Serbo-Croatian was the language of Montenegro, Serbia, Bosnia Herzegovina and Croatia but Montenegro is (so far) the only former Yugoslav Republic that has not called its language after the name of the state (eg; Serbian, Croat, Bosnian etc). Nevertheless, Montenegrins PEN ( The international Association of Poets, Playwrights, Editors, Essayists and Novelists) has already declared there is no scientific or political reason for the Montenegrins language not to be named, scientifically and constitutionally, by it's name. One difference between the languages spoken in Belgrade and Podgorica is that the latter has two extra letters. It is also characterized by its wide use of proverbs, metaphors and figurative speech. In Montenegro, according to the constitution, they officially speak the Jekavian dialect of Serbian. Serbo-Croatian actually comes in a western variant, spoken in Croatia and most of Bosnia-Herzegovina, and an eastern variant spoken in Serbia. Montenegro has a bit of each. and its is generally referred to just Serbian ( Srpski ). Most writing is in the Latin alphabet but Cyrillic is quite widely used, especially away from the coast, and, unlike in Serbia, both alphabets have equal status under the constitution. Native Albanian speakers are concentrated in the western border areas of the country. One thing that Montenegro has in common with every other country in the world is that the local inhabitants appreciate tourists who make an effort to speak at least a little of what - to us - looks and sounds a very unfamiliar sort of language.
English replaced Russian as the second language in schools some years ago, and there are generally people around in the resort areas with a reasonable command of the language. Elsewhere if you need an interpreter it is generally better to seek out a thirty or younger Montenegrin. After Russian and English the most widely spoken foreign languages are Italian ( for reasons of geography) and German ( because of the relatively large number of tourists).

Transliteration and pronunciation

In spoken Serbian, every consonant is pronounced. Both spelling and pronunciation are logical. The letter "R" is a semi-vowel and is always strongly sounded. There is only rule about the stress on syllables: It is never on the last one.

Words and phrases

Noun may be masculine, feminine or neuter, as in german. Masculine nouns end in a consonant in the singular and generally in "-a" in the singular "-e" in the plural. Neuter nouns end in "-e" or "-o" in the singular and generally in "-a" in the plural. There is no definite article ("the"). Adjectivers agree with nouns.