The Serbian language is one of the officially recognized minority languages in Croatia. It is primarily used by the Serbs of Croatia. The Croatian Constitution, Croatian Constitutional law on national minorities rights, Law on Education in Language and Script of National Minorities and Law on Use of Languages and Scripts of National Minorities define the public co-official usage of Serbian in Croatia. Serbian and Croatian are two standardized varieties of the pluricentric Serbo-Croatian language. The majority of Serbs of Croatia use Ijekavian pronunciation of Proto-Slavic vowel jat except in the Podunavlje region in Vukovar-Syrmia and Osijek-Baranja Counties where local Serb population use Ekavian pronunciation. Post-World War II and Croatian War of Independence settlers in Podunavlje which have come from Bosnia, Dalmatia or Western Slavonia either use their original Ijekavian pronunciation, adopted Ekavian pronunciation or both of them depending on context. According to data from the 2021 census, almost two-thirds of Serbs of Croatia declared Croatian standardized variety as their first language with Ijekavian pronunciation always being required standard form in Croatian. While Serbian variety recognizes both pronunciations as standard, Ekavian is the more common one as it is the dominant one in Serbia, with Ijekavian being dominant in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro, and Croatia.

History The Orthodox liturgical book Varaždin Apostol from 1454 represents the oldest preserved text in Cyrillic from the territory of today's Croatia. Croatian Constitutional law on ethnic minorities rights, one of only two constitutional laws in country, was adopted in 2002.

In 2015, the United Nations Human Rights Committee urged the Croatian government to ensure the right of minorities to use their language and script. The report noted the 2013 Anti-Cyrillic protests in Croatia and municipalities concerned. Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dačić said that his country welcomes the UN Human Rights Committee's report.

Instruction in Serbian language

Most schools with instruction in Serbian are located in Vukovar-Srijem and Osijek-Baranja County in the area of former Eastern Slavonia, Baranja, and Western Syrmia where rights on education in minority languages were provided during the United Nations Transitional Administration for Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Sirmium based on the Erdut Agreement. Along with those schools there is also Kantakuzina Katarina Branković Serbian Orthodox Secondary School in Zagreb.

In the school year 2010–2011, 3,742 students attended preschools, elementary, and secondary schools in Serbian. Some 59 educational institutions offered instruction in Serbian language that year and 561 instructors and teachers worked in them. In school year 2011–2012 the total number of students was 4,093 in 63 educational institutions and 563 educators and teachers worked in them. Number of classes or groups in this period increased from 322 to 353.

As a chair at the Department of South Slavic languages, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Zagreb has the Chair of Serbian and Montenegrin literature.

Other forms of cultural autonomy Various minority organizations use Serbian in their work. One of them, Association for Serbian language and literature in Croatia from Vukovar is a nonprofit professional organization that brings together scientists and technical workers in the Republic of Croatia engaged in studying and teaching of Serbian language and literature.

The co-official use at local government level The Law on Use of Languages and Scripts of National Minorities provides for a mandatory co-official use of minority languages in municipalities of Croatia with at least one third of members of ethnic minority. Municipalities Dvor, Gvozd, Jagodnjak, Šodolovci, Borovo, Trpinja, Markušica, Negoslavci, Biskupija, Ervenik, Kistanje, Gračac, Udbina and Erdut, according to the provisions of law, are obliged to grant equal co-official use of Serbian language and Serbian Cyrillic alphabet. Donji Kukuruzari, Vrbovsko and most notably Vukovar were obliged to do so up until the 2021 census had shown that Serbs no longer made up at least one third of the population in these municipalities or towns. Law enforcement is facing great resistance in the part of the majority population, most notably in the case of Vukovar where it led to 2013 Anti-Cyrillic protests in Croatia.

Municipality Name in minority language Affected settlements Introduced based on Population (2021) Percentage of affected minority (2021) County Vrbovsko Врбовско All settlements Constitutional Act 3,876 32.4% Primorje-Gorski Kotar Vukovar Вуковар All settlements Constitutional Act 23,175 29.7% Vukovar-Srijem Biskupija Бискупија All settlements Constitutional Act 1,177 81.9% Šibenik-Knin Borovo Борово All settlements Constitutional Act 3,555 90.7% Vukovar-Srijem Civljane Цивљане All settlements Constitutional Act 171 73.7% Šibenik-Knin Donji Kukuruzari Доњи Кукурузари All settlements Constitutional Act 1,080 31.2% Sisak-Moslavina Dvor Двор All settlements Constitutional Act 2,996 67.2% Sisak-Moslavina Erdut Ердут All settlements Constitutional Act 5,436 53.7% Osijek-Baranja Ervenik Ервеник All settlements Constitutional Act 789 96.9% Šibenik-Knin Gračac Грачац All settlements Constitutional Act 3,136 43.3% Zadar Gvozd Гвозд or Вргинмост All settlements Constitutional Act 2,047 62.6% Sisak-Moslavina Jagodnjak Јагодњак All settlements Constitutional Act 1,500 62.8% Osijek-Baranja Kistanje Кистање All settlements Constitutional Act 2,650 51.9% Šibenik-Knin Krnjak Крњак All settlements Constitutional Act 1,332 58% Karlovac Markušica Маркушица All settlements Constitutional Act 1,773 90.2% Vukovar-Srijem Negoslavci Негославци All settlements Constitutional Act 983 96.8% Vukovar-Srijem Plaški Плашки All settlements Constitutional Act 1,650 39.7% Karlovac Šodolovci Шодоловци All settlements Constitutional Act 1,217 78% Osijek-Baranja Trpinja Трпиња Village Ćelije excluded in municipality Statute Constitutional Act 4,167 87.8% Vukovar-Srijem Udbina Удбина All settlements Constitutional Act 1,334 42.6% Lika-Senj Vojnić Војнић All settlements Constitutional Act 3,602 38.4% Karlovac Vrhovine Врховине All settlements Constitutional Act 653 47.6% Lika-Senj Donji Lapac Доњи Лапац All settlements Constitutional Act 1,366 79.2% Lika-Senj Kneževi Vinogradi Кнежеви Виногради Kneževi Vinogradi and Karanac Municipality Statute 3,357 16.5% Osijek-Baranja Nijemci Нијемци Banovci and Vinkovački Banovci Municipality Statute 3,526 8.1% Vukovar-Srijem

See also Minority languages of Croatia Law on Use of Languages and Scripts of National Minorities European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages Italian language in Croatia Serbo-Croatian language Anti-Cyrillic protests in Croatia

References