Languages Of Serbia - Wikipedia

Languages of Serbia
Linguistic map of Serbia
Official	Serbian
Minority	Hungarian, Bosnian, Romani, Albanian, Slovak, Romanian, Croatian, Rusyn, Macedonian, Bulgarian, Montenegrin, Czech, Vlach, Bunjevac
Signed	Yugoslav Sign Language
Keyboard layout	South Slavic Latin andSerbian Cyrillic keyboard

The languages spoken in Serbia include official language, recognized minority languages, and other languages.

The official language of Serbia is Serbian.[1] There are more than a dozen recognized minority languages, mainly spoken by the country’s ethnic minorities. Other languages have no official status and are largely spoken by immigrant communities.

Serbian language

[edit] Main article: Serbian language

The Serbian language predominates in most of Serbia and is a mother tongue of 84.4% of the country's population, including almost all ethnic Serbs and majority of ethnic Croats, Macedonians, Montenegrins, ethnic Muslims as well as over third of ethnic Roma and Bulgarians.

Serbian is based on the most widespread dialect of Serbo-Croatian, Shtokavian (more specifically on the sub-dialects of Šumadija-Vojvodina and Eastern Herzegovina).[2] The other dialect of Serbian is Torlakian, spoken in southeastern Serbia.

Recognized minority languages

[edit]

There are 14 recognized minority languages in Serbia: Hungarian (native language to 2.5% of population), Bosnian (2.2%), Romani (1.2%), Albanian (1%), Slovak (0.6%), Vlach (0.3%), Romanian (0.3%), Croatian (0.2%), Rusyn (0.1%), Macedonian (0.1%), Bulgarian (0.1%), Montenegrin, Bunjevac, and Czech. Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin, and Bunjevac are practically indistinguishable from Serbian, whereas the Bulgarian spoken in Serbia is in the form of the Torlakian dialect, considered transitional between Bulgarian and Serbian.

Recognized minority languages are in official use in municipalities and cities (54 in total) where share of respective ethnic minority in total population is more than 15%.[3][4] Additionally, five minority languages (Hungarian, Slovak, Romanian, Croatian, and Rusyn) are in the official use by the provincial administration in Vojvodina.

Complete education cycle in minority languages, from preschool to university level, is available in following languages: Hungarian, Bosnian, Albanian, Slovak, Romanian, Croatian, Bulgarian, and Rusyn. Furthermore, seven more minority languages are taught as part of the subject "Mother Tongue with Elements of Ethnic Culture": Romani, Vlach, Macedonian, Bunjevac, German, Ukrainian, and Czech. As of 2025, some 6% of total number of students (60,000 out of 992,000) attend classes in recognized minority languages at all levels of education, from preschool to university level.[5]

The right to information in minority languages is realized through print and electronic media. Newspapers, magazines, and other publications are issued in minority languages, while radio and television stations broadcast programs in those languages.[6]

The European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages was ratified by Serbia and Montenegro in 2005.[7] Serbia, as the successor state, continues to be bound by the Charter obligations.[7]

Other languages

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Other languages have no official status and are largely spoken by immigrant communities. Russian is most widely spoken of these, native to 0.1% of the total population. Besides Russian, there is a certain presence of Chinese and Arabic.

See also

[edit]

• Languages of Vojvodina
• Romanian language in Serbia

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Languages of Serbia.

References

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•  This article incorporates public domain material from The World Factbook (2026 ed.). CIA. (Archived 2006 edition.)

1. ^ "Šta donosi predlog novog ustava Srbije" (in Serbian). B92. 30 September 2006.
2. ^ Ljiljana Subotić; Dejan Sredojević; Isidora Bjelaković (2012), Fonetika i fonologija: Ortoepska i ortografska norma standardnog srpskog jezika (in Serbo-Croatian), FILOZOFSKI FAKULTET NOVI SAD, archived from the original on 2014-01-03
3. ^ "Latest Council of Europe report on regional or minority Languages in Serbia published". The Network to Promote Linguistic Diversity. Retrieved 25 June 2015.
4. ^ https://minljmpdd.gov.rs/u-srbiji-14-jezika-nacionalnih-manjina-u-sluzbenoj-upotrebi-60-000-dece-i-mladih-obrazuje-se-na-manjinskim-jezicima/
5. ^ https://minljmpdd.gov.rs/u-srbiji-14-jezika-nacionalnih-manjina-u-sluzbenoj-upotrebi-60-000-dece-i-mladih-obrazuje-se-na-manjinskim-jezicima/
6. ^ https://minljmpdd.gov.rs/u-srbiji-14-jezika-nacionalnih-manjina-u-sluzbenoj-upotrebi-60-000-dece-i-mladih-obrazuje-se-na-manjinskim-jezicima/
7. ^ a b "EUROPEAN CHARTER FOR REGIONAL OR MINORITY LANGUAGES-APPLICATION OF THE CHARTER IN SERBIA, 2nd monitoring cycle" (PDF). Council of Europe. Retrieved 25 June 2015.

v t e Languages of Serbia
Official language	Serbian
Minority languages	Hungarian Bosnian Romani Albanian Slovak Romanian Croatian Rusyn Macedonian Bulgarian Montenegrin Czech Bunjevac
Sign languages	Yugoslav Sign Language

v t e Languages of Europe
Sovereign states	Albania Andorra Armenia Austria Azerbaijan Belarus Belgium Bosnia and Herzegovina Bulgaria Croatia Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Estonia Finland France Georgia Germany Greece Hungary Iceland Ireland Italy Kazakhstan Latvia Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Malta Moldova Monaco Montenegro Netherlands North Macedonia Norway Poland Portugal Romania Russia San Marino Serbia Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sweden Switzerland Turkey Ukraine United Kingdom England Northern Ireland Scotland Wales Vatican City
States with limitedrecognition	Abkhazia Kosovo Northern Cyprus South Ossetia Transnistria
Dependencies andother entities	Åland Faroe Islands Gibraltar Guernsey Isle of Man Jersey Svalbard
Other entities	European Union Sovereign Military Order of Malta

v t e Minority languages of Europe
European Union	Austria Belgium Bulgaria Croatia Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Estonia Finland France Germany Greece Hungary Ireland Italy Latvia Lithuania Luxembourg Malta Netherlands Poland Portugal Romania Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sweden
Other European states	Albania Andorra Armenia Azerbaijan Belarus Bosnia and Herzegovina Georgia Iceland Kazakhstan Liechtenstein Moldova Monaco Montenegro North Macedonia Norway Russia San Marino Serbia Switzerland Turkey Ukraine United Kingdom Vatican City
States with limited recognition	Abkhazia Kosovo Northern Cyprus Transnistria South Ossetia
Dependencies andother territories	Akrotiri and Dhekelia Åland Faroe Islands Gibraltar Guernsey Isle of Man Jersey Svalbard
Languages of Europe European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities European Day of Languages Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights

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