Original scientific paper
1883 – an Attempt at Language Standardization in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Fate of Dlustuš’s primer
Matijas Baković
Matea Andrić
Abstract
The paper discusses an attempt at language standardization in Bosnia and Herzegovina at
the beginning of the Austro-Hungarian rule over these former Ottoman provinces. The year
1883 was crucial for phonemic orthography, which, with some variations, has remained in use
to this day. Dlustuš’s manuscript of the Primer will be used to demonstrate the changes that
were made and how orthography in Bosnia and Herzegovina changed. In order to understand
what exactly happened, the following years must be considered as well: 1850 – the year of
the launch of the first magazine intended for Bosnia and Herzegovina (Bosanski prijatelj)
and the acceptance of the Illyrian language concept; 1866 – the year of the opening of the
official printing office and the imposition of Karadžić’s reformed Cyrillic alphabet and
predominantly phonemic orthography, and 1878 – the year of the establishment of a new
government and the return to the previous linguistic tendencies based on Latin script and
morphophonemic orthography. Only by considering all these events, one can understand
why the new government made a linguistic turn in relation to the initial years of its rule.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
261260
URI
Publication date:
1.12.2020.
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