Wikipedia
Serbian nativename=српскиfamilycolor=lawngreenfontcolor=
states=Serbia and Montenegro, Republic of MacedoniaFormer Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, and other countries
region=Balkans
speakers=10 million (17,5M)
rank=around 75 (44)
family=Indo-European language familyIndo-European
Slavic languagesSlavic
South SlavicSouth
! Western? Serbian
nation=Serbia and Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia (until 1991)
agency=Council for Standardization of the Serbian Language
iso1=sriso2=scc (B), srp (T)sil=srp
The Serbian language is one of the standard versions of the Shtokavian dialectŠtokavian dialect (former standard was known as Serbo-Croatian language). Serbian is used primarily in Serbia and Montenegro, Republika Srpska and by Serbs everywhere.The Serbian alphabet is very consistent: one letter per sound with an insignificant number of exceptions. This phonetic principle is represented in the saying: "Write as you speak and read as it is written", the principle used (though not invented) by Vuk Stefanović Karadžić when reforming the Cyrillic spelling of Serbian in the 19th century.Another rare feature of Serbian language is the presence of two alphabets: Cyrillic alphabetCyrillic and Latin alphabetLatin. The two alphabets are almost equivalent; the only difference is in the glyphs used. This is due to historical reasons; Serbian once being a part of the Serbo-Croat unification brought Latinic usage into Serbia.
Alphabets - "Srpske narodne pjesme" (Serbian folk poems), Vienna, 1841]]The following compares Српска Ћирилица (Serbian Cyrillic letters) or Aзбука (''Azbuka'') with ''Srpska Latinica'' (Serbian Latin letters) or ''Abeceda''.
Notes - The letters Lj, Nj and Dž in are represented by two characters in the Latin alphabet. Also, the letter Đ is sometimes written as Dj. The collationsort order of the two alphabets is different. Azbuka: А Б В Г Д Ђ Е Ж З И Ј К Л Љ М Н Њ О П Р С Т Ћ У Ф Х Ц Ч Џ ШAbeceda: 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 Many e-mail and even web documents written in Serbian use basic ASCII, where Serbian Latin letters that use diacritics (Ž Ć Č Š) are replaced with the base, undiacritised forms (Z C C S). The original words are then "recognized" from the context. This is not an official alphabet, and is considered a bad practice, but there are some documents in Serbian that use this simplified alphabet. This is common practice in other languages that use letters with diacritics.
Phonology -
Vowels - The Serbian vowel system is simple, with only five vowels. All vowels are monophthongs. The oral vowels are as follows:
Consonants - The consonant system is more complicated, and its characteristic features are series of affricate and Palatal consonantpalatal consonants. As in English, voicedness is phonemephonemic, but aspiration (phonetics)aspiration is not. In consonant clusters 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 approximants — a consonant cluster may contain voiced approximants and voiceless consonants; as well as to foreign words (''Washington'' would be transcribed as !''VašinGton''/''ВашинГ он''),? personal names and when consonants are not inside of one syllable.R can be syllabic, playing the role of a vowel in certain words (occasionally, it can even have a long accent). For example, the tongue-twister ''na vrh brda vrba mrda'' involves four words with syllabic r. A similar feature exists in Czech languageCzech, Slovak languageSlovak and Macedonian languageMacedonian. Very rare, l can be syllabic (in the name for the river "Vltava", 'l' is syllabic) as well as lj, m, n and nj in jargon.
Serbian literature - , ca. 1180]]''Main article: Serbian literature''Serbian literature emerged in the Middle Ages, and included such works as ''Miroslavljevo jevandjelje'' (The Gospel of Miroslav) in 1192 and ''Dušanov zakonik'' (Dušan's Code) in 1349. Little secular mediæval literature has been preserved, but what there is shows that it was in accord with its time; for example, ''Serbian Alexandride'', a book about Alexander the Great, and a translation of ''Tristan and Isolde'' into Serbian.In the mid-15th century, Serbia was conquered by the Ottoman Empire and, for the next 400 years there was no opportunity for the creation of secular written literature. However, some of the greatest literary works in Serbian come from this time, in the form of oral literature, the most notable form being Serbian epic poetry. It is known that Johann Wolfgang von GoetheGoethe learned the Serbian language in order to read Serbian epic poetry in the original. Written literature was produced only for religious use in churches and monasteries, and held to Old Church Slavonic. By the end of the 18th century, the written literature had become estranged from the spoken language. In the second half of the 18th century, the new language appeared, called Slavonic-Serbian. In the early 19th century, Vuk Stefanović Karadžić, following the work of Sava Mrkalj, reformed the Cyrillic alphabet by introducing the phoneticsphonetic principle, as well as promoting the spoken language of the people as a literary norm.The first printed book in Serbian, ''Oktoih'' was produced in Cetinje in 1494, only 40 years after Gutenberg's invention of movable type.
Demographics - Figures of speakers according to countries: Serbia-Montenegro: 7,170,000 * Serbia: 6,770,000** Vojvodina: 1,557,020 (''as of 20022002'')** Central Serbia: 5,063,679 (''2002'')** Kosovo-Metohia: 150,000* Montenegro: 401,382 (''as of 20032003'') Bosnia-Herzegovina: 1,500,000 USA: around 500,000 Croatia: 44,629 (''as of 20012001'') Republic of Macedonia: 33,315 (''2001'') Romania: 20,377 (''2001'') Australia: 50,000 (''2001'')
Trivia - Two Serbian words that are used in many of the world's languages are vampire and slivovitz (though the etymology and origin of the word ''vampire'' is disputed etymonline.com).
See also - Serbo-Croatian languageDifferences in official languages in Serbia, Croatia and BosniaCommon phrases in different languages#Serbian (Slavic)Common phrases in SerbianSerbian proverbsList of tongue-twisters#SerbianSerbian tongue-twistersList of Serbs#Serbian language speakers, learners, etc.Famous non-Serbs who were speaking or learning the languageŠatrovački (slang form)Romano-Serbian language (mix with Romany)
External links - sr WikibooksparSerbian rastko.org.yu - Standard language as an instrument of culture and the product of national history — an article by pre-eminent linguist Pavle Ivićserbianschool.com - Serbian School Learn Serbian online for freeCategory:Slavic languagesCategory:Languages of Serbia and MontenegroCategory:Languages of Bosnia and HerzegovinaCategory:Languages of VojvodinaCategory:Languages of SerbiaCategory:Languages of MontenegroCategory:Languages of KosovoCategory:Languages of HungaryCategory:Languages of the Republic of !Macedoniaast:Serbiubg:Сръб ски? езикbs:Srpski jezikcs:Srbštinade:Serbische Spracheel:Σερβική γλώσσαes:Idioma serbiofr:Serbeit:Lingua !serbako:세르비아어lv:Serb u? valodahr:Srpski jezikid:Bahasa Serbiahu:Horvát és szerb !nyelvja:セルビア語mk:Ср пски? !јазикnl:Servischno:Serbis k? språkpt:Língua sérviaru:Сербский !языкsk:Srbčinasl:Srbšči nasr:Српски? !језикth:ภาษาเ อร์เบียfi:Serbi an? kielisv:Serbiskatl:Wikang Serbian
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