the only Powers which congratulated King Peter on his accession, and in December 1903 all the Powers temporarily withdrew their representatives from Belgrade, as a protest against the attitude of the Servian government towards the regicides. But at the coronation of King Peter, in September 1904, all the European powers except Great Britain were officially represented, some concessions, more apparent than real, having been made in the matter of the regicides, who were very unpopular among the peasants and in the army. Further protests were made by many of the powers when the illusory nature of these concessions became known, and it was not until May 1906 that diplomatic relations with Servia were resumed by Great Britain. In the same year a convention was concluded by Servia and Bulgaria as a preliminary to a customs union between the two states. This convention, which tended to neutralize the dependence of Servia upon Austria-Hungary by facilitating the export of Servian goods through the Bulgarian ports on the Black Sea, brought about a war of tariffs between Servia and the Dual Monarchy.
The Bosnian Crisis.—In 1908 the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina by Austria-Hungary and the revolution in Turkey brought about an acute crisis. Many Serbs still hoped for the realization of the so-called “Great Servian Idea,” i.e. the union in a single empire of Servia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Old Servia (Stara Srbiya) or the sanjak of Novibazar with north-western Macedonia—all countries in which the population consists largely, and in some cases almost exclusively, of Orthodox Serbs. The whole nation clamoured for war with Austria-Hungary, and was supported in this attitude by Montenegro, despite a temporary rupture of diplomatic relations between Belgrade and Cettigne, due to the alleged complicity of the Servian crown prince in a plot for the assassination of Prince Nicholas. As, however, the armaments and finances of Servia were unequal to a conflict with Austria-Hungary, while Great Britain, Russia, France and Italy counselled peace, the skupshtina, meeting in secret session on the 11th of October 1908, determined to avoid open hostilities, and sent M Milanovich, the minister for foreign affairs, to press the claims of Servia upon the powers. The tariff war with Austria-Hungary was at the same time renewed. Servia demanded compensation in various forms for the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina; what the government hoped to obtain was the cession to Servia of a strip of territory between Herzegovina and Novibazar, which would check the advance of Austria-Hungary towards Salonica, make Servia and Montenegro conterminous, pave the way for a union between them, and give Servian commerce an outlet to the Adriatic. Neither the Dual Monarchy nor the Young Turks would consider the cession of any territory, and in January 1909 the outcry for war was renewed in Servia. But the threatening attitude of Austria-Hungary, with the moderating influence of M Pashich, who became the real, though not the nominal, head of a new ministry in February 1909, induced Servia to accept the advice of the Russian government by abandoning all claim to territorial “compensation,” and leaving the Balkan question for solution by the Powers. The Servian government defined its attitude in a circular note to the Powers (9th of March), and finally accepted the terms of a conciliatory declaration suggested by the British government (31st of March). By this declaration Servia abandoned all its demands as against Austria-Hungary, while the Austro-Hungarian foreign minister made simultaneously a public declaration that the Dual Monarchy harboured no unfriendly designs against Servia.
On the 27th of March 1909 the crown prince George (b. 1887), who had been the most outspoken leader of the anti-Austrian party in 1908, was induced to resign his right of succession to the throne. It was alleged that his violence had caused the death of one of his own male servants, and that he was partially insane. On the 27th of March 1909 his brother Alexander (b. Dec. 17, 1888) took the oath as heir-apparent.
The books by Stead, Mallat and I-logge, mentioned above, contain important historical matter. See also the bibliography to the article Balkan Peninsula, with L. von Ranke, Geschichte Serbiens bis 1842 (Leipzig, 1844; Eng. trans. by A. Kerr, The History of Servia (London, 1847); id., Serbien und die Türkei im 19. Jahrhundert (Leipzig, 1879); A. Hilferding, Geschichte (ältere) der Serben und Bulgaren (2 vols. from the Russian, Bantzen, 1856-1864); S. Novaković, Srbi i Turtsi xiv. i xv. veka, &c. (Belgrade, 1893); B. S. Cunibert, Essai historique sur les révolutions et l'indépendance de la Serbie: 1804-1850 (2 vols., Paris, 1850-1855); E. L. Mijatovich, History of Modern Servia (London, 1872); Rachić, Le Royaume de Serbie, étude d'histoire diplomatique (Paris, 1901); V. Georgević, Das Ende der Obrenović (Leipzig, 1905); C. Mijatovich, A Royal Tragedy (London, 1906). (X.)
