Bosnian language
Encyclopedia
Bosnian is a South Slavic language
, spoken by Bosniaks
. As a standardized
form of the Shtokavian dialect
, it is one of the three official languages of Bosnia and Herzegovina
.
The same subdialect of Shtokavian is also the basis of standard Croatian
, Serbian
, and Montenegrin
, so all are mutually intelligible. Up until the dissolution of former SFR Yugoslavia, they were treated as a unitary Serbo-Croatian language
, and that term is still used to refer to the common base (vocabulary, grammar and syntax) of what are today officially four national standards. The Bosnian standard uses both Latin and Cyrillic alphabet
. The first dictionary in the Bosnian language was printed in the early 17th century, while first dictionary in Serbian was printed in the early 19th century.
Sometimes, the name of the language is referred to as Bosniak (also spelled "Bosniac"; bošnjački), mostly by Croats and Serbs stating it is the standard language just of ethnic Bosniaks, not of ethnic Croats and Serbs who respectively use Croatian or Serbian language standard.
called bosančica (literally "Bosnian script") and dates back to the 10th/11th century. The Humac tablet
, one of the oldest Bosnian literacy monuments, is written in this script. The script is of the greatest significance to Bosnian history and linguistics, since it is the one script that is purely native to Bosnia and Herzegovina and is linked to the Bosnian medieval monarchy and the medieval Bosnian religion
where it was used abundantly. It can also be found in many royal state documents and as well on old stećak
s. The substantial influence of bosančica on medieval Bosnia has unfortunately made it a target of controversial debates and propaganda throughout the history which has led to the tendency of some Croat and Serb philologists and paleographers to deny the exclusivity of association of the script with medieval Bosnian state, and associate it to Croatian and Serbian cultural provenience, despite its geographical origin and the historical prevalence of usage. Other scripts used include: begovica (used by Bosniak nobility) and arebica
– Arabic script adjusted to write Slavic speech, also chiefly used by Bosniak nobility during the Ottoman era.
In addition, the oldest South Slavic document is the Bosnian statehood charter from 1189, written by Bosnian ruler Kulin Ban in Bosnian Cyrillic. Some other early mentions include one from July 3, 1436, where, in the region of Kotor
, a duke bought a girl that is described as: "Bosnian woman, heretic
and in Bosnian language called Djevena".
The irony of the Bosnian language is that its speakers are, on the level of colloquial idiom, more linguistically homogeneous than either Serbs or Croats but they failed, for the historical reasons outlined below, to standardize their language in the crucial 19th century. The first Bosnian dictionary, a rhymed Bosnian–Turkish glossary authored by Muhamed Hevaji Uskufi, was composed in 1631 . But unlike e.g. Croatian dictionaries, which were written and published regularly, Uskufi's work remained an isolated foray. At least two factors were decisive:
Prescriptions for the language of Bosniaks in the 19th and 20th centuries were written outside of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Probably the most authentic Bosniak writers (the so-called "Bosniak revival" at the turn of the century) wrote in an idiom that is closer to the Croatian
form than to the Serbian
one (western Štokavian-Ijekavian idiom, Latin script), but which possessed unmistakably recognizable Bosniak traits, primarily lexical ones. The main authors of the "Bosniak renaissance" were the polymath, politician and poet Safvet-beg Bašagić, the "poète maudit" Musa Ćazim Ćatić
and the storyteller Edhem Mulabdić.
During the Austro-Hungarian occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina
, Bosnian was introduced as the sole official language; it was the language of all Bosnians: Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats. This was in conjunction with administrator Benjamin Kallay
's promotion of Bošnjaštvo, a policy that aimed to inspire in Bosnia's people 'a feeling that they belong to a great and powerful nation' and viewed Bosnians
as "speaking the Bosnian language and divided into three religions with equal rights." With the death of Kallay the policy was abandoned and in 1907 the name was changed to Serbo-Croatian, and this was the official language of Bosnia and Herzegovina throughout the parliamentary period, from annexation until the dissolution of Austria-Hungary after World War I.
In the days of Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
the lexis was influenced by standard Serbo-Croatian
and the Latin script became dominant. The official language name was Serbo-Croatian.
