The (re-)birth of Bosnian: Comparative perspectives on language planning in Bosnia-Herzegovina

Language, identity and politics have long been intertwined in the Balkans. The region's historical role as a border zone that demarcated religions and entire civilizations contrasts sharply with the linguistic continuum that spans the former Yugoslavia. This disconnect has resulted in linguistic tensions that cannot be understood without reference to the cultural and political context of the region.; Such language conflicts are not unique to the Balkans, but may well be a sociolinguistic universal. Languages may be redefined, renamed, split, or joined, often during drastic political change. This dissertation takes a comparative approach to such processes in order to shed light on recent attempts to implement language change in Bosnia-Herzegovina.; In Chapter 1 I discuss language planning theory and the contributions of sociolinguistics to problems of standardization and variation in language. In Chapter 2 I develop a comparative perspective through case studies of language planning issues in the histories of Norwegian, Hindi/Urdu, and Macedonian. In the following chapter I review the history of standardization in the Central South Slavic speech territory, with particular attention to the links between a growing national consciousness on the part of Bosnian Muslims, and calls for a Bosnian standard language. In Chapter 4, the results of data collected from print media in Bosnia-Herzegovina demonstrate that attempts to codify characteristically Bosniac features have met with little success. In Chapter 5 I compare and contrast language planning in Bosnia-Herzegovina with the case studies of Norwegian, Hindi/Urdu, and Macedonian.; Successful implementation of a separate Bosnian standard would expand Central South Slavic from a bimodal to a trimodal pluricentric language, with Bosnian as the standard language for Bosnian Muslims. Codification of a Bosnian standard language faces formidable challenges due to the deep divisions in Bosnian society. The future of a Bosnian standard, and whether Sarajevo usage would constitute a third “center of gravity” or merely a “peripheral center,” depends on political and cultural developments as Bosnians seek to resolve the contradictions of ethnic, linguistic, and national identity.