South Slavic dialects historically formed a continuum. The turbulent history of the area, particularly due to expansion of the Ottoman Empire, resulted in a patchwork of dialectal and religious differences. Due to population migrations, Shtokavian became the most widespread in the western Balkans, intruding westwards into the area previously occupied by Chakavian and Kajkavian (which further blend into Slovenian in the northwest). Bosniaks, Croats and Serbs differ in religion and were historically often part of different cultural circles, although a large part of the nations have lived side by side under foreign overlords. During that period, the language was referred to under a variety of names, such as "Slavic", "Illyrian", or according to region, "Bosnian", "Serbian" and "Croatian", the latter often in combination with "Slavonian" or "Dalmatian". 

Serbo-Croatian was standardized in the mid-19th-century Vienna Literary Agreement by Croatian and Serbian writers and philologists, decades before a Yugoslav state was established. From the very beginning, there were slightly different literary Serbian and Croatian standards, although both were based on the same Shtokavian subdialect, Eastern Herzegovinian. In the 20th century, Serbo-Croatian served as the official language of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia (when it was called "Serbo-Croato-Slovenian"), and later as one of the official languages of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The breakup of Yugoslavia affected language attitudes, so that social conceptions of the language separated on ethnic and political lines. Since the breakup of Yugoslavia, Bosnian has likewise been established as an official standard in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and there is an ongoing movement to codify a separate Montenegrin standard. Serbo-Croatian thus generally goes by the ethnic names Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian, and sometimes Montenegrin and Bunjevac. QUESTIONS:

Q1:
1. What led to the continuum of South Slavic dialects?
2. For what reason do South Slavic dialects exist on a continuum?
3. Why is there a wide range of south Slavic dialects?
Q2:
1. What was the most widespread south Slavic dialect?
2. Which south Slavic dialect was the more common?
3. What South Slavic dialect was spoken by the most people?
Q3:
1. Were there other differences between slavic poeple besides dialectical ones?
2. Did differences other than that of dialect exist between Slavs?
3. Did Slavic population differ in ways apart from their dialects?
Q4:
1. What was the most common dialect in the Balkans?
2. What dialect dominated the Balkans?
3. Which dialect spread throughout the largest part of the Balkans?
Q5:
1. What three ethnic groups have differences in religion?
2. What three groups follow different faiths?
3. What are the three ethnic groups with differeing religious beliefs?
Q6:
1. What is one Slavic dialect?
2. Name one of the Slavic dialects.
3. What is one example of a slavic dialect?
Q7:
1. Did language sometimes get named as a function of their region?
2. Did a language's region sometimes impact its name?
3. Did a language's name sometimes refer to its region?
Q8:
1. What's a language whose name refers to its region?
2. What's an example of a language named as a function of its region?
3. What is one language whose name comes from its region?
Q9:
1. What's a language whose name refers to its region, other than Bosnian?
2. What's an example of a language named as a function of its region, that isn't Bosnian?
3. What is one language whose name comes from its region, apart from Bosnian?
Q10:
1. What's a language whose name refers to its region, other than Bosnian and Serbian?
2. What's an example of a language named as a function of its region, that isn't Bosnian or Serbian?
3. What is one language whose name comes from its region, apart from Bosnian and Serbian?
Q11:
1. What is combined to make Croatian?
2. What's Croatian a mixture of?
3. What elements are combined to make Croatian?
