Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian

[Robert Beard]

I personally think it inappropriate for language professionals to be drawn
into what is a mindless and heartless political war.   The linguistic fact
is simple:  Croatians, Bosniana, Hercegovinians, Montenegrans, and Serbians
speak several dialects of one language.  'Serbo-Croatian' is the perfect
name for it for the simple reason that it is the traditional term.  If
someone reads a political message in it, the problem resides with them, not
us.  The situation is parallel to the struggle between 'Indo-European',
'Indo-Aryan', and 'Indo-Germanic' in the last century.  The name of a
language is arbitrary so far as science is concerned.  Truth is not.

Surrendering our own wits and distorting our profession is not, in my
opinion, an appropriate way to display sympathy for the underdog in any of
the nationalistic nonsense which has ripped Yugoslavia apart and cost the
lives of tens of thousands of people.
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Robert Beard                              Bucknell University
Russian & Linguistics Programs            Lewisburg, PA 17837
rbeard at bucknell.edu                              717-524-1336
Russian Program   http://www.bucknell.edu/departments/russian
Morphology on Internet        http://www.bucknell.edu/~rbeard
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