ISO 639-2: Montenegrin is separate language

The US Library of Congress, as the registration authority for ISO 639-2 standard, has recognized Montenegrin and assigned it a language code.

This came nine years after Montenegro's Cetinje-based National Library Djurdje Crnojevic first apply for international codification of the Montenegrin language.

In July this year, the US Library of Congress registration authority rejected the application, saying that this language was one of the variants of Serbian.

An email signed by Rebecca S. Guenther stated that the committee discussed several times the issue of the Montenegrin language, and took the position that it was a variant of the Serbian language spoken in Montenegro.

"Special codes are allocated on the basis of linguistic, not political or geographic differences," the email said.

At the time, Montenegrin media reported that there was "nothing more...