Montenegrin language

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Montenegrin language (Црногорски језик, Crnogorski jezik) is the name given to the Ijekavian-Štokavian dialect, spoken in Montenegro. Generally it is recognized as a variant of the Serbian language, but some Montenegrins refer to their specific dialect as a language on its own. As of 2006, there is an ongoing controversy on this issue.

[edit] Dialect to language name mapping

The table below shows the relationship between the Serbo-Croatian language dialects and the names their native speakers might call them.

[edit] Official status and speakers' preference

The language issue is a debated issue in Montenegro. In the previous census of 1991, the vast majority of Montenegrin citizens declared themselves as speakers of the then official language: Serbo-Croatian. According to the constitution of Montenegro, the official language of the republic, since 1992, is Serbian of the Ijekavian standard. After World War II and until 1992, the official language of Montenegro was Serbo-Croatian. Before that, in the previous Montenegrin state from the 19th century, Serbian was the language in usage (e.g. according to the 1905 Constitution of the Princedom). In the late nineties and early twenty-first century, organizations promoting Montenegrin as a distinct language appeared.

On the last census in 2003, 21.53% of the population of Montenegro declared Montenegrin their native language, whilst 63.5% of the population declared Serbian as their mother tongue. Comparing those figures with ethnic preference of the population (32% declared themselves as Serbs, while 42% as Montenegrins), it would turn out that a majority of ethnic Montenegrins also call their language Serbian. It is not known whether the percentages have changed since (As of 2007), but polls say majority still favors Serbian.

Some people may compare the situation with Montenegrin to the positions of Croatian and Bosnian, and even come to the conclusion that the position of Montenegrin fully parallels the positions of the others. However, there are significant differences between the three: while Croatian and Bosnian are standard languages and official languages, there is no accepted standard for Montenegrin and it is not yet official anywhere (the official language of the Republic of Montenegro remains Serbian at the start of Montenegro's independence).

Mijat Šuković, a prominent Montenegrin lawyer, wrote a draft version of the constitution, which is currently being amended in the Parliament's constitutional committee. Suković 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 symbolical. Now it is down to the Montenegrin political elite to find a suitable solution, but finding a compromise will certainly be a difficult task, as the issue remains a hot topic. It is expected that the new constitution will be ratified sometime in the following month. A "Montenegro-Serbian" or "Serbo-Montenegrin" is expected to be put as compromise.

[edit] Linguistic considerations

Montenegrins speak subdialects of the Shtokavian dialect of Serbo-Croatian language:

• East Herzegovinian dialect (in the west and northwest, similar to the one spoken in most of Eastern Herzegovina, Western Serbia and Dubrovnik area) and
• Zeta-South Sandzak dialect (spoken in the rest of the country).

Their borders are blurred due to migration of population and influence of standard language, based on Eastern Herzegovinian; the principal difference is in accentuation. The vocabulary of the dialect has some distinct features, but words different from other dialects are few (e.g. "sjutra" is used in Montenegro instead of "sutra", which is used in standard Serbian, Bosnian or Croatian).

Proposed Montenegrin language alphabet, which contains 3 more letters than Serbian-Croatian counterpart — Ś, Ź, and З

Some other characteristics are:

