Languages Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of met ...

and

dialects The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of linguistic phenomena: One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a ...

spoken in the

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe, Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Bas ...

n province of

Vojvodina Vojvodina ( sr-Cyrl, Војводина}), officially the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, is an autonomous province that occupies the northernmost part of Serbia. It lies within the Pannonian Basin, bordered to the south by the national capital ...

include

South Slavic languages The South Slavic languages are one of three branches of the Slavic languages. There are approximately 30 million speakers, mainly in the Balkans. These are separated geographically from speakers of the other two Slavic branches (West and East) ...

( Serbian, Croatian,

Bunjevac Bunjevci ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Bunjevci, Буњевци, ; sh-Latn-Cyrl, label=, separator=" / ", Bunjevac, Буњевац, sh-Latn-Cyrl, label=, separator=" / ", Bunjevka, Буњевка) are a South Slavic sub-ethnic group living ...

dialect, Macedonian),

West Slavic languages The West Slavic languages are a subdivision of the Slavic language group. They include Polish, Czech, Slovak, Kashubian, Upper Sorbian and Lower Sorbian. The languages have traditionally been spoken across a mostly continuous region encompass ...

( Slovak),

East Slavic languages The East Slavic languages constitute one of three regional subgroups of the Slavic languages, distinct from the West and South Slavic languages. East Slavic languages are currently spoken natively throughout Eastern Europe, and eastwards to Sibe ...

(

Rusyn Rusyn may refer to: * Rusyns, Rusyn people, an East Slavic people ** Pannonian Rusyns, Pannonian Rusyn people, a branch of Rusyn people ** Lemkos, a branch of Rusyn (or Ukrainian) people ** Boykos, a branch of Rusyn (or Ukrainian) people * Rusyn l ...

), Hungarian,

Romanian Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania **Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language ***Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language **Romanian cuisine, traditional ...

Romani Romani may refer to: Ethnicities * Romani people, an ethnic group of Northern Indian origin, living dispersed in Europe, the Americas and Asia ** Romani genocide, under Nazi rule * Romani language, any of several Indo-Aryan languages of the Roma ...

, and others.

Historical overview

It is unknown which languages were spoken in the territory of present-day Vojvodina in

paleolithic The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic (), also called the Old Stone Age (from Greek: παλαιός ''palaios'', "old" and λίθος ''lithos'', "stone"), is a period in human prehistory that is distinguished by the original development of stone too ...

and

neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts ...

times. First speakers of

Indo-European languages The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the overwhelming majority of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and the northern Indian subcontinent. Some European languages of this family, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, Dutc ...

arrived here in 4200 BC and since the first written traces about this region appeared, there are records about speakers of various Indo-European languages that lived in this area, including speakers of

Thracian The Thracians (; grc, Θρᾷκες ''Thrāikes''; la, Thraci) were an Indo-European speaking people who inhabited large parts of Eastern and Southeastern Europe in ancient history.. "The Thracians were an Indo-European people who occupied t ...

, Illyrian,

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language * Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Fo ...

Iranian Iranian may refer to: * Iran, a sovereign state * Iranian peoples, the speakers of the Iranian languages. The term Iranic peoples is also used for this term to distinguish the pan ethnic term from Iranian, used for the people of Iran * Iranian lan ...

and Italic branches of Indo-European language family. The decline and fall of the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediterr ...

brought to this area speakers of Turkic and Germanic languages as well. Speakers of

settled in the area in the 6th century, while speakers of Hungarian appeared in the 9th century. Ottoman conquest of the region in the 16th century brought to this area speakers of

Turkish Turkish may refer to: *a Turkic language spoken by the Turks * of or about Turkey ** Turkish language *** Turkish alphabet ** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation *** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey *** Turkish communities and mi ...

, and other languages, while

Habsburg The House of Habsburg (), alternatively spelled Hapsburg in Englishgerman: Haus Habsburg, ; es, Casa de Habsburgo; hu, Habsburg család, it, Casa di Asburgo, nl, Huis van Habsburg, pl, dom Habsburgów, pt, Casa de Habsburgo, la, Domus Hab ...

conquest in the end of the 17th and first half of the 18th century brought here the speakers of

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

, Slovak,

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus' Places *Czech, ...

Ukrainian Ukrainian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Ukraine * Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe * Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine * So ...

and other languages. In recent years, there is an increasing number of speakers of

Chinese language Chinese (, especially when referring to written Chinese) is a group of languages spoken natively by the ethnic Han Chinese majority and many minority ethnic groups in Greater China. About 1.3 billion people (or approximately 16% of the wor ...

as well.

2011 census

According to the 2011 census, main languages spoken in Vojvodina were: * Serbian: 1,485,791 (76.91%) * Hungarian: 241,164 (12.48%) * Slovak: 47,760 (2.47%) *

: 27,430 (1.42%) *

: 24,133 (1.25%) * Croatian: 14,576 (0.75%) *

: 11,154 (0.58%)

Usage of minority languages

Besides Serbian, which is the official language in the whole country, there are five regional languages in the official use by the provincial administration in Vojvodina: Hungarian,

, Slovak,

, and Croatian. The Serbian language is used in all municipality governments, while minority languages are used in selected municipality governments. The Serbian language with

Cyrillic script The Cyrillic script ( ), Slavonic script or the Slavic script, is a writing system used for various languages across Eurasia. It is the designated national script in various Slavic languages, Slavic, Turkic languages, Turkic, Mongolic languages, ...

is in official use in all 45 municipalities of Vojvodina. The Hungarian language is in official use in 29 municipalities, Slovak in 12, Romanian in 9, Rusyn in 6, and Croatian and Czech in 1 municipality each (however, the Czech language is not official at provincial level).

Radio Television of Vojvodina Radio is the technology of signaling and telecommunication, communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device ...

, the public broadcaster in the province, broadcasts programme in 10 languages: Serbian, Hungarian, Slovak, Rusyn, Romanian, Bunjevac dialect, Ukrainian, Romani, Croatian, and Macedonian. Certain TV shows are also translated into

Sign language Sign languages (also known as signed languages) are languages that use the visual-manual modality to convey meaning, instead of spoken words. Sign languages are expressed through manual articulation in combination with non-manual markers. Sign l ...

Maps

Vojvodina-1910-Language.gif, Language map of Vojvodina - settlements data (1910 census) Vojvodina languages 1910.png, Language map of Vojvodina - municipality data (1910 census) Vojvodina languages1921.png, Language map of Vojvodina (1921 census) Vojvodina-Language-1931.GIF, Language map of Vojvodina (1931 census) Vojvodina languages2002.png, Language map of Vojvodina (2002 census) Vojvodina serbian map.png, Official usage of Serbian language and its scripts in Vojvodina Vojvodina hungarian map.png, Official usage of Hungarian language in Vojvodina Vojvodina slovak map.png, Official usage of Slovak language in Vojvodina Vojvodina romanian map.png, Official usage of Romanian language in Vojvodina Vojvodina rusyn croatian czech map.png, Official usage of Rusyn, Croatian, and Czech language in Vojvodina

Notes

{{Languages of Europe Languages of Serbia Languages of Europe

Historical overview

2011 census

Usage of minority languages

Maps

See also

Notes