Montenegro's Public Broadcaster Switches Languages

Montenegro's alphabet now comprises 32 letters of the old (Serbian) and new (Montenegrin) alphabet.

The Montenegrin parliament adopted a decision in mid 2010 to introduce the Montenegrin language in all educational institutions.

However, it will not be possible to carry out the decision until the next school year, as new school books have yet to be provided for and teaching staff has not been trained.

Before the recent introduction of the Montenegrin language, the majority population in that country officially spoke Serbian. Montenegro declared its independence in 2006 after leaving a state union with Serbia, and the country has gradually been promoting a unique Montenegrin language.

Debates over language have always had the potential to raise hackles in the small multi-ethnic republic.

As recently as 2003, an outright majority claimed Serbian as their native language. According to the most recent census, in that year, only 21.53 per cent of the population declared “Montenegrin” as their native language, whilst 59.67 per cent named Serbian.

More recent polls have shown a slight shift in favour of Montenegrin. One conducted in 2010 showed 41.6 per cent of respondents claiming Serbian as their native language and 38.2 per cent, Montenegrin.

The government approved The Grammar of the Montenegrin Language as the country’s official grammatical code in August 2010. The first edition of a book on it appeared in bookstores on September 4 and a lexicon of the Montenegrin language was published days later.