Serbia Proposes Law Changes to Halt Cyrillic's Decline

Photo: Pxhere

Against a background of fears that Latin letters are taking over, Serbia's Ministry of Culture has proposed toughening the law on the use of the Cyrillic script, creating a Council for the Serbian Language - and imposing fines for those who do not respect Serbia's "mother script".

"The situation is worrying due to the dominant use of Latin in all segments. This is due to the spirit of the times, to historical circumstances and to a decades-long globalization process that has made the Latin script the world's dominant script," the ministry said in written response to BIRN.

It added that the modern media and the internet had "imposed Latin as a letter of universal communication, which influences young people unconsciously to turn to Latin characters".

Serbia's 2006 constitution calls Cyrillic the country's official alphabet, which means that all communications between public institutions, but also between them and the public, must be in Cyrillic.

The only exception to this rule is official communications with national minorities.

Cyrillic is used almost universally in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Bulgaria and Macedonia [except in mainly ethnic Albanian areas] and in Montenegro and Bosnia's mainly Serbian entity, Republika Srpska.

Serbian Culture Minister Vladan Vukosavljevic warned in June 2017 that the use of the Cyrillic alphabet was in danger in Serbia because of globalisation.

He announced then that his ministry and the government would introduce changes to the law defend the ancient script.

In June, the Serbian capital, Belgrade, adopted a decision to reward companies that promote the use of Cyrillic.

The ministry explained to BIRN that proposed changes would precisely define the...

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