Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-k7p5g Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-11T21:07:10.587Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The language that unites and the language that divides us: Why was Arabic kept and Serbo-Croatian abolished?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Dareg A. Zabarah
Dareg A. Zabarah*
Affiliation:
Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany
*
* Email: dareg@zabarah.de
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article explores why the Arabs chose to keep a common language, while the Serbs, Croats, Bosniaks and Montenegrins chose not to. The study argues that the main reason for this can be found in the ideological constrains resulting out of the salience and interaction between different religious and ethnic group building projects in former Yugoslavia and the Arab states. Political elites in both regions favored the ethnic and religious category to different extents. Language planning reflected and implemented the respective ideological imperatives resulting out of these processes. This led to different approaches in defining the common language and its subsequent standardization.

Keywords

language standardizationsociolinguisticsnation-buildingnationalismYugoslaviaArab countriesIslamOrthodoxyCatholicism
Type
Articles
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 40 , Issue 4 , July 2012 , pp. 545 - 559
Copyright
Copyright © 2012 Association for the Study of Nationalities 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

ʿAflaq Michel. Fī sabīl al-Ba't. Beirut: Dār a&tdotb;-&tdotb;alī'a lit-tibā'a wan-našr, 1970. Print.Google Scholar
al-&Hdotb;u⊡rī Sā&tdotb;iʿ. Al- Aʿmāl al-qaumīya li-Sā&tdotb;iʿ al-&Hdotb;u⊡rī: Ārā’ wa-a&hdotb;ādīt fī ‘l-qaumīya al-ʿarabīya. 18 vols. Beirut: Markaz Dirāsāt al-Wa&hdotb;da al-ʿArabīya, 1985, vol. 7. Print.Google Scholar
al-&Hdotb;u⊡rī Sā&tdotb;iʿ. Al- Aʿmāl al-qaumīya li-Sātiʿ al-&Hdotb;u⊡rī: Al- ʿUrūba auwalan! 18 vols. Beirut: Markaz Dirāsāt al-Wa&hdotb;da al-ʿArabīya, 1985, vol. 9. Print.Google Scholar
al-Rasheed, Madawi, ed. Kingdom Without Borders: Saudi Political, Religious and Media Frontiers. New York: Columbia UP, 2008. Print.Google Scholar
Babuna, Aydin. “The Bosnian Muslims and Albanians: Islam and Nationalism.” Nationalities Papers 32.2 (2004): 287–321. Print.Google Scholar
Badurina, Lada, Pranjković, Ivo, and Silić, Josip, eds. Jezični varijeteti i nacionalni identiteti: Prilozi poručavanju standardnih jezika utemeljenih na štokavštini. Zagreb: Disput, 2009. Print.Google Scholar
Banac, Ivo. The National Question in Yugoslavia: Origins, History, Politics. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1984. Print.Google Scholar
Behnstedt, Peter, and Woidich, Manfred. Arabische Dialektgeographie: Eine Einführung. Boston: Brill, 2005. Print.Google Scholar
Billig, Michael S. Banal nationalism. Los Angeles, CA: Sage, 1995. Print.Google Scholar
Boufalgha, Noureddinne. Morphologie und Syntax im Arabischen: Wege zur Erneuerung. Marburg: Tectum-Verl., 2008. Print.Google Scholar
Bougarel, Xavier. “Bosnian Muslims and the Yugoslav Idea.” Yugoslavism: Histories of a failed idea, 1918–1992. Ed. Djokić., Dejan Madison: U of Wisconsin P, 2003. 100–14. Print.Google Scholar
Brubaker, Rogers. “Ethnicity without groups.” Ethnicity Without Groups. Ed. Rogers Brubaker: Harvard UP, 2004. 7–27. Print.Google Scholar
