View source for Romanization of Serbian

{{Short description|Use of Latin in the Serbian language}}
[[File: Beograd in 25.jpg|thumb|A road sign in Serbia using Cyrillic and Latin alphabets. The towns are [[Šid]] (pronounced [ʃiːd]), [[Novi Sad]] and [[Belgrade]].]]

The '''romanization''' or '''Latinization of Serbian''' is the representation of the [[Serbian language]] using Latin letters. Serbian is written in two alphabets, [[Serbian Cyrillic]], a variation of the [[Cyrillic alphabet]], and [[Gaj's Latin]], or ''latinica'', a variation of the [[Latin alphabet]]. Both are widely used in Serbia. The Serbian language is thus an example of [[digraphia]].
[[File: Scripts in Europe (1901).jpg|thumb|250px|Main alphabets used in Europe around 1900:

{{legend|#84CFEE|outline=#ccc|[[Latin script]]: [[Fraktur (script)|Fraktur]] variant}}
{{legend|#F8D2D1|outline=#ccc|Latin script: [[Antiqua (typeface class)|Antiqua]] variant}}
{{legend|#DAF6D0|outline=#ccc|[[Cyrillic script]]}}
{{legend|#D4CAA7|outline=#ccc|[[Greek alphabet]]}}
{{legend|#FEFF88|outline=#ccc|[[Arabic script]]}}
{{legend|#ffffff|outline=#ccc|[[Clear script|Kalmyk]]–[[Mongolian script|Mongolian]] script}}
]]

The two alphabets are almost directly and completely interchangeable. Romanization can be done with no errors, but, due to the use of [[digraph (orthography)|digraph]]s in the Latin script (due to letters "nj" (њ), "lj" (љ), and "dž" (џ)), knowledge of Serbian is sometimes required to do proper transliteration from Latin back to Cyrillic. Standard Serbian currently uses both alphabets. A survey from 2014 showed that 47% of the Serbian population favors the Latin alphabet whereas 36% favors Cyrillic; the remaining 17% preferred neither.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.b92.net/kultura/vesti.php?nav_category=1087&yyyy=2014&mm=12&dd=16&nav_id=936784|title=Ivan Klajn: Ćirilica će postati arhaično pismo|date=16 December 2014 }}</ref>

==Use of romanization==
{{Off topic|date=August 2018}}
[[Image: Djura danicic.jpg|thumb|[[Đuro Daničić]] added the letter "Đ" instead of "Dj" in ''Croatian Academy'' 1882.]]

[[Serbo-Croatian]] was regarded as a single language since the 1850 [[Vienna Literary Agreement]], to be written in two forms: one ([[Serbs|Serb]]) in the adapted Serbian Cyrillic alphabet, ''{{lang|sh-Latn|ćirilica}}''; the other ([[Croats|Croat]]) in the adapted Croatian Latin alphabet,<ref>The World and Its Peoples 2009 - Page 1654  "Until modern times, Serbo-Croat was regarded as a single language, written in two forms: one (Serb) in the Cyrillic alphabet; the other (Croat) in ...</ref> that is to say [[Gaj's Latin alphabet]], {{lang|sh-Latn|latinica}}.

The Latin alphabet was not initially taught in schools in Serbia when it became independent in the 19th century. After a series of efforts by Serbian writers [[Ljubomir Stojanović]] and [[Jovan Skerlić]], it became part of the school curriculum after 1914.<ref>{{cite book | title = Yugoslavia and Its Historians: Understanding the Balkan Wars of the 1990s | first1 = Norman M. | last1 = Naimark | first2 = Holly | last2 = Case | publisher = Stanford University Press | year = 2003 | isbn = 0804745943 | pages = 95&ndash;96 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=u5tUbUyXtToC&pg=PA95 | access-date = 2012-04-18}}</ref>

During World War I, [[Austria-Hungary]] banned the Cyrillic alphabet in Bosnia<ref name="Horne2010">{{cite book|author=John Horne|title=A Companion to World War I|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AGpUuWvQXkQC&pg=PA375|access-date=26 April 2013|date=16 March 2010|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|isbn=978-1-4443-2364-1|page=375}}</ref> and its use in occupied Serbia was banned in schools.<ref name="Serbia's Great War 1914-1918">{{cite book|title=Serbia's Great War 1914-1918|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=viqqqQ2KT7kC&pg=PA231|access-date=26 April 2013|year=2007|publisher=Purdue University Press|isbn=978-1-55753-477-4|page=231}}</ref> Cyrillic was banned in the [[Independent State of Croatia]] in World War II.<ref name="Copley1992">{{cite book|author=Gregory R. Copley|title=Defense & Foreign Affairs Strategic Policy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AFExAQAAIAAJ|access-date=26 April 2013|year=1992|publisher=Copley & Associates|page=17}}</ref> The government of [[socialist Yugoslavia]] made some initial effort to promote romanization, use of the Latin alphabet even in the Orthodox Serbian and Montenegrin parts of Yugoslavia, but met with resistance.<ref>The Social construction of written communication Bennett A. Rafoth, Donald L. Rubin - 1988 "Yugoslavian efforts to romanize Serbian (Kalogjera, 1985) and Chinese efforts to romanize Mandarin (De Francis, 1977b, 1984; Seybolt & Chiang, 1979) reveal that even authoritarian regimes may have to accept only limited success when the price of complete victory is too high."</ref> The use of ''latinica'' did however become more common among Serbian speakers.

