Bosnian

Where it’s spoken

Bosnian is one of three constitutional official languages of Bosnia and Herzegovina (along with Croatian and Serbian) and is also recognized as a minority language in Serbia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Kosovo, Albania, and Turkey. The Bosniak diaspora in Germany, Austria, Sweden, and the United States expanded significantly during and after the 1990s Bosnian War.

What it sounds like

Bosnian’s phonology and grammar match Croatian and Serbian closely. The most distinctive lexical features are slightly more Turkish, Arabic, and Persian loanwords reflecting Ottoman heritage and Islamic religious vocabulary, as well as the retention of the “h” sound in words where other varieties may have dropped it.

How it’s written

Bosnian primarily uses the Latin alphabet today, though historically Cyrillic was also widely used. The Arabic-script Arebica was used by Bosnian Muslims through the early 20th century, especially for religious texts.

History

Bosnian’s status as a separate standard language is a product of the 1990s — during Yugoslav times, the literary language was Serbo-Croatian. After Yugoslavia’s dissolution, Bosniaks codified Bosnian alongside Serbian and Croatian, all three nearly identical with culturally significant lexical preferences.