Bosnian language

Bosnian
Bosniak
bosanski / босански
Pronunciation[bɔ̌sanskiː]
Native toBosnia and Herzegovina (Bosnia), Sandžak (Serbia and Montenegro) and Kosovo
EthnicityBosniaks
Native speakers
2.7 million (2020)[1]
Latin (Gaj's Latin alphabet)
Cyrillic (Serbian Cyrillic alphabet)[a]
Yugoslav Braille
Formerly:
Arabic (Arebica)
Bosnian Cyrillic (Bosančica)
Official status
Official language in
 Bosnia and Herzegovina (co-official)
 Montenegro (co-official)[3]
Recognised minority
language in
Language codes
ISO 639-1bs
ISO 639-2bos
ISO 639-3bos
Glottologbosn1245
Linguaspherepart of 53-AAA-g
Countries where Bosnian is a co-official language (dark green) or a recognised minority language (light green)
Bosnian is not endangered according to the classification system of the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger[4]
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.
South Slavic languages and dialects
Western South Slavic
Eastern South Slavic
Transitional dialects
Alphabets
a Includes Banat Bulgarian alphabet.

Bosnian (/ˈbɒzniən/ ⓘ; bosanski / босански; [bɔ̌sanskiː]), sometimes referred to as Bosniak language, is the standardized variety of the Serbo-Croatian pluricentric language mainly used by ethnic Bosniaks.[5][6][7][8][9][10][11] Bosnian is one of three such varieties considered official languages of Bosnia and Herzegovina,[12] along with Croatian and Serbian. It is also an officially recognized minority language in Croatia, Serbia,[13] Montenegro,[14] North Macedonia and Kosovo.[15]

Bosnian uses both the Latin and Cyrillic alphabets,[a] with Latin in everyday use.[16] It is notable among the varieties of Serbo-Croatian for a number of Arabic, Persian and Ottoman Turkish loanwords,[b] largely due to the language's interaction with those cultures through Islamic ties.[17][18][19]

Bosnian 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 Montenegrin varieties. Therefore, the Declaration on the Common Language of Croats, Serbs, Bosniaks and Montenegrins was issued in 2017 in Sarajevo.[20][21] Although the common name for the common language remains 'Serbo-Croatian', newer alternatives such as 'Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian' and 'Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian' have been increasingly utilised since the 1990s,[22] especially within diplomatic circles.

