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Declaration on the Common Language

The Declaration on the Common Language is a 2017 statement affirming that the standard language spoken by Bosniaks, Croats, Montenegrins, and Serbs in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, and Serbia constitutes a single polycentric system with variants designated as Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin, and Serbian, all enjoying equal status.^[1] Drafted by approximately 30 linguists from these countries, including Snježana Kordić, it was publicly presented on 30 March 2017 in Sarajevo, with simultaneous events in Zagreb, Belgrade, and Podgorica.^[2]^[3] Initially endorsed by over 200 signatories comprising writers, scientists, journalists, activists, and other intellectuals, the number of supporters has since exceeded 670, including prominent figures such as linguist Noam Chomsky.^[2]^[4]^[5] The declaration condemns politically imposed linguistic divisions as tools for nationalism that impose segregation, mandate superfluous translations in official contexts, and curtail freedom of expression in education, media, literature, and administration.^[1] It urges the elimination of such discriminatory practices, emphasizing the empirical reality of mutual intelligibility among speakers and advocating for unrestricted use of any variant to enhance communication across ethnic lines.^[4] While praised by proponents as a linguistically defensible push against artificial barriers erected after the Yugoslav breakup, the initiative has drawn sharp opposition from nationalists who regard it as an assault on distinct cultural identities.^[2]^[3]

Linguistic Foundations

Dialect Continuum and Polycentric Nature

The varieties of the South Slavic language spoken across Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, and Serbia form a dialect continuum, predominantly within the Shtokavian dialect group, which connects seamlessly to adjacent South Slavic dialects such as Torlakian without discrete boundaries.^[6] This continuum arises from historical migrations and settlements, resulting in gradual phonetic, lexical, and morphological shifts between neighboring speech communities, where mutual intelligibility remains high even across broader distances—typically exceeding 90% for spoken forms based on shared Shtokavian substrates.^[7] Empirical studies of syntactic variation within this continuum confirm that differences are clinal rather than categorical, supporting classification as interconnected varieties rather than isolated languages.^[7] The primary standard varieties—Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin, and Serbian—derive from the Neo-Shtokavian Ijekavian subdialect, particularly the Eastern Herzegovinian type, which was codified in the 19th century through joint efforts like the Vienna Literary Agreement of 1850.^[6] Serbian standards employ Ekavian pronunciation (rendering the yat reflex as e), while the others favor Ijekavian (ije or je), yet these reflect regulated preferences within the same underlying system rather than fundamental divergence.^[6] Lexical and orthographic variations exist—such as Croatian preferences for etymological purism versus Serbian's inclusion of internationalisms—but core grammar, syntax, and approximately 95% of vocabulary overlap, enabling unhindered comprehension in formal and informal contexts.^[3] This configuration exemplifies a polycentric language, wherein multiple national standards coexist around a unified dialectal base, analogous to the variants of English (British, American) or German (Austrian, Swiss).^[8] Polycentricity here accommodates cultural and administrative distinctions without necessitating linguistic fragmentation, as evidenced by pre-1990s usage under the Serbo-Croatian designation, which unified over 17 million speakers across the region.^[8] Linguistic analyses, including those by sociolinguists like Snježana Kordić, argue that political incentives post-Yugoslav dissolution have amplified minor differences, yet phonetic and morphosyntactic data affirm the continuum's integrity as a single pluricentric entity.^[9]

Empirical Evidence of Mutual Intelligibility

Linguistic analyses confirm near-complete mutual intelligibility among the standard varieties of Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin, and Serbian, with speakers able to comprehend one another without formal training or translation.^[10] This holds across spoken and written forms, as the variants share identical grammatical structures and vocabularies differing primarily in minor lexical items influenced by historical or regional preferences.^[10] A key empirical demonstration comes from a 2008 translation study by John F. Bailyn, in which 16 native Croatian speakers from Zagreb translated nine Serbian texts totaling 1,064 words. Results showed that grammatical equivalence was absolute, with lexical divergences limited—noun substitutions reached a maximum of 8.92%, while verbs and other categories exhibited even lower variation, allowing seamless comprehension and rendering the variants functionally interchangeable.^[10] Such findings underscore that differences do not impede understanding, distinguishing these standards from dialect continua with lower intelligibility thresholds. Practical evidence further supports this: speakers across borders routinely access shared media, including films, television broadcasts, and newspapers, without reported comprehension barriers, reflecting everyday functional unity rather than politically imposed separations.^[10] While subjective factors like national identity can influence perceived distance, objective measures prioritize structural overlap, aligning with dialectological criteria for a single polycentric language.^[10]

