Bosnian language

Bosnian
bosanski / босански
Pronunciation
Native to	Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Croatia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Slovenia, Kosovo and the Bosnian diaspora
Native speakers	2.5–3.5 million  (2008)[1] (number is ambiguous)
Language family	Indo-European Balto-Slavic Slavic South Slavic Western Serbo-Croatian Shtokavian Neo-Shtokavian Eastern Herzegovinian Bosnian
Writing system	Latin (Gaj) Cyrillic (Serbian Cyrillic)[Note 1] Yugoslav Braille
Official status
Official language in	Bosnia and Herzegovina
Recognised minority language in	Serbia  Montenegro  Macedonia  Croatia  Kosovo[a]
Language codes
ISO 639-1	bs
ISO 639-2	bos
ISO 639-3	bos
Glottolog	bosn1245[3]
Linguasphere	part of 53-AAA-g

Bosnian (Bosnian: bosanski / босански ) is the standardized variety of Serbo-Croatian used by Bosniaks.^[4][5][6] Bosnian is one of the three official languages of Bosnia and Herzegovina,^[7] along with Croatian and Serbian, and also an officially recognized minority or regional language in Serbia,^[8] Montenegro,^[9] and the Republic of Kosovo.^[10]

Bosnian uses both Latin and Cyrillic alphabet.^{[Note 1]} It is notable among the varieties of Serbo-Croatian for a number of Arabic, Ottoman Turkish and Persian loanwords, largely due to the language's interaction with those cultures through Islamic ties.^[11][12][13]

Bosnian is based on the most widespread dialect of Serbo-Croatian, Shtokavian, more specifically on Eastern Herzegovinian, which is also the basis of Croatian, Serbian, and Montenegrin. Until the dissolution of SFR Yugoslavia, they were treated as a unitary Serbo-Croatian language, and that term is still used in English to subsume the common base (vocabulary, grammar and syntax) of what are today officially four national standards, although this term is controversial for native speakers,^[14] and paraphrases such as "Serbo-Croat-Bosnian" (SCB) or "Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian" (BCS) are therefore sometimes used instead, especially in diplomatic circles.

Several linguists and socio-political advocates claim Bosnian to be a standard language not only of the Bosniaks, but of all of Bosnia and Herzegovina, drawing on historical use of the name "Bosnian".

History

Although Bosniaks are, on the level of colloquial idiom, linguistically more homogeneous than either Serbs or Croats, unlike those nations they failed to codify a standard language in the 19th century, with at least two factors being decisive:

• The Bosniak elite, as closely intertwined with Ottoman life, wrote predominantly in foreign (Turkish, Arabic, Persian) languages.^[15] Vernacular literature written in Bosnian with the Arebica script was relatively thin and sparse.
• The Bosniaks' national emancipation lagged behind that of the Serbs and Croats, and because denominational rather than cultural or linguistic issues played the pivotal role, a Bosnian language project did not arouse much interest or support amongst the Bosniak intelligentsia of the time.

Modern standardization

Nevertheless, the literature of the so-called "Bosniak revival" at the start of the 20th century was written in an idiom that was closer to the Croatian standard than to the Serbian one: it was a western Shtokavian dialect with an Ijekavian accent and used a Latin script, but had recognizable Bosniak lexical traits. The main authors were the polymath, politician and poet Safvet-beg Bašagić and the storyteller Edhem Mulabdić.

The modern Bosnian standard took shape in the 1990s and 2000s. Lexically, Islamic-Oriental loanwords are becoming more frequent; phonetically: the phoneme /x/ (letter h) is reinstated in many words as a distinct feature of vernacular Bosniak speech and language tradition; also, there are some changes in grammar, morphology and orthography that reflect the Bosniak pre-World War I literary tradition, mainly that of the Bosniak renaissance at the beginning of the 20th century.