• Using što for interrogative form of what (as in Croatian, and unlike Serbian šta).
• Supine or "short infinitive" (pjevat, radit, nać, moć) instead of standard "full infinitive" (pjevati, raditi, naći, moći).
• The group a + o gave a (ka instead of kao, reka for rekao), like in other Shtokavian and Chakavian vernaculars along the Adriatic coast. The much more common contraction in other Shtokavian vernaculars is ao > o.
• The reflex of long jat, ije, is bisyllabic, while it is diphthongal in most of the other ijekavian areas (and even considered a separate phoneme by some Croatian linguists^[2]). For example, the distinction can be clearly heard in the opening verses of the national anthems of Montenegro and Croatia. However, the Montenegrin form is the standard Ijekavian form in the Serbian (Ijekavian) standard, while the monosyllabic variant is considered a dialectism.
• Several "hyper-ijekavisms" (words keeping a jat reflex from a non-existing or elsewhere differently evolved original) (nijesam, tijeh, ovijeh, ovijema, tijema and kisjelo (or kiśelo when the iotation occurs),^[3] where many other shtokavian dialects use nisam, tih, ovih, ovima, tima and kiselo).
• Hyper-iotations (đe for gdje, đevojka for djevojka, đeca for djeca, lećeti for letjeti, ćerati for tjerati, ćeskoba for tjeskoba etc). The iotation also affects sounds [s] and [z] to a much greater extent than in some other shtokavian dialects, yielding /ʃʲ/ or /ç/ for /sj/, and /ʒʲ/ or /ʝ/ for /zj/^{[citation needed]}. (/çɛdi/, /çɛkira/, /kiçɛɔ/, /paçɛ/, /iʝelitsa/ etc.). Some proponents of Montenegrin language propose amending of the alphabet with the letters Ś and Ź representing those sounds.
• Several differently builded words such as: sjutra (or śutra when the iotation occurs) instead of usual sutra, śever (sjever) instead of sever, or puštit(i) instead of pustit(i). Furthermore, some verbs form their imperative mood in a specific way, for example: viđet(i) - viđi instead of vidi; ležat(i) - leži instead of lezi.
• Other common words, usually associated with Croatian language, and mostly used in some dialects and speeches of Montenegro, and less in the literary language: to do - činit(i) along with radit(i); to talk - velit(i) along with pričat(i); home - doma along with kući; farmland - baština along with njiva; to intend - kanit(i) along with namjeravat(i); to eat - obidovat(i) along with ob(j)edovat(i) - also ije along with jede; ugly - grdan along with ružan; stone - krš along with kamen; backside - prkno; wave - val along with talas; mad - ma(h)nit along with b(ij)esan; ultimate - potonja along with poslednja; dog - kučak along with pas; rooster - kokot along with p(ij)etao; sand - pržina along with p(ij)esak; rock - pećina along with st(ij)ena; show off - zorna and zorit(i); etc.^{[citation needed]}
• A number of words common with Macedonian language, usually used in some dialects and speeches of Montenegro, and less used in the literary language: to speak - zborit(i), work - rabota, to pluck - skubat(i), to freeze - ukočanjit(i) etc.^{[citation needed]}
• A number of words with Italian origin, usually used in some dialects and speeches of Montenegro, especially in the littorial and Montenegro proper (Cetinje, Podgorica etc.), and less used in the literary language: plate - pjat, market - p(i)jaca etc.^{[citation needed]}
• A number of other words that are used in some dialects and speeches of Montenegro and are usually associated with topics on common peasant life (such as food), and thus have somewhat different local forms: melon - pipun along with dinja; rice - oris along with pirinač; onion - kromid along with luk; watermelon - bostan along of lubenica; potato - krtola along with krompir, tomato - pamidora along with paradajz, etc.
• Sound [ʣ], which is very rarely used, usually in some loans from Italian (such as brondza). Allocated letter in the newly proposed Montenegrin alphabet is З.
• Sound /xʋ/ (hv) is rarely used and is usually replaced by sound /f/ (kahva - kafa, hvala - fala etc.).
• Sound /x/ (h) is used in most speeches of Montenegro, unlike most other Štokavian dialects, where it was lost.

Those features present just a general overview, as not all of them are confined to Montenegro, and not all of them are universally spoken in the country itself. In other words, their isoglosses don't match the country borders.

Alphabet

• Abeceda: 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 З Ž Ź

The proponents of the separate Montenegrin language tend to prefer using Latin alphabet over the Cyrillic, which was traditionally used in Montenegro before 2006.

[edit] Literature

Many literary works of authors from Montenegro provide examples of the local Montenegrin vernacular. The medieval literature was mostly written in Old Church Slavonic and its recensions, but most of the 19th century works were written in some of the dialects and speeches of Montenegro. They include the folk literature collected by Vuk Stefanović Karadžić and other authors, as well as books of the writers from Montenegro, such as Petar Petrović Njegoš's Gorski vijenac (The Mountain Wreath), Marko Miljanov's Primjeri čojstva i junaštva (The Examples of Humanity and Bravery), etc. In the second half of the 19th century and later, the East Herzegovina dialect, which served as a base for the standard Serbo-Croatian language, was often used instead of the Zeta-Sanjak dialect, characteristical for most speeches of Montenegro. Petar Petrović Njegoš, one of the most respectable Montenegrin authors, changed many characteristics of the Zeta-Sanjak dialect from the manuscript of his Gorski vijenac to those proposed by Vuk Stefanović Karadžić as a standard for the Serbian language. For example, most of the accusatives of place, used in the Zeta-Sanjak dialect, were changed by Njegoš to locatives, used in the Serbian standard. Thus the stanzas "U dobro je lako dobar biti, / na muku se poznaju junaci" from the manuscript were chaged to "U dobru je lako dobar biti, / na muci se poznaju junaci" in the printed version. Other works of later Montenegrin authors were also often modified to the East Herzegovinian forms, in order to follow the Serbian language literary norm. However, some characteristics of the traditional Montenegrin Zeta-Sanjak dialect sometimes used to appear as well. For example, the poem Onamo namo by Nikola I Petrović Njegoš, although it was written in East Herzegovinian Serbian standard, contains several Zeta-Sanjak forms: "Onamo namo, za brda ona" (accusative, instead of instrumental case za brdima onim), and "Onamo namo, da viđu (instead of vidim) Prizren", and so on.

