The Serbian language belongs to the South Slavic group of the Indo-European language family. Its roots trace back to the Old Church Slavonic language, which was used in the medieval period by Slavic peoples in the Balkans. Serbian developed alongside Croatian, Bosnian, and Montenegrin as part of the Serbo-Croatian dialect continuum. Over time, these dialects began to diverge due to political and cultural influences, particularly during the Ottoman Empire's rule and later Yugoslav history. Serbian itself has two main dialects: the Shtokavian and the Torlakian, with Shtokavian being the basis for the standard Serbian language.

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During the 19th century, a movement for a unified Serbian literary language emerged, influenced by nationalistic ideals and a desire to separate from the Ottoman Empire and Hungarian rule. The standardization of Serbian was heavily shaped by linguist Vuk Karadžić, who reformed the language by simplifying its spelling system and promoting phonetic writing, making it more accessible to the people. Following the breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s, Serbia, as an independent state, continued to promote Serbian as its official language, which is written in both the Cyrillic and Latin alphabets. Today, Serbian remains a vital cultural and political force in the Balkans.