{"id":4530,"date":"2017-10-02T08:00:01","date_gmt":"2017-10-02T08:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.listenandlearn.org\/blog\/?p=4530"},"modified":"2017-09-25T17:39:26","modified_gmt":"2017-09-25T17:39:26","slug":"serbian-the-language-with-the-two-alphabet-identity-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.listenandlearn.org\/blog\/serbian-the-language-with-the-two-alphabet-identity-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"Serbian: The Language with the Two-Alphabet Identity Crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Photo via Pixabay<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

We recently decided to pay some overdue attention to languages that don\u2019t necessarily fall under the popularity<\/i> radar. This time it\u2019s the turn of Serbian, and with it the controversy that\u2019s currently striking the town of Vrbas, where part of the population want another language entirely to be made official.<\/p>\n

You can\u2019t change your family<\/b><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

GIF via Giphy<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

But apparently you can<\/i> change your language family. Serbian used to be considered a Serbo-Croat language, but has more recently been reclassified as part of the Western branch of Indo-European. It\u2019s kind of complex:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Untitled\"<\/a><\/p>\n

(via Ethnologue<\/a>)<\/p>\n

But hey; what family isn\u2019t<\/i> a little complicated?<\/p>\n

Some basics:<\/b><\/p>\n

There are estimated to be around 8.7 millions native speakers of Serbian, and these speakers can be found in Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, and Slovakia, as well as Serbia itself\u2014home to about 6.3 million of that overall total number.<\/p>\n

Serbian is the only European language with a diagraphia, with synchronic writing systems in both Cyrillic and Latin\u2014for which there are four additional letters that you won\u2019t find in the English alphabet. There is no preference<\/i> for either script as such, since most speakers use both equally well, and this is evidenced in street signs and the majority of printed material that you\u2019ll find if you decide to pay Serbia a visit.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Photo via Pixabay<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

Getting political<\/b><\/p>\n

We mentioned Vrbas in our introduction, and this small northern Serbian town is currently home to some politically-motivated language debating. Currently, the official languages in Vrbas are Serbian, Hungarian, and Ruthenian, with a constitutional law that states that when a percentage of the population reaches 15%, the minority language of that people must have its status \u2018promoted\u2019 to an official one.<\/p>\n

The population of Vrbas has 17.5% that are Montenegrin, and the Montenegrin Party says that authorities in Vrbas have been deliberately ignoring requests for a change in language status since 2011. But of course, the reason for this is due to politics elsewhere.<\/p>\n

In Montenegro, ethnic Serbs have been campaigning to the authorities for years about the discrimination against the Serbian language there. This dispute has been ongoing since 2007, a year after Montenegro split from Serbia, and a period that saw the official language of Montenegro becoming Montenegrin.<\/p>\n

A retaliatory response to those accusations is that the Montenegrin population of Vrbas faces similar discrimination, so it seems that such behaviour in Vrbas is very much tit for tat. Who said anything about politicians being mature...<\/p>\n

Helpful phrases<\/b><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Arthur Dent meets Serbian?\u00a0(GIF via Giphy<\/a>)<\/p><\/div>\n

While we are unable to do anything to assist in any way with Serbian politics, we can provide you with a few words that might prove helpful when visiting Serbia.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

So. We hope you\u2019ve enjoyed our toe-dipping into the Serbian language, and that even if Serbian isn\u2019t the language you choose to learn next, that we have at least inspired you to think a little harder about the one you are<\/i> interested in learning!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We recently decided to pay some overdue attention to languages that don\u2019t necessarily fall under the popularity radar. This time it\u2019s the turn of Serbian, and with it the controversy that\u2019s currently striking the town of Vrbas, where part of the population want another language entirely to be made official. You can\u2019t change your family(\u2026)<\/p>\n

\n
\n\t \t\t\t\tCONTINUE READING »<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":4540,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,28],"tags":[456,716,66,376,30,693,207,723,724],"class_list":["post-4530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-language-learning","category-culture-travel","tag-europe","tag-european-languages","tag-language","tag-language-guru","tag-language-learning-2","tag-observations","tag-politics","tag-serbia","tag-serbian"],"yoast_head":"\nSerbian: The Language with the Two-Alphabet Identity Crisis<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Spoken by over 8 million people, learn all about Serbian and the language's identity crisis.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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