Language and Identity in the Balkans: Serbo-Croat and Its Disintegration Book

While the "Serbo-Croatian language" seemed solid to outsiders during the long decades of Yugoslavia's existence, inside the country there was very little consensus at all between Serbs and Croats about language issues. With the fall of Yugoslavia there were not only drastic pushes for distinct Serbian and Croatian languages, but vocal advocates for independent Bosnian and Montenegrin standard languages appeared as well. These developments of the 1990s and very early millennium are the subject of Robert D. Greenberg's Language and Identity in the Balkans, which was published in 2004. To enjoy this book, one doesn't need a proficient command of "Serbo-Croatian" or the languages that appeared in its wake, as all quotations are given in English translation with the original below in a footnote, but you will need at least some knowledge of the language(s) and Slavic historical linguistics.

Greenberg's book is very neatly broken down. First, we get an overview of 19th-century relations between Serbs and Croats aiming for a standard language in the age of nationalism. Then, he talks about the attempts in postwar Yugoslavia to either maintain a compromise Serbo-Croatian language or do away with it and assert a full-on Croatian standard. The bulk of the book consists of separate chapters for the debates over new Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin, and Serbian standard languages since 1990. Drawing on scholarly publications and the popular press, Greenberg describes the polemics of language advocates and the competing publications which aim to present new rules for word usage and orthography. Major personalities and their ties to state authorities (or lack thereof) are identified.

There was hardly a page here where I didn't think that the former Yugoslavia is a real mess, and Greenberg deserves credit for untangling all these arguments and presenting them in a way accessible to outsiders. The great downside of the book is that no second edition has appeared to take into account more recent developments. Greenberg was writing as rump Yugoslavia was transforming into the country officially called "Serbia and Montenegro", but shortly after that Montenegro declared its independence, which brought new pressures in language policy (a new 2009 orthography, for instance). The reader will also wonder how further Croatian has gone in drawing on the Cakavian or Kajkavian lexicon to further distinguish standard Croatian from Serbian.