Differences between standard Serbian, Croatian and Bosnian language

Serbian (српски), Croatian (Hrvatski) and Bosnian (Bosanski) are closely related, mutually intelligible Southern Slavonic languages formerly known collectively as Serbo-Croat. They have about 18.5 million speakers, mainly in Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro.

Morphology

There are three variants of the Štokavian dialect that stem from the different uses of the reflexive proto-Slavic vowel Jat. The jat appears in modern dialects in the following way: the Church Slavonic word for child, děte, is:

• dete in Ekavian
• dite in Ikavian
• dijete in Ijekavian

The Serbian language recognises ekavian and ijekavian as equal variants, while Croatian and Bosnian use only ijekavian. In Bosnia and Herzegovina (regardless of the official language) and in Montenegro, ijekavian is used almost exclusively.

Ikavian is limited to dialectal use in Dalmatia, Lika, Istria, Western Herzegovina, Bosanska Krajina, Slavonia and northern Bačka (Vojvodina). So, for example: