
Serbian is a South Slavic language. Standard Serbian is based on the Shtokavian dialect, like modern Croatian and Bosnian, with which it is mutually intelligible, and was previously unified under the standard known as Serbo-Croatian. It is an official language of Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia, Kosovo, Romania, Macedonia, and a recognized minority language in Hungary and Slovenia. Serbian uses a variation on the Cyrillic alphabet and a Latin alphabet, with both used widely, as most people are literate in both scripts. Although Serbian authorities recognize the official status for both scripts, due to historical reasons Cyrillic was made the Official script by the 2006 Constitution. Serbian orthography accords to the principle "one letter per sound". Of the estimated 12 million Serbian speakers, over 6.5 million reside in Serbia and around 3.5 million have made the USA their home.