| Declaration on the Status and Name of the Croatian Literary Language | |
The Declaration was published in the March 17, 1967 issue of Telegram.
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| Created | March 17, 1967 |
| Location | Zagreb, SR Croatia, SFR Yugoslavia |
| Author(s) | elements of the Croatian intelligentsia |
The Declaration on the Status and Name of the Croatian Literary Language (Croatian: Deklaracija o nazivu i položaju hrvatskog književnog jezika) was a document brought by Croat scholars. The declaration was published on March 13, 1967 in the Telegram, Yugoslav newspapers for social and cultural issues, nr. 359, 17 March 1967. It contributed significantly towards the conserving of the independence of the Croatian language inside the SFR Yugoslavia, because its demands were later granted by the Yugoslav authorities in 1974.
This document addressed the Sabor of SR Croatia and the Assembly of SFR Yugoslavia, stating:
In the state administrative system, in the means of public and mass-communications, as well as in the language of the federal army, federal governing bodies, legislature, diplomacy and political organizations the Croatian language is being pushed out and brought into unequal position, into the level of province speech, through the imposing of a "state language" [Serbo-Croatian].[1]
The declaration prompted Pavle Ivić to respond with his 1971 monograph Srpski narod i njegov jezik ("The Serbian People and Their Language").[2] The signers of the declaration demanded the equality of the four Yugoslav languages and the use of the Croatian literary language in schools and media. State authorities were accused of imposing of Serbian as official language. A unitarianist trend was strongest in the language area, but resistance to that policy was evident.
Yugounitarists, especially those of Croat origin, and Greater Serbian elements, comprehended that theirs final goal was essentially endangered and that Croat linguistic mutiny must be energically broken. The force and drasticity of reaction had a goal of intimidation and breaking of moral; yugounitarists wanted to create the atmosphere of apathy and lowness of spirits among Croat masses and intellectuals, even bigger one than it existed before the Declaration... (...) The declaration proved that the Novi Sad agreement was a house of cards.
The demands were rejected, and the Croatian Spring (MASPOK) movement was stopped. However, the Declaration were taken into consideration in the new Yugoslav constitution of 1974. Nearly all requests were granted in the formulation, and remained in effect until the breakup of Yugoslavia.
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