- Official language in
- Montenegro, Serbia
- Script
- Cyrillic, Latin
Where it's spoken
Serbian is an official language of Serbia: the constitution places the Serbian language and the Cyrillic script in official use in the Republic of Serbia, and leaves the official use of other languages and scripts to be regulated by law. Serbian is also in official use in Montenegro, where the constitution names Montenegrin as the official language and adds that Serbian, Bosniac, Albanian, and Croatian shall also be in official use.
Sources
Script & pronunciation
Serbian is officially written in the Cyrillic script, which Serbia's constitution places in official use together with the language; in Montenegro, where Serbian is also in official use, the constitution treats the Cyrillic and Latin alphabets as equal. This Cyrillic script is historically paired one-to-one with the Latin script also used to write the same language, and the Unicode Standard notes that a set of compatibility digraphs — two letters standing for one sound — is provided for this one-to-one match. Example: this app's card Коњ ("Horse") is written with the single Cyrillic letter њ, which the card's own romanization, Konj, renders with the Latin digraph nj. This app's Serbian cards give the language in Cyrillic, with a separate Latin romanization field that divides each word into syllables with hyphens, as in Молим вас ("Please"), romanized Mo-lim vas.
Sources
- Constitution of the Republic of Serbia (2006), Article 10 "Language and script" — Article 10
- Constitution of Montenegro (2007), Article 13 "Language and alphabet" — Article 13
- The Unicode Standard, Version 16.0.0 — Core Specification, Chapter 7: European Alphabetic Scripts — §7.1.4 "Latin Extended-B" (Serbo-Croatian digraphs)
Grammar essentials
Certain short, unaccented Serbian words — clitics, such as object pronouns and the clitic forms of the verb бити ("to be") — do not begin a clause; grammars of the language describe them as always occupying one fixed position, right after the clause's first word or phrase, and following a strict order within that position, a description known as the "XYZ model." Example: this app's card Драго ми је ("I'm glad") places the dative clitic ми and the clitic је right after the sentence's first word, Драго. Serbian also marks a noun's grammatical role with case endings: the language has seven cases — nominative, vocative, accusative, genitive, dative, locative, and instrumental. Example: this app's card За једну особу ("For one person") puts the accusative form једну after the preposition за, because особа ("person") is a feminine noun. Verbal negation is formed by placing the particle не directly before the verb. Example: this app's card Не могу да једем месо. ("I can't eat meat.") places не directly before могу, the verb it negates.
Sources
- Alexander, Ronelle (2006). Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian: A Grammar with Sociolinguistic Commentary. University of Wisconsin Press — Chapter 5 — §56a "Negated verbs, negative pronouns and 'double negation'" p.70; §64 "Clitic ordering within the XYZ model" p.82
- Alexander, Ronelle (2006). Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian: A Grammar with Sociolinguistic Commentary. University of Wisconsin Press — Table of Contents — Chapter 17 (seven cases)
Politeness & etiquette
Serbian marks politeness through its pronoun for "you": this app's card Ви notes that ти is used with friends and children, while the polite Ви is capitalised in writing. Example: this app's card Молим вас ("Please") notes that the polite plural вас is used with strangers, and not молим те. Grammars of the language also treat the conditional mood as a way of expressing politeness, under a heading covering toned-down statements and set politeness formulas. Example: this app's card Желео бих да изнајмим ауто на... дана. ("I'd like to rent a car for ... days.") uses желео бих да + verb as this polite conditional wish.
Sources
- Alexander, Ronelle (2006). Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian: A Grammar with Sociolinguistic Commentary. University of Wisconsin Press — Table of Contents — Chapter 13 §133 "The conditional of politeness"