Language
The Servian language belongs to the family of Slavonic languages (see Slavs). According to the Servian philologist Danichich (Dioba Slav. yezika, Belgrade, 1874), the Servians were the first Slavonic branch which separated from the original Slavonic stem, while the Russians and the Bulgarians only separated from it at a considerably later date. The Russian and Bulgarian languages undoubtedly stand nearer to Old Slavonic than the Servian. According to another theory (T. Schmidt, Vocalismus ii. 179) two separate branches developed from the Old Slavonic stem, one identical with the western Slavs, and the other with the south-eastern group; and from the Slavonic of the south-east the first languages to separate were the Russian and the South Slavonic. From the latter developed Bulgarian, on one side, and Servian-Slovene on the other, while from the last-named branch Servian or Serbo-Croatian and Slovene developed on two separate twigs. There can be no doubt that in the south-eastern group of the Slavonic languages Serbo-Croatian and Slovene form a special closely-connected group, in which the Servian and the Croat languages are almost identical.
Both the Servians and the Croats arrived in the first half of the 7th century (or more precisely about A.D. 635) in the north-western corner of the Balkan Peninsula. There they met the partly Romanized Illyrians, and in course of time absorbed them. There can be little doubt that this absorption softened and enriched the Serbo-Croatian dialects, a process to which climatic conditions and intercourse with Italy also contributed, until Serbo-Croatian became one of the richest and most melodious of Slavonic languages.
Servian is spoken in the following countries, forming geographically (although not politically) a connected whole: southern Hungary, the kingdom of Servia, Old Servia (the Turkish vilayet of Kossovo), western Macedonia., the sanjak of Novi-Bazar, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Croatia-Slavonia, Dalmatia and Montenegro. It ranks with Bulgarian as one of the two principal Slav languages of the Balkan Peninsula; the Macedonian dialects are intermediate between these two. Between eight and nine millions of people speak Serbo-Croatian in the countries just enumerated.
Considering the extent of territory in which the language is spoken, it is not surprising that it should have several dialects. Practically, however, there are only three principal dialects, which are differentiated by the manner in which the Old Slavonic double vocal ye (the so-called yach) is pronounced. The Old Slavonic words lyepo, byelo, are pronounced by the Servians of Herzegovina, Bosnia, Montenegro, Dalmatia, Croatia and south-western Servia as leeyepo, beeyelo; by the Servians of Syrmia the same vowel is pronounced sometimes as e (lepo, belo), sometimes as ee (videeti, leteeti); by the Servians of the Morava valley and its accessory Ressava valley, always only as e (lepo, belo, videli, leteti). Vuk Stefanovich Karajich called the first dialect the “South-Western or Herzegovinian dialect,” the second the “Syrmian,” the third the “Ressava” dialect. Professor Belich of Belgrade University has tried to give in the Servian Dialectological Compendium (Belgrade, 1905) a new division of the Servian dialects into five groups, viz. Prizren-Timok, Kossovo-Ressava, Shumadiya-Srem (Syrmia), Zetta-Bosnia, Adriatic coast. Of all the Servian dialects the most correct, richest and softest is the Herzegovinian or Zetta-Bosnian dialect. Karajich and his followers tried to make it the literary language of the Servians. All the national songs which he transcribed from the recitations of the bards were written and published by him in that dialect, into which the Bible has also been translated. But, as in the second half of the 19th century the kingdom of Servia, speaking the Ressava or Shumadiya-Syrmian dialect, became the centre of Servian literary activity, the last-mentioned dialect tended to become the literary language.
Servian and Croatian are only two dialects of the same Slavonic language. Servian is sometimes called shtokavski because the Servian word for “what” is shto, whereas the Croats say cha for shto, and
