Croatian, Serbian, Bosnian

A Few Facts About the Croatian Language

Most people are not quite sure which languages are actually spoken in the countries that once made up Yugoslavia. To give you a better insight, we’ve compiled some key information about the Croatian language.

Croatian belongs to the South Slavic subgroup of the Slavic branch of the Indo-European language family. The Croatian written language gradually replaced the earlier Church Slavonic, which had been used in religious literature and worship. The beginning of the use of written Croatian is generally dated to the late 15th century.

Anyone who speaks Croatian can be understood throughout former Yugoslavia, where Slovenian, Bosnian, Serbian, and Macedonian are spoken. Knowing Croatian also provides a strong foundation for learning other Slavic languages, such as Czech, Polish, or Russian.

Today, Croatian is spoken by approximately 4.8 million people in Croatia, where it is the official language. It is also spoken as a native language in parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina, particularly in Herzegovina (around Mostar) and northeastern Bosnia (around Bosanski Brod).

Croatian dialects are categorized into three major groups based on the word used for “What?” (ča, kaj, što):

• Čakavian (coastal regions, islands, Burgenland)
• Kajkavian (northern areas)
• Štokavian (southern Dalmatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Slavonia)

Štokavian forms the basis of the standard Croatian written language—this is also true for Bosnian and Serbian.

Croatian is linguistically very similar to Serbian and Bosnian and was formerly grouped together with them under the terms "Croato-Serbian" or "Serbo-Croatian." Serbo-Croatian was the official language in four of the six republics of the former Yugoslavia and served as a lingua franca throughout the country. Following the Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian war (1991–1995), Serbo-Croatian was officially split into three distinct languages.

Since gaining independence, Croatia has increasingly emphasized its national identity, including through language. Many Serbian or international words have been replaced with native Croatian terms—for example, ljekarna instead of apoteka (pharmacy), or zračna luka (airport) instead of aerodrom.

While Croatian, Bosnian, and Serbian share the same roots and have a common structure and vocabulary, they have evolved differently over the centuries. Despite their similarities, there are significant differences among them.

See also (on Wikipedia):

• Serbo-Croatian language
• Serbian language
• Croatian language

The course structure is composed of the following modules:

A1 courses: 

• Hours per week: 2 SWS each
• Total instructional hours: 30 hours per course
• Courses:
  • Croatian and Serbian Elementary Course I
  • Croatian and Serbian Elementary Course II

A2 courses:

• Hours per week: 2 SWS each
• Total instructional hours: 30 hours per course
• Courses:
  • Croatian and Serbian Intermediate Course I
  • Croatian and Serbian Intermediate Course II
  • Croatian and Serbian Conversation Course