Given that language is not only a means of transmitting culture, but also a powerful instrument of power, it is obvious that in Croatia the linguistic differentiation of the Croatian language from the Serb was and has worked in particular in the jargon state administrative and military . A large amount of words in the political jargon was born after 1990. It started with terms directly related to the birth of the new political system, which in fact in Croatia was marked by the election victory of HDZ. In fact, the first word was changed glasanje - which means vote, replaced by glasovanje, so the term glasanje was relegated to the past, along with the socialist system and the ideal of brotherhood and unity of Serbs and Croats.
The passport, which has always been in Croatia as in Serbia was called pasos, became overnight putovnica, a term derived from the word putovati - that means traveling. The sign of honor became by orden to odličije. Other examples: the term "development discourse" passed by tok razgovora to tijek razgovora, the public defender from javni tužilac became Pucki pravobranitelj, stop changed from uhapsiti in uhititi. The ambassador from Ambasador became veleposlanik (word made up of large and sails = poslanik = emissary), while the term console, for some reason, was konzul. The word sekretär, secretary, was expelled from the administrative language and was replaced by former Slavic synonymous tajnik. The audience went from gledaoci to gledatelji - television viewers that propagated the new Croatian language.
Europe, so far unfulfilled dream scope and Croats, which materialized in their imaginary form of shop windows Graz or Trieste, became Europe by Evropa, except that according to the same logic should tell Kaukaz for Caucasus and Kavkaz like today is referred to in both Croatian and Serbian in the distant mountain range between Europe and Asia. I wonder if this was an oversight, since for the Croats the East was no longer important, or if someone realized that a Croatian word Kaukaz is unpronounceable. In honor of this inclination toward the West, then, and in homage to the new geopolitical interests Croatian cinema in the center of Zagreb has always called Balkan became Europe.
At the same time to turn to the new Europe Croatia, almost all so-called foreign words, those of Greek, Latin or English were expelled from school manuals and political language. Why? Why also used by the Serbs. If the first to indicate the plane could be used at will or words avion zrakoplov, from day to day to use the term became zrakoplov (word made ploviti = navigate and zrak = air). Similarly, if you were first normal use as synonyms aerodrom or Zracna luka to indicate the airport,
the second of a sudden became the only word allowed. The same tried to do with the term helicopter in Croatian as Serbian is said helikopter, but fortunately the new term was never accepted as it is considered too ridiculous. Similarly, the director of the school became direktor ravnatelj, and the task to do at home to Domača zadaća changed in domaci uradak.
Some even changed their names or geographic locations. So Banija region, historically home to a large number of Serbs, after the operation Lightning 1995, which ended with the expulsion of the Serbs, not only changed its ethnic configuration, but in honor of the great victory changed its name in Banovina.
With the birth of the army Croatian, all the names of the degrees of army officers were changed. He did his best to differentiate as much as possible dall'Armata Yugoslavia. The barracks from Kasarna became vojarna, the degrees of major and captain, who in Croatian-Serbian play major, Kapetan were replaced by terms such as bojnik and satnik.
The only misfortune of this great work of creation of the new Croatian language was that some international terms were replaced with various Slavic words coined ad hoc. In this way, thanks to the root of these neocomposti Slavic, Croatian was always understood by the Serbs, and Croats for European languages became more and more distant. To look good, rather than a process of nation-building or rebuilding through the creation of language, it was a simple elimination of a large number of synonyms and therefore an impoverishment of language.
There are states and peoples who despite having a heart its own particular national characteristics and their State, they admit without difficulty that they share with other people their own language. In fact, probably, do not go so ever to support that speak two different languages with a tenacity equal to that shown by Serbs and Croats. For example, an Austrian hard to argue that its language, at least the official and literary, is different from that spoken by the Germans, and for the same reason you do not think that the use of the German language would question his Austrian national identity. The insistence with which many linguists and ideologues of the States which have emerged on the territory of the former Yugoslavia, marking the difference between Serbian and Croatian, in case there is suspicion that indeed there is a substantial difference between the two peoples. In fact, the presence of the zeal of language purists, and their work through television and newspapers, it should be noted that the new Croatian language has not eradicated dialects, nor overwhelmed their use. Often the differences between the various dialects in Croatia itself are greater than those between the standard literary language Croatian and Serbian.
Thus, for example, the dialect Zagreb can be more comprehensible to a Belgrade since both dialects are filled with so-called Germanisms, that one Split, whose dialect is unintelligible without knowledge of a minimum or more precisely of the Venetian dialect. As if that were not enough, although Croatia was not introduced the etymological spelling, was allowed as desired, in the Balkan-style absurd application of the concept of democracy, to use for some words, even the etymological spelling. So it is that for example, two brothers of different ages in the same elementary school, studying two different spellings, with the only difference being that one has a teacher a little 'more zealous than a linguistic purism.
Part 5.
After 1991, not only Croats but Serbs have been trying to reinvent their language. Suddenly, in Serbia you had to write only in the Cyrillic alphabet to honor orthodoxy. At the same time, many in Bosnia were busy to invent an imaginary Bosnian language. But Serbs and Croats understand each other perfectly. And when they meet in the world, in contexts truly foreign to both, for example nell'ambita Europe, communicate with each other without problems. When asked which language to communicate, with a little 'embarrassment, perhaps because conscious of the absurdity of their situation, they say: Nasim jezikom (in our language) without further clarify what is this "our language" - the language of understanding each other.
If a time to hold together Serbs, Croats, Muslims and Montenegrins was the conception of brotherhood and unity sealed by the existence of a common state, I wonder if now the link is not in the sense of bewilderment and confusion in front of their past and their future. What are the consequences of linguistic separatism today is too early to say, but if you judge by past experience we must conclude that the peoples of the former Yugoslavia have always found a common language, despite the divisions and divergent interests.
Marina Abramović, the most famous contemporary artist of the former Yugoslavia, winner of the Venice Biennale in 1997, speaking of his work Balkan Baroque noted: "Balkan Baroque is the wealth of the mind, or rather a kind of irrationality, madness typical of a specific geographic area. I believe that the environment, and especially the geographical configuration, it is extremely important for the formation of collective psychology. The Balkans is a place where East meets West, then a place where two opposing civilizations are in contact and mix causing the inconsistency of our nature. " In full agreement with Abramović, the geopolitical Georges Prevelakis observes in his book The Balkans: "With regard to the internal forces in the Balkans, history shows that the best and the worst are both possible, and that the forces of convergence are as important as of divergence. So the determining factor seems to be the geopolitical environment. (...) For better or for worse the Balkan nations are able to go to extremes. Undoubtedly one of these extremes is the dispute between Serbs and Croats in their language.
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