天美麻豆

There is no such thing "Montenegrin language", it is just political creation of don Milo Corleone. It would be the same as speaking about Austrian, American or Australian language, so call it the right name Serbian language.
Reform of Serbian language happened in 19th century included local dialects from all areas where Serbian was spoken (including Montenegro) in order to create one standard. Person who did it was called Vuk Karadzic, he spent a lot of time here among people and with nobleman (including Petar Petrovic Njegos, very close friend of his) in order to use local dialects in this new standard for Serbian language, with three dialects. Also very important fact is that P P Njegos at 1847 printed his "Gorski vijenac" - one of the most important literary works for all Serbs, especially ones from Montenegro using this new Vuk's standard for Serbian language.

It is a bit out of topic, but very important!

But isn't Montenegrin the official language?
Thanks for the history, anyway!

Severguiton

The subject of the local language in Montenegro is very sensitive. Your calling the language Montenegrin may offend some Serbians, and the part of the Montenegrin population that identify themselves as Serbian. If you call it "Serbian" you may also offend聽 some of those who support Montenegrin independence and their right to name their language according to their nationality.

Now to answer your question. Yes, Montenegrin is the official name used by the government, in their constitution to recognize this name for the聽 language. The constitution also recognizes Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian. I think the idea is that everyone can call their language what they want. The reason this all becomes strange (and will offend some people), is that most聽 people will agree it is one/ the same language

For some Serbians and Montenegrins, to say "Montenegrin" is a language is crazy. If it were Spanish, it would be like saying people speak Mexican, Colombian, Argentinian, Chilean, etc.. when it is actually a single language which is most often referred to as聽 "Spanish".

However, what is very interesting is that in Spain there is a similar issue.聽 If you say you speak Spanish , you will get corrected and told that "Spanish" is not a language, but the nationality of the citizens. The language most people call "Spanish" has a proper name. It is s聽 Castellano. Castellano is only one of several languages of Spain. It is the language spoken by the region of Spain that colonized the Americas. So in Latin America, most (not all)聽 countries adopted the use of "Spanish" since the language came from Spain, instead of using its proper name. I wonder if it created a big fuss

As a foreigner, I have find聽 it is best to be neutral. When I started learning the language and spent time with mixed groups of people (Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian, Montenegrins), I noticed they used the term "Our language". So when I speak the local language, I say "Your language". For examples, If i need to learn a new word, I ask "How do you say XXX in "your language". For the most part, it helps avoid this touchy subject.

It is too bad the thread got started with a rant about this complication. The language is great, and everywhere I have visited (Montenegro, Serbia, Croatian, Bosnia) when I use the language, the people are very encouraging and kind. They really appreciate the effort of learning to speak to them in their language, and it makes the experience of living or visiting these countries聽 more meaningful.

Just want to that it is very smart move, this neutrality, and "your language" policy! It is obvious that you are pretty common with situation here in MNE and around!
Problem is that language (and nationality) shouldn't be political thing, but it is, especially here, so now we have situation that parents are one nationality, kids another, same with language. Also, as you noticed very good, we have couple of languages in this part of Balkans, but we all understand each other pretty well
Politicians are manipulating with people so now, in democracy, you can do what ever you want, create nationalities, languages, countries etc, but in Philology everything is defined!
Montenegrin is official language, but in schools they still do not have books for learning Montenegrin (another proposition was not accepted this year) and all other books in higher grades are written in Serbian "ijekavica" dialect. More specific, spoken language is in western part East Herzegovinian dialect, in eastern part Zetian - South Sandjakian dialect.

as a native Russian, I can speak a bit of Serb-Croatian because learning it is easy once you know one of Slavic languages. Toughest part is remembering those countless words that sound familiar but bear different meaning聽 聽 . When in Montenegro, I normally try speaking with locals on some more or less understandable lingo. Unfortunately, English is not as helpful in Montenegro as somewhere say in Spain or in Scandinavia. Any time I switch to English, I have no response unless it is people of age 30 and younger. So, I recommend all expats staying in Mne to learn this language. Private lessons are relatively cheap. Besides, learning languages is a great adventure, sometimes hard job but always rewarding. People value your efforts of speaking their language because they know it is a hard job. I would call it a key to their hearts聽