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Serbo-Croatian or Croato-Serbian or (also Croatian or Serbian, Serbian or Croatian) (srpskohrvatski or cрпскохрватски or hrvatskosrpski or hrvatski ili srpski or srpski ili hrvatski), earlier also Serbo-Croat, was an official language of Yugoslavia (along with Slovenian, Macedonian). It was mentioned for the first time by Slovene philologist Jernej Kopitar in a letter from 1836, although it cannot be ruled out that he had become acquainted with the term by reading the Slovak philologist Pavol Jozef Šafárik's manuscript \"Slovanské starožitnosti\" ( printed 1837.) Officially, the term was used from 1921 - ca.1993 as an umbrella term (Dachsprache) for dialects spoken by Serbs and Croats, as well as Bosniaks and Montenegrins upon their national recognition. In its standardized form, it was based on Štokavian dialect and defined Ekavian and Iyekavian variants called \"pronunciations\" (unofficially, there were \"Eastern\" (based on Serbian idiom) and \"Western\" (based on Croatian idiom) variants. By extension, it also declared Kajkavian and Chakavian as its dialects (while Torlakian dialect was never recognized in official linguistics), but they were never in official use.

With the breakup of Yugoslavia, its languages followed suit and Croatian, Serbian, Bosnian and ultimately Montenegrin came to be described as separate languages (Ausbausprachen). Conversely, the term \"Serbo-Croatian\" went out of use, first from official documents and gradually from linguistic literature. Today, the name Serbo-Croatian is a controversial issue due to history, politics, and the variable meaning of the word language. Many native speakers nowadays find the term politically incorrect or even offensive. Others, however, especially nostalgic speakers originating from Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro, continue using the original language name, as they have studied it at school. Linguists are divided on questions regarding whether the name is deprecated. A popular alternative name has emerged in official use abroad -- Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian (BHS) -- but governments in Croatia and Serbia are reluctant to admit the existence of foreign variants, and generally (except when put under pressure) use the local language names. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, all three languages are recorded as official, and vitriolic confrontations have on occasion become absurd. The academic Muhamed Filipović in an interview to Slovenian television told of a local court in a Croatian district requesting a paid translator from Bosnian to Croatian before the trial could proceed.

Mutually intelligible forms of it continue to be used under different names and standards in today’s Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and are still reasonably well understood in Macedonia and Slovenia.

Read more at Wikipedia.org