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Montenegrin language is the name given to the Ijekavian-Štokavian dialect spoken in Montenegro. Although politically unrecognized, some people refer to this specific dialect as a language on its own, while most of its speakers consider it a dialect of Serbian language. As of 2005 there is an ongoing controversy on this issue.
Official status and speakers' preference
On the last census in 2003, 21.53% of the population of Montenegro declared that Montenegrin is their native language. 63.5% of the population declared that Serbian language is their mother tongue. Given that 32% of the population declared themselves as Serbs, and that it is quite unlikely that any of them would declare their language to be other than Serbian, it could be estimated that 31.5% of the population declared Serbian as their language while not declaring as ethnic Serbs.
The language issue is a debated issue in Montenegro. In the previous census of 1991, the majority of Montenegrin citizens declared themselves as speakers of the then official language: Serbo-Croatian. According to the constitution of Montenegro, the official language of the republic, since 1992, is Serbian of the Ijekavian standard. After the World War II and until 1992, the official language of Montenegro was Serbo-Croatian. In the late nineties and early 21st century, organizations promoting Montenegrin as a distinct language appeared.
Some people might compare the situation with Montenegrin language with the position of Croatian and Bosnian languages, and even come to the conclusion that position of Montenegrin parallels the positions of the others. However, there are crucial differences between the three: while Croatian and Bosnian are standard languages and official languages, there is no accepted standard for Montenegrin and it is not official anywhere (the official language of the Republic of Montenegro is Serbian). Further, while most speakers of the Croatian and Bosnian dialects claim to speak Croatian and Bosnian language, respectively, most speakers of Montenegrin dialects claim to speak the Serbian language.
Linguistic considerations
The prevailing dialect spoken in Montenegro is Neoštokavian Ijekavian, similar to one spoken in most of Western Serbia, Eastern Herzegovina and Dubrovnik area.
The vocabulary of the dialect has some distinct features, but words different from other dialects are few (e.g. "sjutra" is used in Montenegro instead of "sutra", which is used in standard Serbian, Bosnian or Croatian).
Proponents of Montenegrin favour the Latin over the Cyrillic alphabet and even propose amending of the standard phonological system (as well as alphabet) for three phonemes: ], ] and ]. While these sounds could be heard with some Montenegrin speakers, they are rare and do not form minimal pairs, and so are not considered phonemes by that criteria. In addition, there are speakers in Montenegro who don't utter them and speakers of Serbian and Croatian outside of Montenegro (notably in Herzegovina and Bosanska Krajina) who do.
Montenegrin language proponents
The chief proponent of Montenegrin is Zagreb-educated Vojislav Nikčević, the head of the Institute for Montenegrin Language in the capital Podgorica. His dictionaries and grammars are printed by Croatian publishers as the major Montenegrin publishing houses such as Obod in Cetinje, as always, opt for the official nomenclature specified in the Constitution (Serbo-Croat until 1992, Serbian after 1992).
Montenegro's independence-minded prime minister Milo Đukanović declared his open support for the formalization of the Montenegrin language by declaring himself as a speaker of the Montenegrin language, in an October 2004 interview with Belgrade daily Politika. At one point during the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, official Montenegrin government communiqués were officially given in English and Montenegrin. The Government has since switched back to Serbian. The official web page of the President of Montenegro states that it is provided in "Montenegrin-Serbian version" (Crnogorsko-srpska verzija).
In 2004, the government of Montenegro changed the school curriculum in such a way that name of the mandatory classes teaching the language was changed from "Serbian language" to "Mother tongue (Serbian, Montenegrin, Croatian, Bosnian)".
This change was made, according to the government, in order to better reflect the diversity of languages spoken among citizens in the republic and to protect human rights of non-Serb citizens in Montenegro who declare themselves as speakers of other languages.
This decision resulted in a dozen Serb teachers declaring a strike and a number of parents refusing to send their children to schools. The cities affected by the strikes include Nikšić, Podgorica, Berane, Pljevlja and Herceg Novi.
See also
Examples of nomenclature
- Official government page with srpski or 'Serbian' at the bottom
- Official page of President of Montenegro with Crnogorska verzija or 'Montenegrin version' in top left corner
- Official page of Montenegrin Government with CRNOGORSKI or 'Montenegrin' in top left corner
- Montenegrin language on Montenegrina