塞尔维亚－克罗埃西亚语(Serbian and Croatian language)，亦作Serbo-Croatian language。
南部斯拉夫语是克罗埃西亚、波士尼亚赫塞哥维纳、塞尔维亚、蒙特内哥罗和科索沃等国约2,100万人使用的语言。该语言於1991年以前在南斯拉夫占有统治地位，为该联邦大多数种族集团所使用和理解。中部新斯托卡维亚方言是构成标准塞尔维亚语和标准克罗埃西亚语的基础。从历史上看，塞尔维亚的文字语言是教会斯拉夫语（参阅Old Church Slavonic language）的塞尔维亚变体。在19世纪，一种以塞尔维亚口语为基础的新的书面语由卡拉季奇（V. S. Karadzic）成功推广。用拉丁字母书写的克罗埃西亚文最早出现於14世纪中期。在19世纪，以札格拉布为基地的伊利亚人政治运动（旨在建立南部斯拉夫人联盟）的便以作为书面语言基础的中部新斯托卡维亚方言为手段，这种语言能够团结克罗埃西亚人，并使他们更加靠近其斯拉夫同胞。政治上统一的南斯拉夫王国（1918～1941）以及奉行共产主义的南斯拉夫（1945～1991）都支持呈现一种统一的塞尔维亚－克罗埃西亚语。自南斯拉夫政治上解体以後，便不再开展实现语言统一的运动，从而产生了各不相同的塞尔维亚语、克罗埃西亚语和波士尼亚语。
English version：
Serbian and Croatian language
South Slavic language spoken by some 21 million people in Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, and Kosovo. As the dominant language of pre-1991 Yugoslavia, it was used or understood by most ethnic groups of the federation. The Central Neo-&shacek;tokavian dialect forms the basis for both Standard Serbian and Standard Croatian. Historically, Serbia's literary language was the Serbian recension of Church Slavic (see Old Church Slavic language). In the 19th century a new literary language based on colloquial Serbian was successfully promulgated by Vuk Stefanovic Karadzic. Croatian written in the Latin alphabet first appears in the mid-14th century. In the 19th century, the Zagreb-based Illyrian political movement, which aimed at a union of all South Slavs, turned to the Central Neo-&shacek;tokavian dialect as the basis for a literary language that would unite Croatians and bring them closer to their Slavic brethren. The move toward a unified “Serbo-Croatian” was supported by the politically unified Yugoslav kingdom (1918-41) and communist Yugoslavia (1945-91). Since Yugoslavia's political disintegration, movement has been away from linguistic unity, leading to declarations of distinct Serbian, Croatian, and Bosnian languages.
