| The Serbian language is one of the standard versions of the Central-South Slavic diasystem, formerly (and still frequently) called
Serbo-Croatian. Serbian is used primarily in Serbia-Montenegro, Republika Srpska and by Serbs everywhere.
It is based on the Štokavian dialect, has Western and
Eastern spoken variants, and uses both the Latin and Cyrillic alphabets. Differences from other versions include phonetic transcription of foreign
names.
Serbian literature emerged in the Middle Ages, and included such works as
Miroslavljevo jevandjelje (The Gospel of Miroslav) in 1192 and Dušanov
zakonik (Dušan's Code) in 1349. Little secular medieval literature has been preserved, but what
there is shows that it was in accord with its time; for example, Serbian Alexandride, a book about Alexander the Great, and a translation of Tristan and Isolde into Serbian.
In the mid 15th century, Serbia was conquered by the Ottoman Empire, and for the next 400 years there was no opportunity for the
creation of secular written literature. However, some of the greatest literary works in Serbian come from this time, in the form
of oral literature, the most notable form being Serbian epic
poetry. It is known that Goethe learned the
Serbian language in order to read Serbian epic poetry in the original. Written literature was produced only for religious use in
churches and monasteries, and held to Old Church Slavonic. By
the end of the 18th century, the written literature had become estranged
from the spoken language. In the early 19th century, Vuk Stefanović Karadžić, following the work of
Sava Mrkalj, reformed the Cyrillic
alphabet by introducing the phonetic principle, as well as promoting the spoken language of the people as a literary norm.
The first printed book in Serbian was produced in Cetinje in 1494, only 40 years after Gutenberg's invention of movable type.
Two Serbian words that are used in many of the world's languages are vampire and
slivovitz.
Figures of speakers according to countries:
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