Serbian language

The Serbian language or Serb language is one of the standard versions of the Serbo-Croatian language (of the Slavic languages family), used primarily in Serbia and by Serbs everywhere.

It is based on the Shtokavian dialect, allows both Western and Eastern spoken variants, and uses both the Latin and Cyrillic alphabet. Differences from other versions include phonetic transcription of foreign names.

Serb literature emerged in middle ages, and included such works as Miroslavljevo jevandjelje (Gospel of Miroslav) in 1192 and Dušanov zakonik (Dušan's code) were produced.

At the end of 14th century, Serbia was conquered by the Ottoman Empire and for the next 400 years literature was produced only in churches, which clung onto Old Church Slavonic. By the end of 18th century the written Serb was completely estranged from the spoken language. In early 19th century Vuk Stefanović Karadžić reformed the cyrillic alphabet and introduced the phonetic principle, as well as promoted the spoken language of the people into literary norm.

"Miroslavljevo jevandjelje" (The Gospel of Miroslav), a manuscript