized the [[Gaj's Latin Alphabet|Croatian Latin alphabet]], on the basis of vernacular speech phonemes and the principle of phonological spelling. In 1850 Serbian and Croatian writers and linguists signed the [[Vienna Literary Agreement]], declaring their intention to create a unified standard.<ref>[[#refGreenberg2004|Greenberg 2004]], p. 24.</ref>  Thus a complex bi-variant language appeared, which the Serbs officially called "Serbo-Croatian" or "Serbian or Croatian" and the Croats "Croato-Serbian", or "Croatian or Serbian". Yet, in practice, the variants of the conceived common literary language served as different literary variants, chiefly differing in lexical inventory and stylistic devices. The common phrase describing this situation was that Serbo-Croatian or "Croatian or Serbian" was a ''unified'' language.

With unification of the first [[Kingdom of Yugoslavia]] – the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes – the approach of Karadžić and the Illyrians became official. The official language was called "Serbo-Croato-Slovene" until the very end of that kingdom. Because of the unitarian politics of King [[Alexander I of Yugoslavia|Aleksandar I Karađorđević]], as of 1929, the "Yugoslavian language" was the official language of Yugoslavia, the country's name was changed, and all ethnic denominations were erased.{{Citation needed|date=June 2008}} On January 15, 1944, the Anti-Fascist Council of the People's Liberation of Yugoslavia ([[AVNOJ]]) declared Croatian, Serbian, Slovene, and Macedonian to be equal in the entire territory of Yugoslavia.<ref name=Greenbergpg115>[[#refGreenberg2004|Greenberg 2004]], p. 115.</ref> In 1945 the decision to recognize Croatian and Serbian as separate languages was reversed in favor of a single Serbo-Croatian or Croato-Serbian language.<ref name=Greenbergpg115/> In the [[Communist]]-dominated [[Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia|second Yugoslavia]], ethnic issues eased to an extent, but the matter of language remained blurred and unresolved. In 1954, every major Serbian and Croatian writer, linguist and literary critic, backed by [[Matica srpska]] and [[Matica hrvatska]] signed the [[Novi Sad Agreement]], which in its first article stated: "The national language of the Serbs, Croats, and Montenegrins is a single language. And thus, the literary language which has developed on its foundation in two major centers, Belgrade and Zagreb, is a unity with two dialects, Ijekavian and Ekavian."<ref>{{cite book|last=Wachtel|first=Andrew|title=Making a Nation, Breaking a Nation: Literature and Cultural Politics in Yugoslavia|year=1998|publisher=Stanford University Press|isbn=0804731810|page=140}}</ref>

It was later argued that this act was less of an agreement than a political document signed under political pressure, as many writers later asserted (e.g. the signers of the 1967 [[Declaration on the Status and Name of the Croatian Literary Language]], with prominent Croatian intellectuals such as [[Miroslav Krleža]]).{{Citation needed|date=August 2010}} The Novi Sad agreement became the basis of [[language politics]] in the second Yugoslavia; however, many Croats were uneasy, viewing the merging of languages as the attempted "[[Serbianisation]]" of their Croatian idiom with markedly Serbian words or phrases.{{Citation needed|date=August 2010}} Also, many Serbian idiomatic constructs replaced Croatian idiomatic constructs in media and politics in Bosnia and Herzegovina and, gradually, in the vernacular speech. Some viewed it as proof of Serbian hegemony in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and some as a "natural" process of language change.{{Citation needed|date=August 2010}}

After the [[Croatian Spring|ethnic tensions]] of the 1970s, and after the easing of political pressure in the 1990s and the democratisation of the Yugoslav political system, the policy of forced merging of these languages was finally allowed to end, and speakers could call their languages whatever they wanted.{{Citation needed|date=June 2011}} Croatians officially returned to using the name they had used for the language before the dissolution of Yugoslavia (officially, they had called it [[Croatian language|Croatian]] until the mid 1970s). The [[Serbs]] officially called it ''Serbo-Croatian'' until 1997, when the [[Matica srpska]] made the ''Dictionary of the Serbian language''. Since then Serbs have called it [[Serbian language|Serbian]], but unofficially. The [[Constitution of Serbia]] (1990–2006) called the official language ''Serbo-Croatian'', while the [[Constitution of Montenegro]] (1993–2007) called it ''Serbian with ijekavian pronunciation''.<ref name="montenegro constitution">[http://desguin.net/ced/MofCG/Crnogorski/Regulations/Ustav.htm Ustav Crne Gore<!--Bot-generated title-->]</ref>

== Present situation ==
=== Contemporary names ===
[[Image:Serbo croatian languages2006 02.png|left|thumb|300px|Ethno-political variants of Serbo-Croatian as of 2006.]]

Except during the period that extended roughly from the 1920s through the 1980s, people have not called the language ''Serbo-Croatian'', but have tended to use their ethnic/national names.{{Citation needed|date=June 2008}}

*Most [[Bosniaks]] refer to their language as ''[[Bosnian language|Bosnian]]''.
*Most [[Croats]] refer to their language as ''[[Croatian language|Croatian]]''.
*Most [[Serbs]] refer to their language as ''[[Serbian language|Serbian]]''.
*[[Montenegrins]] refer to their language either as ''[[Serbian language|Serbian]]'' or ''[[Montenegrin language|Montenegrin]]''.
*Ethnic [[Bunjevci]] refer to their language as ''[[Bunjevac dialect|Bunjevac]]''.

For more information, see [[Differences between standard Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian]].

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has specified different [[Universal Decimal Classification]] (UDC) numbers for Croatian ''(UDC 862,'' abbreviation '''hr''') and Serbian ''(UDC 861'', abbreviation '''sr'''), while the cover term ''Serbo-Croatian'' is used to refer to the combination of original signs (''UDC 861/862,'' abbreviation '''sh'''). Furthermore, the ''[[ISO 639]]'' standard designates the Bosnian language with the abbreviations '''bos''' and '''bs'''.

The [[International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia]] considers what it calls ''BCS'' (Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian) to be the main language of all Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian defendants. The indictments, documents, and verdicts of the ICTY are not written with any regard for consistently following the grammatical prescriptions of any of the three standards{{ndash}} be they Serbian, Croatian, or Bosnian.

For utilitarian purposes, the Serbo-Croatian language is often called "''Naš jezik''" ("Our language") by native speakers. This [[political correctness|politically correct]] term is frequently used to describe the Serbo-Croatian language by those who wish to avoid nationalistic and linguistic discussions.{{Citation needed|date=July 2010}}

=== Views of linguists in the former Yugoslavia ===
====Serbian linguists====
The majority of mainstream Serbian linguists consider Serbian and Croatian to be one language, that is called Serbo-Croatian (''srpskohrvatski'') or Croato-Serbian (''hrvatskosrpski''). A minority of Serbian linguists are of the opinion that Serbo-Croatian did exist, but has, in the meantime, dissolved. Before 1900 and also now, a minority agree that a "Serbo-Croatian" language has never existed and that this term designates a Croatian variant of the Serbian language.<ref>[http://govori.tripod.com/slovo.htm ''Slovo o srpskom jeziku''/Decree on the Serbian language]</ref>

====Croatian linguists====
The majority of Croatian linguists think that there was never anything like a unified Serbo-Croatian language, but two different standard languages that overlapped sometime in the course of history. Also, they claim that the language has never dissolved, since there was never a Serbo-Croatian standard language. A minority of Croatian linguists deny that the Croatian standard language is based on the Neoštokavian dialect. A more detailed discussion, incorporating arguments from the Croatian philology and contemporary linguistics, would be along the following lines:

