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Southern Slavic? Balkan Nationalists Balk At Common Language Initiative </h1>
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<time datetime="2017-03-30T19:39:31+00:00">
March 30, 2017
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<div title="Gordana Knezevic">Gordana Knezevic</div>
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<p class="gmail-caption">A Declaration on Common Language concerning four Balkan states is presented to the media in Sarajevo on March 30. </p>
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<p>An initiative launched in the Bosnian capital on March 30 by hundreds
of notables and NGOs marks a major effort to bolster the consensus that
Croats, Serbs, Bosniaks, and Montenegrins all speak the same language. </p>
<p>It might seem uncontroversial to assert that these neighboring
peoples, who until just decades ago shared a country, speak their own
standard versions of the same polycentric language.</p>
<p>But word of the so-called <strong><a class="gmail-underline" href="https://www.tportal.hr/kultura/clanak/upravo-je-aktivirana-stranica-na-kojoj-se-moze-potpisati-deklaraciju-o-zajednickom-jeziku-20170329" target="_blank">Declaration on Common Language</a></strong>
-- dubbed by some the Sarajevo Declaration and allying hundreds of
personalities and experts from across the Balkans -- has been met with
howls of official outrage across the region. Opponents see the
initiative as reviving the ghost of the former Yugoslavia -- one of
whose official languages was Serbo-Croatian, which is now variously
designated as Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin, or Serbian. The
declaration is therefore regarded by nationalist elites in Croatia,
Serbia, Bosnia, and Montenegro as a threat.</p>
<p>Since the dismantling of Yugoslavia through proclamations of
independence and successive wars between 1991 and 1999, the politics of
identity has taken center stage in each of these countries. Contrasts
are emphasized as symbols of statehood -- and language, above all, is
put forward as evidence of distinction.</p>
<p><strong>Croatian 'Newspeak'</strong></p>
<p>Croatia led the way in the early 1990s with the creation of
"newspeak" in the best Orwellian tradition, eliminating words that were
seen as being of Serbian, or generally foreign, origin and inventing
new, irreproachably Croatian ones. Bosnia-Herzegovina increased the
number of Turkish words in its vocabulary, while Montenegro even
introduced a new letter of the alphabet.</p>
<p>Years of political pressure over the "purity" of language in all these countries <strong><a class="gmail-underline" href="https://www.total-croatia-news.com/politics/17777-declaration-on-common-language-of-croats-serbs-bosniaks-and-montenegrins" target="_blank">provoked a reaction</a></strong>
in the form of meetings that led to the Sarajevo Declaration. Those
gatherings brought together writers, linguists, actors, directors, and
artists from the region together to discuss the relationships between
nationalism and language. </p>
<p>The result is the Sarajevo Declaration, which arguably just states
the obvious -- that the people in these four countries (Bosnia, Croatia,
Serbia, and Montenegro) understand each other; that they can
communicate without interpreters. The signatories did not promote a
"Serbo-Croatian" language, which is generally associated with the former
Yugoslavia, as they are comfortable with different versions of the same
language having different names: Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian,
Montenegrin. But that simple statement about a shared language is seen
by others as a form of heresy -- or treason.</p>
<p><strong>'Producing Future Enemies'</strong></p>
<p>One of the authors of the Sarajevo Declaration, Serbian writer Vladimir Arsenijevic, says the goal of the initiative is to <strong><a class="gmail-underline" href="http://www.telegraf.rs/vesti/2695168-ovo-je-deklaracija-o-zajednickom-jeziku-srba-hrvata-bosnjaka-i-crnogoraca-procitajte-sta-pise-u-njoj-foto" target="_blank">neutralize the damage done by nationalist identity politics</a></strong> in the region. </p>
<p>"It is most visible within the Bosnian education system, where we
have two schools under one roof [children of different ethnic groups
learning 'different' languages, and a different version of history]. The
two-school system is a project designed to produce future enemies,"
Arsenijevic says. </p>
<p>Miro Lompar, professor of Serb literature at the University of
