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Romanization of Serbian

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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Tipkalica (talk | contribs) at 21:25, 23 April 2013 (Adding links to Cyrillic and Latin script use in the media, citing Serbian Constitution defining the script usage, and pointing out the script usage in technically savy companies.). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

A road sign in Serbia using cyrillic and romanization - the towns are Šid (pronounced [ʃiːd]), Novi Sad and Belgrade

The romanization or latinization of Serbian is the representation of the Serbian language using Latin letters. Serbian is natively written in its own Serbian Cyrillic alphabet, a variation of Cyrillic.

Main alphabets used in Europe around 1900:
  Latin script: Fraktur variant
  Latin script: Antiqua variant
  Cyrillic script
  Greek alphabet
  Arabic script
  Kalmyk–Mongolian script

However, Gaj's Latin alphabet is also used in Serbia as the second official alphabet and the two are directly and completely interchangeable.

The Latin variation of the Serbian alphabet is identical to those used in Bosnian and Croatian language.

Use of romanization

Đuro Daničić added Đ instead of Dj in Croatian Academy 1882
File:Naslovna Blic.jpg
Blic is one of an increasing number of media titles in Latin-alphabet

Serbo-Croatian was regarded as a single language since the 1850 Vienna Literary Agreement, to be written in two forms: one (Serb) in the adapted Serbian Cyrillic alphabet; the other (Croat) in the adapted Croatian Latin alphabet,[1] that is to say Gaj's Latin alphabet.

The latin alphabet, latinica, was not initially taught in schools in Serbia when it became independent in the 19th century. After a series of efforts by Serbian writers Ljubomir Stojanović and Jovan Skerlić, it became part of school curriculum after 1914.[2] when Latin was forcefully imposed by Austria-Hungary during the WWI occupation of Serbia and Cyrillic alphabet was banned. The government of socialist Yugoslavia made some initial effort to promote romanization, use of the Latin alphabet even in the Orthodox Serbian and Montenegran parts of Yugoslavia, but met with resistance.[3] The use of latinica did however become more common among Serbian speakers.

Later still, in 1993 the authorities of Republika Srpska under Radovan Karadžić and Momčilo Krajišnik decided to proclaim Ekavian and Serbian Cyrillic to be official in Republika Srpska, which was considered grotesque both by native Bosnian Serb writers at the time and the general public, and that decision was rescinded in 1994.[4] Nevertheless, it was reinstated in a milder form in 1996, and today still the use of Serbian Latin is officially discouraged in Republika Srpska, in favor of Cyrillic.[5]. Cyrillic is the official script in Serbia, its use is defined in the 10th[6] article of the Constitution voted out on referendum in 2006.

Today Serbian is more likely to be romanized in Montenegro than in Serbia,[7] Exceptions to this include Serbian websites where use of Latin alphabet is often more convenient, and increasing use in tabloid and popular media such as Blic and Svet[8]. More established media, such as the formerly state-run Politika, Radio Television of Serbia and Tanjug[9] or Google News[10] tend to use Cyrillic script.[11] Technically savy internet companies usually use only Cyrillic as it is easy to transliterate to Gaj's Latin alphabet where required.

Romanization of names

Serbian place names

Serbian place names are consistently spelled in latinica using the identity mapping that exists between the Serbian Cyrillic alphabet and Gaj's Latin alphabet.

Serbian personal names

Serbian personal names are usually romanized exactly the same way as place names. This is particularly the case with consonants which are common to other Slavic Latin alphabets - Č, Ć, Š, Ž, Dž and Đ.

A problem is presented by the letter Đ/đ that represents the affricate [dʑ] (similar to the "dj" sound in "jam"), which is still sometimes represented by "Dj". The letter Đ was not part of the original Gaj's alphabet, but was added by Đuro Daničić in the 19th century. A transcribed "Dj" is still sometimes encountered in rendering Serbian names into English (e.g. Novak Djokovic), though strictly Đ should be used (as in Croatian).

Foreign names

In Serbian, foreign names are transliterated into both Latin and Cyrillic, a change that does not happen in Croatian (also Latin). For example, in Serbian history books George Washington becomes "Džordž Vašington" or Џорџ Вашингтон, Winston Churchill becomes "Vinston Čerčil" or Винстон Черчил and Charles de Gaulle "Šarl de Gol" or Шарл де Гол.[12]

An exception to this are place names which are so well known as to have their own form (exonym): just as English has "Vienna, Austria" (and not German "Wien, Österreich") so Croatian and romanization of Serbian have "Beč, Austrija."

References

  1. ^ The World and Its Peoples 2009 - Page 1654 "Until modern times, Serbo-Croat was regarded as a single language, written in two forms: one (Serb) in the Cyrillic alphabet; the other (Croat) in ...
  2. ^ Naimark, Norman M.; Case, Holly (2003). Yugoslavia and Its Historians: Understanding the Balkan Wars of the 1990s. Stanford University Press. pp. 95–96. ISBN 0804745943. Retrieved 2012-04-18.
  3. ^ The Social construction of written communication Bennett A. Rafoth, Donald L. Rubin - 1988 "Yugoslavian efforts to romanize Serbian (Kalogjera, 1985) and Chinese efforts to romanize Mandarin (De Francis, 1977b, 1984; Seybolt & Chiang, 1979) reveal that even authoritarian regimes may have to accept only limited success when the"
  4. ^ Greenberg, Robert D. (2004). Language and Identity in the Balkans: Serbo-Croatian and Its Disintegration. Oxford University Press. pp. 78–79. ISBN 0191514551. Retrieved 2012-04-18.
  5. ^ Greenberg, Robert D. (2004). Language and Identity in the Balkans: Serbo-Croatian and Its Disintegration. Oxford University Press. pp. 82–83. ISBN 0191514551. Retrieved 2012-04-18.
  6. ^ http://www.srbija.gov.rs/cinjenice_o_srbiji/ustav_odredbe.php?id=217
  7. ^ One thousand languages: living, endangered, and lost - Page 46 Peter Austin - 2008 "Croatian and Bosnian are written in the Latin alphabet; Serbian in both Serbia and Bosnia is written in the Cyrillic alphabet. Both scripts are used for Serbian in Montenegro."
  8. ^ http://www.svet.rs/
  9. ^ http://www.tanjug.rs/index1.aspx
  10. ^ http://news.google.rs
  11. ^ Hitting the headlines in Europe: a country-by-country guide Page 166 Cathie Burton, Alun Drake - 2004 "The former state-run paper, Politika, which kept its retro style until very recently, using Serbian Cyrillic rather than the Latin alphabet, has been bought by a German company and is modernizing rapidly. There are a host of tabloids, .."
  12. ^ Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian, a grammar: with sociolinguistic commentary - Page 3 Ronelle Alexander - 2006 -"... name in original Serbian (Cyrillic) Serbian (Latin) Croatian George Џорџ Džordž ; George Mary Мери Meri Mary ; Winston Churchill Винстон Черчил Vinston Čerčil Winston Churchill ; Charles de Gaulle Шарл де Гол Šarl de Gol Charles de Gaulle ;"

See also

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