:''Serbo-Croatian is a language''
:One still finds many references to Serbo-Croatian, and proponents of Serbo-Croatian who deny the existence of Croatian (as well as Serbian and Bosnian) as a separate [[standard language]]. The usual argument generally goes along the following lines:
:*'''Standard''' Croatian, Serbian and Bosnian are almost completely mutually ''intelligible'', and the use of two alphabets that almost perfectly match each other ([[Latin alphabet|Latin]] and [[Cyrilic]]), thanks to Ljudevit Gaj and Vuk Karadžić. Nonetheless, beyond the "first 100" words, there are numerous small and large lexical differences presented in "Razlikovni rječnik srpskog i hrvatskog jezika" (Matica Hrvatska).<ref>Vladimir Brodnjak: Razlikovni rječnik srpskog i hrvatskog jezika, Školske novine, Zagreb, 4th ed., 1998, 632 p., ISBN 953-160-145-3</ref> Croats exclusively use Latin script and Serbs equally use both Cyrillic and Latin. Although Cyrillic is taught in Bosnia, most Bosnians, especially non-Serbs ([[Bosniaks]] and [[Croats of Bosnia and Herzegovina|Croats]]), favor Latin.
:*Typologically and structurally, these languages have virtually the same ''subequal'' grammar, i.e. morphology and syntax
:*The Serbo-Croatian language was "created" in the mid 19th century, and all subsequent attempts to dissolve its basic unity have not succeeded.
:*The affirmation of distinct [[Croatian language|Croatian]], [[Serbian language|Serbian]] and [[Bosnian language|Bosnian]] languages is ''politically'' motivated
:*According to [[phonology]], [[morphology (linguistics)|morphology]] and [[syntax]], these languages are essentially one language because they are based on the same, [[Shtokavian dialect|Štokavian dialect]].

:''Serbo-Croatian is not a language''
:Similar arguments are made for other official standards which are nearly indistinguishable when spoken, such as [[Malaysian language|Malaysian]], and [[Indonesian language|Indonesian]] (together called [[Malay language|Malay]]), or [[Standard Hindi]] and [[Urdu]] (together called [[Hindi-Urdu|Hindustani or Hindi-Urdu]]). However, some argue that these arguments have flaws:

:*Phonology, morphology, and syntax are not the only dimensions of a language: other fields (semantics, pragmatics, stylistics, [[lexicology]], etc.) give different theoretical linguistic descriptions and prescriptions for Croatian, Bosnian, and Serbian.{{Citation needed|date=April 2010}} A comparison is made to the closely related [[North Germanic languages]] (or dialects, if one prefers), though these are not fully mutually intelligible as the Serbo-Croatian standards are. A closer comparison may be [[General American]] and [[Received Pronunciation]] in English, which are closer to each other than the latter is to other dialects which are subsumed under "British English".
:*Since the Croatian language as recorded in [[Marin Držić|Držić]] and [[Ivan Gundulić|Gundulić]]'s works (16th and 17th centuries) is virtually the same as the contemporary standard Croatian (understandable archaisms apart), it is evident that the 19th century formal standardization was just the final touch in the process that, as far as the Croatian language is concerned, had lasted more than three centuries. The radical break with the past, characteristic of modern Serbian (whose vernacular was likely not as similar to Croatian as it is today), is a trait completely at variance with Croatian linguistic history. In short, formal standardization processes for Croatian and Serbian had coincided chronologically (and, one could add, ideologically), but they haven't produced a unified standard language. [[Ivan Gundulić|Gundulić]] did not write in "Serbo-Croatian", nor did [[August Šenoa]]. [[Marko Marulić]] and [[Marin Držić]] wrote in a sophisticated idiom of the Croatian language, some 300/350 years before the "Serbo-Croatian" ideology appeared. Marulić explicitly calls his Čakavian-written ''Judita'' as ''u uerish haruacchi slosena'' ("arranged in Croatian stanzas") in 1501, and Štokavian grammar and dictionary of [[Bartol Kašić]] written in 1604 unambiguously identifies ethnonyms ''Slavic'' and ''Illyrian'' with ''Croatian''.

Politics often becomes a major part of linguistic debates in this area.

The topic of language with the writers from Dalmatia and Dubrovnik prior to the 19th century is somewhat blurred by the fact they by and large placed more emphasis on whether they were Slavic rather than Italian, given that Dalmatian city-states were then inhabited by those two main groups. There was less notable distinction being made between Croats and Serbs, and this, among other things, has been used as an argument to state that these people's literature is not solely Croatian heritage, thus undermining the argument that modern-day Croatian is based on Old Croatian.

However, the major part of intellectuals and writers from Dalmatia who used the Štokavian dialect and were of Catholic faith had explicitly expressed Croatian national affiliation{{ref}}, as far back as the mid 16th and 17th centuries, some three hundred years before the Serbo-Croatian ideology had appeared. Their loyalty was first and foremost to the Catholic Christendom, but when they professed ethnic identity, they called it "Slovin" and "Illyrian" (a sort of forerunner of Catholic baroque [[pan-Slavism]]) '''and''' [[Croats|Croat]]{{ndash}} these 30-odd writers in the span of ca. 350 years themselves never mentioned Serb ethnic affiliation any time. It should also be noted that, in the pre-national era, a Catholic religious orientation did not necessarily equate with Croat ethnic identity in Dalmatia. A Croatian follower of Vuk Karadžić, [[Ivan Broz]], noted that the Serbian affiliation was as foreign as Macedonian and Greek appellation at this time. [[Vatroslav Jagić]] pointed out in 1864:

: "As I have mentioned in the preface, history knows only two national names in these parts—Croatian and Serbian. As far as Dubrovnik is concerned, the Serbian name was never in use; on the contrary, the Croatian name was frequently used and gladly referred to"
: "At the end of the 15th century [in Dubrovnik and Dalmatia], sermons and poems were exquisitely crafted in the Croatian language by those men whose names are widely renowned by deep learning and piety."

(From ''The History of the Croatian language'', [[Zagreb]], 1864.)

On the other hand, the opinion of Jagić from 1864 is argued not to have firm grounds. When Jagić says "Croatian" he refers to few cases of referring to the Dubrovnik vernacular as ''ilirski'' (Illyrian). This was a common name for all Slavic vernaculars in Dalmatian cities among the Roman inhabitants. In the meantime, other written monuments are found that mention ''srpski'', ''lingua serviana'' (= Serbian), and also some that mention Croatian.<ref name="Mladenovic 2004">Mladenovic. Kratka istorija srpskog književnog jezika. Beograd 2004, 67</ref> By far the most competent Serbian scientist on Dubrovnik language issue, [[Milan Rešetar]], who was born in Dubrovnik himself, wrote behalf of language characteristics: "The one who thinks that Croatian and Serbian are two separate languages, must confess that Dubrovnik always (linguistically) used to be Serbian."<ref name="Mladenovic 2004"/>

On the third hand, the former ''medieval'' texts from Dubrovnik and Montenegro dating before 16th century were not true Štokavian nor Serbian, but mostly specific Yekavian-[[Chakavian dialect|Čakavian]] that was nearer to actual [[Adriatic Sea|Adriatic]] islanders in Croatia.<ref>S. Zekovic & B. Cimeša: Elementa montenegrina, Chrestomatia 1/90. CIP, Zagreb 1991</ref>

