Slavonic-Serbian

Slavonic-Serbian (славяносербскій, slavjanoserbskij), also known as Slavo-Serbian or Slaveno-Serbian (славено-сербскiй, slaveno-serbskij; Serbian: славеносрпски, slavenosrpski), was a literary language used by the Serbs in the Habsburg Empire, mostly in what is now Vojvodina, from the mid-18th century to the first decades of the 19th century, falling into obscurity by the 1870s. It was a linguistic blend of Church Slavonic of the Russian recension, vernacular Serbian (Shtokavian dialect), and Church Slavonic of the Serbian recension, with varying sources and differing attempts at standardisation.

History

At the beginning of the 18th century, the literary language of the Serbs was the Serbian recension of Church Slavonic (also called Serbo-Slavonic), with centuries-old tradition. After the Great Serb Migration of 1690, many Serbs left Ottoman-held territories and settled in southern areas of the Kingdom of Hungary in the Habsburg Empire, mostly in what is now Vojvodina. The Serbian Orthodox Church in these areas was in need of liturgical books, and the Serbian schools were in need of textbooks. The Habsburg court, however, did not allow the Serbs to establish their printing presses. The Serbian Orthodox Church and schools received ample help in books and teachers from the Russian Empire. By the mid-18th century, Serbo-Slavonic had been mostly replaced with Russo-Slavonic (Russian recension of Church Slavonic) as the principal literary language of the Serbs.

Around that time, laymen became more numerous and notable than Orthodox monks and priests among active Serbian writers. The secular writers wanted their works to be closer to the general Serbian readership, but at the same time, most of them regarded Church Slavonic as more prestigious and elevated than the popular Serbian language.