Bosnian language

Bosnian bosanski
Pronunciation:	['bɔsanskiː]
Spoken in:	See below under "Official status", besides that as an immigrant's language spread over Central and Western Europe, as well as Northern America (by expatriates dating back to 1990s)
Region:	Southern Europe
Total speakers:	2.7 million
Language family:	Indo-European  Slavic   South Slavic    Western South Slavic     Bosnian
Official status
Official language in:	Bosnia and Herzegovina Montenegro
Regulated by:	No official regulation
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	bs
ISO 639-2:	bos
ISO 639-3:	bos
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

Bosnian language (Latin script: bosanski jezik) is a South Slavic language native to the Bosniak people. The language is notably spoken in the areas of Bosnia, the Bosniak-dominated region of Sandžak (in Serbia and Montenegro) and elsewhere. It is one of the standard versions of the Central-South Slavic diasystem which covers the region that was once known as Serbo-Croat from the 19th century until the early 1990s. It should be noted, however, that the Serbian, Croatian, and Bosniak languages are all mutually understandable.

The Bosnian alphabet is based on the Latin alphabet. The Cyrillic alphabet is accepted (chiefly to accommodate for its usage in Bosnia in the past, especially in former Yugoslavia), but seldom used in today's practice. The name Bosnian language is the commonly accepted name among Bosniak linguists, and the name used by the ISO-639 standard.

History

The modern Bosnian language uses the Latin alphabet. However, scripts other than Latin were used much earlier, most notably the indigenous Bosnian Cyrillic called Bosančica, which is literally translated as Bosnian script and dates back to the 10th/11th century. The oldest remnant of the languages Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian (the Humac tablet) found is written in this script. The script is of the greatest significance to Bosniak/Bosnian history and linguistics, since it is the one script that is purely native to Bosnia and also links Bosnian medieval monarchy (who used it) with medieval Bosnian religion (who used it first), in fact the script is to be found in many royal state documents and as well on old Bosnian tombs (Stećak). The substantial influence of Bosančica on medieval Bosnia has unfortunately made it a target of controversial debates and propaganda throughout the history of the rivalry between Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats which has led to the tendency of Croats and Serbs to deny it as Bosnian and instead claim it as "theirs" - despite its geographical origin (Bosnia). Other, less important, scripts used include: Begovica (used by Bosniak nobility). Bosniaks have also used an Arabic script adjusted to Bosnian language called Arebica.

In addition, the oldest South Slavic document is the Bosnian statehood charter from 1189, written by Bosnian ruler Kulin Ban (in Bosančica, Bosnian Cyrillic). Some other early mentionings include one from July 3, 1436, where, in the region of Kotor, a duke bought a girl that is described as: "Bosnian woman, heretic and in Bosnian language called Djevena".

The irony of the Bosnian language is that its speakers are, on the level of colloquial idiom, more linguistically homogenous than either Serbs or Croats, but failed, due to historical reasons, to standardize their language in the crucial 19th century. The first Bosnian dictionary, a rhymed Bosnian-Turkish glossary authored by Muhamed Hevaji Uskufi, was composed in 1631 . But unlike e.g. Croatian dictionaries, which were written and published regularly, Uskufi's work remained an isolated foray. At least two factors were decisive:

• The Bosniak elite wrote almost exclusively in foreign (Turkish, Arabic, Persian) languages. Vernacular literature, written in modified Arabic script, was thin and sparse.
• The Bosniaks' national emancipation lagged behind that of the Serbs and Croats, and since denominational rather than cultural or linguistic issues played the pivotal role, a Bosnian language project didn't arouse much interest or support.

Prescriptions for the language of Bosniaks in the 19th and 20th centuries were written outside of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Probably the most authentic Bosniak writers (the so-called "Bosniak revival" at the turn of the century) wrote in an idiom that is closer to the Croatian form than to the Serbian one (western Štokavian-Ijekavian idiom, Latin script), but which possessed unmistakably recognizable Bosniak traits, primarily lexical ones. The main authors of the "Bosniak renaissance" were the polymath, politician and poet Safvet-beg Bašagić, the "poète maudit" Musa Ćazim Ćatić and the storyteller Edhem Mulabdić.

In the days of Communist Yugoslavia the lexis was Serbianized but the Latin script became dominant; the official name was Serbo-Croatian. After the collapse of Yugoslavia Bosnians remained the sole inheritors of the Serbo-Croatian hybrid.

On a formal level, the Bosnian language is beginning to take a distinctive shape: lexically, Islamic-Oriental loan words are becoming more frequent; phonetically and phonologically, the phoneme "h" is reinstated in many words as a distinct feature of 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 for the language is a controversial issue for neighbouring Croats and Serbs. Croats and Serbs call their languages Croatian and Serbian. The constitution of the Republika Srpska, where the language is also official, refers to it as the "Language spoken by Bosniaks" ("Jezik kojim govore Bošnjaci"). The use of the language will remain an issue as the three peoples of Bosnia and Hercegovina will continue to call the spoken language that which identifies their ethnic background. Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims) choose the language Bosnian, Serbs continue call their language Serbian, and Croats call the language Croatian. The constitutions of RS and FBIH recognize all three languages, it is the people that refuse to settle on a name for what is overall the same language.

