“ Serbo-Croatian ” is a term of speciality created by Serb and Croatian linguists to indicate the spoken language by the Croatian Serbes, , the Bosnian and the Montenegrins. It was the name of the one of the official languages (beside the Slovenien and of the Macedonian) of old the Yugoslavia, name used in the republics of Serbia, Bosnia-Herzégovine and Montenegro. It employed forever by the majority of the speakers of this language. The Serb ones always affirmed to speak the Serbe and Croats - the Croatian . The Montenegrins generally considered that they spoke the Serbe or, sometimes, the Montenegrin, and the Bosnians said to speech Croatian or, sometimes, the Serb one or the Bosnien. Moreover, in the Republic of Croatia, the name of the official language was “Croatian” (between 1943 and 1970), then “Croatian or Serb” (between 1970 and 1990). Today, in each country resulting from ex-Yugoslavia, the official language is called, respectively “Serb”, “Croatian”, “bosnien” and “Montenegrin”, the languages of the minority populations having also a statute of official language in the localities which they live in great number, except in Croatia. The “Serbo-croatian” term nowadays fell in disuse, being connoted negatively in the countries ex-Yugoslavians.

From the Linguistic point of view strictly , the Bosnian, Serb Croatian and Montenegrin is only one and even language, in terms of Sociolinguistique, a language '' abstand '', i.e. a language whose Dialecte S present enough common structural features objectively established to constitute a unit language. But always from the point of view sociolinguistic, it is a Diasystème, term used in Dialectologie. The most adequate term, because most neutral, for this linguistic entity, it is that of Slavic Diasystème of the center-south, to which the languages '' ausbau '' belong Serb, Croatian, bosnienne and Montenegrin.

The International penal court for ex-Yugoslavia calls this language BCS (Bosnien-Croat-Serb) and regards it as the principal language of all the parts Bosnian, Serb and Croatian.

Short history of the Serbo-croatian idea of language

The Serbo-croatian idea of language appears in the middle of the 19th century, in the context of the combat of national emancipation of Serb and of the Croats, who lived under foreign domination. In Croatia, it is the time of the Croatian national Revival, carried out by the Mouvement illyrien. Ljudevit Gaj, its chief, is at the same time the linguist who contributes more to the establishment of the standard of the modern literary Croatian language, that he bases on the dialect chtokavien with pronunciation (I) jékavienne. At the same time, in Serbia, Vuk Stefanović Karadžić work with the standardization of the Serb language starting from the same dialect chtokavien. There is even an agreement, signed with Vienna, in 1850, by seven Croatian and Serb well-read men (of which Vuk Karadžić), which establishes certain common standards for the languages Croatian and Serb.

As from this time, the linguistic field interferes with the political arena, and this until our days, the relation between Croatian and Serb oscillating from one time to another between the idea of a single language and that of two languages with share, according to the historical events which their speakers cross.

In second half of the 19th century, the movements for independence intensify. For much of Croats it is realizable only with other Slavic south, firstly with the Serb ones. The Croatian bishop of Đakovo, Josip J. Strossmayer, works out in 1866 a first programme of unification of Slavic of the south of the Empire of Austria, using the “Yugoslav” term, and founds in Zagreb the Yugoslav Academy of sciences and arts. Among the linguistic schools which are formed in Croatia, that called of the “Croatian vukoviens” or the “young people grammairiens” follows the ideas of Vuk Karadžić. Their influence is notable at the end of the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century, succeeding in definitively imposing the standard of Croatian on base chtokavienne. The European linguists who study the language of Serb and of the Croats regard it as only one and even language.

The bringing together between Croatian and Serb continuous after the First World War, this time within the framework of the Kingdom of Serb, the Croats and the Sloveniens, become later the Yugoslavia, under the aegis of the Serbia, victorious country in the war. The idea of the Serbo-croatian language is supported more and more by the authorities of Belgrade. More still, they seek to impose the Serb one on pronunciation ékavienne like language of all the State, which is not with the taste of the eager Croats of independence. If the Serb nationalists try to make call the whole of the Serb language, the Croatian nationalists consider that all the diasystème is in fact Croatian.

During the Second world war is founded supposedly the State independent of Croatia, satellite of the Germany Nazi E, which starts a terrible persecution against the Serb minority. On the linguistic level, one falls into the extreme from the largest possible distance from Serb, by so-called “the purification” of Croatian of the Serb elements.

In communist Yugoslavia , the promotion of the Serbo-croatian language and the attempts to blur the differences between Croatian and the Serb one becomes the components of an official policy linguistic, also accepted by the Croatian Communists, which arises clearly from the agreement of Novi Sad (1954), signed by 25 linguists and writers, 18 Serb and seven Croatian. It is stipulated there that the common language of Serb, the Croats, the Montenegrins and the Bosnians is Serbo-Croat, that one can also call croato-Serb, having two literary alternatives, the Serb one and Croatian. However, in Croatia one does not use the terms “Serbo-croatian” or “croato-Serb” to indicate the official language.

Following the relative liberalization of the mode in the Years 1960, the Croatian intellectuals express their dissatisfaction caused by the domination with Serb in the official authorities. In 1967, seven linguists and writers write a “Declaration about the situation and of the denomination of the Croatian literary language”, where one asserts to put on an equal footing not three, but four languages of Yugoslavia: the Slovenien, Croatian, the Serb one and the Macedonian, and to put a term at the domination of Serb on the official level and in the federal institutions. In the Years 1970 (time called the Croatian Spring), the Croatian literary language is declared entity with share and one creates quantity of new words, so that Croatian differs as much as possible from the Serb one.

Following the proclamation of the sovereignty of the Croatia (1991) and wars in Yugoslavia, the tendencies purists dedicated to separate Croatian from Serb are reinforced, denouncing and rejecting the “serbisms” and “internationalism”. One reintroduces in the Croatian language of many words more or less left the use since decades, and one creates neologisms at Slavic base.

In Serbia, the tendencies purists also appear, for example by the officialization of the only writing in Cyrillic alphabet.

The bosnien becomes official language and one works out his standard following the establishment of the State independent of Bosnia-Herzégovine.

The constitution project of independent Montenegro since 2006 provides that the official language of the country is the Montenegrin. Making of its standard started in 1997.

Others

Internal bonds

External bonds

  • Serbo-croatian and Croatian (article in bibliomonde.net)
  • dictionary serbo-Croat-French/French-serbo-Croatian (freelang.com)

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