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See Appendix D for useful phrases when ordering food and drink and translating menus.

Be aware that Montenegro is notorious for some appallingly bad service. Even my Montenegrin and Serbian friends agree on this and are used to the same treatment themselves – so don’t take any such experiences to heart or let them ruin your visit!

Language

The official language of Montenegro is Montenegrin (crnogorski). It was given this name in 2007, following independence from Serbia – before this it was called Serbian (srpski), as it is still known by many. Montenegrin/Serbian is a south Slavonic language, very similar to Croatian and Bosnian. (When these countries were all part of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, language was standardized, and given the name Serbo-Croat.) Many Turkish words entered the Serbian language during the region’s centuries of Ottoman rule Serbian is a phonetic language – that is, every letter in a word is pronounced, and the pronunciation of any given letter is always the same. In this respect it is far more consistent than many more familiar European languages, including English and French.