["It's important for us, because language means national identity,"]
http://www.ipsnews.net/interna.asp?idnews=27740 INTER PRESS SERVICE BALKANS: One Language Finds Many Names Vesna Peric Zimonjic BELGRADE, Mar 4 (IPS) - The Bosnian Muslim minority in the southern Serbian area of Sandzak claim to have won the right to education in Bosnian language last month after a long battle with Serbian authorities. "It's important for us, because language means national identity," Zekerija Dugopoljac, an official with the Bosniak National Council of Sandzak told IPS. Sandzak is the southern Serbian region bordering Bosnia. Most of its 300,000 Muslims of Slav origin consider themselves Bosniaks. The 'new' language hardly differs from the 'older' one spoken by millions of Serbs, Croats and Bosniaks in what used to be former Yugoslavia. But Dugopoljac and local Muslim politicians still defend the introduction of Bosnian as an official language. "It is about minority rights," he says. Bosnian is one of the "new" languages introduced after the disintegration of former Yugoslavia in 1991, when the six-member federation fell apart in bloody wars. Muslim Bosniaks now speak "Bosnian", Catholic Croats speak "Croatian" and Orthodox Serbs and Montenegrins speak "Serbian". The strange division has been accepted by the International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia set up by the United Nations in The Hague. All of its documents are issued in "B/C/S" (Bosnian, Croat and Serbian), although they are practically the same. "The wars of disintegration introduced the idea that a language belongs to a nation, and not a region," Prof. Ranko Bugarski wrote in his well-known book 'The Language from Peace to War'. "Language was used as a weapon against others, an idea that the people at war have never had nothing in common, neither history, nor the language." The language was earlier called Serbo-Croatian; it became standard back in the 19th century. It differed only in accents and local expressions, but was easily understood everywhere in the former Yugoslavia. The differences were like those between British English and American English. In former Yugoslavia, the regional differences were described as dialects, and people of different ethnic origins spoke in dialects of the region, not in a language that could be attributed to their ethnicity. The new differences can descend into absurdity. Croatian distributors now subtitle Serbian movies, as they do Hollywood or French films. In Zagreb cinemas, the audience laughs out loud when subtitles appear for such commonly understood expressions as "dobar dan" (good day to you). Croatian linguists are now introducing new words to create a separation - but few Croats understand these new words. The word "fax" has been replaced by "dalekoumnozitelj" (described as a machine for long distance copying). "It is incredible that in official communication one shouldn't use the word 'fax'," Mirjana Toncic (36), a Zagreb banker told IPS. "I can't even pronounce the new word I'm supposed to use." A helicopter is now a zrakomlat, "the machine that beats the air". A hard disc is a kruzno velepamtilo ("big memory capacity circular machine"). But political elites still insist on separate languages for their separated people. Croatian state TV recently apologised for broadcasting Steven Spielberg's 'Schindler List' "in prevailing Serbian". It explained that the American distributor of the film had insisted on the translation done years ago and would not allow changes. There was a political outcry in Zagreb recently when prominent diplomat Neven Stimac said in a comment that "there were hints from Brussels that once Croatia and Serbia join the European Union (EU), Serbo-Croatian would be re-introduced to ease the administrative problems." The two countries are still far from joining the EU, but that possibility caused a public outcry among Croatian nationalists. For many ordinary people, separate languages and newborn states do not mean that barriers have to remain forever. The common language and cable TV mean that millions watch the same programmes, whether on Bosnian, Croatian or Serbian TV. One of the most popular soap operas is the Croatian-made 'Villa Maria'. Dozens of episodes were directed by prominent Belgrade author Stanko Crnobrnja. "It was an easy job," he told IPS. "An old friend, producer Zeljko Sabljic from Zagreb, invited me to direct, and I did. We still understand each other perfectly." (END/2005) Serbian News Network - SNN news@antic.org http://www.antic.org/
