Montenegrin Language Granted International Recognition

The authorities in Montenegro said on Monday that the country has been granted an international 'ISO' code for the Montenegrin language by the International Organization for Standardization, the global standard-setting body.

The National Library of Montenegro 'Djurdje Crnojevic', which led the nine-year process before the International Organization for Standardization's Technical Committee ISO 639-2, which is based at the Library of Congress in Washington, said the code for the Montenegrin language will be CRN.

The name of the language in English and French will be Montenegrin, with the only difference in pronunciation. 

The National Library said it had been a long "battle" to get the international code for the Montenegrin language.

Montenegrin is now officially separate from the Serbian language, which is used by the majority of people in the country.

The dean of the recently-founded Faculty of the Montenegrin Language, Adnan Cirgic, said that December 11 should be declared a national 'day of the Montenegrin language' because it is one of the most important days for the the country's literature.

"The international code for the Montenegrin language ends speculation that Montenegrin is not a language, that it is a dialect or another national language," Cirgic told Montenegrin daily Dnevne novine.

There has been a dispute over the status of the Serbian language in independent Montenegro since 2007, a year after the country split from Serbia, when it adopted a new constitution that named the official language as Montenegrin, much to the annoyance of the Serb community.

The Montenegrin language was official in the country's education system in 2011, although the majority of people use the Serbian language.