Montenegrin Language

The name used to refer to the South Slavic language spoken in Montenegro has gone through a number of changes over the years. During the time when Yugoslavia was ruled as a single state, it was known as Serbo-Croatian (or Croato-Serbian), as were Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian, at least officially. During the post-Yugoslav War period, there were competing attitudes with regard to the proper designation for the language. Many felt that, due to Montenegro’s close cultural ties with Serbia and the Serbian Orthodox Church, it was still valid to refer to to it as “Serbian.” Others thought that it was appropriate to officially rename the language “Montenegrin,” because of a certain number of linguistic distinctions (most conspicuously the introduction of two new letters ś and ź) and because of new political realities, especially after Montenegro split from from the Yugoslav Federation and became an independent state.

For a number of years during this later period, the circumlocution maternji jezik "mother tongue” was used in order to temporarily skirt this politically-charged issue. However in the new 2007 Constitution, Montenegro officially recognized Crnogorski jezik (i.e., “Montenegrin language”) as the official name of the South Slavic language spoken in Montenegro.

As of August 2015, there is no separate language code for Montenegrin available for use in MARC records, and the Library of Congress still refers to Montenegrin as “Serbian.”

Until a new language code is introduced, the compilers of the SCM suggest the following cataloging approach:

Use new language code cnr (previously coded srp).
If the item is published in Montenegro and the language of the text clearly presents itself as being in Montenegrin or has a distinctive feature such such as the above-mentioned letters ś and ź or the full use of ijekavian forms, use “ǂa Montenegrin; ǂb Cyrillic” or “Montenegrin; ǂb Latin” in the 546 language note as appropriate.

Revised: Aug. 26, 2015