Buchenau, Klaus. Orthodoxie und Katholizismus in Jugoslawien 1945–1991: Ein serbischkroatischer Vergleich. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2004. Balkanologische Veröffentlichungen 40. Print.Google Scholar
Bunce, Valerie. Subversive Institutions: The Design and the Destruction of Socialism and the State. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1999. Print.Google Scholar
Choueiri, Youssef M. Arab Nationalism, a History: Nation and State in the Arab World. Oxford: Blackwell, 2000. Print.Google Scholar
Coury, Ralph. “Encountering Pan-Arab Nationalism: A Culture War.” Being Arab: Arabism and the Politics of Recognition. Eds. Wise, Christopher and James, Paul Warren. North Carlton, Australia: Arena, 2010. 185–221. Print.Google Scholar
Crnogorska akademija Nauke i Umjetnosti, ed. Jezička situacija u Crnoj Gori: Norma i standardizacija. Podgorica, 2008. Print.Google Scholar
Cvetković-Sander. Sprachpolitik und nationale Identität im sozialistischen Jugoslawien (1945–1991). Serbokroatisch, Albanisch, Makedonisch und Slowenisch. Harrassowitz: Wiesbaden, 2011. Print.Google Scholar
Dawisha, Adeed. Arab Nationalism in the Twentieth Century: From Triumph to Despair. Princeton: Princeton UP, 2003. Print.Google Scholar
Despalatović, Elinor Murray. Ljudevit Gaj and the Illyrian Movement. Boulder Colo. East European Quarterly, 1975. Print.Google Scholar
Diem, Werner. Hochsprache und Dialekt im Arabischen: Untersuchungen zur heutigen arabischen Zweisprachigkeit. 2., unveränd. Aufl. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2006. Abhandlungen für die Kunde des Morgenlandes 41, 1. Print.Google Scholar
Djokić, Dejan. “(Dis)Integrating Yugoslavia.” Yugoslavism: Histories of a failed idea, 1918–1992. Ed. Djokić., Dejan Madison: U of Wisconsin P, 2003. 136–56. Print.Google Scholar
Elkhafaifi, Hussein M. “Arabic Language Planning in the age of Globalization.” Language Problems & Language Planning 26.3 (2002): 253–69. Print.Google Scholar
Findlow, Sally. “Higher Education and Linguistic Dualism in the Arab Gulf.” British Journal of Sociology and Education 27.1 (2006): 19–36. Print.Google Scholar
Fishman, Joshua A. Language and Nationalism: Two Integrative Essays. Rowley Mass. Newbury House P, 1972. Print.Google Scholar
Fishman, Joshua A. Language and Ethnicity in Minority Sociolinguistic Perspective. Clevedon et al. Multilingual Matters, 1989. Print.Google Scholar
Friedman, Francine. “The Muslim Slavs of Bosnia and Herzegowina (With Reference to the Sandžak of Novi Pazar): Islam as National Identity.” Nationalities Papers 21.8 (2000): 165–80. Print.Google Scholar
Gelvin, James. “Modernity and its discontents: on the durability of nationalism in the Arab Middle East.” Nations and Nationalism 5.1 (1999): 72–89. Print.Google Scholar
Grandits, Hannes. “Das Projekt jugoslawischer Identitätsbildung nach 1945: Perspektiven auf den Alltag.” Tagungsband des 4. Österreichischen Zeitgeschichtetages Graz 1999 (2000): 145–55. Print.Google Scholar
Grandits, Hannes. “Dynamics of Socialist Nation-Building: The Short Lived Programme of P a Yugoslav National Identity and Some Comparative Perspectives.” Dve domovini/Two Homelands 28 (2008): 15–28. Print.Google Scholar