Historical Context

Serbo-Croatian in the Yugoslav Period

During the period of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY, 1945–1991), Serbo-Croatian functioned as the predominant lingua franca, spoken by over 70% of the population across the republics of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro.^[2] It was standardized as a single language with regional variants to foster ethnic cohesion under the slogan of "brotherhood and unity," serving in federal administration, military, education, and media.^[11] The language's unity was rooted in earlier efforts like the 1850 Vienna Literary Agreement, which established a shared Štokavian base, but post-World War II policies emphasized its role in suppressing ethnic divisions exacerbated by wartime atrocities.^[12] A pivotal formalization occurred with the Novi Sad Agreement on October 28, 1954, endorsed by 25 prominent linguists, writers, and intellectuals from Serbia (backed by Matica srpska), Croatia (Matica hrvatska), and Bosnia.^[11] The agreement declared Serbo-Croatian to be one common language shared by Serbs, Croats, and Montenegrins, featuring two equivalent pronunciation standards: the ijekavian variant (predominant in Croatia, Bosnia, and Montenegro) and the ekavian variant (standard in Serbia).^[12] This document, published alongside a unified orthographic manual (Pravopis srpskohrvatskog jezika / Pravopis hrvatskosrpskog jezika), aimed to restore linguistic harmony after the fractures of occupation and civil war, promoting tolerance for both Cyrillic and Latin scripts while prioritizing Štokavian dialects as the literary norm.^[11] The 1974 SFRY Constitution reinforced this framework by affirming the equality of "languages of the nations" (encompassing Serbo-Croatian variants) and allowing republics to adopt specific norms, such as Croatia's emphasis on ijekavian usage.^[13]^[11] In practice, federal institutions mandated Serbo-Croatian proficiency, with textbooks and broadcasts using a balanced eastern-western hybrid to bridge dialects. However, underlying tensions surfaced in the late 1960s during the Croatian Spring (Hrvatsko proljeće, 1967–1971), when Croatian linguists and the Matica hrvatska society demanded purist reforms, including rejection of ekavian influences and exclusive ijekavian standardization, viewing the unified model as Serb-dominated.^[14] These efforts, peaking with the 1967 Declaration on the Status and Name of the Croatian Literary Language signed by 130 scholars, were curtailed by federal intervention in December 1971, leading to purges and reasserting the single-language policy until Yugoslavia's dissolution.^[14]

Language Divergence Post-1991 Dissolution

Following the dissolution of Yugoslavia in 1991, the standardized variety previously known as Serbo-Croatian was politically rebranded in the successor states to align with emerging national identities, with Croatia adopting "Croatian" as its official language in its 1990 constitution (effective post-independence in 1991), Serbia designating "Serbian" in 1992, Bosnia and Herzegovina recognizing "Bosnian" alongside others in 1993, and Montenegro formalizing "Montenegrin" in 2007.^[15]^[16] This renaming reflected nationalist efforts to differentiate ethnic groups amid inter-ethnic conflicts, rather than substantial linguistic shifts, as evidenced by the retention of shared phonological, morphological, and syntactic structures across variants.^[17]^[18] Linguistic divergence was pursued through state-sponsored purism and standardization policies, particularly in Croatia, where post-1991 initiatives emphasized lexical purification by favoring Slavic roots over internationalisms or perceived "Serbianisms," such as replacing "semafor" (traffic light) with "svjetlosna signalizacija" in official usage during the 1990s.^[19] Serbia, conversely, promoted Cyrillic script alongside Latin to underscore cultural distinction, though Latin remained dominant in practice.^[20] Bosnian standardization incorporated Turkic and Arabic loanwords to highlight Muslim heritage, while Montenegrin introduced unique graphemes for sounds like /ć/ and /đ/ in its 2010 orthography.^[21] These changes, however, affected primarily formal registers and were inconsistently applied, with everyday spoken and informal written forms showing minimal alteration due to the polycentric dialect continuum's persistence.^[10] Empirical assessments of mutual intelligibility post-1991 confirm near-complete comprehension among speakers of Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin, and Serbian standards, with surveys indicating 95-100% understanding in spoken and written forms, comparable to intra-language dialectal variation elsewhere.^[22]^[23] Linguist Snježana Kordić, in her analysis of post-Yugoslav language policies, attributes the divergence narrative to ideological nationalism rather than empirical necessity, noting that the vast majority of vocabulary (over 90%) remains identical across standards, and artificial separations risk isolating speakers without enhancing communication.^[24]^[19] Despite these policies, cross-border media consumption and personal interactions have sustained functional unity, as seen in shared broadcasting and literature accessibility without translation.^[25] Critics of the split, including academic linguists, argue that the political fragmentation exacerbated ethnic divisions during the 1990s wars, with language serving as a tool for loyalty testing and identity enforcement in education and media, though no causal linguistic barrier existed to justify separation.^[26]^[27] Quantitative studies on lexical divergence reveal limited success of purist efforts, with Croatian neologisms comprising less than 5% of core vocabulary by the early 2000s, insufficient to impede intelligibility.^[10] This post-1991 trajectory underscores a tension between imposed national linguistics and the underlying Shtokavian dialect base, which continues to facilitate seamless interaction across borders.^[20]