=== Political connotations ===
Nationalists have rather conflicting views about the language(s). The nationalists among the Croats conflictingly claim either that they speak an entirely separate language from Serbs and Bosnians or that these two peoples have, due to the longer lexicographic tradition among Croats, somehow "borrowed" their standard languages from them.{{Citation needed|date=July 2010}} Bosniak nationalists claim that both Croats and Serbs have "appropriated" the [[Bosnian language]], since [[Ljudevit Gaj]] and [[Vuk Karadžić]] preferred the Neoštokavian-Ijekavian dialect, widely spoken in [[Bosnia and Herzegovina]], as the basis for language standardization, whereas the nationalists among the Serbs claim either that any divergence in the language is artificial, or claim that the [[Shtokavian dialect|Štokavian dialect]] is theirs and the [[Chakavian dialect|Čakavian]] Croats'— in more extreme formulations Croats have "taken" or "stolen" their language from the Serbs. {{Citation needed|date=July 2010}}

Proponents of unity among Southern Slavs claim that there is a single language with normal dialectal variations. The term "Serbo-Croatian" (or synonyms) is not officially used in any of the successor countries of former Yugoslavia.{{Citation needed|date=October 2010}}

In Serbia, the Serbian language is the official one, while both Serbian and Croatian are official in the province of [[Vojvodina]]. A large Bosniak minority is present in the southwest region of [[Sandžak]], but the "official recognition" of Bosnian language is moot.<ref>Official communique, 27 December 2004, Serbian Ministry of Education {{sr icon}}</ref> Bosnian is an optional course in 1st and 2nd grade of the elementary school, while it is also in official use in the municipality of [[Novi Pazar]].<ref>{{PDFlink|[http://www.novipazar.org.rs/sl/gl_06_2002.pdf Opštinski službeni glasnik opštine Novi Pazar]|65.8&nbsp;[[Kibibyte|KiB]]<!-- application/pdf, 67406 bytes -->}}, 30 April 2002, page 1</ref> However, its nomenclature is controversial, as there is incentive that it is referred to as "Bosniak" (''bošnjački'') rather than "Bosnian" (''bosanski'') (see [[Bosnian language]] for details).

Croatian is the official language of Croatia, while Serbian is also official in municipalities with significant Serb population{{Citation needed|date=October 2010}}.

In Bosnia and Herzegovina, all three languages are recorded as official but in practice and media, mostly Bosnian and Serbian are applied. Therefore, confrontations have on occasion been absurd. The academic [[Muhamed Filipović]] in an interview to Slovenian television told of a local court in a Croatian district requesting a paid translator from Bosnian to Croatian before the trial could proceed.{{Citation needed|date=December 2007}}

==Dialects==
{{Main|Chakavian dialect|Shtokavian dialect|Kajkavian dialect|Torlakian dialect}}
{{IPA notice}}
The primary dialects are named after the most common question word ''what'' they use: [[Shtokavian dialect|Shtokavian]] uses the pronoun ''što'' or ''šta'', [[Chakavian dialect|Chakavian]] uses ''ča'' or ''ca'', [[Kajkavian dialect|Kajkavian (''kajkavski'')]], ''kaj'' or ''kej''. The Yugoslav standard language and all four contemporary standard languages are based on the Eastern Hercegovinian subdialect of Neo-Shtokavian, the other dialects not taught in schools or used by the state media. Often the [[Torlakian dialect]] is added to the list, though scholars nowadays usually classify it as a transitional dialect between Shtokavian and the Bulgaro-Macedonian (East South Slavic) [[dialect continuum]].

{|
|[[File:Serbo croatian dialects historical distribution.png|thumb|300px|Serbo-Croatian dialects prior to the 16th-century migrations]]
|[[File:Croatian dialects.PNG|thumb|250px|Modern distribution of dialects in Croatia]]
|[[File:Shtokavian subdialects1988.png|thumb|350px|Shtokavian subdialects in 1988 (Pavle Ivić). Yellow is the widespread Eastern Herzegovinian subdialect that forms the basis of all national standards, though it is not spoken natively in any of the capital cities.]]
|}
The Serbo-Croatian dialects differ not only in the question for they're named after, but also heavily in phonology, accentuation and intonation, case endings and tense system (morphology) and basic vocabulary{{Citation needed|date=October 2010}}. In the past, Chakavian and Kajkavian dialects were spoken on a much larger territory, but have subsequently been replaced by Štokavian during the period of migrations caused by Ottoman Turkish conquest of the Balkans in the 15th and the 16th century{{Citation needed|date=October 2010}}. These migrations caused the koinéisation of the Shtokavian dialects, that used to form the West Shtokavian (more closer and transitional towards the neighbouring Chakavian and Kajkavian dialects) and East Shtokavian (transitional towards the Torlakian and the whole Bulgaro-Macedonian area) dialect bundles, and their subsequent spread at the expense of Chakavian and Kajkavian. As a result, Štokavian now covers an area larger than all the other dialects combined, and continues to make its progress in the enclaves where subliterary dialects are still being spoken.<ref>E.g., big coastal Croatian cities [[Rijeka]] and [[Split (city)|Split]] together with their hinterland become basically completely Štokavianised during the 20th century, formerly being Čakavian-speaking urban centres.</ref>

The difference among the dialects can be illustrated on the example of [[Schleicher's fable]]. Diacritic signs are used to show the difference in accents and prosody, which are often quite significant, but which are not reflected in the usual orthography.

{{col-begin}} style="font-size:90%;"
{{col-5}}
:'''Neoštokavian Ijekavian/Ekavian'''
{{Unicode|
: Óvca i kònji

:Óvca koja níje ìmala vȕnē vȉd(j)ela je kònje na br(ij)égu. Jèdan je òd njīh vȗkao téška kȍla, drȕgī je nòsio vèliku vrȅću, a trȅćī je nòsio čòv(j)eka.

:Óvca rȅče kònjima: «Sȑce me bòlī glȅdajūći čòv(j)eka kako jȁšē na kònju».

:A kònji rȅkoše: «Slȕšāj, ȏvco, nȃs sȑca bòlē kada vȉdīmo da čòv(j)ek, gospòdār, rȃdī vȕnu od ovácā i prȁvī òd(j)eću zá se. I ȍndā óvca nȇmā vȉše vȕnē.

:Čȗvši tō, óvca pȍb(j)eže ȕ polje.
}}
{{col-5}}
{{Unicode|
: '''Old Štokavian ([[Orubica]], [[Posavina]])''':

:Óvca i kònji

:Óvca kòjā nî ìmala vȕnē vȉdla kònje na brîgu. Jèdān od njȉjū vũkō tȇška kȍla, drȕgī nosȉjo vȅlikū vrȅću, a trȅćī nosȉjo čovȉka.

: Óvca kȃza kȍnjima: «Svȅ me bolĩ kad glȅdām kako čòvik na kònju jȁšī».

:A kònji kāzȁše: «Slȕšāj, ȏvco, nãs sȑca bolũ kad vȉdīmo da čòvik, gȁzda, prȁvī vȕnu od ovãc i prȁvī rȍbu zá se od njẽ. I ȍndā  ōvcȁ néma vȉšē vȕnē.

:Kad tȏ čȕ ōvcȁ, ȕteče ȕ polje.
}}
{{col-5}}

: '''Čakavian ([[Matulji]] near Rijeka)''':
{{Unicode|
:Ovcȁ i konjı̏

:Ovcȁ kȃ ni imȅla vȕni vȉdela je konjȉ na brȇge. Jedȃn je vȗkal tȇški vȏz, drȕgi je nosîl vȅlu vrȅt'u, a trȅt'i je nosîl čovȅka.

:Ovcȁ je reklȁ konjȇn: «Sȑce me bolĩ dok glȅdan čovȅka kako jȁše na konjȅ».

:A konjȉ su reklȉ: «Poslȕšaj, ovcȁ, nȃs sȑca bolẽ kad vȉdimo da čovȅk, gospodãr dȅla vȕnu od ovãc i dȅla rȍbu zȃ se. I ȍnda ovcȁ nĩma vȉše vȕni.