In late 1980s, a number of articles had been published in Serbia about a danger of Cyrillic being fully replaced by Latin, thereby endangering what was deemed a Serbian national symbol.<ref>{{cite journal | url = https://hrcak.srce.hr/index.php?show=clanak&id_clanak_jezik=319260&lang=en | page = 51 | first = Artur | last = Bagdasarov | title = Ethnolinguistic policy in socialist Yugoslavia | journal = Filologija | issue = 71 | year = 2018 | publisher = [[Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts]] | doi = 10.21857/m8vqrtze29 | issn = 1848-8919 | access-date = 15 August 2021}}</ref>

Following the [[breakup of Yugoslavia]], Gaj's Latin alphabet remained in use in [[Bosnian language|Bosnian]] and [[Croatian language|Croatian]] standards of [[Serbo-Croatian]]. Another standard of Serbo-Croatian, [[Montenegrin language|Montenegrin]], uses a slightly modified version of it.

In 1993, the authorities of [[Republika Srpska]] under [[Radovan Karadžić]] and [[Momčilo Krajišnik]] decided to proclaim [[Ekavian]] and [[Serbian Cyrillic]] to be official in [[Republika Srpska]], which was opposed both by native [[Serbs of Bosnia and Herzegovina|Bosnian Serb]] writers at the time and the general public, and that decision was rescinded in 1994.<ref>{{cite book | title = Language and Identity in the Balkans: Serbo-Croatian and Its Disintegration | first = Robert D. | last = Greenberg | publisher = Oxford University Press | year = 2004 | isbn = 0191514551 | pages = 78&ndash;79 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=_lNjHgr3QioC&pg=PA78 | access-date = 2012-04-18}}</ref> Nevertheless, it was reinstated in a milder form in 1996, and today still the use of Serbian Latin is officially discouraged in Republika Srpska, in favor of Cyrillic.<ref>{{cite book | title = Language and Identity in the Balkans: Serbo-Croatian and Its Disintegration | first = Robert D. | last = Greenberg | publisher = Oxford University Press | year = 2004 | isbn = 0191514551 | pages = 82&ndash;83 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=_lNjHgr3QioC&pg=PA82 | access-date = 2012-04-18}}</ref>

Article 10 of the [[Constitution of Serbia]]<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.srbija.gov.rs/cinjenice_o_srbiji/ustav_odredbe.php?id=217 | access-date = 2013-04-26 | work = Constitution of the Republic of Serbia | title = Constitution Principles | publisher = [[Government of Serbia]] }}</ref> adopted by a referendum in 2006 defined Cyrillic as the official script in [[Serbia]], while Latin was given the status of "Script in official use".

Today, Serbian is more likely to be romanized in [[Montenegro]] than in Serbia.<ref>One thousand languages: living, endangered, and lost - Page 46 Peter Austin - 2008 "Croatian and Bosnian are written in the Latin alphabet; Serbian in both Serbia and Bosnia is written in the Cyrillic alphabet. Both scripts are used for Serbian in Montenegro."</ref> Exceptions to this include Serbian websites where use of Latin alphabet is often more convenient, and increasing use in tabloid and popular media such as ''[[Blic]]'', ''[[Danas (newspaper)|Danas]]'' and ''Svet''.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.svet.rs/ |title=Home |website=svet.rs}}</ref> More established media, such as the formerly state-run {{Lang|sr-latn|[[Politika]]}}, and [[Radio Television of Serbia]],<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.tanjug.rs/index1.aspx|title = ТАНЈУГ &#124; Новинска агенција}}</ref> or foreign [[Google News]],<ref>https://news.google.com/{{nonspecific|date=May 2022}}</ref> [[Voice of Russia]]<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://serbian.ruvr.ru/ |title=Глас Русије |access-date=2013-04-26 |archive-date=2013-04-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130424081834/http://serbian.ruvr.ru/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> and [[Facebook]] tend to use Cyrillic script.<ref>Hitting the headlines in Europe: a country-by-country guide   Page 166 Cathie Burton, Alun Drake - 2004 "The former state-run paper, Politika, which kept its retro style until very recently, using Serbian Cyrillic rather than the Latin alphabet, has been bought by a German company and is modernizing rapidly. There are a host of tabloids, .."</ref> Some websites offer the content in both scripts, using Cyrillic as the source and auto generating Romanized version.

