Thursday, September 9, y

SOME FACTS ABOUT THE MONTENEGRIN LANGUAGE

Montenegrin (/ˌmɒntɪˈniːɡrɪn/; црногорски / crnogorski) is the normative variety of the Serbo-

Croatian language mainly used by Montenegrins and the official language of Montenegro. Montenegrin is
based on the most widespread dialect of Serbo-Croatian, Shtokavian, more specifically on Eastern
Herzegovinian, which is also the basis of Standard Croatian, Serbian, and Bosnian.

Montenegro's language has historically and traditionally been called Serbian.The idea of a Montenegrin
standard language separate from Serbian appeared in the 1990s during the breakup of Yugoslavia,
through proponents of Montenegrin independence from Serbia. Montenegrin became the official
language of Montenegro with the ratification of a new constitution on 22 October 2007.

The Montenegrin standard is still emerging. Its orthography was established on 10 July 2009 with the
addition of two letters to the alphabet. Their usage remained controversial and they achieved only limited
public acceptance, along with some proposed alternative spellings.[8] They had been used for official
documents since 2009, but in February 2017, the Assembly of Montenegro removed them from any type
of governmental documentation.

Language standardization

In January 2008, the government of Montenegro formed the Council for the Codification of the

Montenegrin Language, which aims to standardize the Montenegrin language according to international
norms. Proceeding documents will, after verification, become a part of the educational programme in
Montenegrin schools.

The first Montenegrin standard was officially proposed in July 2009. In addition to the letters prescribed
by the Serbo-Croatian standard, the proposal introduced two additional letters, ⟨ś⟩ and ⟨ź⟩, to replace
the digraphs ⟨sj⟩ and ⟨zj⟩. On 21 June 2010, the Council for General Education adopted the
first Montenegrin Grammar.

First written request for the assignment of international code was submitted to the technical committee
ISO 639 in July 2008. Complete paperwork was forwarded to Washington in September 2015. After the
long procedure, the request was finally approved on Friday, December 8, 2017 and ISO 639-2 and -
3 code [cnr] was assigned to the Montenegrin language, effective December 21, 2017.

Official status and speakers' preference

The language remains an ongoing issue in Montenegro.

The most recent population census conducted in Montenegro was in 2011. According to it,

36.97% of the population (229,251) declared Montenegrin their native language, and 42.88%
(265,895) declared Serbian their native language.[14]

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Mijat Šuković, a prominent Montenegrin lawyer, wrote a draft version of the constitution which
passed the parliament's constitutional committee. Šuković suggested Montenegrin as the official
language of Montenegro. The Venice Commission, an advisory body of the Council of Europe,
had a generally positive attitude towards the draft of the constitution but did not address the
language and church issues, calling them symbolic. The new constitution was ratified on 19
October 2007, declaring Montenegrin as the official language of Montenegro, as well as
recognising Albanian, Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian.

The ruling Democratic Party of Socialists of Montenegro and Social Democratic Party of

Montenegro stand for nothing but plainly renaming the country's official language into
Montenegrin, meeting opposition from the Socialist People's Party of Montenegro, the People's
Party, the Democratic Serb Party, the Bosniak Party, the Movement for Changes as well as
the Serb List coalition led by the Serb People's Party. However, a referendum was not needed, as
a two-thirds majority of the parliament voted for the Constitution, including the ruling
coalition, Movement for Changes, the Bosniaks and the Liberals, while the pro-Serbian parties
voted against it and the Albanian minority parties abstained from voting. The Constitution was
ratified and adopted on 19 October 2007, recognizing Montenegrin as the official language of
Montenegro.

According to a poll of 1,001 Montenegrin citizens conducted by Matica crnogorska in 2014,

linguistic demographics were:

41.1% Montenegrin

39.1% Serbian

12.3% Serbian, Montenegrin, Bosnian, Croatian and Serbo-Croatian are one and the same

3.9% Serbo-Croatian

1.9% Bosnian

1.7% Croatian

According to an early 2017 poll, 42.6% of Montenegro's citizens have opted for Serbian as the
name of their native language, while 37.9% for Montenegrin.