:Kad je tȏ čȕla, ovcȁ je pobȅgla va pȍje.
}}
{{col-5}}

: '''Kajkavian ([[Marija Bistrica]])''':
{{Unicode|
:õfca i kȍjni

:õfca tera nı̃je imȅ̩̏la vȕne vȉdla je kȍjne na briẽgu. Jȇn od nîh je vlẽ̩ke̩l tẽška kȍla, drȕgi je nȍsil vȅliku vrȅ̩ču, a trẽjti je nȍsil čovȅ̩ka.

:õfca je rȇkla kȍjnem: «Sȑce me bolĩ kad vîdim čovȅka kak jȃše na kȍjnu».

:A kȍjni su rȇkli: «Poslȕhni, õfca, nȃs sȑca bolĩju kad vîdime da čȍve̩k, gospodãr, dȇ̩la vȕnu ot õfci i dȇ̩la oblȅ̩ku zȃ se. I ȏnda õfca nȇma vȉše vȕne.

:Kad je to čȗla, õfca je pobȇ̩gla f pȍlje.
}}
{{col-5}}

: '''English language'''

: The Sheep and the Horses

:[On a hill,] a sheep that had no wool saw horses, one of them pulling a heavy wagon, one carrying a big load, and one carrying a man quickly.

: The sheep said to the horses: "My heart pains me, seeing a man driving horses".

: The horses said: "Listen, sheep, our hearts pain us when we see this: a man, the master, makes the wool of the sheep into a warm garment for himself. And the sheep has no wool".

: Having heard this, the sheep fled into the plain.

{{col-5}}

{{col-end}}

===Division by ''jat'' reflex===
{{Main|yat}}

The basic distinction among the 3 basic dialects and their respective speeches (sub-dialects) is in the long reflex of [[Proto-Slavic language|Common Slavic]] vowel ''[[yat|jat]]'', usually transcribed as */ě/: depending on the reflex the dialects are divided into Ikavian (with /i/ as a reflex of ''jat''), Ekavian (with /e/ as a reflex of ''jat'') and Ijekavian (with disyllabic /ije/ or diphthongal /ie/ as a reflex). The long and short ''jat'' is reflected as long or short */i/ and /e/ in Ikavian and Ekavian dialects, but Ijekavian dialects introduce ''ije''/''je'' alternation to retain a distinction.{{Citation needed|date=October 2010}}

Standard Croatian and Bosnian are based on the Ijekavian, whilst Serbian uses both Ekavian and Ijekavian forms (Ijekavian for Bosnian Serbs, Ekavian is used in the most of Serbia though). Influence of standard language throughout the state media and education has caused non-standard varieties to increasingly lose ground to the literary forms.{{Citation needed|date=October 2010}}

The jat reflection rules are not without exceptions, for example: when short ''jat'' is preceded by ''r'', in most Ijekavian dialects it was reflect as /re/ or, occasionally, /ri/. Also, prefix ''prě-'' ("trans-, over-") when ''jat'' is long passed to ''pre-'' in eastern Ijekavian dialects and to ''prije-'' in western; in Ikavian, it also evolved into ''pre-'' or ''prije-'' due to potential ambiguity with ''pri-'' ("approach, come close to"). For verbs that had ''-ěti '' in their infinitive, the past participle ending ''-ěl'' evolved into ''-io'' in Ijekavian Neoštokavian.{{Citation needed|date=October 2010}}

The following are some examples:

{| class="wikitable" border="1"
!English
!Predecessor
!Ekavian
!Ikavian
!Ijekavian
!Ijekavian formation
|-
|beautiful
|*lěp
|lep
|lip
|lijep
| rowspan="2"| long ''ě'' → ''ije''
|-
|time
|*vrěme
|vreme
|vrime
|vrijeme
|-
|faith
|*věra
|vera
|vira
|vjera
|short ''ě'' → ''je''
|-
|crossing
|*prělaz
|prelaz
|prеlaz ''or''<br />prijelaz
|prеlaz ''or''<br />prijelaz
|''pr'' + long ''ě'' → ''prije''<!--Does the /p/ really matter?-->
|-
|times
|*vrěmena
|vremena
|vrimena
|vremena
| rowspan="2"| ''r'' + short ''ě'' → ''re''
|-
|need
|*trěbati
|trebati
|tribat(i)
|trebati
|-
|heat
|*grějati
|grejati
|grijati
|grijati
|''r'' + short ''ě'' → ''ri''
|-
|saw
|*viděl
|video
|vidio
|vidio
|''ěl'' → ''io''
|-
|village
|*selo
|selo
|selo
|selo
|''e'' in root, not ''ě''
|}

== Grammar ==
[[File:Bartol Kasic Institutiones linguae Illyricae.jpg|thumb|Kašić's 1604 grammar of the Čakavian dialect, ''Institutiones linguae Illyricae'' (Principles of the [[Illyria]]n Language)]]
{{See|Serbo-Croatian grammar}}

Serbo-Croatian is a highly [[inflected language]]{{Citation needed|date=October 2010}}. Traditional grammars list seven [[Grammatical case|cases]] for [[noun]]s and [[adjective]]s: [[Nominative case|nominative]], [[Genitive case|genitive]], [[Dative case|dative]], [[Accusative case|accusative]], [[Vocative case|vocative]], [[Locative case|locative]], and [[Instrumental case|instrumental]], reflecting the original seven cases of [[Proto-Slavic language|Proto-Slavic]], and indeed older forms of Serbo-Croatian itself. However, in modern Štokavian the locative has almost merged into dative (the only difference is based on accent in some cases){{Citation needed|date=October 2010}}, and the other cases can be shown declining; namely:

*For all nouns and adjectives, Instr. = Dat. = Loc. (at least orthographically) in the plural: ženama, ženama, ženama; očima, očima, očima; riječima, riječima, riječima.
*There is an accentual difference between the Gen. sing. and Gen. plural of masculine and neuter nouns, which are otherwise homonyms (seljaka, seljaka) except that on occasion an "a" (which might or might not appear in the singular) is filled between the last letter of the root and the Gen. plural ending (kapitalizma, kapitalizama).
*The old instrumental ending "ju" of the feminine consonant stems and in some cases the "a" of the genitive plural of certain other sorts of feminine nouns is fast yielding to "i": noći instead of noćju; borbi instead of boraba; and so forth.
*Almost every Štokavian number is indeclinable, and numbers after prepositions have not been declined for a long time.

Like most Slavic languages, there are mostly three [[Grammatical gender|genders]] for nouns: masculine, feminine, and neuter, a distinction which is still present even in the plural (unlike [[Russian language|Russian]] and, in part, the [[Chakavian dialect|Čakavian dialect]]){{Citation needed|date=October 2010}}. They also have two [[Grammatical number|numbers]]: [[Grammatical number|singular]] and [[plural]]. However, some consider there to be three numbers ([[paucal]] or ''dual,'' too), since (still preserved in closely-related [[Slovene language|Slovene]]) after two (''dva'', ''dvije''/''dve''), three (''tri'') and four (''četiri''), and all numbers ending in them (e.g., twenty-two, ninety-three, one hundred four) the genitive singular is used, and after all other numbers five (''pet'') and up, the genitive plural is used. (The number one [''jedan''] is treated as an adjective.) Adjectives are placed in front of the noun they modify and must agree in both case and number with it.

There are seven [[Grammatical tense|tenses]] for verbs: [[past tense|past]], [[present tense|present]], [[future tense|future]], exact future, [[aorist]], [[imperfect]], and [[plusquamperfect]]; and three [[Grammatical mood|moods]]: [[indicative]], [[Imperative mood|imperative]], and [[conditional mood|conditional]]{{Citation needed|date=October 2010}}. However, the latter three tenses are typically used only in Štokavian writing{{Citation needed|date=October 2010}}, and the time sequence of the exact future is more commonly formed through an alternative construction{{Citation needed|date=October 2010}}.

