Sunday, 9 May 2021

linguistic segregation vs a common language in the former yugoslavia

At schools in Bosnia, children are still segregated according to their ethnic background:

Bosnia: No End to 'Two Schools Under One Roof' | Balkan Insight

BBC News - Balkan divisions survive in Bosnian schools

Two schools under one roof: a lesson in ethnic unmixing from Bosnia’s segregated school system | openDemocracy

.

In 2017, numerous prominent writers, scientists, journalists, activists and other public figures from Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia signed the Declaration on the Common Language,[12][13][14][15] which calls for “abolishing all forms of linguistic segregation and discrimination in educational and public institutions“.

Two schools under one roof - Wikipedia

.

The children in the different classes speak the same language - and there is pressure to have this properly recognised:

The Declaration on the Common Language (Serbo-Croatian: Deklaracija o zajedničkom jeziku / Декларација о заједничком језику) was issued in 2017 by a group of intellectuals and NGOs from Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, and Serbia who were working under the banner of a project called "Language and Nationalism". The Declaration states that Croats, Bosniaks, Serbs and Montenegrins have a common standard language of the polycentric type.

Declaration on the Common Language - Wikipedia

.

It would be like declaring other 'polycentric languages' such as Spanish as having separate languages such as Mexican, Argentinian or Puerto Rican:

Pluricentric language - Wikipedia

.

But there are political pressures in the former Yugoslavia:

Language secessionism - Wikipedia

.

Even though they speak the same language:


Serbo-Croatian - Wikipedia

.

The New European language specialist looks at how ridiculous the situation is - and the determination to do something about it:

Peter Trudgill Time To Make Four Into One 2017 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

.

.

.

No comments: