Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian

[Robert Beard]

On Thursday Jouko Lindstedt wrote:
>
>"Serbo-Croatian" is the traditional (though not perfect) term, and it can
>still b used, when you want to refer to all of that linguistic area. But
>otherwise, haven't we linguists always emphasized that the "different
>language" / "same language" question cannot be solved by linguistic
>criteria alone? I still endorse that traditonal wisdom. How much must the
>Croatians change the vocabulary of their standard (NB., not "dialect"!)
>before it becomes a different language as a "linguistic fact"? Are
>Norwegian and Swedish different languages? Are Bulgarian and Macedonian?
>What about the different "dialects" of Chinese... You must know this stuff!
>
Indeed, I do.  The linguistis problems in differentiating 'languages' from
'dialects' is problem enough in my opinion without conceding that these are
political not linguistic terms.  We can, of course, get along with three
more linguistically irrelevant terms in our vocabularies which have to be
explained at the beginning of every article we write if we are forced to by
political circumstance.   But do we have to embrace it? Do we have to
pretend that it is OK to continue the trend or should we speak out and say,
'Croatia', 'Bosnia' (whatever happened to 'Hercegovina'?) and 'Serbia' are
fine but the language spoken in all three nations is the same?  You have
still failed to explain what is wrong in this instance with the linguistic
truth.
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Robert Beard                                     Telephone: 717-524-1336
Russian & Linguistics Programs                         Fax: 717-524-3760
Bucknell University                                  Lewisburg, PA 17817
RUSSIA AND NIS Web Site:     http://www.bucknell.edu/departments/russian
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