Three in One - The Language of Bosnia

Today I read over at Radio Sarajevo  that the Faculty of Philosophy in Sarajevo  has found all three 'dialects' of Bosnia -  Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian - derive from one single dialect. I tweeted this after I read it  out of amazement and irony, more than anything else .  Everyone (who has any interest in linguistics and in Bosnia) knows that this is nothing new. There is a language; it is called Serbo-Croatian and everyone in the ex-Yugoslavia, including Bosnia speaks it.

At the end of the day I was reviewing my Twitter feed and randomly ended up at East Journal, an Italian online forum for Politics and Culture.  Which is when I found yet again a reference in video form to this line of discussion. This kind of talk makes me angry.

The docu/video I saw is good. It's called 'Babel' and is about 25 minutes long. It talks about this new/old phenomena of exclusion based on linguistics which has been used since the war to exclude and belittle some part of the population. Today, it seems like it is working. The  film elucidates the absurdity of indulging such politics in a already ruined country that can not afford, in any case, to take any more division, on any level. (my words)

I guess the subject was a sort of mini trend today and naturally, I find it disturbing and heartbreaking.

In an indulgent moment I wondered if I lived there (which I do not and will not in the future)  where would I need to send my daughter to school? She would be segregated no doubt, but on what basis. Or rather, on what basis that would make sense?

She is half Catholic, half Muslim.
She is half Bosnian Croat, half Bosniak
She is American Bosnian
She is Bosnian American
What (!) is she?

If we lived in 'Croatian Bosnia' (and where is that exactly?) and she learned a Croatian Bosnian dialect would she be allowed to go to 'Croatian' school even though one of her parents is categorized by census as Muslim?

How would we seriously work it out? Is she to be cut in half?

I would like to see politicians and grassroots activism move on getting people enough food to eat, some sort of pensions, health care especially for the young & the elders. How about mental health care for those 20 years later still shivering from the trauma? What about figuring how to give work to all those able bodied humans who want to work? Oh and  justice...

No. There is no room for that. What is important is dialects and division.

Crazy making.

I hear Tea Turalija, who to my knowledge is a very bright and ambitious woman from predominantly Catholic Kupres, says to the camera '..here everything matters..' as she bemoans generations of maltreatment through linguicide. Of course everything matters especially if there is no forgetting every single thing ever done in the history of history. Ever.

Which naturally leads to no forgiving. A tit for a tat. Ancient tribal creed. Which logically leads to hate, division..insomma...no movement towards peace.

There is no one that has escaped some form of brutality, past or present, in Bosnia. At any given time it is certainly easy for the politics of hate to foster division.  Someone will gain power.  Sadly, the people seem to go blindly and talk in a puffed up manner, thinking they will be safe.

Doesn't anyone want to stop that old hate train?

Of the high moral values professed by the blessed and the faithful of Bosnia's churches, wouldn't it be natural to extend the love instead of spread the disease?

Faith in Language

 I love this quote from Moacyr Scliar that I found in the NYT today:

"It is in language that I have faith, as a vehicle for aesthetic expression and also — and above all else — as an instrument for changing the world in which we live.”

The Problem of Language

I have been reading about Mile Stojic the Bosnian poet and essayist, and found this article, 'The Dictionary Demons', which he wrote, to be very interesting. I am always intrigued about  language and how language evolves.  Mr. Stojic, who's other work I have not yet read, seems worth following.

While reading this article by  Stojic a reoccurring issue I have with people who I have met through social networking came up for me, once more. I considered involvement with a certain group on a creative project that I find fascinating all the more because it touches on personal and relative history, ornamentation, historic art and the feminine, all subjects which I study & write about.  I can't commit though.  The existing group is proud of their intense rigidity regarding what they consider 'the language problem' in the former Yugoslavia.

Seems really fanatic to me - I am sad that I will have to miss out on what could have been a cool collaboration because of this mental fascism which, is more than common in Bosnia today.

Many Bosnian Croats and  Bosnian Serbs point out that their original language (culture) has been repressed by Muslim culture. They intend to correct it  by rejecting 'Bosnian' and adhere to their original language.  The point is to eradicate any possible connection to the Turkification of the 'Serbo-Croat' language.

I find this ironic, not only because Bosnians (by this I mean anyone from Bosnia, independent of religion) had in the past prided themselves for tolerance and  'multi-cultural' history.  More, Serbo-Croatian, is a pluricentric language, and has been the standard since the beginning of the 19th century. Everyone speaks the 'same' language, and comprehends the 'other' without any problem.

It makes me shake my head. I guess that it is easier to hate than to collaborate. To divide rather than share. Though I understand that emotions are tense after the war it is unfortunate that the next generation learns to separate rather than heal. Again.

Good luck, kahvu drinkning, halva & cevap eating language purists. Any other names or words you might come up with will sound dumb to more than some and keep the fascism alive. I guess that is the point.