Gröschel, Bernhard. Das Serbokroatische zwischen Linguistik und Politik: Mit einer Bibliographie zum postjugoslavischen Sprachenstreit. München: LINCOM Europa, 2009. LINCOM studies in Slavic linguistics 34. Print.Google Scholar
Haugen, Einar. Language Conflict and Language Planning: The Case of Modern Norwegian. Cambridge, Mass. Harvard UP, 1966. Print.Google Scholar
Hoppenbrouwers, Frans. “Winds of Change: Religious Nationalism in a Transformation Context.” Religion, State & Society 30.4 (2002): 305–16. Print.Google Scholar
ʿImāra Muhammad. Taiyārāt al-fikr al-islāmī. Beirut: Dār al-Wa&hdotb;da, 1985. Print.Google Scholar
Jović, Dejan. “Yugoslavism and Yugoslav Communism: From Tito to Kardelj.” Yugoslavism: Histories of a Failed Idea, 1918–1992. Ed. Djokić., Dejan Madison: U of Wisconsin P, 2003. 157–81. Print.Google Scholar
Kerr, Malcolm H. The Arab Cold War, 1958–1964: A Study of Ideology in Politics. London, New York and Toronto: Oxford UP, 1965. Print.Google Scholar
Kloss, Heinz. Die Entwicklung neuer germanischer Kultursprachen seit 1800. Düsseldorf: Schwann, 1978. Print.Google Scholar
Markaz Dirāsāt al-Wa&hdotb;da al-ʿArabīya, ed. Al- Mašārīʿ al-wa&hdotb;dawīya l-ʿarabīya 1913–2009: al-watāʾiq. Beirut: Markaz Dirāsāt al-Wa&hdotb;da al-ʿArabīya, 2009. Print.Google Scholar
Nikčević, Vojislav P. “Crnogosrski interdijalektalni/naddijalektalni (koine) standardni jezik.” Jezični varijeteti i nacionalni identiteti: Prilozi poručavanju standardnih jezika utemeljenih na štokavštini. Ed. Badurina, Lada, Pranjković, Ivo, and Silić, Josip. Zagreb: Disput, 2009. 147–67. Print.Google Scholar
Okuka, Milos. Eine Sprache – viele Erben: Sprachpolitik als Nationalisierungsinstrument in Ex-Jugoslawien. Klagenfurt: Wieser, 1998. Print.Google Scholar
Okuka, Milos. “Teorije o srpskohrvatskom standardnom jeziku.” Posebna Izdanja. Ed. Institut za jezik u Sarajevo. Sarajevo, 1990. 181–88. Print.Google Scholar
Pavlowitch, Kosta St. “The First World War and the Unification of Yugoslavia.” Yugoslavism: Histories of a Failed Idea, 1918–1992. Ed. Djokić., Dejan Madison: U of Wisconsin P, 2003. 27–42. Print.Google Scholar
Pavlowitch, Stevan K. “Serbia, Montenegro and Yugoslavia.” Yugoslavism: Histories of a failed idea, 1918–1992. Ed. Djokić., Dejan Madison: U of Wisconsin P, 2003. 57–70. Print.Google Scholar
Rusinow, Dennison. “The Yugoslav Idea Before Yugoslavia.” Yugoslavism: Histories of a Failed Idea, 1918–1992. Ed. Djokić., Dejan Madison: U of Wisconsin P, 2003. 11–26. Print.Google Scholar
Shoup, Paul. Communism and the Yugoslav National Question. New York and London: Columbia UP, 1968. Print.Google Scholar
Suleiman, Yasir. The Arabic Language and National Identity: A Study in Ideology. Edinburgh: Edinburgh UP, 2003. Print.Google Scholar
Tibi, Bassam. Vom Gottesreich zum Nationalstaat: Islam und panarabischer Nationalismus. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1987. Print.Google Scholar
Wise, Christopher, and James, Paul Warren, eds. Being Arab: Arabism and the P of Recognition. North Carlton, Australia: Arena Publ., 2010. Print.Google Scholar
Zabarah, Dareg. Das Bosnische auf dem Weg zur Standardsprache: Eine synchrone und diachrone Analyse der Sprachsituation in Bosnien und Herzegowina. Saarbrücken: VDM Verlag Dr. Müller, 2008. Print.Google Scholar
Zubaida, Sami. “Islam and Nationalism: Continuities and Contradictions.” Nations and Nationalism 10.4 (2004): 407–20. Print.Google Scholar