Bosniak language (bošnjački jezik) is the prescribed name of the language in Serbian^[1], but the Serbian Ministry of Education recognizes it as Bosnian. Some Croatian linguists (Radoslav Katičić, Dalibor Brozović and Tomislav Ladan) consider the appropriate name to be "Bosniak" rather than "Bosnian". In their opinion, the appellation "Bosnian" refers to the whole country, therefore implying that "Bosnian" is the national standard language of all Bosnians, not only Bosniaks. Some other Croatian linguists (Zvonko Kovač, Ivo Pranjković) recognize it as Bosnian. Bosniak linguists and intellectuals (for instance Muhamed Filipović) consider interpretation of some Croatian and Serbian linguists as nationalistic actions against Bosniaks and their identity, as the situation in Serbia and Croatia was very anti-Bosniak in the light of Bosnian War.

The Republic of Montenegro didn't recognize the Bosnian language in the last census, but "Bosniak language". It has come so that the majority of the populace of Plav speaks "Bosniak language" according to the 2003 census, while a most peculiar thing could be noticed in Rozaje - most speak "Other languages" (the Bosniaks in majority had to tick "other" and then write down "Bosnian language"). It is so that 19,906 people declared their language "Bosniak language", while only 14,172 "Bosnian language". Recently adopted constitution of Montenegro recognizes the Bosnian language as one of the official languages spoken in Montenegro.^[2]

It is important to observe that the Dayton Peace Accord officially recognizes and specifies the Bosnian language as a distinct language spoken in Bosnia and Herzegovina by Bosniaks. This distinction and official recognition of the Bosnian language is further acknowledged by signatures of the former presidents of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Alija Izetbegović), Croatia (Franjo Tuđman) and Serbia (Slobodan Milošević). As such the Bosnian language is officially recognized by constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina as well.

No Croatian and Serbian linguistic authorities had been contacted when this issue was settled. According to Croatian participant Radoslav Dodig, the renaming of "Bosniak" into "Bosnian" was not a process, but a semi-hidden manoeuvre.^[3]

Although the Bosnian language is spoken mostly by Bosniaks, there are also Bosnian Croats and Serbs in Sarajevo, Zenica and Tuzla regions who claim to speak Bosnian. For instance, Željko Komšić, a Croat member of Bosnian Presidency calls his mother tongue, the Bosnian language.

Bosnian, Serbian, and Croatian are examples of ausbauspraches, since they are largely mutually intelligible and many people say that they are all one language formerly known as Serbo-Croatian.

Phonology

Vowels

The Bosnian vowel system is simple, with only five vowels. All vowels are monophthongs. The oral vowels are as follows:

It should also be mentioned the that letter "R" stands as both a consonant and a vowel. It is considered a vowel when surrounded by two other consonants. For example in the words: brzo (quick), trn (thorn), mrk (dark), vrlo (very).

Consonants

The consonant system is more complicated, and its characteristic features are series of affricate and palatal consonants. As in English and most other Indo-European languages west of India, voicedness is phonemic, but aspiration is not.

In consonant clusters all consonants are either voiced or voiceless. All the consonants are voiced (if the last consonant is normally voiced) or voiceless (if the last consonant is normally voiceless). This rule does not apply to approximants — a consonant cluster may contain voiced approximants and voiceless consonants; as well as to foreign words (Washington would be transcribed as VašinGton/ВашинГтон), personal names and when consonants are not inside of one syllable.

R can be syllabic, playing the role of a vowel in certain words (occasionally, it can even have a long accent). For example, the tongue-twister na vrh brda vrba mrda involves four words with syllabic r. A similar feature exists in Serbian, Croatian, Macedonian, Slovene, Czech, and Slovak. Very rarely, l can be syllabic (in the name for the river "Vltava", 'l' is syllabic) as well as lj, m, n and nj in jargon.

Differences to similar languages

Main article: Differences in standard Serbian, Croatian and Bosnian

External links

• rjecnik.ba English-Bosnian, German-Bosnian and Latin-Bosnian On-line Dictionary (Bosnian)/(English)/(German)
• Rijecnik.org English Bosnian Dictionary (Bosnian)
• Ethnologue report for Bosnian (English)
• Bosnian language (Bosnian)/(English)
• Learn Bosnian language: Basic phrases (English)
• The Oslo Corpus of Bosnian Texts (English)
• Grammar of Bosnian language issued 1890 (Bosnian)
• English-Bosnian-English On-line Dictionary
• Bosnian bilingual dictionaries
• A short English-Bosnian-Japanese phrasebook (Renewal) incl. sound file

References

1. ↑ Board for Standardisation of Serbian Language (February 16 1998). "1". Три питања и три одговора. Decision No. 1. http://www.rastko.org.yu/filologija/odbor/odluka001_c.html. 
2. ↑ Radio Free Europe: Postignut dogovor o prvom Ustavu nezavisne Crne Gore
3. ↑ Sanoptikum