Serbo-Croatian
/ˌsɜːrboʊˈkroʊeɪʃən/noun
A traditional name for the closely related South Slavic standard languages and dialects spoken chiefly in Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro.
Did you know?“Serbo-Croatian” became especially controversial after the breakup of Yugoslavia, when Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian, and Montenegrin were increasingly presented as separate national standards despite their high mutual intelligibility.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Slavic period
Proto-Slavic
*sьrbъ and *xъrvatъ
“Ancestral forms associated with the ethnonyms Serb and Croat; the deeper origins of both names remain debated.”
Early Medieval period
South Slavic
Sьrbi / Hrьvati
“Ethnonyms used for the Serb and Croat peoples in early Slavic historical contexts.”
9th–11th Century
Old Church Slavonic / Medieval Slavic
словѣньскъ
“Slavic-language descriptors developed within the broader linguistic world to which Serbian and Croatian belong; the ethnonym Slav is related to this wider naming tradition, not directly to Serb or Croat.”
19th Century
German
Serbokroatisch
“A scholarly compound meaning “Serbo-Croatian,” formed from the names of the two principal literary and national traditions.”
1850
South Slavic literary history
Serbo-Croatian
“The term gained prominence around the Vienna Literary Agreement, which sought cooperation and convergence among South Slavic literary standards.”
Modern English
English
Serbo-Croatian
“A conventional linguistic label, now often replaced or qualified by Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian, and Montenegrin according to national, political, or scholarly context.”