Montenegrins speak the Ijekavian variant of the Shtokavian dialect of the Serbo-Croatian language.
The Zeta dialect features additional sounds: a voiceless alveolo-palatal fricative (), voiced alveolo-palatal fricative *(, (occurring in other jekavian dialects as well) and a voiced alveolar affricate (, shared with other old-štokavian dialects).