In addition, like most Slavic languages, the Štokavian verb also has one of two [[Grammatical aspect|aspects]]: [[Perfective aspect|perfective]] or [[Imperfective aspect|imperfective]]{{Citation needed|date=October 2010}}. Most verbs come in pairs, with the perfective verb being created out of the imperfective by adding a [[Prefix (linguistics)|prefix]] or making a stem change{{Citation needed|date=October 2010}}. The imperfective aspect typically indicates that the action is unfinished, in progress, or repetitive; while the perfective aspect typically denotes that the action was completed, instantaneous, or of limited duration{{Citation needed|date=October 2010}}. Some Štokavian tenses (namely, aorist and imperfect) favor a particular aspect (but they are rarer or absent in Čakavian and Kajkavian). Actually, aspects "compensate" for the relative lack of tenses, because aspect of the verb determines whether the act is completed or in progress in the referred time.{{Citation needed|date=October 2010}}

==Writing systems==
Through history, this language has been written in a number of writing systems{{Citation needed|date=October 2010}}:
*Angled, Round, and Triangled [[Glagolitic alphabet]], chiefly in [[Croatia]].{{Citation needed|date=October 2010}}
*[[Arabic alphabet]] (mostly in Bosnia).{{Citation needed|date=October 2010}}
*[[Cyrillic alphabet]], and its transition to Glagolitic (called ''[[Bosančica]]''). {{Citation needed|date=October 2010}}
*various modifications of the [[Latin alphabet|Latin]] and [[Greek alphabet|Greek]] alphabets.{{Citation needed|date=October 2010}}

The oldest texts since 11th century are in [[Glagolitic]]{{Citation needed|date=October 2010}}, and the oldest preserved text written completely in the Latin alphabet is "Red i zakon sestara reda Svetog Dominika", from 1345{{Citation needed|date=October 2010}}. Arabic alphabet formerly was used by Bosnian Muslims{{Citation needed|date=October 2010}}; Greek writing recently is out of use there{{Citation needed|date=October 2010}}, and Arabic and Glagolitic persisted so far partly in religious liturgies.{{Citation needed|date=October 2010}}

Today, it is written in both the [[Latin alphabet|Latin]] and [[Cyrillic alphabet|Cyrillic]] alphabets. Serbian and Bosnian variants use both alphabets, while Croatian uses the Latin only.{{Citation needed|date=October 2010}}

The Serbian Cyrillic alphabet was revised by [[Vuk Stefanović Karadžić]] in the 19th century.

The Croatian Latin alphabet (''[[Gaj's Latin alphabet|Gajica]]'') followed suit shortly afterwards, when [[Ljudevit Gaj]] defined it as standard [[Latin]] with five extra letters that had [[diacritic]]s, apparently borrowing much from [[Czech language|Czech]]{{Citation needed|date=October 2010}}, but also from [[Polish language|Polish]], and inventing the unique [[digraph (orthography)|digraphs]] "lj", "nj" and "dž".These diagraphs are represented as "ļ, ń and ǵ" respectively in the "Rječnik hrvatskog ili srpskog jezika", published by the former [[Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts]] in [[Zagreb]].<ref>{{hr icon}} Gramatika hrvatskosrpskoga jezika, Group of Authors ([[Ivan Brabec]], [[Mate Hraste]] and [[Sreten Živković]]), Zagreb, 1968.</ref> The latter diagraphs, however, are unused in the literary standard of the language{{Citation needed|date=October 2010}}. All in all, this makes Serbo-Croatian the only Slavic language to officially use both the Latin and Cyrillic scripts, albeit the Latin version is more commonly used{{Citation needed|date=October 2010}}.

In both cases, spelling is phonetic and spellings in the two alphabets map to each other one-to-one:

'''Latin to Cyrillic'''
{| class="wikitable"
|-
| A || a || B || b || C || c || Č || č || Ć || ć || D || d || Dž || dž || Đ || đ || E || e || F || f || G || g || H || h || I || i || J || j || K || k
|-
| А || а || Б || б || Ц || ц || Ч || ч || Ћ || ћ || Д || д || Џ || џ || Ђ || ђ || Е || е || Ф || ф || Г || г || Х || х || И || и || Ј || ј || К || к
|}
{| class="wikitable"
| L || l || Lj || lj || M || m || N || n || Nj || nj || O || o || P || p || R || r || S || s || Š || š || T || t || U || u || V || v || Z || z || Ž || ž
|-
| Л || л || Љ || љ || М || м || Н || н || Њ || њ || О || о || П || п || Р || р || С || с || Ш || ш || Т || т || У || у || В || в || З || з || Ж || ж
|}

'''Cyrillic to Latin'''
{| class="wikitable"
|-
| А || а || Б || б || В || в || Г || г || Д || д || Ђ || ђ || Е || е || Ж || ж || З || з || И || и || Ј || ј || К || к || Л || л || Љ || љ || М || м
|-
| 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"
| Н || н || Њ || њ || О || о || П || п || Р || р || С || с || Т || т || Ћ || ћ || У || у || Ф || ф || Х || х || Ц || ц || Ч || ч || Џ || џ || Ш || ш
|-
| 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
|}

{|class="wikitable" border=1 style="float:right; margin-left:1em"
! colspan="4" | '''Sample collation'''
|-
! colspan="2" | Latin collation order
! rowspan = 6 | &nbsp;
! rowspan = "2" | Cyrillic<br/>collation<br/>order
|-
!'''Latin '''
!<font color="#606060">Cyrillic<br/>equivalent</font>
|-
|Ina
|<font color="#606060">Ина<font>
| rowspan="4" | Ина<br/> Инверзија<br/> Инјекција <br/> Иње
|-
|Injekcija
|<font color="#606060">И'''нј'''екција</font>
|-
|Inverzija
|<font color="#606060">Инверзија</font>
|-
|Inje
|<font color="#606060">И'''њ'''е</font>
|}

The [[digraph (orthography)|digraphs]] ''Lj'', ''Nj'' and ''Dž'' represent distinct [[phoneme]]s and are considered to be single letters. In crosswords, they are put into a single square, and in [[sorting]], lj follows l and nj follows n, except in a few words where the individual letters are pronounced separately, for instance "nadživ(j)eti" (''to outlive''), which is composed of the prefix nad- and the verb živ(j)eti.
The Cyrillic version avoids the ambiguity by providing a unique single letter for each sound.

''Đ'' used to be commonly written as ''Dj'' on typewriters, but that practice led to too many ambiguities. It is also used on car [[license plate]]s. Today ''Dj'' is often used again in place of ''Đ'' on the Internet as a replacement due to the lack of installed Serbo-Croat keyboard layouts.

