Linguist on Bosnian: Language can't be named after country

Linguist on Bosnian: Language can't be named after country

The language spoken by Bosniaks can be called Bosniak, after the nation, but under no circumstances can it be Bosnian, after the country, says Ivan Klajn for "Blic" .

The Serbian linguist, who heads the Committee for the Standardization of the Serbian Language, told: "We issued a statement and there's nothing to add to it."

"A language can be called Bosniak, but it is not different from Serbian or Croatian. It can be named after the people who speak it, but not after a state," Klajn told the daily on Tuesday, adding that the Committee has been "quite clear on that point."

Several days after the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (SANU) informed the public that the Bosniak or Bosnian language does not exists, the Bosniak Academy of Sciences and Arts from Novi Pazar in southwestern Serbia responded with strongly-worded and serious accusations against SANU.

Deputy President of the Bosniak National Council (BNV) Esad Dzudzo announced on Monday that "additional declarations on the Bosniak language as the language classes are taught in" will be carried out in schools in Nova Varos, Prijepolje, and Priboj - "because there were obstructions in the past period, as well as various kinds of pressures on the parents' free will."

Dzudzo told a news conference that the same kind of declarations will be carried out - as decided by Education Minister Srdjan Verbic - in some "institutions" in Novi Pazar Sjenica, and Tutin.

Dzudzo also said the holding of classes in Bosnian meant that the process of de-assimilation had begun of the Sandzak Bosniaks in Serbia, a statement said.

Last year 8,343 students attended classes taught in Bosnian,...