The Montenegrin alphabet is the collective name given to "''Abeceda''" (

Montenegrin Latin alphabet The Montenegrin alphabet is the collective name given to "''Abeceda''" ( Montenegrin Latin alphabet) and "''Азбука''" (Montenegrin Cyrillic alphabet), the writing systems used to write the Montenegrin language. It was adopted on 9 June 2009 ...

) and "''Азбука''" (

Montenegrin Cyrillic alphabet The Montenegrin alphabet is the collective name given to "''Abeceda''" (Montenegrin Latin alphabet) and "''Азбука''" ( Montenegrin Cyrillic alphabet), the writing systems used to write the Montenegrin language. It was adopted on 9 June 2009 ...

), the

writing system A writing system is a method of visually representing verbal communication, based on a script and a set of rules regulating its use. While both writing and speech are useful in conveying messages, writing differs in also being a reliable form ...

s used to

write Writing is a medium of human communication which involves the representation of a language through a system of physically inscribed, mechanically transferred, or digitally represented symbols. Writing systems do not themselves constitute h ...

the

Montenegrin language Montenegrin ( ; cnr, label=none, / ) is a normative variety of the Serbo-Croatian language mainly used by Montenegrins and is the official language of Montenegro. Montenegrin is based on the most widespread dialect of Serbo-Croatian, Shtokavi ...

. It was adopted on 9 June 2009 by the Montenegrin Minister of Education,

Sreten Škuletić Sreten (Cyrillic script: Сретен) is a Serbian and Montenegrin masculine given name of Slavic origin. It may refer to: *Sreten Asanović (born 1931), writer *Sreten Jocić (born 1962), gangster *Sreten Lukić (born 1955), policeman * Sreten Mi ...

and replaced the

Serbian Cyrillic The Serbian Cyrillic alphabet ( sr, / , ) is a variation of the Cyrillic script used to write the Serbian language, updated in 1818 by Serbian linguist Vuk Karadžić. It is one of the two alphabets used to write standard modern Serbian, th ...

and

Gaj's Latin Gaj's Latin alphabet ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, Gajeva latinica, separator=" / ", Гајева латиница}, ), also known as ( sh-Cyrl, абецеда, ) or ( sh-Cyrl, гајица, link=no, ), is the form of the Latin script used for writing Serb ...

alphabets in use at the time. Although the Latin and Cyrillic alphabets enjoy equal status under the

Constitution of Montenegro The current Constitution of Montenegro was ratified and adopted by the Constitutional Parliament of Montenegro on 19 October 2007 in an extraordinary session by achieving the required two-thirds supermajority of votes. It was officially proclaimed ...

, the government and proponents of the Montenegrin language prefer to use the

Latin script The Latin script, also known as Roman script, is an alphabetic writing system based on the letters of the classical Latin alphabet, derived from a form of the Greek alphabet which was in use in the ancient Greek city of Cumae, in southern Italy ...

; it is also much more widely used in all aspects of the day-to-day written communication in the country, in education, advertising and media.

History

Efforts to create a Latin character-based Montenegrin alphabet go back to at least

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, when a newspaper was published in Cetinje using both Latin script, Latin and Cyrillic script, Cyrillic characters.

Latin alphabet

The Montenegrin Latin alphabet (Montenegrin language, Montenegrin: ''crnogorska latinica'' / црногорска латиница, ''crnogorska abeceda'' / црногорска абецеда or ''crnogorski alfabet'' / црногорски алфабет) is used for writing the Montenegrin language in

. * Abeceda: A B C Č Ć D Dž Đ E F G H I J K L Lj (digraph), Lj M N Nj (digraph), Nj O P R S Š Ś T U V Z Ž Ź It uses most letters of the ISO basic Latin alphabet, with the exception of ''Q'', ''W'', ''X'' and ''Y'', only used for writing common words or proper names directly borrowed from foreign languages. Montenegrin Latin is based on Gaj's Latin alphabet, with the addition of the two letters Ś and Ź, to replace the pairs SJ and ZJ (so anachronisticly considered as digraphs). These parallel the two letters of the Montenegrin Cyrillic alphabet not found in Serbian, С́ and З́, and could also be represented in the original alphabets as ''sj'' and ''zj'', and сj and зj, respectively. Because these two glyphs already exist in the Polish alphabet, but must be created in Cyrillic by using combining characters, it provides an additional incentive to prefer Latin over Cyrillic. It also uses some Latin extended letters, composed with a basic Latin letter and one of two combining accents (the acute accent or caron, over C, S, and Z), and a supplementary base consonant Đ: they are needed to note additional phonetic distinctions (notably to preserve the distinctions that are present in the Cyrillic script with which the Montenegrin language has also long been written, when it was still unified in the former Yugoslavia within the written Serbo-Croatian language).

Digraphs

The alphabet also includes some digraphs built from the previous characters (that are considered as single letters for collation purpose): Dž, Nj, and Lj.

Cyrillic alphabet

The Montenegrin Cyrillic alphabet ( cnr, црногорска ћирилица , script=Cyrl / or / ) is the official Cyrillic script of the

. It is used in parallel with the Latin script. It is a child system of

. * Azbuka: A (Cyrillic), А Be (Cyrillic), Б Ve (Cyrillic), В Ge (Cyrillic), Г De (Cyrillic), Д Dje, Ђ Ye (Cyrillic), Е Zhe (Cyrillic), Ж Ze (Cyrillic), З З́ I (Cyrillic), И Je (Cyrillic), Ј Ka (Cyrillic), К El (Cyrillic), Л Lje, Љ Em (Cyrillic), М En (Cyrillic), Н Nje, Њ O (Cyrillic), О Pe (Cyrillic), П Er (Cyrillic), Р Es (Cyrillic), С С́ Te (Cyrillic), Т Tshe, Ћ U (Cyrillic), У Ef (Cyrillic), Ф Kha (Cyrillic), Х Tse (Cyrillic), Ц Che (Cyrillic), Ч Dzhe, Џ Sha (Cyrillic), Ш Its first version was developed by Vojislav Nikčević in the 1970s who was a dissident of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and considered Montenegrin speech to be unique and deserving of consideration as a separate language from Serbo-Croatian. The modern version was brought into official use in early 2009 by the Ministry of Education under

. It was called the First Montenegrin Orthography, included a new Orthographic Dictionary, and replaced the Serbian Cyrillic script which was official until then. The act is a component part of the process of standardisation of the Montenegrin language, starting in mid-2008 after the adoption of Montenegrin as the official language of Montenegro.

References

{{Language orthographies Montenegrin language, alphabet Latin alphabets Cyrillic alphabets 2009 introductions 2009 establishments in Montenegro