==Phonology==
{{Main|Serbo-Croatian phonology}}

===Vowels===
The Serbo-Croatian [[vowel]] system is simple, with only five vowels in Štokavian. All vowels are [[monophthong]]s. The oral vowels are as follows:

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! '''Latin script'''
! '''Cyrillic script'''
! '''[[help:IPA|IPA]]'''
! '''Description'''
! '''English approximation'''
|-
| align="center" | '''a'''
| align="center" | '''а'''
| align="center" | {{IPA|/a/}}
| [[Open front unrounded vowel|open front unrounded]]
| ''f'''a'''ther''
|-
| align="center" | '''e'''
| align="center" | '''е'''
| align="center" | {{IPA|/ɛ/}}
| [[Open-mid front unrounded vowel|open-mid front unrounded]]
| ''d'''e'''n''
|-
| align="center" | '''i'''
| align="center" | '''и'''
| align="center" | {{IPA|/i/}}
| [[Close front unrounded vowel|close front unrounded]]
| ''s'''ee'''k''
|-
| align="center" | '''o'''
| align="center" | '''о'''
| align="center" | {{IPA|/ɔ/}}
| [[Open-mid back rounded vowel|open-mid back rounded]]
| ''l'''o'''rd''
|-
| align="center" | '''u'''
| align="center" | '''у'''
| align="center" | {{IPA|/u/}}
| [[close back rounded vowel|closed back rounded]]
| ''p'''oo'''l''
|}

The vowels can be short or long, but the phonetic quality doesn't change depending on the length. In a word, vowels can be long in the stressed syllable and the syllables following it, never in the ones preceding it.

===Consonants===
The [[consonant]] system is more complicated, and its characteristic features are series of [[affricate]] and [[Palatal consonant|palatal]] consonants. As in English, voice is [[phoneme|phonemic]], but [[aspiration (phonetics)|aspiration]] is not.

{| class="wikitable" style="center"
|-
! '''Latin script'''
! '''Cyrillic script'''
! '''[[help:IPA|IPA]]'''
! '''Description'''
! '''English approximation'''
|-
! colspan="6" | [[Trill consonant|trill]]
|-
| align="center" | '''r'''
| align="center" | '''р'''
| align="center" | {{IPA|/r/}}
| [[alveolar trill]]
| rolled (vibrating) '''r''' as in ''ca'''rr'''amba''
|-
! colspan="6" | [[approximants]]
|-
| align="center" | '''v'''
| align="center" | '''в'''
| align="center" | {{IPA|/ʋ/}}
| [[labiodental approximant]]
| roughly between '''''v'''ortex'' and '''''w'''ar''
|-
| align="center" | '''j'''
| align="center" | '''ј'''
| align="center" | {{IPA|/j/}}
| [[palatal approximant]]
| '''''y'''ear''
|-
! colspan="6" | [[Lateral consonant|laterals]]
|-
| align="center" | '''l'''
| align="center" | '''л'''
| align="center" | {{IPA|/l/}}
| [[lateral alveolar approximant]]
| '''''l'''ight''
|-
| align="center" | '''lj'''
| align="center" | '''љ'''
| align="center" | {{IPA|/ʎ/}}
| [[palatal lateral approximant]]
| roughly ''batta'''li'''on''
|-
! colspan="6" | [[Nasal consonant|nasals]]
|-
| align="center" | '''m'''
| align="center" | '''м'''
| align="center" | {{IPA|/m/}}
| [[bilabial nasal]]
| '''''m'''an''
|-
| align="center" | '''n'''
| align="center" | '''н'''
| align="center" | {{IPA|/n/}}
| [[alveolar nasal]]
| '''''n'''ot''
|-
| align="center" | '''nj'''
| align="center" | '''њ'''
| align="center" | {{IPA|/ɲ/}}
| [[palatal nasal]]
| '''''n'''ews'' or American ''ca'''ny'''on''
|-
! colspan="6" | [[fricatives]]
|-
| align="center" | '''f'''
| align="center" | '''ф'''
| align="center" | {{IPA|/f/}}
| [[voiceless labiodental fricative]]
| '''''f'''ive''
|-
| align="center" | '''s'''
| align="center" | '''с'''
| align="center" | {{IPA|/s/}}
| [[voiceless alveolar fricative]]
| '''''s'''ome''
|-
| align="center" | '''z'''
| align="center" | '''з'''
| align="center" | {{IPA|/z/}}
| [[voiced alveolar fricative]]
| '''''z'''ero''
|-
| align="center" | '''š'''
| align="center" | '''ш'''
| align="center" | {{IPA|/ʃ/}}
| [[voiceless postalveolar fricative]]
| '''''sh'''arp''
|-
| align="center" | '''ž'''
| align="center" | '''ж'''
| align="center" | {{IPA|/ʒ/}}
| [[voiced postalveolar fricative]]
| ''televi'''si'''on''
|-
| align="center" | '''h'''
| align="center" | '''х'''
| align="center" | {{IPA|/x/}}
| [[voiceless velar fricative]]
| ''lo'''ch'''''
|-
! colspan="6" | [[affricates]]
|-
| align="center" | '''c'''
| align="center" | '''ц'''
| align="center" | {{IPA|/ts/}}
| [[voiceless alveolar affricate]]
| ''po'''ts'''''
|-
| align="center" | '''dž'''
| align="center" | '''џ'''
| align="center" | {{IPA|/dʒ/}}
| [[voiced postalveolar affricate]]
| roughly ''e'''j'''ect''
|-
| align="center" | '''č'''
| align="center" | '''ч'''
| align="center" | {{IPA|/tʃ/}}
| [[voiceless postalveolar affricate]]
| roughly '''''ch'''eck''
|-
| align="center" | '''đ'''
| align="center" | '''ђ'''
| align="center" | {{IPA|/dʑ/}}
| [[voiced alveolo-palatal affricate]]
| roughly '''''J'''ews''
|-
| align="center" | '''ć'''
| align="center" | '''ћ'''
| align="center" | {{IPA|/tɕ/}}
| [[voiceless alveolo-palatal affricate]]
| roughly '''''ch'''oose''
|-
! colspan="6" | [[plosives]]
|-
| align="center" | '''b'''
| align="center" | '''б'''
| align="center" | {{IPA|/b/}}
| [[voiced bilabial plosive]]
| '''''b'''ook''
|-
| align="center" | '''p'''
| align="center" | '''п'''
| align="center" | {{IPA|/p/}}
| [[voiceless bilabial plosive]]
| ''to'''p'''''
|-
| align="center" | '''d'''
| align="center" | '''д'''
| align="center" | {{IPA|/d/}}
| [[voiced alveolar plosive]]
| '''''d'''og''
|-
| align="center" | '''t'''
| align="center" | '''т'''
| align="center" | {{IPA|/t/}}
| [[voiceless alveolar plosive]]
| ''i'''t'''''
|-
| align="center" | '''g'''
| align="center" | '''г'''
| align="center" | {{IPA|/ɡ/}}
| [[voiced velar plosive]]
| '''''g'''ood''
|-
| align="center" | '''k'''
| align="center" | '''к'''
| align="center" | {{IPA|/k/}}
| [[voiceless velar plosive]]
| ''du'''ck'''''
|-
|}

In [[consonant cluster]]s all consonants are either voiced or voiceless. All the consonants are voiced (if the last consonant is normally voiced) or voiceless (if the last consonant is normally voiceless). This rule does not apply to [[approximant]]s{{ndash}} a consonant cluster may contain voiced approximants and voiceless consonants; as well as to foreign words (''Washington'' would be transcribed as ''VašinGton''/''ВашинГтон''), personal names and when consonants are not inside of one syllable.

