Montenegrin is variant of Serbian language - US authority

Montenegrin is variant of Serbian language - US authority

According to the Podgorica media, Montenegro's Cetinje-based National Library Djurdje Crnojevic has been insisting on international codification of the Montenegrin language for nine years, but the US committee is not accepting such a thing.

It is reported that "there is nothing more that Montenegrin authorities can do to convince the Committee that Montenegrin is not 'a variant of the Serbian language spoken in Montenegro' but has its own linguistic recognizability and separate historical development."

Complete documentation, references, recommendations, and "support from the region" have been forwarded to the United States a long time ago, the reports added.

However, "more or less the same message" has been arriving from Washington: no one from Montenegro has yet managed to convince them Montenegrin is not a variant of Serbian.

As reported, the embassy of Montenegro in Washington has joined the effort and has been lobbying in favor of codifying the Montenegrin language - but without success.

An email signed by Rebecca S. Guenther stated that the Committee discussed several times the issue of the Montenegrin language, and took the position that it is a variant of the Serbian language spoken in Montenegro.

This body also proposed the implementation of the variant language code ser-ME - unless additional information is provided to understand any significant linguistic differences between "the two languages."

"Special codes are allocated on the basis of linguistic, not political or geographic differences," Guenther said, according to the Podgorica-based website In4S.