Original scientific paper

https://doi.org/10.15378/1848-9540.2016.39.01

Croatian Language Standardization and the Production of Nationalized Political Subjects through Language? Perspectives from the Social Sciences and Humanities

Andrew Hodges orcid.org/0000-0002-4505-7794 ; Center for Advanced Studies – Southeast Europe (CAS SEE), Rijeka, Croatia
Amelia Abercrombie ; Department of Social Anthropology, University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom
Marina Balažev orcid.org/0000-0002-6241-4343 ; Ministry of Science and Education of the Republic of Croatia, Zagreb, Croatia
James Costa orcid.org/0000-0002-2317-2804 ; Department of Linguistics / LACITO Research Laboratory (UMR CNRS 7107), Université Sorbonne Paris Cité, Paris, France
Mate Kapović orcid.org/0000-0001-7938-4323 ; Department of Linguistics, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Jelena Marković orcid.org/0000-0002-7436-6190 ; Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Research, Zagreb, Croatia
Tanja Petrović orcid.org/0000-0001-8105-8797 ; Institute of Culture and Memory Studies, Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Ivana Spasić orcid.org/0000-0002-4645-1160 ; Department of Sociology, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Srbia

Abstract

This paper focuses on language policy and social changes which have taken place in Croatia during and since the 1991-5 war. I first describe the historical background, the war and the nineties being marked by excesses of linguistic purism and prescriptivism, alongside the formation of post-Yugoslav states in which national belonging was key to defining citizenship. Through examining the relationship between changing linguistic and social orders, I raise a number of issues for discussion. I argue that the legal framework of minority language rights has consolidated and legitimated a nationalist imaginary, increasing social divisions and reinforcing hierarchies asserted by some nationalists between national categories. For this reason, I suggest that the uncritical endorsement of or promotion of linguistic diversity can be dangerous. Second, in an activist-anthropological vein, I discuss possible reasons why academics trained in the social sciences and humanities have rarely participated in sociolinguistic debates concerning the new Croatian standard. I suggest such discussions could greatly benefit from interventions by social scientists, so as to bring sociolinguistics into contact with other strands of the social sciences and humanities and move away from what I believe to be a problematic policy focus on "identity".

Keywords

language policy; activism; linguistic anthropology; Croatia

Hrčak ID:

170999

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/170999

Publication date:

21.12.2016.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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