  1. ^ Bosnian at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024) Closed access icon
  2. ^ Alexander 2006, pp. 1–2.
  3. ^ "Language and alphabet Article 13". Constitution of Montenegro. WIPO. 19 October 2007. Serbian, Bosnian, Albanian and Croatian shall also be in the official use.
  4. ^ "World Atlas of Languages: Bosnian". en.wal.unesco.org. Retrieved 2023-11-30.
  5. ^ Dalby, David (1999). Linguasphere. 53-AAA-g. Srpski+Hrvatski, Serbo-Croatian. Linguasphere Observatory. p. 445.
  6. ^ Benjamin W. Fortson IV (2010). Indo-European Language and Culture: An Introduction (2nd ed.). Blackwell. p. 431. Because of their mutual intelligibility, Serbian, Croatian, and Bosnian are usually thought of as constituting one language called Serbo-Croatian.
  7. ^ Blažek, Václav. On the Internal Classification of Indo-European Languages: Survey (PDF). pp. 15–16. Retrieved 2021-10-26.
  8. ^ Šipka, Danko (2019). Lexical layers of identity: words, meaning, and culture in the Slavic languages. New York: Cambridge University Press. p. 206. doi:10.1017/9781108685795. ISBN 978-953-313-086-6. LCCN 2018048005. OCLC 1061308790. S2CID 150383965. Serbo-Croatian, which features four ethnic variants: Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian, and Montenegrin
  9. ^ Mader Skender, Mia (2022). "Schlussbemerkung" [Summary]. Die kroatische Standardsprache auf dem Weg zur Ausbausprache [The Croatian standard language on the way to ausbau language] (PDF) (Dissertation). UZH Dissertations (in German). Zurich: University of Zurich, Faculty of Arts, Institute of Slavonic Studies. pp. 196–197. doi:10.5167/uzh-215815. Retrieved 8 June 2022. Serben, Kroaten, Bosnier und Montenegriner immer noch auf ihren jeweiligen Nationalsprachen unterhalten und problemlos verständigen. Nur schon diese Tatsache zeigt, dass es sich immer noch um eine polyzentrische Sprache mit verschiedenen Varietäten handelt.
  10. ^ Ćalić, Jelena (2021). "Pluricentricity in the classroom: the Serbo-Croatian language issue for foreign language teaching at higher education institutions worldwide". Sociolinguistica: European Journal of Sociolinguistics. 35 (1). De Gruyter: 113–140. doi:10.1515/soci-2021-0007. ISSN 0933-1883. S2CID 244134335. The debate about the status of the Serbo-Croatian language and its varieties has recently shifted (again) towards a position which looks at the internal variation within Serbo-Croatian through the prism of linguistic pluricentricity
  11. ^ Kordić, Snježana (2024). "Ideology Against Language: The Current Situation in South Slavic Countries" (PDF). In Nomachi, Motoki; Kamusella, Tomasz (eds.). Languages and Nationalism Instead of Empires. Routledge Histories of Central and Eastern Europe. London: Routledge. pp. 168–169. doi:10.4324/9781003034025-11. ISBN 978-0-367-47191-0. OCLC 1390118985. S2CID 259576119. SSRN 4680766. COBISS.SR 125229577. COBISS 171014403. Archived from the original on 2024-01-10. Retrieved 2024-01-23.
  12. ^ See Art. 6 of the Constitution of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, available at the official website of Office of the High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina
  13. ^ "European charter for regional or minority languages: Application of the charter in Serbia" (PDF). Council of Europe. 2009. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-01-03.
  14. ^ Cite error: The named reference MontenegroConstitution was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  15. ^ Driton Muharremi and Samedin Mehmeti (2013). Handbook on Policing in Central and Eastern Europe. Springer. p. 129. ISBN 9781461467205.
  16. ^ Tomasz Kamusella (15 January 2009). The Politics of Language and Nationalism in Modern Central Europe. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-230-55070-4. In addition, today, neither Bosniaks nor Croats, but only Serbs use Cyrillic in Bosnia.
  17. ^ Algar, Hamid (2 July 1994). Persian Literature in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Oxford. pp. 254–68. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  18. ^ Balić, Smail (1978). Die Kultur der Bosniaken, Supplement I: Inventar des bosnischen literarischen Erbes in orientalischen Sprachen. Vienna: Adolf Holzhausens, Vienna. p. 111.
  19. ^ Balić, Smail (1992). Das unbekannte Bosnien: Europas Brücke zur islamischen Welt. Cologne, Weimar and Vienna: Bohlau. p. 526.
  20. ^ Nosovitz, Dan (11 February 2019). "What Language Do People Speak in the Balkans, Anyway?". Atlas Obscura. Archived from the original on 11 February 2019. Retrieved 6 May 2019.
  21. ^ Zanelli, Aldo (2018). Eine Analyse der Metaphern in der kroatischen Linguistikfachzeitschrift Jezik von 1991 bis 1997 [Analysis of Metaphors in Croatian Linguistic Journal Language from 1991 to 1997]. Studien zur Slavistik; 41 (in German). Hamburg: Kovač. pp. 21, 83. ISBN 978-3-8300-9773-0. OCLC 1023608613. (NSK). (FFZG)
  22. ^ Radio Free Europe – Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian, Or Montenegrin? Or Just 'Our Language'? Živko Bjelanović: Similar, But Different, Feb 21, 2009, accessed Oct 8, 2010


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