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Ethnologue: Languages of the World
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Ethnologue > Web version > Country index > Europe > Serbia > Serbian

Serbian

A language of Serbia

ISO 639-3: srp

Population  4,500,000 in Serbia (2006). Population total all countries: 7,020,550.
Region  Also in Albania, Australia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Libya, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Russian Federation (Europe), Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey (Europe), Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United States, Zambia.
Alternate names   Montenegrin
Dialects  Shtokavski (Stokavian), Torlakian.
Classification  Indo-European, Slavic, South, Western
A member of macrolanguage Serbo-Croatian [hbs] (Serbia).
Language use  Official language. National language.
Language development  Fully developed. Bible: 1804–1968.
Writing system  Cyrillic script. Latin script, used in Macedonia.
Comments  Previously considered a part of the Serbo-Croat language. Torlakian spoken in south and east. Influence from Bulgarian [bul]. Some linguists consider it transitional between Shtokavski and Macedonian [mkd]. SVO; postpositions; genitives, articles, adjectives, numerals, relatives after noun heads; question word initial; 1 suffix; case determines subject, object; obligatory verb affixes mark person, number, gender of subject, object, other noun phrase; passive for each tense, not commonly used today; causatives marked by separate words; comparatives marked by prefix; CCVCVC; nontonal. Christian.

Also spoken in:

Albania

Language name   Serbian
Population  297,000 in Albania (2007).
Region  Southwest.
Alternate names  Montenegrin
Comments  Muslim.
 

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Language name   Serbian
Population  1,300,000 in Bosnia and Herzegovina (2004).
Alternate names  Montenegrin
Language use  Official language.
 

Macedonia

Language name   Serbian
Population  33,300 in Macedonia (2001).
Language map  Greece and Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia
Dialects  Serbian.
Comments  Christian.
 

Montenegro

Language name   Serbian
Population  198,000 in Montenegro (2006).
Comments  Muslim.
 

Romania

Language name   Serbian
Population  27,000 in Romania (2002 census).
Comments  Christian, Muslim.
 

Russian Federation (Europe)

Language name   Serbian
Population  4,160 in Russian Federation (2002 census).
Comments  Christian, Muslim.
 

Turkey (Europe)

Language name   Serbian
Population  20,000 in Turkey (1980). 2,345 monolinguals (1965 census). Ethnic population: 61,000.
Region  West Turkey, scattered.
Alternate names  Bosnian
Language use  Also use Turkish [tur].
Comments  Muslim.