[lg policy] Southern Slavic?

Fri Mar 31 14:45:47 UTC 2017

 Southern Slavic? Balkan Nationalists Balk At Common Language Initiative
March 30, 2017

   - Gordana Knezevic

------------------------------
[image: A Declaration on Common Language concerning four Balkan states is
presented to the media in Sarajevo on March 30.]

A Declaration on Common Language concerning four Balkan states is presented
to the media in Sarajevo on March 30.
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See comments
<http://www.rferl.org/a/balkans-without-borders-sarajevo-declaration-common-language/28400837.html#comments>

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.

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.

But word of the so-called *Declaration on Common Language
<https://www.tportal.hr/kultura/clanak/upravo-je-aktivirana-stranica-na-kojoj-se-moze-potpisati-deklaraciju-o-zajednickom-jeziku-20170329>*
-- 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.

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.

*Croatian 'Newspeak'*

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.

Years of political pressure over the "purity" of language in all these
countries *provoked a reaction
<https://www.total-croatia-news.com/politics/17777-declaration-on-common-language-of-croats-serbs-bosniaks-and-montenegrins>*
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.

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.

*'Producing Future Enemies'*

One of the authors of the Sarajevo Declaration, Serbian writer Vladimir
Arsenijevic, says the goal of the initiative is to *neutralize the damage
done by nationalist identity politics
<http://www.telegraf.rs/vesti/2695168-ovo-je-deklaracija-o-zajednickom-jeziku-srba-hrvata-bosnjaka-i-crnogoraca-procitajte-sta-pise-u-njoj-foto>*
in the region.

"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.

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:

*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. *

Sputnik's headline above the* Lompar interview
<https://rs.sputniknews.com/analize/201703291110555014-jezik-deklaracija-region-12/>*
was even more dramatic, claiming: Balkan Esperanto [Is Set] To Extinguish
The Serbian Language.

*A 'Wolf Howl' Of Nationalists*

Asked about the declaration a day before it was made public, Croatian Prime
Minister Andrej Plenkovic *responded with questions
<http://hrvatska-danas.com/2017/03/29/evo-sto-plenkovic-i-nina-obuljen-kazu-o-neojugoslovenskom-pokretu-i-deklaraciji-o-zajednickom-jeziku/>*
about the need for such an initiative: "How could I support that
[declaration]? Who in Croatia can support it?"

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."

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."

But a supporter of the initiative, Croatian journalist Ante Tomic, asked
rhetorically in his *regular column
<http://www.slobodnaevropa.org/a/saskor-deklaracija-jezik/28398461.html>*
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.

"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.

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.

The Declaration on Common Language will *officially go online
<http://jezicinacionalizmi.com>* on April 1, after which the organizers are
encouraging supporters to add their signatures to the list.

http://www.rferl.org/a/balkans-without-borders-sarajevo-declaration-common-language/28400837.html

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