CNR code: Washington recognised the Montenegrin language

The Cetinje-based Djurdje Crnojevic national library has been trying for nine years to get the Montenegrin language internationally codified before the ISO 639-2 Technical Committee, headquartered in the Congressional Library in Washington.

At today’s press conference, the national library was announced that it has finally won “the battle” – Washington has recognised the Montenegrin language!

“Montenegro has received the international code for the Montenegrin language under the ISO international standard. On Friday, we were informed that ISO 639 United Advisory Committee approved the request of the National Library of Montenegro. The code for the Montenegrin language will be CNR, and the name in English and French will be Montenegrin (the difference is only in the accent). In the original the language will be called Crnogorski in Latin and Cyrillic alphabets. The ISO table will be updated in the weeks that follow,” said the library director Bogic Rakocevic.

As he added, this decision is very important.

“This is another very important thing for rounding up the Montenegrin identity, because by this act the Washington Committee not only acknowledged the existence of the Montenegrin language, but also confirmed that Montenegrin language is not a variant of the Serbian language, as it has been recently perceived,” he explained, adding that the library was the bearer of this project.