Serbian Retail & E-Commerce Translation

About the Serbian Language

Standard Serbian language uses both Cyrillic (ћирилица, ćirilica) and Latin script (latinica, латиница). Serbian is a rare example of synchronic digraphia, a situation where all literate members of a society have two interchangeable writing systems available to them. Media and publishers typically select one alphabet or another.

Although Serbian language authorities have recognized the official status of both scripts in contemporary Standard Serbian for more than half of a century now, due to historical reasons, the Cyrillic script was made the official script of Serbia's administration by the 2006 Constitution. However, the law does not regulate scripts in standard language, or standard language itself by any means, leaving the choice of script as a matter of personal preference and to the free will in all aspects of life (publishing, media, trade and commerce, etc.), except in government paperwork production and in official written communication with state officials, which have to be in Cyrillic.

In media, the public broadcaster, Radio Television of Serbia, predominantly uses the Cyrillic script whereas the privately run broadcasters, like RTV Pink, predominantly use the Latin script. Newspapers can be found in both scripts. Outdoor signage, including road signs and commercial displays, predominantly uses the Latin alphabet. Larger signs, especially those put up by the government, will often feature both alphabets. A survey from 2014 showed that 47% of the Serbian population favors the Latin alphabet whereas 36% favors the Cyrillic one.

Serbian Translation Expertise

Serbian has seven grammatical cases, three genders, and a complex verb system with aspect, tense, and mood all encoded in verb morphology. The language is uniquely digraphic — officially using both Cyrillic and Latin scripts interchangeably, and translators must be fluent in both. Serbian shares high mutual intelligibility with Croatian, Bosnian, and Montenegrin, but legal and administrative vocabulary has diverged since the breakup of Yugoslavia, and documents must be translated using the terminology appropriate to the issuing country.

Serbian is the only European standard language that actively uses two complete alphabets — Cyrillic (30 letters) and Latin (30 letters) — with a one-to-one correspondence between them. The Cyrillic alphabet includes unique letters like lj, nj, and dz (single letters representing specific sounds). Official documents may use either script, and translators must note which was used in the source.

Common Serbian Documents

Serbian documents commonly requiring translation include the izvod iz matične knjige rođenih (birth certificate extract), uverenje o državljanstvu (citizenship certificate), diploma o stečenom obrazovanju (education diploma), and uverenje o nekažnjavanju (criminal record certificate).

NAATI certification for Serbian is well supported, with certified translators available in Melbourne, Sydney, Perth, and other cities. The large Serbian-Australian community ensures steady demand and a reliable supply of qualified translators across the country.

About the Serbian Language

Serbian is the only European language that actively uses two complete alphabets in daily life — Cyrillic and Latin — with perfect one-to-one letter correspondence between them, and most Serbians are fully literate in both scripts from primary school. The Serbian Cyrillic alphabet was reformed by Vuk Stefanović Karadžić in the 19th century with the principle "write as you speak, read as it is written," making it one of the most phonetically consistent writing systems in the world. Despite Serbia's relatively small population of about 6.6 million, the Serbian diaspora is estimated at over 3.5 million people worldwide — meaning more than a third of all ethnic Serbs live outside Serbia.