Project Origins

Languages and Nationalisms Initiative

The Languages and Nationalisms initiative, referred to as Jezici i nacionalizmi in the Serbo-Croatian language, comprised a series of four regional expert conferences convened in 2016 to examine the interplay between linguistics and nationalism in the successor states of former Yugoslavia.^[28] The conferences aimed to foster dialogue among linguists, intellectuals, and activists on the shared polycentric standard language spoken in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, and Serbia, challenging practices of linguistic segregation, discrimination, and enforced separation of variants labeled as distinct national languages.^[28] Organized by the Center for Civic Education (CGO) in Podgorica, along with associations such as Kurs, Krokodil, and the PEN Center of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the initiative sought to counteract what participants described as ideologically driven linguistic policies that promote unnecessary translations, rigid standardization, and division in education and public institutions.^[28] The events unfolded as follows: the first in Podgorica, Montenegro, on April 21–22; the second in Split, Croatia, on May 19–20; the third in Belgrade, Serbia, on October 5–6; and the fourth in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, on November 23–24.^[28] Discussions emphasized empirical linguistic evidence of mutual intelligibility and historical continuity, drawing on first-principles analysis of dialect continua rather than politically imposed nomenclature.^[28] Prominent contributors included Croatian linguist Snježana Kordić, who moderated sessions and whose 2010 monograph Jezik i nacionalizam provided foundational arguments against nationalist purism in language policy; Serbian linguist Ranko Bugarski; Montenegrin expert Rajka Glušica; and Croatian linguist Mate Kapović.^[29]^[28] The initiative's working group produced transcripts and position papers that directly informed the drafting of the Declaration on the Common Language, publicly presented on March 28, 2017, in Sarajevo as a programmatic response to post-Yugoslav language ideologies.^[30] While the effort garnered endorsements from academics and writers advocating linguistic realism, it faced opposition from institutions like the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts (HAZU), which in March 2017 labeled it a "senseless, absurd, and futile" endeavor that undermined national linguistic identities.^[31] This critique reflected broader tensions between empirical linguistics and state-sponsored nationalism, with HAZU prioritizing cultural sovereignty over shared dialectal evidence.^[32] The initiative's website, jezicinacionalizmi.com, continues to host conference materials, transcripts, and calls for ending repressive language regulations.^[28]

Motivations and Preparatory Work

The "Languages and Nationalisms" project, which culminated in the Declaration, was motivated by the recognition that post-Yugoslav language policies had imposed artificial separations on a historically unified linguistic system, leading to tangible harms such as discrimination in public sector employment, restricted access to education, and barriers to cross-border cultural exchange.^[30]^[33] Proponents argued that these divisions, driven by nationalist ideologies rather than linguistic evidence, perpetuated social fragmentation and economic inefficiencies, including duplicated efforts in translation and publishing across the region.^[34] The initiative sought to reaffirm the polycentric standard language—shared by communities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, and Serbia—based on empirical mutual intelligibility and shared grammatical structures, countering what organizers described as politically motivated "linguistic engineering."^[28]^[35] Preparatory efforts began in 2015 under the Belgrade-based Association Krokodil, inspired by linguist Snježana Kordić's 2010 book Jezik i nacionalizam, which critiqued the ideological imposition of separate languages over a dialect continuum.^[34]^[28] A two-year research phase involved collaboration with regional NGOs and experts, coordinated by Ana Pejović of Krokodil, focusing on documenting instances of language-based exclusion and gathering linguistic data.^[35]^[36] This groundwork led to a series of four expert conferences held from April to November 2016: in Podgorica (April, on the ideology of "correct" language), Split (on language ideologies), Belgrade (on political manipulations of language topics), and Sarajevo (November, on proofreaders as enforcers of nationality).^[28] These events, attended by linguists, academics, and activists from the four countries, featured discussions on empirical language unity and the societal costs of divergence, with proceedings informing the draft.^[30] A working group of approximately 30 experts, including philologists and social scientists, then synthesized inputs into the Declaration's text over subsequent months.^[37]^[38]

