Serbo-Croatian
Serbo-Croatian is a member of the Slavic branch of the Indo-European language
family. It is the most widely spoken language in Yugoslavia (the Republics of
Serbia and Montenegro), Croatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a total of
about 20 million speakers. Culturally, the eastern region (the republics of
Serbia, Montenegro and parts of Bosnia and Hercegovina) is separated from the
western region (Croatia and parts of Bosnia and Hercegovina) by religion and
dialect. As a result, there are two standard forms of the language, Serbian
and Croatian, which are based on two distinct dialects and are written in different
scripts. Although in 1954, Serbian, Croatian, and Montenegrin writers and linguists
met in Novi Sad to attempt to resolve differences in vocabulary, pronunciation,
orthography, that spirit of cooperation soon evaporated as choice of language
variety was closely linked to feelings of ethnic loyalty.
The original writing system for both Serbian and Croatian was the Glagolitic
alphabet (an ancient alphabet of the Slavic languages), a system still used
in parts of Dalmatia to this day. In the twelfth century, this was replaced
by the Cyrillic alphabet in the Eastern Orthodox area and in the fourteenth
century, the Roman alphabet began to be used in the western, Catholic areas.
Sources:
UCLA Language Materials Project
Information on writing systems:
Independent Study Courses Available at UCSD:
Other Local Resources:
UCSD International Center
Mingei museum of folk art
Landmark
Theatres
St. George Serbian
Orthodox Church