Did Serbo-Croat Die with Yugoslavia? A Different View of Language and Identity in Bosnia-Herzegovina

Abstract

A language is said to be dead when it no longer has any speakers (Crystal 2000: 1). The process of a language’ demise generally occurs over a long period of time as speakers of the dying language cease to speak their original language in favour of a second language that has greater social prestige or value. An immigrant community, for example, may experience language shift as second and third generations see more utility in speaking and having as a first language the more powerful language of the host community. This process of language shift is thought to occur over three generations (Coulmas 2005: 158). A language can also disappear if, over time, it transforms into one or more languages which bear no resemblance to the original language. An example of this is Latin, which over centuries has transformed into French, Spanish, Italian and Sardinian (Aitchison 1992: 197). In both these processes of language demise, a language’ disappearance is a gradual one. In contrast to this, the death of Serbo-Croat seems to have been a rather swift affair. Since the early 1990s, the language of Serbo-Croat has completely disappeared from the social and political scene in Bosnia-Herzegovina. It is no longer a language of instruction or a subject in the curriculum in the education system, and in public discourse there is no longer any mention of Serbo-Croat as a designation for the language of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Instead, the official languages of the post-war state are now Bosnian, Croatian or Serbian.