Declaration Content

Core Assertions on Language Unity

The Declaration on the Common Language asserts the existence of a single polycentric standard language spoken across Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, and Serbia, comprising variants collectively known as Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin, and Serbian, all derived from the Štokavian dialect continuum. This unity is grounded in empirical mutual intelligibility among speakers, where differences in pronunciation, vocabulary, and orthography—such as the use of Latin or Cyrillic scripts—do not impede comprehension but instead represent natural variations within a shared linguistic system.^[1]^[39] Central to the document's claims is the rejection of the notion that four separate names for these variants equate to four distinct languages, emphasizing instead that polycentric standardization mirrors real-world usage and promotes democratic linguistic practices, akin to established polycentric languages like English or German. The declaration argues that such standardization accommodates regional and national preferences without necessitating artificial divisions, supported by historical precedents where Serbo-Croatian functioned as a unified standard prior to political fragmentation. It further maintains that recognizing this common language does not erode individual or national identities, as linguistic commonality coexists with cultural and ethnic diversity, allowing each community to cultivate its variant freely.^[1]^[2] Linguistically, the assertions prioritize observable facts over prescriptive separations, noting that enforced distinctions often stem from non-linguistic factors rather than inherent structural barriers, with evidence drawn from everyday communication and shared literary heritage spanning centuries. The document calls for policies affirming this unity, such as eliminating redundant translations in official contexts and fostering openness to all variants, to counteract practices that impose segregation in education and media. These positions align with sociolinguistic principles of dialect continua, where gradual variations do not warrant reclassification as separate languages absent significant abstand (distance) criteria.^[1]^[39]

Critique of Linguistic Nationalism

The Declaration critiques linguistic nationalism as a politically driven imposition that disregards the empirical unity of the Shtokavian dialect continuum spoken by Bosniaks, Croats, Montenegrins, and Serbs, artificially fragmenting it into four purportedly distinct languages despite their high mutual intelligibility and shared grammatical, lexical, and phonological features.^[1] This separation, initiated post-1991 amid the Yugoslav dissolution, is portrayed not as a reflection of linguistic divergence but as a tool for reinforcing ethnic boundaries, leading to the enforcement of variant-specific norms that prioritize national symbolism over communicative functionality.^[1] Proponents argue that such nationalism ignores first-principles linguistic criteria, where differences in orthography, vocabulary preferences, and nomenclature (e.g., Bosnian vs. Serbian) remain minor and insufficient to warrant classification as separate languages, akin to how variants of English or German are not deemed discrete despite regional distinctions.^[1] Central to the critique is the causal link between linguistic nationalism and tangible harms, including the segregation of children in multiethnic schools along language lines, which fosters division rather than integration; the proliferation of redundant translations in official documents, media, and literature, inflating administrative costs without enhancing clarity; and bureaucratic mandates that coerce conformity to prescribed variants, stifling linguistic freedom and innovation.^[1] For instance, policies in Croatia and Serbia have historically penalized the use of "non-national" terminology, such as banning certain words deemed foreign to the standard, resulting in self-censorship among writers and educators.^[1] The Declaration contends that these practices, rooted in 19th-century romantic nationalism revived in the 1990s, exacerbate ethnic tensions by politicizing everyday speech, contrasting sharply with pre-1990s recognition of a unified Serbo-Croatian standard that facilitated cross-border communication.^[1] Furthermore, the text challenges the ideological foundations of linguistic purism, which demand the purging of shared heritage elements to construct "pure" national idioms, arguing this erodes the polycentric nature of the language—where multiple centers (Zagreb, Belgrade, Sarajevo) coexist without hierarchy—and undermines cultural exchange in the region.^[1] By insisting on four names for what is empirically one standard language, nationalists are accused of inverting causality: language policy serves state-building agendas rather than responding to organic speaker needs, as evidenced by persistent bilingual signage and media consumption across borders despite official separations.^[1] This approach, the Declaration asserts, perpetuates economic inefficiencies, such as duplicated publishing efforts and restricted market access for authors, while culturally isolating communities that historically shared a literary canon from figures like Ivo Andrić to Miroslav Krleža.^[1] Ultimately, it advocates for de-politicization, urging recognition of the common language's variants as enriching diversity within unity, free from coercive standardization.^[1]

