Amongst the chaos of Eastern European ethnocide
The fall of the Berlin wall, the collapse of Yugoslavia in 1991 and the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1993 marked the end of communism and, consequently, the end of many States created on the basis of this ideological system. This has gone so far as to have impact on these countries’ languages.
Economic crises, wars, destruction and ethnocide have all contributed to the generation of total chaos in these areas of Eastern Europe.
Amongst the various aspects of these events is the dismemberment of countries. In line with the socialist and totalitarian ideology of fraternity and unity, the languages were “removed”, to be replaced by one official and standardised language. The name of this language was often made by simply bringing together the names of each language that was a part of it (for example, Czechoslovakian), sometimes hyphenated, e.g. Serbo-Croatian. It would not be completely incensed to say that these languages were, in a sense, “frozen”, and that they were freed once the State and the political system that had them “blocked” and “under their control” had disappeared. They are currently undergoing an independent evolution and, at the same time, one that is much faster than the normal and physiological development of all other languages.
Croatian linguists at work
A very interesting example of this can be found in the Serbian and Croatian languages, that is to say the former Serbo-Croatian / Croato-Serbian, two variations of the same language, so-named in Serbia and Croatia respectively. The events that started in 1991 that led to the collapse of Yugoslavia and the formation of both, but not exclusively, the states of Serbia and Croatia, influenced the structure and essence of the Serbian language very little. The same cannot be said for the Croatian variant.
At this stage, the historical component also enters into the equation. Whilst the Serbian people had created its own independent State in the 19th century, the Croat people lived at the heart of different Empires until 1918, and it was always exposed to the most powerful peoples (Italians, Hungarians, Austrians, etc.). From this stems Croatian’s current tendency to detach, free, and cleanse itself of anything even partially linking it to the Serbian language with the aim of at last achieving total independence.
Consequently, all the languages that were previously known as “Serbo-Croatian” and spoken in both variants of the official language of Yugoslavia have made way for completely new words, invented by Croatian linguists.
Fifteen examples of modern Croatian
The following examples illustrate the way in which words from Croato-Serbian were substituted by neologisms in the Croatian tongue:
- IZDAVAČ (C.-S.) ? NAKLADNIK (Croato) – newsagent’s
- IZDAVAÈ (C.-S.) ?SUSTAV (Croato) – system
- IZDAVAÈ (C.-S.) ? ZNANOST (Croato) – science
- IZDAVAÈ (C.-S.) ? KRATICA (Croato) – abbreviation
- IZDAVAÈ (C.-S.) ? SMEĆNIK (Croato) – trash can
- IZDAVAÈ (C.-S.) ? NADNEVAK (Croato) – date
- IZDAVAÈ (C.-S.) ? POJMOVNIK (Croato) - dictionary
- IZDAVAÈ (C.-S.) ? KOSTOVNIK (Croato) – price list
- IZDAVAÈ (C.-S.) ? DOMAĆI URADAK (Croato) – homework
- IZDAVAÈ (C.-S.) ? ZRAKOPLOV (Croato) - airplane
- IZDAVAÈ (C.-S.) ? SKRB (Croato) – care
- IZDAVAÈ (C.-S.) ? RASKRUZJE (Croato) - junction
- IZDAVAÈ (C.-S.) ? UHICENJE (Croato) - stop
- IZDAVAÈ (C.-S.) ? GOSPODARSTVO (Croato) – economy
- IZDAVAÈ (C.-S.) ? RAZINA (Croato) – level
1,000 pages and not a single Serbism
The Croatian language sometimes seeks to recover its identity by reintroducing old words. For example, KUNA (currency used in Croatia in 1994, as opposed to the Yugoslavian currency) or ŽUPANIJA (a word used to name the provinces in which Croatia was divided from the Middle Ages. These had been eliminated under the Yugoslavian period and then finally reintroduced in the Croatian constitution in 1990).
