Montenegrin

the Montenegrin ( црногорски jeзик , crnogorski jezik ), spoken by the Montenegrins, is a language become autonomous by political will, following the fact that the Montenegro is an independent State since 2006. From the Linguistic point of view strictly , it is not a language with share, but it belongs to the Slavic Diasystème of the center-south, called officially Serbo-Croatian at the time of the Yugoslavia. From the point of view Sociolinguistique, this diasystème is an Indo-European language '' abstand '' of the branch of the Slavic Langues, group of the southernmost Slavic Langues, sub-group Western of those, beside the Slovenien . Always from the point of view sociolinguistic, it is a language '' ausbau '', just like the others standard languages of the diasystème: the Bosnien, the Croatian and the Serb . The constitution of Montenegro stipulates that the Montenegrin is the Official language of the State, the languages of the national minorities being they also official in the localities where they are majority.

Speakers

One does not know how much people regard themselves today as speakers of the Montenegrin. With the last census of the population which took place in 2003, therefore three years before independence is not proclaimed, 273.366 people, is 40,64% of the population declared nationality Montenegrin, 201.892 (30,01%) declaring Serbes. As regards the language, 401.382 declared like native tongue the Serb one, and 144.838 the Montenegrin. 63,5% of the Montenegrins were thus regarded as speakers of Serb and 21.53% stated to have the Montenegrin like native tongue.

Regional alternatives

The Montenegrins use two speeches of the dialect chtokavien of the Slavic diasystème of the center-south:

speech of Herzégovine Eastern, the same one as that of this part of the Bosnia-Herzégovine, spoken in the west and the North-West about Montenegro. It is the same one also as that which one uses with Dubrovnik (in Croatia) and that of the Western Serbia.
speech of Zeta Sandjak of the south, employed in the remainder of Montenegro

From the point of view of the evolution of the sound ĕ of the Slavic commun run noted by the letter ѣ (“yat”), in Montenegro the pronunciation is (I) jékavienne, as in Croatia, in Bosnia-Herzégovine and in certain parts of Serbia.

The polemic around the idea of language Montenegrin

The followers of the idea of language Montenegrin are in same times followers of the independence of Montenegro. Intellectuals of Center PEN Montenegrin, protesting against constitution of 1992 of Montenegro, which stipulated that the official language of the republic was the Serb one, advance like principal argument the right of each nation to have its own language, being based in that on the example of Croatian and the bosnien. They do not deny the membership of the Montenegrin to very the diasystème as the three other languages, but they require that their language be called officially the Montenegrin.

The principal promoter of the idea of the Montenegrin is professor Vojislav Nikčević, of the University of Nikšić, which develops this idea since 1968, being the author of the first normative work of this language (see, low, Standardization of the Montenegrin ). Among its followers there are Vuk Minić, Sreten Zeković, Jevrem Brković, Rajko Cerović.

One their arguments is the existence of the term “language Montenegrin” in more or less old documents.

the first of these certificates goes up with 1837, being noted by Vuk Stefanović Karadžić which, moreover, accepted only the idea of a unit Serb language. It mentions the words of a colonel French having visited Montenegro in 1813, which believed that “the language Montenegrin” was a dialect of the Greek .

In 1857, the Serb writer Ljubomir Nenadović notes in connection with a voyage to Montenegro: “In all the schools the language is the Montenegrin, mainly different from this beautiful recognized language in which the Bible is translated (i.e. the Serb one standardized by Vuk Karadžić - note of the author of this article ). If the Montenegrins continue in their schools as until now, then in hundred years between the two languages there will be a difference larger than between the Portuguese and the Spanish .”

the name of “language Montenegrin” also appears in another Serb writer, Simo Matavulj. It quotes a Montenegrin who says that even the best Serb actors cannot speak Po naški (“our language”), čisto crnogorski (“the clean Montenegrin”).

Helene, princess Montenegrin become in 1896 queen of Italy, at the end of an interview with the Serb minister Janjić who makes him compliments on the beauty of Serb that it speaks, counterpart with this one which it speaks Montenegrin.

the Encyclopædia Britannica of 1911 fact as mention of the “language monénégrine”, by specifying immediately as it is practically identical to Serbo-Croat.

There are also foreign linguists who accept the idea of language Montenegrin, for example professor Paul-Louis Thomas, Bosnian, Croatian and Serb director of studies with the Slavic UFR of Studies of the University Paris IV, or professor Svein Mønnesland, of the University of Oslo.

The adversaries of this idea are at the same time followers of the official union with Serbia, for example Lidija Tomić, Miodrag Jovanović, Ljubomir Kovačević, Jelica Stojanović, Draga Bojović, Slobodan Kalezić, Zagorka Kalezić, Vuk Cerović, Živko Đurković, teachers at the University of Nikšić, Mihajlo Sćepanović, researcher in Institut of the Serb language close the Serb Academy of sciences and arts, Drago Ćupić, representative of the Academy to the Council for the standardization of the Serb language, Mato Pižurica, professor with the Faculty of philosophy of Novi Sad. Their principal argument is that there are no notable differences between the spoken language in Montenegro and that which one speaks in Serbia.

