Serbian, Srpski

	One of the Southern Slavonic languages, Serbian is most closely related to Croatian, Bosnian and Slovene. It's based on 'Ekavian', the variant of the formerly shared Serbo-Croat language spoken in Belgrade, and 'Ijekavian' spoken in western Serb areas. Serbian and Croatian are similar, sharing many pronouns and cases, and the languages are mutually understandable. There are however some differences in vocabulary and syntax.
	Due to the Balkan conflict, the different national groups established their own official languages, and the term Serbian is used to describe the official language of Serbia and Bosnia-Hercegovina. There is however continuing political and linguistic debate about how a common Serbian language should be established and what form it should take.
	As a result of the conflict, statistics on the number of speakers are inexact, but in total, 21 million people throughout the world speak a variation of the formerly shared Serbo-Croat language.
	Serbian is written in Cyrillic script, but its Serbo-Croat heritage means it can also be seen written in the Latin alphabet.
	BBC World Service in Serbian.

Key Phrases Yes. No. Welcome! Pleased to meet you. Hello. Goodbye. Thank you.
	My name is ... Do you speak English? I'm sorry, I don't speak Serbian. I need help. Where is the toilet, please?

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