Creation and Launch

Drafting Process

The Declaration on the Common Language emerged from the "Languages and Nationalisms" regional project, initiated by the Belgrade-based Association Krokodil in partnership with the Balkans branch of the German ForumZFD, which organized conferences in Belgrade, Sarajevo, Podgorica, and Split to examine linguistic nationalism in the post-Yugoslav states.^[2] The drafting specifically followed the project's final conference in Sarajevo in late 2016, where participants identified the need for a concise public statement affirming linguistic unity amid ongoing nationalistic divisions.^[40] Approximately 30 linguists from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, and Serbia collaborated on the initial draft, led by figures such as Croatian linguist Snježana Kordić, who emphasized the document's role in countering politicized language separation through empirical linguistic evidence.^[2]^[3] Serbian linguist Ranko Bugarski contributed as a consultant, offering insights from his expertise on pluricentric language structures and native-speaker perspective to refine the text's clarity and avoid ideological overtones.^[39] The process involved iterative revisions over several months, focusing on a polycentric framework that recognized standard variants while rejecting artificial separations, with input drawn from project discussions rather than formal voting to maintain consensus.^[40] Challenges during drafting included balancing scientific precision with accessibility for non-specialists, as the group sought to produce a brief, non-polemical text—ultimately about 500 words—that prioritized verifiable sociolinguistic facts over political advocacy, though some critics later argued it understated historical divergences.^[39] The final version was completed by early 2017, setting the stage for its public presentation, with the project's funding from Allianz Kulturstiftung enabling cross-border coordination without institutional biases from state academies.^[2]

2017 Presentation in Sarajevo

The Declaration on the Common Language was publicly presented on March 30, 2017, at a press conference held in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.^[2]^[41] The event marked the culmination of the "Languages and Nationalisms" initiative, involving over 30 experts from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, and Serbia who drafted the document over several months. Organizers, including linguists and representatives from non-governmental organizations, emphasized the declaration's goal of recognizing a shared standard language used interchangeably by speakers across the four countries, despite political and institutional efforts to impose separate national languages.^[42]^[43] Speakers at the press conference addressed the linguistic unity rooted in empirical evidence of mutual intelligibility and shared linguistic norms, critiquing post-1990s policies that promoted divergence for nationalist purposes.^[41] By the time of the presentation, the declaration had garnered more than 8,000 online signatures from individuals across the region, signaling grassroots support prior to formal endorsement by prominent intellectuals. The event drew significant media coverage, highlighting the declaration's challenge to state-sponsored linguistic fragmentation while advocating for pluricentricity within a common language framework.

Signatories and Endorsements

Key Individuals and Institutions

Snježana Kordić, a Croatian linguist and sociolinguist based in Germany, played a central role in drafting the Declaration on the Common Language, coordinating efforts among approximately 30 linguists from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, and Serbia as part of the "Languages and Nationalisms" initiative.^[2] Her work emphasized empirical linguistic evidence for the polycentric standard language shared by speakers across these regions, drawing on her publications critiquing post-Yugoslav language fragmentation.^[39] Other key linguistic signatories included Ranko Bugarski, a prominent Serbian linguist and professor emeritus at the University of Belgrade, known for his analyses of language policy in the Balkans; Ivan Klajn, a member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts; and Svenka Savić, an emerita professor of psycholinguistics at the University of Novi Sad.^[44] These figures contributed expertise underscoring the Declaration's assertions of linguistic unity based on mutual intelligibility and shared grammatical structures, countering nationalist-driven orthographic and terminological divergences.^[39] Internationally, Noam Chomsky, the American linguist and political activist, endorsed the Declaration in March 2018 at Kordić's invitation, aligning with his broader advocacy for cultural and intellectual solidarity against divisive ideologies.^[45] Prominent writers and intellectuals such as Dubravka Ugrešić, a Croatian-Dutch author exiled for her critiques of nationalism, and Dragan Velikić, a Serbian novelist, also signed, highlighting the document's appeal to literary figures opposing language-based segregation.^[44]^[5] Supporting institutions primarily comprised non-governmental organizations, including the Krokodil Association in Belgrade, which facilitated the initiative's regional conferences and signature collection; the Center for Peace Studies in Zagreb; and the BH Journalists Association in Sarajevo.^[46] These groups focused on human rights and anti-nationalist advocacy, providing platforms for the Declaration's launch without formal institutional endorsements from state academies or universities, reflecting the grassroots yet expert-driven nature of the effort.^[44]

Signature Growth and Demographics

The Declaration garnered 225 initial signatures from prominent intellectuals, including linguists, writers, and academics, before its public unveiling in Sarajevo on March 30, 2017.^[47] Within one week, the online petition expanded rapidly, reaching approximately 8,000 signatures by April 6, 2017, reflecting swift grassroots engagement across the region.^[47] ^[48] Over time, the total number of signatories surpassed 15,000 worldwide, sustained through ongoing online campaigns tied to the Languages and Nationalisms initiative.^[49] Signatories were predominantly from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, and Serbia, with the majority comprising professionals in academia, linguistics, literature, journalism, and activism.^[4] Among the over 200 initial prominent endorsers were scientists, public intellectuals, and cultural figures from these countries, underscoring the document's appeal to experts countering linguistic nationalism. International support included endorsements from linguists and thinkers abroad, such as Noam Chomsky, who signed in 2018 at the invitation of key proponent Snježana Kordić.^[45] This demographic profile highlights the initiative's foundation in scholarly and cultural circles rather than broad political or mass mobilization.

