Languages of Serbia

Languages of Serbia

Linguistic map of Serbia according to settlements
Official languages Serbian
Regional languages Hungarian, Slovak, Romanian, Croatian, Rusyn, Albanian
Sign languages Yugoslav Sign Language
Common keyboard layouts
South Slavic Latin and
Serbian Cyrillic keyboard

Serbia has only one nationwide official language, which is Serbian. Other languages spoken in Serbia include Albanian (spoken in Preševo Valley and Kosovo), Hungarian, Romanian, Slovak, Rusyn, Croatian (all of which are official regional languages in the Vojvodina

province), Ukrainian, Bulgarian, Romani, Czech, Bosnian, Vlach, Bunjevac, Macedonian, Montenegrin, etc.

Serbian language

Main article: Serbian language

Serbian language predominates in most of Serbia, excluding slandnjnicipalities in Vojvodina and southern Serbia, as well excluding larger part of Kosovo. Bosnian, Croatian and Bunjevac language, which are, according to census, spoken in some parts of Serbia are virtually identical with Serbian, while declared speakers of Bulgarian language from southern Serbia are actually speakers of Torlakian dialect, which is considered as one of the dialects of the Serbian language by Serbian linguists.

Serbian language spoken in Serbia has several dialects: Šumadija-Vojvodina, Smederevo-Vršac, Kosovo-Resava, Prizren South Morava, Svrljig-Zaplanje, Timok-Lužnica (Torlakian), Eastern Herzegovina, and Zeta-South Sandžak. Šumadija-Vojvodina and Eastern Herzegovina dialects are basys for modern standard Serbian.

Throughout part of southern Serbia, a dialect by the name of Torlakian is spoken. Although it has no standard form and continues to be spoken without any form of official status, Torlakian may be seen by some as constituting a separate language. It forms a part of the South Slavic dialect continuum, and is transitional between the eastern south Slavic languages (mainly Bulgarian and Macedonian) and the western south Slavic languages (of which Serbian is a part).

Regional languages

Besides Serbian, which is the official language in the whole country, there are five regional languages in the official use by the provincial administration in Vojvodina: Hungarian, Romanian, Slovak, Rusyn, and Croatian. Serbian is a main language used by provincial administration and by all city and municipal administrations in Vojvodina. The other five languages are used by provincial administration and by selected city or municipal administrations. In practice, Serbian is a lingua franca of the region and number of declared native speakers of Serbian in the province exceedes the number of declared ethnic Serbs. Among other languages, Hungarian and Slovak are dominant in several municipalities, while other languages are dominant only in several villages.

Albanian and Serbian are the two official languages of Kosovo.

See also

References

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