Another their arguments is that, in general, the Montenegrins regarded all during the history as the Serb ones, in spite of the long periods of independence of this country. Indeed, Montenegro managed to ensure its autonomy within the framework of the Ottoman Empire, even became practically independent at the end of the XVIIe century, whereas Serbia was indeed occupied. The independence of the two countries was recognized by the Congrès of Berlin in 1878, and Montenegro remained independent until in 1918, when it was incorporated in the Royaume of the Serb ones, of the Croats and the Sloveniens, future Yugoslavia. According to the first census held in Montenegro, in 1909, 94,38% of the population was Christian orthodoxe and 95% of the inhabitants were of Serb native tongue.

So that one can see it, the backdrop of the polemic is political and national. The linguistic arguments, which prove well that the Serb one and the Montenegrin is not languages different one from the other are opposed to arguments of sociolinguistic nature. It is a question of a typical case of formation of a language ausbau as a supposed instrument of contributing to the formation of a nation.

Standardization of the Montenegrin

The action of standardization of this language starts as of 1997, when its first orthography appears. It is soon followed the first grammar of the Montenegrin.

In 2003 is created with Cetinje the Institute of the language Montenegrin and linguistics, under the direction of Vojislav Nikčević, with a statute of non-governmental organization, but it is financially constant by the Ministry for the culture.

In 2005 a discussing international symposium of the standardization of the Montenegrin meets in Podgorica.

After the referendum on the independence and the proclamation of this one, one writes the constitution project of the country, where one specifies the official statute of the Montenegrin.

Characteristics of the Montenegrin

As for Croatian, the tendency in the standardization of the Montenegrin is to be accentuated the differences compared to the Serb standard, i.e. to establish as standards, in addition to the already allowed characteristics by the standard of Serbo-Croat, other regional characteristics.

C-W communication and phonology

The Montenegrin is written, like the Serb one, as well with the Cyrillic alphabet as with the Latin alphabet, which is specified in the constitution project too. The current trend is to be used the Latin alphabet more. They are the same alphabets as those used by the Serb one and Croatian (see Serbe. The correspondence C-W communication - pronunciation). The alphabet Montenegrin comprises three additional letters, to make Phonème S specific. The two first also exist in Polish:

(deaf palatal fricative Consonant), returned by the letter Ś
(voiced palatal fricative Consonant), returned by Ź
(alveolar Consonant voiced affricate consonant), for which one proposes the Digramme Dz or the letter З

As into Serb, the foreign proper names are transcribed phonetically.

The Montenegrin is characterized by the pronunciation ijékavienne, with the characteristic that here ije is bisyllabic, whereas in other areas of the diasystème it is a Diphtongue. This characteristic was already allowed by the standards of Serbo-Croat.

In Montenegrin only, this ije extended to words where he is not explained by the evolution of yat :

The palatalization of, and in front of takes place where into Serb it does not take place of the whole, in Croatian and bosnien being more reduced in the same case:

In the spoken language, the vocalic group ao , characteristic, for example, as a termination of the takes part verbal credit in the singular masculine, is reduced in Montenegrin to has , as in other speeches of the coast of the Adriatic Sea, whereas in the other speeches it is reduced to O : rek' ao' Sam , rek' a' Sam , rek' o' Sam (“I said”); k' ao , K has , K O (“like”).

Grammar

The morphology and the Syntaxe of the Montenegrin do not differ almost at all from those of the remainder of the diasystème (see Serbe. Grammar), but present however some characteristics:

In the plural of the adjectives and the pronouns there are long endings ( - ijeh with the genitive and - ijem with the dative, with instrumental and the locative), beside their corresponding short ( - ih and - im ): dobrijeh - genitive of dobri, dobre, will dobra (“good () S”); našijem - dative-instrumental-locative of naši, naše, naša (“our/ours”).
the verb “being” has at the present the denied forms nijesam , nijesi , etc, instead of nisam , nisi , etc

These two characteristics hold of the character ijékavien of the Montenegrin.

the correspondent of the interrogative pronoun “what” is in Montenegrin što , as in Croatian, whereas it is šta into Serb.
One largely uses short infinitive: Oli pjeva' you ? (“do you Want to sing? ”) compared to the long form (" Hoćeš Li pjeva' ti' ? , in standard Croatian).

Lexicon

The vocabulary Montenegrin does not differ primarily from that of the diasystème in general. Nevertheless, there are different words.

Examples of words of common origin, but of forms different from those from Serb and Croatian:

Examples of different words having the same direction in Montenegrin, Serb and Croatian:

The form that take the international words can also be different in Montenegrin:

Like the Croatian speeches of the Adriatic coast, the Montenegrin borrowed more words from the Italian than the Serb one. Examples:

bastadur (ica) - “that (that) which has enough of it”, of basta
durati - “to last”, of durare
kaseta within the meaning of “case”
kušin - “cushion, pillow”, of cuscino
lencun - “cloth (of bed)”, of lenzuolo
medig - “doctor”, of medico
pjat - “plate”, of piatto
skala within the meaning of “scale”, of scala
taulin - “table”, of tavolino

Sentences in Montenegrin and Serb

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