It is easy to understand the lengths to which Croatia went in order to obtain complete linguistic differentiation, when we see that the author of a Croatian dictionary, on publishing his works in 1998, highlighted the fact that “not a single Serbism features in 1,000 pages”.
The creation of the new name for the Serbian language
On the contrary, the Serbian variant did not follow this tendency. No attempt was made to replace “old” words by new ones. |
There was no kind of “purification” of the language on a lexical level. In any case, there were changes that mainly relate to the name of the new language and the alphabet used. Following the secession of Croatia, and in response to the elimination of the Serbian component of the official language on the part of Croatian linguists, Serbian linguists also decided to change the name of their language. It was no longer called “Serbo-Croatian”, but simply “Serbian”.
Cyrillic neo-tendencies in Serbian
In the conditions created following the collapse of Yugoslavia, a tendency to reaffirm the Cyrillic alphabet was observed. This was the former Serbian alphabet, abolished during the period of the Federal Socialist Republic of Yugoslavia. At that time, the Latin alphabet was preferred. On the one hand, this facilitated communication with the rest of the world. On the other, it contributed to bringing Serbia closer to the Western parts of Yugoslavia (Croatia and Slovenia) and strengthening the union of the republics. Following the secession of Slovenia in 1990 and then that of Croatia in 1991, communication between the two was no longer necessary on a daily basis, and the Cyrillic alphabet was reinstated as the official Serbian alphabet. In this respect, Serbian political and literary circles sought to reaffirm their identity in response to the similar trend in Croatia.
However, Latin characters are not out of fashion
In any case, the situation is not uniform. In the world of business, the Latin alphabet has kept the upper hand (in Serbia, roadside advertisements are written almost exclusively in the Latin alphabet, and many are even in English). The Latin alphabet is also the most used amongst the younger population, due to a heavy influence from the English language (suffice to look at the graffiti on the side of the roads).
In the domain of the press, the situation is more complex still. During the kingdom’s communist regime, that was hostile to sudden changes, the majority of newspapers were printed in Cyrillic. In recent times, however, many of the daily newspapers in Serbia are published in the Latin alphabet. It is possible to identify a certain regularity of this phenomenon: newspapers with a “pro-Western” stance, that is to say, those that are subsidized by funds from Western Europe, and the newspapers that offer sensational news or scandals were printed using the Latin alphabet, whilst those that are more “nationalistic” are printed in Cyrillic.
The idealist (and pacific) utopia of the single language
It is generally thought that there would be no problems or conflicts in the worlds if we all spoke the same language. This would imply, amongst other things, the existence of one common culture. The concept of the universal language Esperanto is also based on this principle. Some Esperantists naively believe that if the whole world were to learn this language there would be no more wars on the planet. On the contrary, civil wars on the territory of former Yugoslavia (in Croatia and Bosnia Herzegovina) have shown that having a common language is not enough to guarantee peace amongst the people that speak it, and that ferocious wars can break out, with much spilt blood, even if they understand each other perfectly.
The three hypotheses on the future of language in former Yugoslavia
Finally, is it possible to make any predictions regarding the future development of the Serbian and Croatian languages? Some experts believe there to be three hypotheses: the first is that current linguistic differences will remain as they are now and that the “status quo” will be maintained. The second, less plausible, hypothesis is that there will be a new convergence, that is to say, the new countries that were created on the territory of former Yugoslavia will become closer from a cultural or political point of view, and that all this will lead to a neutralisation of the linguistic differences. The third hypothesis is that the differences between the languages will continue to increase, just as they have done up until now.
Cultural evolution is independent of political evolution
The substance of a language is generally out of the reach of politicians and ideologists and much time will have to pass before Serbian and Croatian become two different languages. At the end of the day, in a linguistic sense, it is still currently one language, through which people, be they from Serbia, Croatia or Bosnia Herzegovina, can still communicate amongst themselves without any difficulty. Serbo-Croatian (or Croato-Serbian) no longer exists on a political level, as it is no longer present in the customs, constitutions or laws of the two new countries.
|
Eurologos-Trieste and Alpe Adria working together for European integration
