Serbian Cyrillic alphabet
official script of Serbian language
The Serbian Cyrillic alphabet (Serbian: српска ћирилица / srpska ćirilica, IPA: [sr̩̂pskaː t͡ɕirǐlit͡sa]) is a standardized variation of the Cyrillic script used to write the Serbian language and the Serbo-Croatian varieties of Bosnian and Montenegrin. It is the official first script of the modern standard Serbian language along with Gaj's Latin alphabet, which according to Serbian law, can be used in parallel.
It originated in medieval Serbia and was significantly reformed in the 19th century by the Serbian philologist and linguist Vuk Karadžić. Karadžić based his reform on the earlier 18th-century Slavonic-Serbian script. Following the principle of "write as you speak and read as it is written" (piši kao što govoriš, čitaj kao što je napisano), he removed obsolete letters, eliminated redundant representations of iotated vowels, and introduced the letter ⟨J⟩ from the Latin script. He also created new letters for sounds unique to Serbian phonology. According to that , Ljudevit Gaj with the help of Vuk Karadžić, led the standardization of the Latin script for use in western South Slavic languages, applying similar phonemic principles.
As a result of these parallel reforms, Serbian Cyrillic and Gaj’s Latin alphabet have a one-to-one correspondence. The Latin digraphs Lj, Nj, and Dž are treated as single letters, just as their Cyrillic counterparts are. The reformed Serbian Cyrillic alphabet was officially adopted in Principality of Serbia in 1868 and remained the sole official script into the interwar period.
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