Languages of Serbia
| Languages of Serbia | |
|---|---|
 Linguistic map of Serbia | |
| Official | Serbian |
| Minority | Hungarian, Bosnian, Romani, Albanian, Slovak, Romanian, Croatian, Rusyn, Macedonian, Bulgarian, Montenegrin, Czech, Vlach, Bunjevac |
| Signed | Yugoslav Sign Language |
| Keyboard layout | |
The languages spoken in Serbia include official language, recognized minority languages, and other languages.
The official language of Serbia is Serbian.[1] There are more than a dozen recognized minority languages, mainly spoken by the country’s ethnic minorities. Other languages have no official status and are largely spoken by immigrant communities.
Serbian language
The Serbian language predominates in most of Serbia and is a mother tongue of 84.4% of the country's population, including almost all ethnic Serbs and majority of ethnic Croats, Macedonians, Montenegrins, ethnic Muslims as well as over third of ethnic Roma and Bulgarians.
Serbian is based on the most widespread dialect of Serbo-Croatian, Shtokavian (more specifically on the sub-dialects of Šumadija-Vojvodina and Eastern Herzegovina).[2] The other dialect of Serbian is Torlakian, spoken in southeastern Serbia.
Recognized minority languages
There are 14 recognized minority languages in Serbia: Hungarian (native language to 2.5% of population), Bosnian (2.2%), Romani (1.2%), Albanian (1%), Slovak (0.6%), Vlach (0.3%), Romanian (0.3%), Croatian (0.2%), Rusyn (0.1%), Macedonian (0.1%), Bulgarian (0.1%), Montenegrin, Bunjevac, and Czech. Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin, and Bunjevac are practically indistinguishable from Serbian, whereas the Bulgarian spoken in Serbia is in the form of the Torlakian dialect, considered transitional between Bulgarian and Serbian.
Recognized minority languages are in official use in municipalities and cities (54 in total) where share of respective ethnic minority in total population is more than 15%.[3][4] Additionally, five minority languages (Hungarian, Slovak, Romanian, Croatian, and Rusyn) are in the official use by the provincial administration in Vojvodina.
Complete education cycle in minority languages, from preschool to university level, is available in following languages: Hungarian, Bosnian, Albanian, Slovak, Romanian, Croatian, Bulgarian, and Rusyn. Furthermore, seven more minority languages are taught as part of the subject "Mother Tongue with Elements of Ethnic Culture": Romani, Vlach, Macedonian, Bunjevac, German, Ukrainian, and Czech. As of 2025, some 6% of total number of students (60,000 out of 992,000) attend classes in recognized minority languages at all levels of education, from preschool to university level.[5]
The right to information in minority languages is realized through print and electronic media. Newspapers, magazines, and other publications are issued in minority languages, while radio and television stations broadcast programs in those languages.[6]
The European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages was ratified by Serbia and Montenegro in 2005.[7] Serbia, as the successor state, continues to be bound by the Charter obligations.[7]
Other languages
Other languages have no official status and are largely spoken by immigrant communities. Russian is most widely spoken of these, native to 0.1% of the total population. Besides Russian, there is a certain presence of Chinese and Arabic.
See also
References
This article incorporates public domain material from The World Factbook (2006 ed.). CIA.
- ^ "Šta donosi predlog novog ustava Srbije" (in Serbian). B92. 30 September 2006.
- ^ Ljiljana Subotić; Dejan Sredojević; Isidora Bjelaković (2012), Fonetika i fonologija: Ortoepska i ortografska norma standardnog srpskog jezika (in Serbo-Croatian), FILOZOFSKI FAKULTET NOVI SAD, archived from the original on 2014-01-03
- ^ "Latest Council of Europe report on regional or minority Languages in Serbia published". The Network to Promote Linguistic Diversity. Retrieved 25 June 2015.
- ^ https://minljmpdd.gov.rs/u-srbiji-14-jezika-nacionalnih-manjina-u-sluzbenoj-upotrebi-60-000-dece-i-mladih-obrazuje-se-na-manjinskim-jezicima/
- ^ https://minljmpdd.gov.rs/u-srbiji-14-jezika-nacionalnih-manjina-u-sluzbenoj-upotrebi-60-000-dece-i-mladih-obrazuje-se-na-manjinskim-jezicima/
- ^ https://minljmpdd.gov.rs/u-srbiji-14-jezika-nacionalnih-manjina-u-sluzbenoj-upotrebi-60-000-dece-i-mladih-obrazuje-se-na-manjinskim-jezicima/
- ^ a b "EUROPEAN CHARTER FOR REGIONAL OR MINORITY LANGUAGES-APPLICATION OF THE CHARTER IN SERBIA, 2nd monitoring cycle" (PDF). Council of Europe. Retrieved 25 June 2015.