What language is spoken in Montenegro?

The history of any language is complex and interesting, but the history of the state language of Montenegro can be considered one of the most unusual. Montenegro is a small country on the shores of the Adriatic Sea, with a population of just over 600,000. This republic became independent only in 2006, although it is mentioned in medieval chronicles.

From 1946 to 1992, the country was part of Yugoslavia, then until 2006 - in the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro. In 2006, Montenegro withdrew from the Union and became an independent state.

Recognized as the state national language in the republic Montenegrin. At its core, it is one of the dialects of the Serbo-Croatian language. This dialect is called the Iekava-Shtokavsky and, along with the Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian, belongs to the South Slavic languages ​​of the western subgroup.

The debate about which language will be recognized as official began in Montenegro in the late 90s and escalated particularly by 2007. Prior to this, the official language was Serbian. The question of the state language was more political than linguistic in nature. Montenegrin received official status only in 2011 and was named Montenegrin by international standards. That is why according to the census in 2011, only 37% of citizens recognized Montenegrin as their native language.

The main difference between the Montenegrin language and the Serbian language is the pronunciation of vowels and their spelling - in Serbian it is more stringent, and in Montenegrin - soft. This is especially true for the sounds [e] and [je], that is, the form [uje] is more common, similar to the Old Slavonic “yat”. In the colloquial version, this is more inherent in the southern regions of the country, while in the northern regions the dialect becomes tougher.

The vocabulary of Montenegrin contains words from all closely related South Slavic dialects. Original words are found, but they are few in order to be able to talk about some cardinal differences. Due to such a mixture of dialects, linguists consider the Montenegrin language relatively new. The instability of linguistic norms suggests that the literary language in Montenegro has not yet been formed, certain language norms exist only for official documents.

Written Montenegrin language has another unusual feature - in it both Cyrillic and Latin are equally usedalthough in recent years Latin has been increasingly used in official documents, which more clearly conveys phonetic differences. In literary work, no restrictions yet exist.

All Slavic languages ​​have common roots, therefore, in many ways similar to each other. Montenegrin language is no exception. Russian and Montenegrin have many things in common. Some words are either similar, or very similar, or understandable: yes - “yes”, no - “not”, good afternoon - “good given”, good - “good”, sea fish - “sea riba”, city - “city”.

Tourism and recreation in Montenegro are becoming increasingly popular among Russians. Residents of the country are very warm towards Russian-speaking tourists, many Montenegrins know and understand Russian, especially those who are closely related to the tourism business by type of activity: guides, hotel staff, sellers, waiters.

Signs, signs, placards, menus in restaurants are often duplicated in English and Russian, so it’s easy to navigate here. With a question to passers-by it is better to address in Russian. Not all residents know English.

Going on a trip to Montenegro, even if there is no desire to learn a language, you need to know its features. Some words, despite their resemblance to Russian, have a different or even opposite meaning. For example, the usual “law” in Montenegrin means “directly”, the Russian “maniac” means “deficit”, and “shame”, “disgrace” means theater. Awkward for the Russian word “diarrhea” for Montenegrins is “pride”, therefore, offensive to the Russian rumor “I’m diarrhea myself” in Montenegrin has a completely positive meaning - “I am a proud girl”.

Funny for a traveler who speaks Russian, the familiar word "sausages" sounds. In Montenegrin it’s “crap”. The Russian verb in the imperative mood “go” does not mean an invitation to travel, it means “I eat”, and “eat” is not an invitation to a meal, but an offer to “try” or “try”.

A few more unusual lexical meanings:

• “I myself am harmful” - I am good, kind, dignified;
• "Club" - the depth;
• "Lover" is a bug;
• “Belly” is life;
• "Hrana" - food;
• “Art” is experience;
• “Cookies” - fried meat;
• “Well-being” - security;
• "Security", "security service" in the inscriptions on the form of security personnel will look like Obezbedenje.

You can get into an awkward situation by using the familiar words “matches” and “chicken”. They are consonant with the Montenegrin crude designation of male and female genital organs, in other words, Russian mat. The bird itself should be called “coconut”, and chicken meat - “pileche meat” or “pilatina”.

Any language is original and inexhaustible, sometimes even phrases that seem understandable hide a completely different meaning. But in any awkward situation, it is necessary to maintain friendliness and calmness, to be guided exclusively by common sense. An open smile, expressive gestures and intonation can help out.

There are many methods for learning foreign languages. But, preparing for a short trip, I don’t really want to spend time and effort on this, and this is completely optional. Montenegrin is still not international English. For those who are going to live in Montenegro permanently, knowledge of the language will come gradually, the kinship of Russian and Montenegrin plays a significant role here. But for constant and short-term communication, knowledge of the most used words and expressions will be very useful.

The technique is called the "language matrix". Its essence is as follows.

• The movement from simple to complex. First, simple, closest to the Russian language words, phrases, sentences and short texts are studied, then the tasks are complicated.
• Next, you need to enable audio recording and listen to the language material.
• Without resorting to the printed text, try to understand by ear what is being discussed, highlight individual phrases, words. Repeating listening is worth it until it seems that in general the essence of the text is clear.
• Open printed text, read aloud and listen to audio at the same time, comparing the features of pronunciation and spelling. Transfer should not be addressed at this stage yet.
• Open translation and verify the correctness of independent guesses.
• Listen and speak out loud several times, remembering the correct translation.

This method allows you to go through all the stages of training in any free time: on the road, when doing household chores, on a walk. Repeated repetition and a conscious approach will allow you to remember linguistic material firmly and for a long time. A small phrasebook that includes the most common words and phrases will help in communication.

About how they say in Montenegro, see below.