Speeding up language change

Abstract

Abstract This chapter offers an interpretation of a most unusual spectacle—the politically driven multiplication of a living language before the eyes of its native speakers. The language is Serbo-Croatian, until recently the principal language of Yugoslavia, a country likewise fragmented. Following an account of the emergence of Serbo-Croatian and its subsequent gradual replacement with four successor languages (Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian, and Montenegrin), the focus shifts to a detailed discussion of one notable reaction to these developments, namely the publication of a Declaration on the Common Language in 2017. This attention-catching document, drafted by a group of eminent intellectuals from the region, emphasized that the four official languages linguistically remain different varieties of a single polycentric standard language. It warned against the separatist trends in the four states which created a growing gap between language policies and linguistic reality, with serious practical consequences for the lives of ordinary people.