Has Serbia ever been called Servia in the English language, and if so when did the name change occur?
Question #101736. Asked by flem-ish.
rwbidin
Answer has 4 votes
Currently Best Answer
rwbidin 17 year member
18 replies
Answer has 4 votes.
Currently voted the best answer.
It is called Serbia using the Cyrillic script and Servia when using the Latin script. Since english derived from latin. Hence the use of Servia in the english language unitl the below mentioned time.
The Cyrillic script is official under the 2006 Constitution of Serbia, but the Latin script continues to gain ground as a result of its popularity among the business community and urban population. Before 1945 Serbs in Serbia did not officialy use the Latin alphabet.
According to a printed source (Paul Fussel's The Great War and Modern Memory, London 1975, p. 175 ) the name Servia was changed by British journalists into Serbia at some time between August 1914 and April 1915 . Servia smacked too much of servility, reminded the English readers of "serfs" and was disrespectful for a valiant ally. Alas I find no internet source to confirm this.