Controversy

The name "Bosnian language" is a controversial issue for some Croats and Serbs, who also refer to it as the "Bosniak" language (bošnjački). Bosniak linguists however insist that the only legitimate name is "Bosnian" language (bosanski), and that that is the name that both Croats and Serbs should use. The controversy arises because the name "Bosnian" implies that it is the language of all Bosnians, while Bosnian Croats and Serbs reject that designation for their idioms.

Some Croatian linguists (Zvonko Kovač, Ivo Pranjković, Josip Silić) support the name "Bosnian" language. However, most Croatian linguists (Radoslav Katičić, Dalibor Brozović, Tomislav Ladan and others) hold that the term Bosnian language is the only one appropriate and that accordingly the terms Bosnian language and Bosniak language refer to two different things. The Croatian state institutions, such as the Central Bureau of Statistics, use both terms: "Bosniak" language was used in the 2001 census,^[16] while the census in 2011 used the term Bosnian language.^[17]

The majority of Serbian linguists hold that the term Bosniak language is the only one appropriate,^[18] which was agreed as early as 1990.^[19]

The original form of The Constitution of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina called the language "Bosniac language",^[20] until 2002 when it was changed in Amendment XXIX of the Constitution of the Federation by Wolfgang Petritsch.^[21] The original text of the Constitution of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina was agreed in Vienna, and was signed by Krešimir Zubak and Haris Silajdžić on March 18, 1994.^[22]

The language is called Bosnian language in the 1995 Dayton Accords^[23] and is concluded by observers to have received legitimacy and international recognition at the time.^[24]

The [25] United States Board on Geographic Names (BGN), and the Permanent Committee on Geographical Names (PCGN) recognize the Bosnian language. Furthermore the status of the Bosnian language is also recognized by bodies such as the United Nations, UNESCO, and translation and interpreting accreditation agencies,^[26] including internet translation services.

The constitution of Republika Srpska, the Serbian entity within Bosnia and Herzegovina, did not recognize any language or ethnic group other than Serbian.^[27] Bosniaks were mostly expelled from the territory controlled by the Serbs from 1992, but immediately after the war they demanded the restoration of their civil rights in those territories. The Bosnian Serbs refused to make reference to the Bosnian language in their constitution and as a result had constitutional amendments imposed by High Representative Wolfgang Petritsch. However, the constitution of Republika Srpska refers to it as the Language spoken by Bosniaks,^[28] because the Serbs were required to recognise the language officially, but wished to avoid recognition of its name.^[29]

Serbia includes the Bosnian language as an elective subject in primary schools.^[30] Montenegro officially recognizes the Bosnian language: its 2007 Constitution specifically states that although Montenegrin is the official language, also in official use are Serbian, Bosnian, Albanian and Croatian.^[9][31]

Differences between Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian

The differences between the Bosnian, Serbian, and Croatian literary standards are minimal. Although Bosnian employs more Turkish, Persian, and Arabic loanwords—commonly called orientalisms—it is very similar to both Serbian and Croatian in its written and spoken form.^[32]

See also

• Humac tablet
• Hval Manuscript
• Language secessionism in Serbo-Croatian
• Mutual intelligibility
• Oriental Institute in Sarajevo
• Pluricentric Serbo-Croatian language
• Dialects of Serbo-Croatian
• Ausbausprache, Abstandsprache and Dachsprache
• Muhamed Hevaji Uskufi Bosnevi
• Bosniaks

Notes

References

Further reading

• Alexander, Ronelle (2006). Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian, a Grammar: With Sociolinguistic Commentary. pp. 1–2. 
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•  This article incorporates public domain material from the CIA World Factbook document "2006 edition".

External links

• Basic Bosnian Phrases
• Learn Bosnian – List of Online Bosnian Courses
• English–Bosnian dictionary on Glosbe
• Gramatika bosanskoga jezika za srednje škole. Dio 1. i 2., Nauka o glasovima i oblicima. Sarajevo: National government of Bosnia and Hercegovina, National Printing House. 1890. 
• Буквар: за основне школе у вилаjету босанском. Sarajevo: Vilayet Printing House. 1867. 

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