Reception

Support from Intellectuals and Academics

The Declaration on the Common Language was drafted by approximately 30 linguists from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, and Serbia through a series of workshops conducted in 2016 and early 2017.^[2] Prominent among them was Snježana Kordić, a Croatian linguist and author of works critiquing linguistic purism in the region, who emphasized that recognizing the shared polycentric language could mitigate ethnic divisions exacerbated by post-Yugoslav nationalism.^[3] ^[39] Ranko Bugarski, a Serbian linguist and professor emeritus at the University of Belgrade, endorsed the document as a signatory and promoter, arguing it aligned with empirical linguistic evidence of mutual intelligibility and shared grammatical structures across the varieties.^[50] In 2017, British sociolinguist Peter Trudgill added his signature, supporting the declaration's assertion that Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin, and Serbian constitute variants of a single language, comparable to pluricentric languages like English or German.^[51] International backing included Noam Chomsky, the American linguist and Institute Professor at MIT, who signed the declaration on March 27, 2018, following an invitation from Kordić; he affirmed the polycentric nature of the language and opposed segregative policies in education based on minor dialectal differences.^[5] ^[45] These endorsements from established scholars underscored the declaration's grounding in descriptive linguistics rather than prescriptive national ideologies, with signatories highlighting data on lexical overlap exceeding 95% and syntactic uniformity.^[8]

Media Coverage and Public Debate

The Declaration, presented on March 30, 2017, in Sarajevo, garnered attention in international media as an initiative to affirm the shared linguistic continuum among Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin, and Serbian variants, countering post-Yugoslav nationalist divisions.^[8]^[52] The Economist framed it as a challenge to the politicization of language, questioning whether Serbo-Croatian constitutes a single polycentric language with standardized variants.^[8] Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty highlighted nationalist backlash, portraying the document as a statement against using language for segregationist projects rather than a revival of Yugoslav unity.^[52] Local coverage in the region was polarized, with outlets in Croatia and Serbia reflecting broader ideological divides. In Croatia, the leftist daily Novi list published an article on April 5, 2017, denouncing the Declaration as a "Yugoslav trick" and exhibiting intolerance toward signatories, prompting the newspaper's editorial board to condemn it as unprofessional and contrary to their values by April 13.^[53]^[54] This incident underscored tensions, as journalists covering the topic faced insults, threats, and physical attacks amid heightened public sensitivity.^[55] Public debate intensified online and in intellectual circles, pitting linguistic scholars and civil society advocates against conservative nationalists who viewed the Declaration as eroding national identities and sovereignty.^[2] Supporters, including academics, emphasized empirical evidence of mutual intelligibility and shared grammar, arguing it promoted practical cooperation without denying cultural differences.^[56] Opponents, often aligned with political elites, contended it ignored historical divergences post-1990s wars and risked diluting distinct linguistic standards imposed by state academies.^[2] Media analyses noted considerable public interest in everyday language use over prescriptive norms, fueling discussions on education, media, and cross-border communication.^[39]