Note that not only Montenegrins by ethnicity declare Montenegrin as their native language.
According to the 2011 census, other ethnic groups in Montenegro have also declared their
language Montenegrin by a certain percentage. Most openly, Matica Muslimanska called
on Muslims living in Montenegro to name their native language as Montenegrin.

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MONTENEGRIN WRITING SYSTEM

The proponents of the separate Montenegrin language prefer using the Latin writing system over
the Cyrillic writing system. In both writing systems there are two additional letters (bold), which
are easier to render in digital typography in the Latin alphabet due to their existence in Polish,
but which must be created ad hoc using combining characters when using Cyrillic.

Latin collation order

Latin A B C Č Ć D Dž Đ E F G H I J K L Lj M N Nj O P R S Š Ś T U V Z Ž

Cyrillic А Б Ц Ч Ћ Д Џ Ђ Е Ф Г Х И Ј К Л Љ М Н Њ О П Р С Ш Ć Т У В З Ж

Cyrillic collation order

Cyrillic А Б В Г Д Ђ Е Ж З З́ И Ј К Л Љ М Н Њ О П Р С Ć Т Ћ У Ф Х Ц Ч

Latin A B V G D Đ E Ž Z Ź I J K L Lj M N Nj O P R S Ś T Ć U F H C Č

Source: Wikipedia

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PRONUNCIATION GUIDE

THE LATIN WRITING SYSTEM (ABECEDA)

There are 32 letters in the Montenegrin writing system. Montenegrin is, unlike English, a
phonetic language, which means that once you have learned the sound of each letter, you will
be able to pronounce almost every word. All Montenegrin sounds should be pronounced
separately. The stress is almost always on the first or second syllable of every word.

LETTЕR PRONOUNCED LETTER PRONOUNCED

as in father as in love
Аа Ll

Bb as in boy LJ lj as in million

Cc as in cats Mm as in men

Čč as in chair Nn as in noon

Ćć as in reach NJ nj as in canyon

Dd as in dear Oo as in old

Dž dž as in large Pp as in pen

Đđ as in jam Rr as in rain

Ee as in bear Ss as in sing

Ff as in foot Šš as in shirt

Gg as in got Tt as in toy

Hh as in house Uu as in spoon

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Ii as in machine Vv as in voice

Jj as in you Zz as in zoo

Kk as in kiss Žž as in leisure

Śś Źź

VOWELS
There are 5 vowels in the Montenegrin alphabet. They are always clear and open.

а similar to the a in father or u in bug

е similar to the e in egg or in men

i similar to the y in many or ee in meet

о similar to the o in soft or ough in dough

u similar to the ou in you or oo in moon

CONSONANTS
There are 27 consonants in Montenegrin. Most of them are pronounced like their English
counterparts. A few sounds, however, are unique to Montenegrin and require extra practice in
order to pronounce them correctly:

č similar to the ch in cheap čeh, čaj

ć similar to the ch in channel ćirilica, ćilim

dž similar to the ge in large džem. džep

đ similar to the ge in large đak, đurđica

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lj similar to the lli in million ljeto, Ljubljana

nj similar to the ny in canyon njega, njegov

š similar to the sh in shirt šok, šešir

ž similar to the asu in measure život, žaba

c similar to the ts in cats car, crkva

r similar to the r in Robert radio, rat

Practice
1. Here are some Montenegrin names. Can you say them?
Ivo, Petar, Blažo, Aleksandar, Balša, Igor, Goran, Tripo, Željko

Jelena, Ivana, Ana, Aleksandra, Nada, Maja, Marija, Jasna, Mitra,

Petar Petrović, Jelena Radonjić, Marko Vujović, Bojana Marović, Sanja Vučurović

2. Here are some Montenegrin towns and rivers. Practice pronouncing them.

Podgorica, Kotor, Tivat, Bijelo Polje, Žabljak, Plav, Plevlja, Herceg Novi, Budva,
Kolašin, Cetinje, Tara, Morača, Bojana

