☰ Languages of Montenegro ∷ Comunications with local

Main › Culture › Montenegro language

If you are going to visit this country, it will not be superfluous to find out what language is spoken in Montenegro, so as not to get into unpleasant situations and at least roughly understand what is said to you.

Important information! We try to publish only verified information, do not sell services or charge for recommendations on our website. And you can help us to be better at it. If you will find our content useful or would like to help develop our resource, please click on any of the Google ads below on this page. You can also send us a thank you via PayPal by clicking the button in the bottom right corner.

Like many tourist countries, Montenegro is trying to create the most comfortable conditions for travelers.

What is the official language in Montenegro

Despite the fact that the country is quite small, it has its own language — Montenegrin. It has been officially recognized in the country since 2007, and before that Serbian was spoken here, which is practically no different from the modern language of communication in Montenegro.

Montenegrin is very similar to Serbian, so you can safely use a Serbian translator if you need to clarify something with the locals.

It is noteworthy that this language exists in written form in two versions — Latin and Cyrillic. Both spellings are officially recognized by the state, but the Latin alphabet is most often used, as it is more universal.

Interesting fact! In Montenegro, several languages can be found in everyday life. For example, in the Bay of Kotor you can hear Italian, in the municipality of Herceg Novi — Croatian, and in Ulcinj and Bar, the local population mainly communicates in Albanian.

What languages are understood in Montenegro

Historically, Montenegrins are part of the Slavic ethnic group, so their language is very similar to Russian, and some words have retained their authenticity, but we will talk about this in a separate article.

Russian

In general, a fairly large number of the population in the country understands Russian, it is even studied here in schools. Therefore, you will not have big problems to understand intuitively if you know Russian. In Budva, almost every second person speaks Russian, since there are a lot of Russian-speaking people there.

English

As for English, the situation is even better here. You will rarely meet service personnel who do not know this language. In addition, many films and series that are broadcast in Montenegro do not have local voice acting, only subtitles. Therefore, if you like it or not, you will somehow learn English.

German (Deutsch)

There are also several hotels and restaurants here that have German-speaking staff. This is due to the large tourist flow from Germany.

Also, in some restaurants you can be provided with a menu in French, Italian, Spanish and even Norwegian. Excursions, in most cases, are conducted only in Serbian, English or Russian.

Important! Despite their friendliness and cordiality, Montenegrins can pretend that they don’t understand you if you somehow looked at them the wrong way or were rude. These are people who, despite their measured lifestyle, know their worth, so the locals will not communicate with you if they do not like you.

In addition, Montenegrins are quite vulnerable, and if you show obvious distrust towards them, then they will most likely refuse your service, even if they lose good profit because of this. Find out in more detail what kind of mentality Montenegrins have before the trip, in order to avoid misunderstandings later.