[edit] Language politics

Most mainstream politicians and other proponents of Montenegrin language simply state that the issue is chiefly one of self-determination and the people's right to call the language as they want, rather than an attempt to artificially create a new language when there is none. The Declaration of Montenegrin PEN Center^[4] states that "Montenegrin language does not mean a systemically separate language, but just one of four names (Montenegrin, Serbian, Croatian and Bosnian) by which Montenegrins name their part of Shtokavian system, commonly inherited with Muslims, Serbs and Croats". Introduction of Montenegrin language has also been supported by other important academic institutions, such as the Matica Crnogorska, although meeting opposition from the Montenegrin Academy of Sciences and Arts.

Some proponents go further. The chief proponent of Montenegrin is Zagreb-educated dr Vojislav Nikčević, professor at the Department of Language and Literature at the University of Montenegro and the head of the Institute for Montenegrin Language in the capital Podgorica. His dictionaries and grammars are printed by Croatian publishers as the major Montenegrin publishing houses such as Obod in Cetinje, as always, opt for the official nomenclature specified in the Constitution (Serbo-Croat until 1992, Serbian to the present).^[5] Nikčević advocates amending of the Latin alphabet with three letters Ś, Ź, and З and corresponding Cyrillic letters Ć, З́ and S (representing IPA: [ç], [ʝ] and [ʣ] respectively).^[6]

Opponents acknowledge that these sounds can be heard by many Montenegrin speakers, however, argue that they are relatively rare and do not form minimal pairs, and so are not considered phonemes by that criteria. In addition, there are speakers in Montenegro who don't utter them and speakers of Serbian and Croatian outside of Montenegro (notably in Herzegovina and Bosanska Krajina) who do. In addition, introduction of those letters could pose significant technical difficulties (Eastern European code page ISO/IEC 8859-2 does not contain letter З, for example, and the corresponding letters were not proposed for Cyrillic).

Montenegro's former prime minister Milo Đukanović declared his open support for the formalization of the Montenegrin language by declaring himself as a speaker of the Montenegrin language, in an October 2004 interview with Belgrade daily Politika. Official Montenegrin government communiqués are given in English and Montenegrin on the government's webpage.^[7] The official web page of the President of Montenegro states that it is provided in "Montenegrin-Serbian version" (Crnogorsko-srpska verzija).

In 2004, the government of Montenegro changed the school curriculum in such a way that name of the mandatory classes teaching the language was changed from "Serbian language" to "Mother tongue (Serbian, Montenegrin, Croatian, Bosnian)". This change was made, according to the government, in order to better reflect the diversity of languages spoken among citizens in the republic and to protect human rights of non-Serb citizens in Montenegro who declare themselves as speakers of other languages.^[8]

This decision resulted in a dozen Serb teachers declaring a strike and a number of parents refusing to send their children to schools. The cities affected by the strike included Nikšić, Podgorica, Berane, Pljevlja and Herceg Novi.^[9].

[edit] References

1. ^ http://www.plav.net/zavicaj/popis_2003.htm
2. ^ "Ije je je", Ivo Škarić, Vijenac, Matica Hrvatska
3. ^ According to Pravopis srpkog jezika, Mitar Pešikan, Jovan Jerković, Mato Pižurica, Novi Sad 1993, p. 137. old Slavic root had an alternate form kisel/kisĕl.
4. ^ Declaration of Montenegrin PEN Center on Constitutional State of Montenegrin Language
5. ^ Pravopis Crnogorskog Jezika, Vojislav Nikčević. Crnogorski PEN Centar, 1997
6. ^ Proposed Montenegrin alphabet, Montenet.org
7. ^ Official site of Government of Montenegro
8. ^ "Slobodan Backović potpisao odluku o preimenovanju srpskog u maternji jezik, Voice of America, 26 March 2004"
9. ^ (Serbian)"Počelo otpuštanje profesora srpskog", Glas Javnosti, 17 September 2004.

[edit] See also

• Dialect continuum
• Montenegrins
• Differences in standard Serbian, Croatian and Bosnian

[edit] External links

• "What Language Do Montenegrins Speak?", Aida Ramusovic, Transitions Online, 16 April 2003.
• (Serbian) "Govorite li crnogorski?", Violeta Arsenić, Vreme, 4 March 2000.
• Montenet.org: Language in Montenegro
• Standard Language as an Instrument of Culture and the Product of National History, Pavle Ivić
• Montenegrin language on Montenegrina

[edit] Examples of nomenclature

• Official page of President of Montenegro with Crnogorsko-srpska verzija or 'Montenegrin-Serbian version' in top left corner
• Official page of Montenegrin Government with CRNOGORSKI or 'Montenegrin' in top left corner
• Former page of Montenegrin Government (between 2000-2001) with srpski or 'Serbian' at the bottom