3. Here are some cognates. Try to read and recognize them.

automobil, telefon, papir, kalendar, hamburger, sendvič, kafa, tramvaj, vino,

arheologija, psihologija, demokratija, profesor, doktor, muzej, film, informacija,
politika, kultura, trend, turist, inteligencija, kapitalizam, tunel

4. Practice pronouncing the following words:

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čelo brod Cipela često ćup

crnogorski igla Konj more lav

ljubičica trg Ljubav riba šljiva

zebra žirafa Mač džungla miš

šah kuća Kiša cigareta predsjednik

jaje kravata Haljina auto vjera

evropski čep Jug majka rad

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MONTENEGRIN CITIES AND REGIONS – PRACTICE

The following are the names of largest cities in Montenegro. Practice pronouncing the words.

1. Podgorica

2. Nikšić

3. Pljevlja

4. Bijelo Polje

5. Cetinje

6. Bar

7. Herceg Novo

8. Berane

9. Budva

10. Ulcinj

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Cities (gradovi)

Montenegrin cities are small in comparison to the cities in the U.S. and so big cities are
considered those that have over 100,000 people.

Montnegro has one such city: Podgorica.

Several other cities are gaining population and overall importance, such as: Budva, Kotor, Bar
etc.

Rivers (rijeke)

Tara, Morača, Bojana, Lim, Cijevna…

Lakes (jezera)

Croatia’s most famous lake is the Skadarsko jezero, some other important are Crno jezero,
Biogradsko jezero etc.

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Mountains (planine)
Durmitor, Lovćen, Bjelasica, Orjen, Prokletije…

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GREETINGS AND INTRODUCTIONS

INTRODUCING PEOPLE (Predstavljanje)

In formal settings in Montenegro, people shake hands and give their names when they are
introduced.

In informal situations, however, male friends may hug each other and slap each other on the
shoulders when they meet. Women and men generally exchange a kiss or more traditionally,
three kisses on both cheeks.

GREETINGS (Pozdravljanje)

The following are phrases used when greeting people.

When you initiate the greeting:

A. Dobar dan. Ja se zovem Suzan.

Hello. My name is …

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B. Dobar dan. Ja sam Sanja. Drago mi je gospodine / gospođo / gospođice.

Hello. I am … Nice to meet you, Sir/ Madam/ Miss

A. I meni takođe.
Nice to meet you, too.

When the other person initiates the greeting:

A. Dobro veče, gospodjo Šafer. Ja se zovem…

Good evening, Mrs. Schaffer. My name is …

B. Dobro veče, drago mi je.

Good evening. Glad to meet you.

A. I meni takođe.
Me, too.

When seeing an acquaintance:

A. Dobro jutro, gospodine / gospođo … Drago mi je što Vas vidim.

Good morning, Mr. / Mrs…. Good to see you.

B. Dobro jutro. Kako ste?

Good morning. How are you doing?

A. Vrlo dobro, hvala na pitanju.

Very well. Thanks for asking.

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Here are some additional greetings:

Formal Greetings
Formal Responses
Dobro jutro, gospodine. Kako ste? Dobro jutro. Dobro, hvala na pitanju.
Good morning, sir. How are you? Good morning. I am fine, thanks for asking.

Dobar dan, gospođo! Kako ste? Dobar dan. Odlično, hvala.

Good day (hello), madam. How are you? Good day. Great, thanks.

Dobro veče! Dobro veče!

Good evening! Good evening!

Informal Greetings
Informal Responses
Zdravo/ Ćao/ Dje si? / Kako si? Zdravo/ Ćao. Nije loše, a ti?
Hello/Hi. How are you? Hello/Hi. Not bad, thanks. And you?

Here are some common farewells:

Formal farewells Informal farewells

Doviđenja! Ćao.
Good bye! Bye!
Doviđenja! Vidimo se.
So long! See you!
Laku noć! Vidimo se sutra!
Have a good night! See you tomorrow!

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