Criticisms and Controversies

Nationalist Backlash

The Declaration on the Common Language, presented on March 30, 2017, in Sarajevo, elicited strong opposition from nationalist figures and institutions across the region, particularly in Croatia and Serbia, who viewed it as a threat to post-Yugoslav national identities. In Croatia, Prime Minister Andrej Plenković dismissed the initiative, questioning its relevance by stating, "How could I support that? ... There is no need to waste words," emphasizing Croatian's status as an official EU language.^[52]^[2] Similarly, Culture Minister Nina Obuljen Koržinek described the concept of a common language as a "political construct" originating from 1945, implying an imposition of Yugoslav-era uniformity.^[2] Nationalist critics argued that recognizing a shared polycentric language equated to reviving Serbo-Croatian and fostering Yugoslav nostalgia, potentially eroding distinct ethnic languages codified after the 1990s wars. Former Croatian Culture Minister Zlatko Hasanbegović labeled the declaration "a wolf howl of Yugoslav nationalists for their lost country," framing it as an assault on Croatian linguistic sovereignty.^[52] In Serbia, University of Belgrade professor Miro Lompar contended that the effort sought to "de-nationalize Serbs" in Bosnia and Montenegro, distancing them from Serbian identity through a "quasi-Yugoslav initiative."^[52] Linguists aligned with nationalist views, such as Željko Jozić of the Croatian Institute of Croatian Language and Linguistics, deemed the declaration "unnecessary" and incapable of influencing established standards.^[2] This backlash manifested in media rhetoric and official rejections, with outlets and academics like August Kovačeć calling it "a provocation and a non-sense," reflecting broader fears that linguistic convergence could undermine the political separatism achieved in the 1990s.^[2] Despite the declaration's basis in linguistic evidence of mutual intelligibility, opponents prioritized national differentiation, viewing any commonality as politically subversive rather than empirically grounded.^[2]^[52]

Debates on Political Implications

The Declaration on the Common Language, presented on March 30, 2017, in Sarajevo, has elicited political debates centered on its challenge to nationalist constructions of language as a marker of ethnic sovereignty in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, and Serbia.^[57] Opponents, particularly in Croatia, argue that recognizing a shared language risks eroding national identities forged post-Yugoslav dissolution, viewing it as a revival of the communist-era Serbo-Croatian imposition.^[2] Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković rejected the initiative on March 29, 2017, questioning its supportability and emphasizing Croatian's distinct constitutional and European Union official status.^[2] Similarly, Culture Minister Nina Obuljen Koržinek, on March 28, 2017, highlighted the historical affirmation of Croatian as separate, framing the declaration as lacking purpose amid established linguistic policies.^[2] In Bosnia and Herzegovina, the declaration intersects with Dayton Agreement provisions recognizing three constituent languages, raising concerns over potential disruptions to ethnically segmented institutions like education and governance.^[57] Linguist Milanka Babić from the University of East Sarajevo contended that it introduces no novel insights and holds no enforceable power, underscoring entrenched political uses of linguistic differentiation to maintain ethnic balances.^[57] Nationalists across the region, including figures like Croatian linguist August Kovačeć who labeled it "provocation and nonsense," perceive it as undermining sovereignty by facilitating cross-border cultural assimilation, potentially exacerbating tensions rather than resolving them through imposed commonality.^[2] Proponents counter that the declaration counters the politicization of minor dialectal variances for divisive ends, advocating for pluricentric recognition to promote reconciliation and reduce barriers in shared spaces like segregated schools.^[2] This perspective posits causal links between linguistic nationalism and sustained post-1990s conflict dynamics, suggesting that affirming empirical linguistic unity could support pragmatic cooperation, such as in EU accession processes, without negating variant standards.^[57] Debates thus hinge on whether prioritizing linguistic facts over identity politics fosters stability or invites backlash from groups reliant on separation for political legitimacy, with Croatian conservatives drawing parallels to the 1967 Croatian language declaration's resistance against perceived centralist dominance.^[2]

Linguistic Counterarguments

Some linguists, particularly Croatian scholars such as Dalibor Brozović, have contended that Croatian and Serbian represent distinct languages within a broader Central South Slavic diasystem, emphasizing independent standardization processes rather than a unified Serbo-Croatian framework. Brozović argued that historical literary traditions and normative divergences justify separate status, rejecting the pluricentric model implied by the Declaration.^[58] This perspective prioritizes codified norms over spoken mutual intelligibility, positing that institutional regulation—such as Croatia's exclusive adoption of Ijekavian pronunciation and Latin script—creates functional autonomy.^[51] Counterarguments highlight phonological variations as evidence of divergence: the Serbian standard accommodates both Ekavian (e.g., mleko for "milk") and Ijekavian reflexes, whereas Croatian mandates strict Ijekavian (mlijeko), reflecting dialectal preferences codified since the 19th century.^[59] Lexical differences are amplified through purism in Croatian standardization, led by figures like Stjepan Babić, who advocated replacing international loanwords common in Serbian (e.g., avion for "airplane") with Slavic neologisms (zrakoplov), aiming to preserve etymological purity and cultural specificity.^[26] Babić's work on literary language differences underscored syntactic and stylistic variances, such as Croatian preferences for certain verb forms and avoidance of Turkisms retained in Bosnian or Serbian variants.^[60] Proponents of separation further argue that orthographic and morphological norms reinforce distinct identities: Montenegrin introduced unique digraphs (⟨ś⟩, ⟨ź⟩) in 2009 for sibilants, while Bosnian incorporates more Arabic-Persian loanwords and maintains dual scripts, diverging from Croatian's Latin-only exclusivity.^[21] These features, regulated by national academies since the 1990s, are cited as creating separate communicative standards, akin to how Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish are treated as discrete languages despite high intelligibility. Critics of the Declaration, including some in the Croatian linguistic establishment, maintain that such institutional evolution—accelerated post-1991—entails causal independence, where language policy shapes linguistic reality beyond empirical dialectology.^[61] However, these positions often intersect with national ideologies, as evidenced by purist campaigns in the 1990s that exaggerated differences for identity-building, with limited structural justification in peer-reviewed comparative linguistics, where grammar and core vocabulary overlap exceed 95%.^[10] Empirical studies on mutual intelligibility, such as translation tests between variants, show near-complete comprehension, undermining claims of inherent separation on purely linguistic grounds.^[10]

