/ world today news/ The alphabet created by the Slavic first teachers Cyril and Methodius is being pushed out of the Balkans
The Serbian authorities are worried about the narrowing of the sphere of use of the Cyrillic alphabet, which is the most valuable cultural heritage of the Slavs. The City Council of Belgrade has introduced 5% reductions for the rent of government premises in the city for individuals and legal entities, if their names are written in Cyrillic.
The Deputy Mayor of Belgrade, Goran Vesic, emphasized that this will help preserve the Serbian Cyrillic alphabet in the face of globalization and the advance of the Latin alphabet. The Serbian constitution of 2006 calls the Cyrillic alphabet the only official alphabet in the country (an exception is made only for national minorities), but in practice, the youth, due to the total fascination with the Internet and the intrusive advertisements of Western brands, increasingly use the Latin alphabet.
In 2017, the Minister of Culture of Serbia, Vladan Vukosavljevic, also drew the attention of citizens to the threat of the Serbian Cyrillic alphabet being absorbed by the Latin alphabet.
The Serbian Latin alphabet (gaevica) appeared only in the 19th century, when the Croatian Ludevit Gai invented a separate alphabet for her people, which ended with the final division of the southern Slavs into Serbs and Croats. Gaevica was a step towards the destruction of the Serbo-Croatian language common to Serbs and Croats.
Today’s situation is aggravated by the coming to power in Montenegro of pro-Western politicians who not only deny the obvious belonging of Montenegrins to the Serbian nation, but also rush to translate the local script into Latin.
Since 2017, Montenegrin secondary school graduates receive their secondary education diploma in Latin. Issuing it in Cyrillic is possible only in the case of a separate request from the parents or the school administration. And this happens regardless of the fact that 44% of Montenegrins identify Serbian as their native language, while only 36% consider it a separate Montenegrin language.
The head of the opposition party “True Montenegro” Marko Milacic sent a protest to the Ministry of Education, stating that the Cyrillic and Latin alphabets in Montenegro have different rights – the Latin alphabet is used automatically, and the use of the Cyrillic alphabet must be achieved. And he urged parents to uphold the constitutional right of their children to receive their documents in Cyrillic.
The offensive of the Latin alphabet against the Serbian Cyrillic alphabet began after the breakup of Yugoslavia, the aggression of NATO, the secession of Kosovo from Serbia and the entry of Montenegro into NATO. Surrendering to the position of Cyrillic, Serbia loses its cultural influence in the Balkans.
Translation: M. Zhelyazkova
#Serbian #authorities #defense #Cyrillic
