Serbo-Croatian
Serbo-Croatian () – also called Serbo-Croat (), Serbo-Croat-Bosnian (SCB), Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian (BCS), and Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian (BCMS) – is a South Slavic language and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro. It is a pluricentric language with four mutually intelligible standard varieties, namely Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian, and Montenegrin.

South Slavic languages historically formed a continuum. The turbulent history of the area, particularly due to expansion of the Ottoman Empire, resulted in a patchwork of dialectal and religious differences. Due to population migrations, Shtokavian became the most widespread dialect in the western Balkans, intruding westwards into the area previously occupied by Chakavian and Kajkavian (which further blend into Slovenian in the northwest). Bosniaks, Croats and Serbs differ in religion and were historically often part of different cultural circles, although a large part of the nations have lived side by side under foreign overlords. During that period, the language was referred to under a variety of names, such as "Slavic" in general or "Serbian", "Croatian" or "Bosnian" in particular. In a classicizing manner, it was also referred to as "Illyrian".

The process of linguistic standardization of Serbo-Croatian was originally initiated in the mid-19th-century Vienna Literary Agreement by Croatian and Serbian writers and philologists, decades before a Yugoslav state was established. From the very beginning, there were slightly different literary Serbian and Croatian standards, although both were based on the same dialect of Shtokavian, Eastern Herzegovinian. In the 20th century, Serbo-Croatian served as the official language of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia (when it was called "Serbo-Croato-Slovenian"), and later as one of the official languages of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The breakup of Yugoslavia affected language attitudes, so that social conceptions of the language separated along ethnic and political lines. Since the breakup of Yugoslavia, Bosnian has likewise been established as an official standard in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and there is an ongoing movement to codify a separate Montenegrin standard. 

Like other South Slavic languages, Serbo-Croatian has a simple phonology, with the common five-vowel system and twenty-five consonants. Its grammar evolved from Common Slavic, with complex inflection, preserving seven grammatical cases in nouns, pronouns, and adjectives. Verbs exhibit imperfective or perfective aspect, with a moderately complex tense system. Serbo-Croatian is a pro-drop language with flexible word order, subject–verb–object being the default. It can be written in Serbian Cyrillic or Gaj's Latin alphabet, whose thirty letters mutually map one-to-one, and the orthography is highly phonemic in all standards.
Q146665
South Slavic language
Concept
Q403
Serbia
LOC
Q224
Croatia
LOC
Q225
Bosnia and Herzegovina
LOC
Q236
Montenegro
LOC
Q250858
pluricentric language
Concept
Q829257
mutually intelligible
UNK
Q399495
standard varieties
Concept
Q9299
Serbian
Concept
Q6654
Croatian
Concept
Q9303
Bosnian
Concept
Q8821
Montenegrin
Concept
Q215844
continuum
Concept
Q12560
Ottoman Empire
LOC
Q148893
Shtokavian
MEDIA
Q337565
Chakavian
Concept
Q838165
Kajkavian
Concept
Q9063
Slovenian
Concept
Q940348
Bosniaks
MEDIA
Q167420
Croats
Concept
Q127885
Serbs
Concept
Q1658937
Illyrian
UNK
Q399495
linguistic standardization
Concept
Q1280978
Vienna Literary Agreement
EVE
Q3487593
Eastern Herzegovinian
MEDIA
Q191077
Kingdom of Yugoslavia
LOC
Q83286
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
LOC
Q4390259
breakup of Yugoslavia
EVE
None
social conceptions of the language separated
UNK
Q17141634
codify
Concept
Q7452986
phonology
Concept
Q3398813
grammar
UNK
Q5870419
Common Slavic
UNK
Q207857
inflection
Concept
Q128234
grammatical case
Concept
Q371427
imperfective
Concept
Q1424306
perfective aspect
Concept
Q661936
pro-drop language
Concept
Q651641
subject–verb–object
MEDIA
Q829464
Serbian Cyrillic
Concept
Q754989
Gaj's Latin alphabet
Concept
Q43091
orthography
Concept
Q1033526
phonemic
Concept
Q9301
Serbo-Croatian
Concept
Q9301
Serbo-Croatian
Concept
Q9301
Serbo-Croatian
Concept
Q9301
Serbo-Croatian
Concept
Q9301
Serbo-Croatian
Concept
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-19
NUMBER
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20
NUMBER
instance of
writing system
writing system
part of
language used
official language
official language
facet of