Impact and Legacy

Influence on Policy and Education

The Declaration advocates for the elimination of linguistic segregation in educational systems across Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, and Serbia, arguing that enforced divisions based on purported national languages hinder integration and impose unnecessary economic costs. It specifically calls for recognizing the shared polycentric language—encompassing Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin, and Serbian variants—to enable unified curricula, shared textbooks, and freedom in orthographic choices without institutional barriers. This position targets practices like Bosnia and Herzegovina's "two schools under one roof" system, where ethnic groups attend separate classes under the same roof using nominally distinct languages despite near-complete mutual intelligibility, a model rooted in post-1995 Dayton Agreement accommodations that perpetuate division.^[1] In May 2017, shortly after the Declaration's launch, the Assembly of Sarajevo Canton endorsed its principles while adopting the Law on Primary Education, which defined the language of instruction as "Bosnian" but avoided rigid enforcement of variant-specific separations, aligning with the document's emphasis on practical commonality over politicized distinctions. This local support marked an early policy nod, potentially easing administrative hurdles in multicultural classrooms within the canton, though implementation has faced resistance from ethno-nationalist factions. Similarly, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, linguist Eugen Halilović revised norms in the 2017 edition of Pravopis bosanskog jezika, incorporating flexible pluricentric elements that echoed the Declaration's framework, influencing textbook standards and teacher guidelines by permitting shared linguistic resources without mandating ekavski-ijekavski splits as identity markers.^[62]^[21] Broader policy impacts remain constrained, with no region-wide reforms to official language laws or curricula by 2025, as nationalist governments in Croatia and Serbia have upheld variant-specific mandates in education to reinforce sovereignty narratives. In administrative policy, the Declaration's push to halt superfluous translations in courts and bureaucracies—estimated to cost millions annually—has informed advocacy but yielded few verifiable reductions, as entrenched constitutions prioritize "national" languages. Educational debates spurred by the document have, however, prompted academic workshops and NGO initiatives, such as those by Udruženje Krokodil, fostering teacher training on polycentric approaches in informal settings across the region.^[63]^[39]

Ongoing Developments Since 2017

Following its publication in March 2017, the Declaration on the Common Language prompted continued advocacy through nongovernmental initiatives focused on countering linguistic and historical nationalism in the post-Yugoslav region. The associated signature campaign, coordinated by groups including the Association KROKODIL, amassed approximately 10,000 endorsements from individuals across Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, and Serbia by late 2018.^[64] In November 2019, the inaugural conference of the "Who Started All This? Historians against Revisionism" project convened in Zagreb, building on the Declaration's principles by addressing historical narratives that reinforce ethnic divisions, with participants linking linguistic unity to broader regional reconciliation efforts.^[65] This initiative, supported by the European Union delegation to Serbia, extended the Declaration's framework to historiography, aiming to foster evidence-based discourse over politicized interpretations.^[64] By June 2020, the project's final conference culminated in the publicization of outcomes that reaffirmed the Declaration's call for recognizing shared cultural elements without imposing uniformity, while KROKODIL announced the "Defend History" declaration to safeguard factual historical education against revisionist pressures.^[66]^[67] These activities underscored ongoing civil society engagement, though they encountered persistent resistance from nationalist entities wary of eroding distinct identities.^[67] Academic discourse has sustained references to the Declaration into the 2020s, with analyses in 2022 sociolinguistic studies highlighting its role in contesting official policies that segregate language variants, and a 2024 linguistic examination portraying it as a catalyst for accelerated polycentric language recognition amid evolving regional dynamics.^[68]^[69] No major policy shifts directly attributable to the initiative have materialized by 2025, but its emphasis on empirical linguistic continuity persists in scholarly and activist circles as a counter to institutionalized fragmentation.^[39]

References

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