In 2013 in Croatia there were [[Anti-Cyrillic protests in Croatia|massive protests against official Cyrillic signs]] on local government buildings in [[Vukovar]].<ref>Agence France-Presse, April 7, 2013 [http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/afp/130407/croatians-protest-against-cyrillic-signs-vukovar] ''Croatians protest against Cyrillic signs in Vukovar''</ref>

==Romanization of names==

===Serbian place names===
Serbian place names are consistently spelled in ''latinica'' using the mapping that exists between the [[Serbian Cyrillic alphabet]] and [[Gaj's Latin alphabet]].

===Serbian personal names===
Serbian personal names are usually romanized exactly the same way as place names. This is particularly the case with consonants which are common to other [[Slavic languages|Slavic]] Latin alphabets - [[Č]], [[Ć]], [[Š]], [[Ž]], [[Dž]] and [[Đ]].

A problem is presented by the letter [[Đ]]/[[đ]] that represents the [[affricate]] {{IPAblink|dʑ}} (the same sound written as <j> in most romanizations of [[Japanese language|Japanese]], similar, though not identical to english <j> as in "Jam"), which is still sometimes represented by "Dj". The letter Đ was not part of the original Gaj's alphabet, but was added by [[Đuro Daničić]] in the 19th century. A [[transcription (linguistics)|transcribed]] "Dj" is still sometimes encountered in rendering Serbian names into English (e.g. [[Novak Djokovic]]), though strictly Đ should be used (as in Croatian).

===Foreign names===
[[File:George Washington Street sign Belgrade.JPG|thumb|Sign of [[George Washington]] street in [[Belgrade]]]]
In Serbian, foreign names are phonetically [[transliterated]] into both Latin and Cyrillic. For example, in Serbian, [[George Washington]] becomes {{lang|sr-Latn|Džordž Vašington}} or {{lang|sr-Cyrl|Џорџ Вашингтон}}, [[Winston Churchill]] becomes {{lang|sr-Latn|Vinston Čerčil}} or {{lang|sr-Cyrl|Винстон Черчил}} and [[Charles de Gaulle]] {{lang|sr-Latn|Šarl de Gol}} or {{lang|sr-Cyrl|Шарл де Гол}}.<ref>Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian, a grammar: with sociolinguistic commentary - Page 3 Ronelle Alexander - 2006 -"... name in original Serbian (Cyrillic) Serbian (Latin) Croatian George Џорџ Džordž; George Mary Мери Meri Mary; Winston Churchill Винстон Черчил Vinston Čerčil Winston Churchill; Charles de Gaulle Шарл де Гол Šarl de Gol Charles de Gaulle;"</ref> This change also happens in some European languages that use the Latin alphabet such as [[Latvian Language|Latvian]]. The name [[Catherine Ashton]] for instance gets transliterated into {{lang|sr-Latn|Ketrin Ešton}} or {{lang|sr-Cyrl|Кетрин Ештон}} in Serbian.
An exception to this are place names which are so well known as to have their own form ([[exonym and endonym|exonym]]): just as English has ''[[Vienna]], [[Austria]]'' (and not [[German language|German]] {{Lang|de|Wien}}'', {{Lang|de|Österreich}}'') so Croatian and Serbian have {{lang|sr-Latn|Beč, Austrija}} ({{lang-sr-Cyrl|Беч, Аустрија}}).

==Incomplete romanization==
The incomplete romanization of Serbian is written using the [[English alphabet]], also known as ASCII Serbian, by dropping diacritics. It is commonly used in SMS messages, comments on the Internet or e-mails, mainly when users do not have a Serbian keyboard installed. Serbian is a fully phonetic language with 30 sounds that can be represented with 30 Cyrillic letters, or with letters of 27 Gaj's Latin alphabet and three digraphs ("[[Nje|nj]]" for "[[њ]]", ”[[Lje|lj]]" for "[[љ]]", and "[[dž]]" for "[[џ]]"). In its ASCII form, the number of used letters drops down to 22, as the letters "q", "w", "x" and "y" are not used. This leads to some ambiguity due to [[homographs]], however, context is usually sufficient to clarify these issues.

Using incomplete romanization does not allow for easy transliteration back to Cyrillic without significant manual work. Google tried using a machine learning approach to solving this problem and developed an interactive text input tool that enables typing Serbian in ASCII and auto-converting to Cyrillic.<ref>[https://www.google.com/intl/sr/inputtools/cloud/try/ Google input tools for Serbian]</ref> However, manual typing is still required with occasional disambiguation selection from the pop-up menu.

==Tools for romanization==
Serbian text can be converted from Cyrillic to Latin and vice versa automatically by computer. There are add-in tools available for [[Microsoft Word]]<ref>[http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=1438 Office 2003 Add-in: Latin and Cyrillic Transliteration]</ref> and [[OpenOffice.org]],<ref>[http://oootranslit.info/download/ OOoTranslit add-on for OpenOffice]</ref> as well as command line tools for Linux, MacOS and Windows.

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{Romanization}}

[[Category:Romanization of Cyrillic|Serbian]]
[[Category:Serbian language]]