{{IPA|/r/}} can be syllabic, playing the role of the syllable nucleus in certain words (occasionally, it can even have a long accent). For example, the [[tongue-twister]] ''navrh brda vrba mrda'' involves four words with syllabic {{IPA|/r/}}. A similar feature exists in [[Czech language|Czech]], [[Slovak language|Slovak]], [[Macedonian language|Macedonian]] and [[Serbian language|Serbian]]. Very rarely other sonorants can be syllabic, like {{IPA|/l/}} (in ''bicikl''), {{IPA|/ʎ/}} (surname ''Štarklj''), {{IPA|/n/}} (unit ''njutn''), as well as {{IPA|/m/}}  and {{IPA|/ɲ/}} in [[slang]].{{Citation needed|date=April 2010}}

===Pitch accent===
{{See|Pitch accent#Serbo-Croatian|Serbo-Croatian phonology#Pitch accent}}

Apart from [[Slovene language|Slovene]], Serbo-Croatian is the only Slavic language with a [[pitch accent]] (simple [[Tone (linguistics)|tone]]) system{{Citation needed|date=October 2010}}. This feature is present in some other [[Indo-European languages]], such as [[Swedish language|Swedish]], [[Norwegian language|Norwegian]], [[Limburgish language|Limburgish]], Spanish spoken in Chile and Colombia (to a lesser extent), and [[Ancient Greek]]{{Citation needed|date=October 2010}}. Standard Neoštokavian Serbo-Croatian, which is used a basis for standard Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian, has four "accents", which involve either a [[Tone contour|rising or falling tone]] on either long or short vowels, with optional post-tonic lengths:

{| class="wikitable"
|+Serbo-Croatian accent system
|-
!Slavicist<br />symbol!![[International Phonetic Alphabet|IPA]]<br />symbol!!Description
|- style="text-align:center;"
|'''{{unicode|e}}'''||{{IPA|[e]}}||align="left"|non-tonic short vowel
|- style="text-align:center;"
|'''{{unicode|ē}}'''||{{IPA|[eː]}}||align="left"|non-tonic long vowel
|- style="text-align:center;"
|'''{{unicode|è}}'''||{{IPA|[ě]}}||align="left"|short vowel with rising tone
|- style="text-align:center;"
|'''{{unicode|é}}'''||{{IPA|[ěː]}}||align="left"|long vowel with rising tone
|- style="text-align:center;"
|'''{{Unicode|ȅ}}'''||{{IPA|[ê]}}||align="left"|short vowel with falling tone
|- style="text-align:center;"
|'''{{Unicode|ȇ}}'''||{{IPA|[êː]}}||align="left"|long vowel with falling tone
|}

The tone stressed vowels can be approximated in English with ''set'' vs ''setting?'' said in isolation for a short tonic ''e,'' or ''leave'' vs ''leaving?'' for a long tonic ''i,'' due to the [[prosody (linguistics)|prosody]] of final stressed syllables in English.

General accent rules in the standard language:

# Monosyllabic words may have only a falling tone (or no accent at all – [[enclitic]]s);
# Falling tone may occur only on the first syllable of polysyllabic words;
# Accent can never occur on the last syllable of polysyllabic words.

There are no other rules for accent placement, thus the accent of every word must be learned individually; furthermore, in inflection, accent shifts are common, both in type and position (the so-called "[[mobile paradigm]]s"). The second rule is not strictly obeyed, especially in borrowed words.

Comparative and historical linguistics offers some clues for memorising the accent position: If one compares many standard Serbo-Croatian words to e.g. [[cognate]] Russian words, the accent in the Serbo-Croatian word will be one syllable before the one in the Russian word, with the rising tone. Historically, the rising tone appeared when the place of the accent shifted to the preceding syllable (the so-called "Neoštokavian retraction"), but the quality of this new accent was different – its melody still "gravitated" towards the original syllable{{Citation needed|date=October 2010}}. Most Štokavian dialects (Neoštokavian) dialects underwent this shift, but Čakavian, Kajkavian and the Old Štokavian dialects did not{{Citation needed|date=October 2010}}.

Accent diacritics are not used in the ordinary orthography, but only in the linguistic or language-learning literature (e.g. dictionaries, orthography and grammar books){{Citation needed|date=October 2010}}. However, there are very few [[minimal pair]]s where an error in accent can lead to misunderstanding.

== Orthography ==
Serbo-Croatian orthography is supposed to be almost completely phonetic{{Citation needed|date=October 2010}}. Thus, every word is allegedly spelled exactly as it is pronounced. In practice, the writing system does not take into account [[allophone]]s which occur as a result of interaction between words:

*bit će{{ndash}} pronounced ''biće'' (and only written separately in Croatian)
*od toga{{ndash}} pronounced ''otoga'' (in many vernaculars)
*iz čega{{ndash}} pronounced ''iščega'' (in many vernaculars)

Also, there are some exceptions, mostly applied to foreign words and compounds, that favor morphological/etymological over phonetic spelling:

*postdiplomski (postgraduate){{ndash}} pronounced ''pozdiplomski''

One systemic exception is that the consonant clusters '''ds''' and '''dš''' do not change into '''ts''' and '''tš''' (although ''d'' tends to be unvoiced in normal speech in such clusters):

*predstava (show)
*odšteta (damages)

Only a few words are intentionally "misspelled", mostly in order to resolve ambiguity:

*šeststo (six hundred){{ndash}} pronounced ''šesto'' (to avoid confusion with "šesto" [sixth])
*prstni (adj., finger){{ndash}} pronounced ''prsni'' (to avoid confusion with "prsni" [adj., chest])

== Demographics ==
{{Refimprove|date=January 2010}}
The total number of persons who declared their native language as either 'Bosnian', 'Croatian', 'Serbian', 'Montenegrin', or 'Serbo-Croatian' in countries of the region is about 16 million.

Serbian is spoken by about 9 million mostly in Serbia (6.7m), Bosnia and Herzegovina (1.4m), and Montenegro (0.4m). Serbian minorities are found the Republic of Macedonia and Romania. In Serbia, there is about 760,000 second-language speakers of Serbian, including Hungarians in [[Vojvodina]] and the 400,000 estimated Roma. Familiarity of [[Kosovo Albanians]] with Serbian in [[Kosovo]] varies depending on age and education, and exact numbers are not available..

Croatian is spoken by roughly 4.7 million including some 575,000 in Bosnia and Herzegovina. A small Croatian minority lives in Italy known as [[Molise Croats]] have somewhat preserved traces of the Croatian language. In Croatia, 170,000 mostly [[Italians]] and [[Hungarians]] use it as a [[second language]].

Bosnian is spoken by 2.2 million people, chiefly [[Bosniaks]], including about 220,000 in Serbia and Montenegro.

Notion of Montenegrin as a separate standard from Serbian is relatively recent. In the 2003 census, around 150,000 Montenegrins, of the country's 620,000, declared Montenegrin as their native language. That figure is likely to increase since, due to the country's independence and strong institutional backing of Montenegrin language.

Serbo-Croatian is also a [[second language]] of many [[Slovenians]] and [[Macedonians (ethnic group)|Macedonians]], especially those born during the time of Yugoslavia. According to the 2002 Census, Serbo-Croatian and its variants have the largest number of speakers of the minority languages in Slovenia.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.inv.si/DocDir/Publikacije-PDF/Raziskovalna%20porocila/Raziskava_Polozaj_in_status_pripadnikov_narodov_nekdanje_Jugoslavije_v_RS.pdf| title=Raziskava Položaj in status pripadnikov narodov nekdanje Jugoslavije vRS.pdf| format=pdf |language=Slovene}}</ref>

Outside of the Balkans, there are over 2 million native speakers of the language(s), especially in countries which are frequent targets of immigration, such as [[Australia]], [[Austria]], [[Brazil]], [[Canada]], [[Chile]], [[Germany]], [[Hungary]], [[Italy]], [[Sweden]] and the [[United States]].

