Language designation in the laws on the official use of languages and scripts of the Republic of Serbia (1991-2010)

The paper examines the language designation in Serbian legislation regulating the official use of languages and scripts from 1991 to 2010. The aim of the research is to reconstruct and analyze the precise chronology and content of all relevant amendments up to the 2006 Constitution and the 2010 Law on the Official Use of Languages and Scripts. Constitutions and laws are viewed as formal instruments of language policy. In classical sociolinguistic thought, official language status is commonly understood through its statutory, working, and symbolic dimensions. Specifically, the paper addresses when exactly the official designation of the language was changed, whether the relevant legal acts were mutually aligned, and what type of official language policy the state promoted. Based on the constitutions, laws, and amendments adopted between 1991 and 2010, the study concludes that the legal designation of the language remained unchanged for nearly twenty years, despite several legal modifications. These changes concerned only the amount of monetary penalties, while the language designation in the law itself was never amended and remained Serbo-Croatian. According to the typology of official language status, Serbo-Croatian functioned as the statutory official language, while Serbian functioned as the working and symbolic official language. The research identifies three major deficiencies in the legal regulation of language: a legal deficiency, as laws and constitutions were not mutually aligned; a political deficiency, because no explicit political decision on changing the designation of the language was adopted; and a sociolinguistic deficiency, because the legal framework remained inconsistent with the Serbian language policy of the era. The study demonstrates a clear lack of due care on the part of political decision-makers, whether intentional or not. If subsequent developments in language legislation are also taken into account, it becomes evident that a similar lack of care still persists in this field. For that reason, this subject requires detailed research in order to prevent such inconsistencies in the future and to align formal acts of language policy with linguistic scholarship and the broader policy concerning the Serbian language. Finally, the paper points to a lack of interdisciplinary research at the intersection of law and linguistics, although such an approach is essential for establishing an objective understanding of the issue. Without precise regulation of the Serbian language, script, and their use, as well as a careful analysis of previous legal solutions, it is impossible to develop an adequate language policy capable of addressing future challenges related to language status and use.