Bosnian language

Bosnian
Bosnian
bosanski / босански; bosanski jezik / босански језик
Pronunciation	[bɔ̌sanskiː]
Native to	Bosnia and Herzegovina; Serbia; Montenegro; Croatia; North Macedonia; Kosovo;
Region	Bosnia and surrounding areas
Ethnicity	Bosniaks
Native speakers	3.1 million (2020–2023)
Language family	Indo-European Balto-Slavic Slavic South Slavic Western Serbo-Croatian Bosnian; ; ; ; ; ;
Early forms	Proto-Indo-European Proto-Balto-Slavic Proto-Slavic Proto-Serbo-Croatian Shtokavian Eastern Herzegovinian ; ; ; ; ;
Writing system	Latin (Gaj's Latin alphabet); Cyrillic (Serbian Cyrillic alphabet); Yugoslav Braille; Formerly: Arabic (Arebica); Bosnian Cyrillic (Bosančica);
Official status
Official language in	Bosnia and Herzegovina ; Montenegro (co-official)
Recognised minority; language in	Serbia; Croatia; North Macedonia; Kosovo
Language codes
ISO 639-1	bs
ISO 639-2	bos
ISO 639-3	bos
Glottolog	bosn1245
Linguasphere	part of 53-AAA-g
	Countries where Bosnian is a co-official language (dark green) or a recognised minority language (light green)
	Bosnian is not endangered according to the classification system of the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger.

Bosnian is the standard variety of the Serbo-Croatian language mainly used by Bosniaks. It is one of the three official languages of Bosnia and Herzegovina; a co-official language in Montenegro; and an officially recognized minority language in Croatia, Serbia, North Macedonia and Kosovo.

Bosnian uses both the Latin and Cyrillic alphabets, with Latin in everyday use. It is notable among the varieties of Serbo-Croatian for a number of Arabic, Persian and Ottoman Turkish loanwords, largely due to the language's interaction with those cultures through Islamic ties.

Bosnian is based on the most widespread dialect of Serbo-Croatian, Shtokavian, more specifically on Eastern Herzegovinian, which is also the basis of standard Croatian, Serbian and Montenegrin varieties. Therefore, the Declaration on the Common Language of Croats, Serbs, Bosniaks and Montenegrins was issued in 2017 in Sarajevo. Although the common name for the common language remains 'Serbo-Croatian', newer alternatives such as 'Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian' and 'Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian' have been increasingly utilised since the 1990s, especially within diplomatic circles.