Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
Serbo-Croatian

Serbo-Croatian

1 7.9
A language spoken in Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, and Montenegro
  • noun
  • /ˌsɜrboʊˈkroʊˈeɪʃən/
  • Archaic
: serbocroata
  • Mother and I were the only members of the group who spoke Serbo-Croatian, and we would often chat with him during breaks on the road.
  • Serbo-Croatian language
  • English and Serbo-Croatian
  • Russian and Serbo-Croatian

Examples

  • In college, I made a stab at learning Serbo-Croatian, and after graduation, visited Belgrade.

  • Mother and I were the only members of the group who spoke Serbo-Croatian, and we would often chat with him during breaks on the road.

    Fiction book (1995)

  • In college, I made a stab at learning Serbo-Croatian, and after graduation, visited Belgrade.

    Academic text (1992)

  • Arranged in neat rows, lovingly kept, are children's books, mostly in Serbo-Croatian, some in English.

Synonyms

Serbo-Croat
vsSerbo-Croatian
  • Archaic
1 9.6

A language once spoken across Yugoslavia, now split into Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian, and Montenegrin

emphasizes the historical shared speech across those peoples rather than modern separation

Surface Forms

Serbo-Croatian singular
Serbo-Croatians plural

Morphology

Serbo-Croatian = Serb + Croatian (transparent) = Serbo + Croatian

A straightforward hyphenated compound combining names of peoples/languages (Serb/Serbo + Croatian), so learners can infer it denotes the language/variety linking those groups.

Etymology

Serbo-Croatian comes from the names of two groups: Serbo- from 'Serb' and -Croatian from 'Croat', so the word originally named the language shared by those peoples. That's why Serbo-Croatian today refers to the South Slavic language used by Serbs, Croats, Bosniaks, and Montenegrins, often written in either Cyrillic or Latin alphabets.