Montenegrin language

"The lessons are in the Montenegrin language, so it's hard when children sit in class and don't understand anything; luckily, a lot of teachers and pupils speak English, so they manage to communicate," Igor's mother, Ana Miroshnichenko, told BIRN.

Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic told Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic at a meeting on the margins of the EU-Western Balkans summit in Slovenia that he wants a school textbook that describes the Croatian, Bosnian and Montenegrin languages as versions of Serbian to be corrected.

Protests in front of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Science and Sport in the town of Cetinje. Photo: Ljubo Filipovic

After media reported on Thursday that Montenegrin police have barred four Serbian cultural, academic and legal figures from entering the country, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic condemned the decision and vowed to respond. 

Pro-Serbian opposition party Prava Crna Gora (The Real Montenegro) has sent an open letter to the Education Ministry demanding the 'protection' of the Cyrillic script and alleging discrimination in the public education system.

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.

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.

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 Montenegrin Party, which promotes the rights of ethnic Montenegrins in Serbia, has urged Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic to intervene to ensure that the Montenegrin language is finally adopted for official use in the town of Vrbas in northern Serbia.

The US Technical Committee ISO 639-2, based in the Library of Congress in Washington DC, has not accepted the codification of the Montenegrin language.

The explanation given is that this language is one of the variants of Serbian.