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The University of Texas at Austin

Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin, and Serbian

A twin-steepled church in a pine forest, overlaid with the names of four languages

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Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin, and Serbian (BCMS) are mutually intelligible South Slavic languages spoken in Southeastern Europe, namely in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, and Serbia. There are approximately 21 million speakers of BCMS, which is taught as one course at UT because the grammar and vocabulary is largely shared. One important difference is that Bosnian uses both Latin and Cyrillic, Croatian uses the Latin alphabet, Montenegrin officially recognizes both but predominantly uses the Latin alphabet, and Serbian predominantly uses Cyrillic but Latin is in use as well. Knowledge of Bosnian/Croatian/Montenegrin/Serbian would enable you to access the diverse culture and rich history of Southeastern Europe/Western Balkans. This region produced great writers such as Ivo Andric, a Nobel Prize laureate, great scientists such as Nikola Tesla, but also a number of famous actors, artists, musicians, and movie directors.

Bosnian/Croatian/Montenegrin/Serbian is offered through UT’s Department of Slavic and Eurasian Studies at the first-, second-, and third-year levels, with conference courses available for advanced study. UT students can minor in BCMS or major in Russian, East European or Eurasian Studies. The Center for Russia, East European and Eurasian Studies and the Center for European Studies offer funding for the study of BCS at UT or abroad.

The Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies (CREEES) at UT offers competitive scholarships for undergraduates and graduate students from any department of college to fund study of BCMS here at UT or abroad. 

Students with prior knowledge of BCMS who are looking to continue studying BSC or trying to receive credit may contact the instructorr, Frane Karabatic, or UT Testing Services for information on placement or credit.