Belgrade, is among the opponents of the initiative. He has expressed
concern that the declaration's real goal is to make Serbs in Bosnia and
Montenegro less aware of belonging to a Serb nation. Lompar told the
Russian state news agency Sputnik in Belgrade ahead of the text's
publication: </p>
<p style="margin-left:40px"><em>They would like to insist on a common
language, but the motive is to distance ethnic Serbs living in Bosnia
and Montenegro from the natural right to claim that they speak the
Serbian language. In my opinion, this quasi-Yugoslav initiative is yet
another attempt to de-nationalize Serbs in Bosnia and Montenegro, and at
the same time to undermine the already incoherent and weak language
policy being implemented by Serbia itself. </em></p>
<p>Sputnik's headline above the<strong><a class="gmail-underline" href="https://rs.sputniknews.com/analize/201703291110555014-jezik-deklaracija-region-12/" target="_blank"> Lompar interview</a></strong> was even more dramatic, claiming: Balkan Esperanto [Is Set] To Extinguish The Serbian Language. </p>
<p><strong>A 'Wolf Howl' Of Nationalists</strong></p>
<p>Asked about the declaration a day before it was made public, Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic <strong><a class="gmail-underline" href="http://hrvatska-danas.com/2017/03/29/evo-sto-plenkovic-i-nina-obuljen-kazu-o-neojugoslovenskom-pokretu-i-deklaraciji-o-zajednickom-jeziku/" target="_blank">responded with questions</a></strong> about the need for such an initiative: "How could I support that [declaration]? Who in Croatia can support it?"</p>
<p>Plenkovic added: "The Croatian language is defined in our
constitution. Croatian is one of the official languages of the EU.
That's the only thing that matters to me. There is no need to waste
words on sundry informal initiatives." </p>
<p>A former Croatian culture minister and an informal leader of that
country's far-right, Zlatko Hasanbegovic, used stronger language to
denounce the Sarajevo Declaration as "a wolf howl of Yugoslav
nationalists for their lost country."</p>
<p>But a supporter of the initiative, Croatian journalist Ante Tomic, asked rhetorically in his <strong><a class="gmail-underline" href="http://www.slobodnaevropa.org/a/saskor-deklaracija-jezik/28398461.html" target="_blank">regular column</a></strong>
in Jutarnji List whether "we are so stupid that we cannot memorize more
than one word for a certain thing." Tomic added that through a language
policy based on "pure Croatian," the state is not only controlling its
subjects but also creating confusion and stoking animosity against
ethnic Serbs.</p>
<p>"I signed [the Sarajevo Declaration] because it is a measure of
reconciliation and it recognizes and includes everyone. It affirms
differences, and allows for the fact that one thing can be called by
many names, and that we all speak the same language, which is variously
named Croatian, Serbian, Bosnian, or Montenegrin," Tomic said. </p>
<p>The Sarajevo Declaration claims to be nothing more than a strong
statement against language being used in any project of segregation --
like that of Bosnian schools -- and against political manipulation based
on the restricted use of language.</p>
<p>The Declaration on Common Language will <strong><a class="gmail-underline" href="http://jezicinacionalizmi.com" target="_blank">officially go online</a></strong> on April 1, after which the organizers are encouraging supporters to add their signatures to the list.</p><p><a href="http://www.rferl.org/a/balkans-without-borders-sarajevo-declaration-common-language/28400837.html">http://www.rferl.org/a/balkans-without-borders-sarajevo-declaration-common-language/28400837.html</a><br></p><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature">**************************************<br>N.b.: Listing on the lgpolicy-list is merely intended as a service to its members<br>and implies neither approval, confirmation nor agreement by the owner or sponsor of the list as to the veracity of a message's contents. Members who disagree with a message are encouraged to post a rebuttal, and to write directly to the original sender of any offensive message. A copy of this may be forwarded to this list as well. (H. Schiffman, Moderator)<br><br>For more information about the lgpolicy-list, go to <a href="https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/" target="_blank">https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/</a><br>listinfo/lgpolicy-list<br>*******************************************</div>
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