Montenegrin Language - Official Status and Speakers' Preference

Official Status and Speakers' Preference

The language remains an ongoing issue in Montenegro.

In the previous census of 1991, the vast majority of Montenegrin citizens, 510,320 or 82.97%, declared themselves speakers of the then official language: Serbo-Croatian. The 1981 population census also recorded a Serbo-Croatian-speaking majority. However in the first Communist censuses, the vast majority of the population declared Serbian their native language. Such is also the case with the first recorded population census in Montenegro in 1909, when approximately 95% of the population of the Principality of Montenegro declared Serbian their native language. According to the Constitution of Montenegro, the official language of the republic since 1992 is Serbian of the Ijekavian standard.

After World War II and until 1992, the official language of Montenegro was Serbo-Croatian. Before that, in the previous Montenegrin realm, Serbian was the language in usage. The Serbian language was the officially used language in Communist Montenegro until after the 1950 Novi Sad Agreement that defined the Serbo-Croatian language, and "Serbo-Croatian" was introduced into the Constitution of the Socialist Republic of Montenegro in 1974. In the late 1990s and early 21st century, organizations promoting Montenegrin as a distinct language appeared, and since 2004 the Democratic Party of Socialists of Montenegro regime introduced the term to usage. The new constitution, adopted on 19 October 2007, deemed Montenegrin to be the official language of Montenegro.

The most recent population census conducted in Montenegro was in 2011. According to it, 36.97% of the population declared Montenegrin their native language:

• 106,214 Montenegrins (77.98%)
• 26,176 Slavic Muslims / Bosniaks (19.21%)
• 1,375 Croats (1.02%)
• 2,443 others (1.79%)

In 2011, 42.88% of Montenegrin citizens declared Serbian their native language:

• 197,684 Serbs (50.21%)
• 156,374 Montenegrins (39.72%)
• 11,419 Slavic Muslims / Bosniaks (2.90%)
• 2,529 Croats (0.64%)
• 1,705 Yugoslavs (0.43%)
• 24,029 others (6.1%)

Mijat Šuković, a prominent Montenegrin lawyer, wrote a draft version of the constitution which passed the parliament's constitutional committee. Šuković suggested Montenegrin as the official language of Montenegro. The Venice Commission, an advisory body of the Council of Europe, had a generally positive attitude towards the draft of the constitution but did not address the language and church issues, calling them symbolic. The new constitution was ratified on 19 October 2007, declaring Montenegrin as the official language of Montenegro, as well as recognising Albanian, Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian.

The ruling Democratic Party of Socialists of Montenegro and Socialdemocratic Party of Montenegro stand for nothing but plainly renaming the country's official language into Montenegrin, meeting opposition from the Socialist People's Party of Montenegro, the People's Party, the Democratic Serb Party, the Bosniak Party, the Movement for Changes as well as the Serb List coalition led by the Serb People's Party. However, a referendum was not needed, as a two-thirds majority of the parliament voted for the Constitution, including the ruling coalition, Movement for Changes, the Bosniaks and the Liberals, while the pro-Serbian parties voted against it and the Albanian minority parties abstained from voting. The Constitution was ratified and adopted on 19 October 2007, recognizing Montenegrin as the official language of Montenegro.

According to the latest poll of 1,001 Montenegrin citizens conducted by Matica crnogorska in mid 2010:

• 41.6% Serbian
• 38.2% Montenegrin
• 12.3% - Serbian, Montenegrin, Bosnian, Croatian and Serbo-Croatian are one and the same
• 4.4% Serbo-Croatian
• 1.9% Bosnian
• 1.7% Croatian