A new multilingual sign welcoming visitors to the northern part of Mitrovica has been installed at the entrance from Zvecan. The sign features greetings in three languages – Albanian („Mirësevini“), Serbian („Dobrodoš li“), and English („Welcome“) – but the Serbian version contains a spelling error.
On the reverse side, facing traffic leaving Mitrovica toward Zvecan, the farewell messages read: „Mirupafshim“, „Zbogom“, and „Good bye“. This new sign replaces the previous one that was removed on April 10 this year. The old sign, written in Cyrillic, read: „Dobro došli u Kosovsku Mitrovicu“ i „Doviđenja“.
This is not the first instance of such a change in signage. On October 3 last year, Cyrillic entry/exit signs for the municipality of Zvecan were taken down and replaced with new ones in the Latin script.
Drivers approaching Zvecan from Mitrovica now see “Opština Zvečan. Dobrodošli”, while those heading in the opposite direction are greeted with “SreČan put” – the word srećan also written incorrectly, with a capital Č.
These place-name signs are part of a broader initiative by Kosovo’s Ministry of Infrastructure, which has been installing them across northern municipalities since March last year. The new format places the name of the town first in Albanian, followed by Latin-script Serbian, while Cyrillic has been removed entirely.
This trend reflects a broader pattern as Kosovo institutions expand their presence in the Serb-majority north. Alongside misspellings in public signage and official documents, Serbian Cyrillic is being increasingly phased out – not only from signs but also from public buildings, including the municipal offices in North Mitrovica.
In many cases, Albanian is now being used as the primary language, often appearing first and in larger font sizes, even in municipalities with a Serb majority.
According to Article 5 of the Kosovo Constitution, both Serbian and Albanian are official languages and are to be used equally.
Kossev recently reported in detail on the deteriorating state of language rights in Kosovo.
Read more here:
Serbian Language in Kosovo: Equal in Law, Marginalized in Practice
Preuzimanje i objavljivanje tekstova sa portala KoSSev nije dozvoljeno bez navođenja izvora. Hvala na poštovanju etike novinarske profesije.
