Slavica alphabet
Slavica is a simple writing system for Serbo-Croatian language proposed by Rajko Igić in his 1987 book, Nova Slovarica, published by Universal from Tuzla. The alphabet is a combination of Gaj's Latin and Serbian Cyrillic alphabets and was intended for people from Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia that spoke the same language but wrote it using two different writing systems.
Organisation
Slavica uses 17 Latin letters, with 8 Cyrillic letters used in the cases where the native Slavic Latin script uses diacritics and digraphs. Five letters common to both alphabets — a, e, o, j, and k — are also used in this new script. Therefore, Slavica follows the principle of one grapheme for one phoneme.
| Letter | IPA sound | Original alphabet | Alternative |
|---|---|---|---|
| A a | /a/ | Both | |
| B b | /b/ | Latin | Б б |
| C c | /ts/ | Latin | Ц ц |
| Ч ч | /tʃ/ | Cyrillic | Č č |
| Ћ ћ | /tɕ/ | Cyrillic | Ć ć |
| D d | /d/ | Latin | Д д |
| Џ џ | /dʒ/ | Cyrillic | Dž dž |
| Ђ ђ | /dʑ/ | Cyrillic | Đ đ |
| E e | /ɛ/ | Both | |
| F f | /f/ | Latin | Ф ф |
| G g | /g/ | Latin | Г г |
| H h | /h/ | Latin | Х х |
| I i | /i/ | Latin | И и |
| J j | /j/ | Both | Ј ј |
| K k | /k/ | Both | |
| L l | /l/ | Latin | Л л |
| Љ љ | /ʎ/ | Cyrillic | Lj lj |
| M m | /m/ | Latin | М м |
| N n | /n/ | Latin | Н н |
| Њ њ | /ɲ/ | Cyrillic | Nj nj |
| O o | /ɔ/ | Both | |
| P p | /p/ | Latin | П п |
| R r | /r/ | Latin | Р р |
| S s | /s/ | Latin | С с |
| Ш ш | /ʃ/ | Cyrillic | Š š |
| T t | /t/ | Latin | Т т |
| U u | /u/ | Latin | У у |
| V v | /v/ | Latin | В в |
| Z z | /z/ | Latin | З з |
| Ж ж | /ʒ/ | Cyrillic | Ž ž |
Implementation
The new alphabet was tested in 1988 and 1989 by students from the primary school Mate Balota in Buje, Croatia. According to media articles published in 1987 and 1988, it was especially attractive with people from Bosnia, Vojvodina and Istria. However, strong opposition was noted in these years by the Croatian media. Slavica was discussed both before and after the Yugoslav Wars in daily newspapers including (Večernje novosti, Front slobode, Dnevnik, etc.) as well as magazines, such (American Psychologist in 1999; Pregled, Sarajevo, 2005; Prosvjetna poslanica, Tuzla, in 2006), and various online outlets. References: Igić R. Nova slovarica. Tuzla, Univerzal, 1987. Igić R. Why not test reading in three alphabets. American Psychologist 1999;54:1130-2. Milivojevć D. Linguistics and politics in Serbo-Croatian textbooks and readers for English speaking students. Serbian Studies 1991;6:77-89.