==Differences between the standards==
{{Main|Differences between standard Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian}}

==See also==
* [[Serbo-Croatian grammar]]
* [[Serbo-Croatian phonology]]
* [[Serbo-Croatian kinship]]
* [[A language is a dialect with an army and navy]]

== Notes==
{{Reflist|2}}

==References==
* <cite id=refBrown2006>{{cite book|last1=Brown|first1=E. K.|last2=Anderson|first2=Anne|title=Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics|year=2006|publisher=Elsevier|isbn=0080442994}}</cite>
* <cite id=refBugarski2004>{{cite book|last1=Bugarski|first1=Ranko|last2=Hawkesworth|first2=Celia|title=Language in the Former Yugoslav Lands|year=2004|publisher=Slavica Publishers|isbn=0893572985|location=Indiana University}}</cite>
* <cite id=refGreenberg2004>{{cite book|last=Greenberg|first=Robert David|title=Language and Identity in the Balkans: Serbo-Croatian and Its Disintegration|year=2004|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=0199258155}}</cite>

==Further reading==
*Banac, Ivo: ''Main Trends in the Croatian Language Question'', Yale University Press, 1984
*Branko Franolić, Mateo Zagar: ''A Historical Outline of Literary Croatian & The Glagolitic Heritage of Croatian Culture'', Erasmus & CSYPN, London & Zagreb 2008 ISBN 978-953-6132-80-5
*Franolić, Branko: ''A Historical Survey of Literary Croatian'', Nouvelles éditions latines, Paris, 1984.
*Franolić, Branko: ''Language Policy in Yugoslavia with special reference to Croatian'', Paris, Nouvelles Editions Latines 1988
*Ivić, Pavle: ''Die serbokroatischen Dialekte'', the Hague, 1958
*{{Citation |last=Matasović |first=Ranko |author-link=Ranko Matasović |title=Poredbenopovijesna gramatika hrvatskoga jezika |location=[[Zagreb]] |publisher=[[Matica hrvatska]] |year=2008 |isbn=978-953-150-840-7 |language=Croatian }}
*Magner, Thomas F.: ''Zagreb Kajkavian dialect''. Pennsylvania State University, 1966
*Magner, Thomas F.: ''Introduction to the Croatian and Serbian Language'' (Revised ed.). Pennsylvania State University, 1991
*Murray Despalatović, Elinor: ''Ljudevit Gaj and the Illyrian Movement''. Columbia University Press, 1975.
*Zekovic, Sreten & Cimeša, Boro: ''Elementa montenegrina'', Chrestomatia 1/90. CIP, Zagreb 1991

==External links==
{{interWiki|code=sh}}
*Ethnologue{{ndash}} 15th edition of the Ethnologue (released 2005) shows changes in this area:
**[http://www.ethnologue.com/14/show_language.asp?code=SRC Previous Ethnologue entry for Serbo-Croatian]
**[http://www.ethnologue.com/show_family.asp?subid=90675 Ethnologue 15th Edition report on south/western Slavic languages].
*[http://hjp.srce.hr/index.php?show=povijest&chapter=28-novosadski_dogovor Integral text of Novi Sad Agreement] (In Serbo-Croatian).
*[http://www.ikiprev.com IKI Translate: Translating different dialects of Serbo-Croatian one to another]
*[http://www.omniglot.com/writing/serbo-croat.htm Serbian and Croatian alphabets] at Omniglot.
*Sean McLennan: [http://www.shaav.com/professional/linguistics/serbocroation.html Sociolinguistic Analysis of Serbo-Croatian] (in [[Portable Document Format|PDF format]]) <!-- sic! serbocroation in URL -->
*Juhani Nuorluoto: [http://www.joensuu.fi/fld/methodsxi/abstracts/nuorluoto.html The Notion of Diasystem in the Central South Slavic Linguistic Area].
*[http://www.rferl.org/content/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]]'', February 21, 2009
* {{Citation |last1=Browne |first1=Wayles |author1-link=Wayles Browne |last2=Alt |first2=Theresa |author2-link=Theresa Alt |year=2004 |url=http://www.seelrc.org:8080/grammar/pdf/compgrammar_bcs.pdf |title=A Handbook of Bosnian, Serbian, and Croatian |format=PDF |publisher=SEELRC}}

{{Slavic languages}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Serbo-Croatian Language}}
[[Category:Serbo-Croatian language]]
[[Category:South Slavic languages]]
[[Category:Languages of Serbia]]
[[Category:Languages of Montenegro]]
[[Category:Languages of Vojvodina]]
[[Category:Languages of Kosovo]]
[[Category:Languages of Bosnia and Herzegovina]]
[[Category:Languages of Croatia]]
[[Category:Languages of Slovenia]]

{{Link FA|sh}}
<!-- interwiki -->

[[af:Serwo-Kroaties]]
[[ar:لغة صربية كرواتية]]
[[an:Idioma serbocrovate]]
[[ast:Serbocroata]]
[[az:Serb-Xorvat dili]]
[[bn:সার্বো-ক্রোয়েশীয়-বসনীয় ভাষা]]
[[be:Сербскахарвацкая мова]]
[[be-x-old:Сэрбскахарвацкая мова]]
[[bs:Srpsko-hrvatski jezik]]
[[bg:Сърбохърватски език]]
[[ca:Serbocroat]]
[[cs:Srbochorvatština]]
[[cy:Serbo-Croateg]]
[[da:Serbokroatisk]]
[[de:Serbokroatische Sprache]]
[[dsb:Serbisko-chorwatska rěc]]
[[et:Serbia-horvaadi keel]]
[[es:Idioma serbocroata]]
[[eo:Serbokroata lingvo]]
[[eu:Serbokroaziera]]
[[fa:زبان صربی کرواتی]]
[[hif:Serbo-Croatian]]
[[fr:Serbo-croate]]
[[ga:An tSeirbea-Chróitis]]
[[gl:Lingua serbocroata]]
[[ko:세르보크로아트어]]
[[hsb:Serbiskochorwatšćina]]
[[hr:Srpskohrvatski jezik]]
[[id:Bahasa Serbo-Kroasia]]
[[it:Lingua serbo-croata]]
[[he:סרבו-קרואטית]]
[[ka:სერბულ-ხორვატული ენა]]
[[csb:Serbòchòrwacczi jãzëk]]
[[sw:Kiserbokroatia]]
[[lad:Lingua Serbo-Kroatia]]
[[la:Lingua Serbocroatica]]
[[lv:Serbohorvātu valoda]]
[[lt:Serbų-kroatų kalba]]
[[li:Servokroatisch]]
[[hu:Szerbhorvát nyelv]]
[[mk:Српскохрватски јазик]]
[[arz:صربى- كرواتى]]
[[ms:Bahasa Serbo-Croatia]]
[[nl:Servo-Kroatisch]]
[[ja:セルビア・クロアチア語]]
[[no:Serbokroatisk]]
[[nn:Serbokroatisk]]
[[oc:Sèrbocroat]]
[[pnb:سرب کروشیائی]]
[[nds:Serbokroaatsch]]
[[pl:Język serbsko-chorwacki]]
[[pt:Língua servo-croata]]
[[ro:Limba sârbocroată]]
[[qu:Sirbu hurwat rimay]]
[[ru:Сербохорватский язык]]
[[sc:Limba serbocroata]]
[[sq:Gjuha serbokroate]]
[[sk:Srbochorvátčina]]
[[cu:Срьбьскохръватьско ѩꙁꙑчьно събраниѥ]]
[[sl:Srbohrvaščina]]
[[sr:Српскохрватски језик]]
[[sh:Srpskohrvatski jezik]]
[[fi:Serbokroaatin kieli]]
[[sv:Serbokroatiska]]
[[ta:செருபோகுரோவாசிய மொழி]]
[[tg:Забони сербу хорватӣ]]
[[tr:Sırp-Hırvatça]]
[[udm:Сербохорват кыл]]
[[uk:Сербсько-хорватська мова]]
[[ug:سېربو-كرودىيىلىكلەر تىلى]]
[[vi:Tiếng Serbia-Croatia]]
[[zh:塞尔维亚-克罗地亚语]]