What Happened to Serbo-Croatian?
What Happened to Serbo-Croatian?
This chapter presents a brief overview of the unusual life story of a language bearing many names but internationally best known as Serbo-Croatian. Its course is traced from its construction at the turn of the twentieth century, through its deconstruction some ninety years later, to its eventual reconstruction as several national official languages (Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian, Montenegrin) following the Yugoslav wars of succession. The different meanings of the term “Serbo-Croatian” are noted, along with some of the resultant confusion and manipulation. It is concluded that although the four idioms are now legally and politically independent entities, and despite the effects of some divergent trends, in linguistic and communicational terms it still makes sense to see Serbo-Croatian as a single polycentric standard
Keywords: Serbo-Croatian, deconstruction, reconstruction, national variant, polycentric standard language
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