On a formal level, the Bosnian language began to take a distinctive shape in the 1990s and 2000s: lexically, Islamic-Oriental loan words are becoming more frequent; phonetically: the phoneme /x/ is reinstated in many words as a distinct feature of vernacular Bosniak speech and language tradition; also, there are some changes in grammar, morphology and orthography that reflect the Bosniak pre-World War I
literary tradition, mainly that of the Bosniak renaissance at the beginning of the 20th century. The legal distinction occurred in the mid 1990s. The 1993 language law declared that there was a single official language for Bosnians: "In the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Ijekavian standard literary language of the three constitutive nations is officially used, designated by one of the three terms: Bosnian, Serbian, Croatian. Both alphabets, Latin and Cyrillic, are equal." However, the 1994 constitution declared that these were three official languages: "The official languages of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina
shall be: Bosnian language, Croat language and Serb language. The official scripts shall be Latin and Cyrillic."
The constitution of Republika Srpska
, the Serbian entity within Bosnia and Herzegovina, did not recognize any language or ethnic group other than Serbian. Bosniaks were mostly expelled from the territory controlled by the Serbs from 1992, but immediately after the war demanded to restore their civil rights on those territories. The Bosnian Serbs refused to make references to the Bosnian language in their constitution and as a result had constitutional amendments imposed by High Representative
Wolfgang Petritsch
. However, the constitution of Republika Srpska refers to it as the "Language spoken by Bosniaks", due to the fact that the Serbs had to officially recognize it, but still avoid recognition of its name.
The International Organization for Standardization
(ISO), United States Board on Geographic Names
(BGN), and the Permanent Committee on Geographical Names (PCGN) recognize the Bosnian language. Furthermore the status of the Bosnian language is also recognized by bodies such as the United Nations
, UNESCO
, and translation and interpreting accreditation agencies.
Serbia includes the Bosnian language as an elective subject in primary schools. Montenegro
officially recognizes the Bosnian language, as its 2007 Constitution
specifically states that while Montenegrin is the "official language," also "in official use are Serbian, Bosnian, Albanian and Croatian languages."
and Serbs
, and as was mentioned above, it is alternatively referred to as "Bosniak" (bošnjački; also spelled "Bosniac"). Of the three Bosnian ethnicities (Bosniaks, Croats, and Serbs) only the Bosniak
ethnicity overwhelmingly speak the Bosnian language. The name "Bosnian language" is controversial for those Serbs and Croats who think the name of the language implies it is the language of all Bosnians, which includes Bosnian Croats and Serbs. Croats and Serbs mostly use the Croatian
and the Serbian
, respectively. It should be noted that all three languages are mutually intelligible and are examples of ausbauspraches. Due to the conjunction of historical circumstances, all are essentially identical due to being codified on the same Neoshtokavian dialect, with a number of people identifying their language as the unified Serbo-Croatian language
.
A number of Croatian linguists, specifically Radoslav Katičić
, Dalibor Brozović
, and Tomislav Ladan
, consider the appropriate name to be "Bosniak" rather than "Bosnian" whilst some other Croatian linguists (Zvonko Kovač, Ivo Pranjković
) recognize it as Bosnian. In the opinion of the former, the appellation "Bosnian" refers to the whole country, therefore implying that "Bosnian" is the national standard language of all Bosnians, not only Bosniaks. According to Croatian participant Radoslav Dodig, the renaming of "Bosniak" into "Bosnian" was not a process, but a semi-hidden maneuver.
system is simple, with only five vowels. All vowels are monophthong
s. The oral vowels are as follows:
The letter r can also represent a vowel, when surrounded by two other consonants as in the words brzo (quick), trn (thorn), mrk (dark), vrlo (very).
system is more complicated, and its characteristic features are series of affricate and palatal
consonants. As in English and most other Indo-European languages
west of India, voicedness is phonemic
, but aspiration
is not.
In consonant cluster
s, all obstruents are either voiced or voiceless depending on the voicing of the final consonant in the cluster. This rule does not always apply to foreign words (Washington would be transcribed as VašinGton/ВашинГтон), personal names and across syllable boundaries.
/r/ can be syllabic, playing the role of the syllable nucleus in certain words (occasionally, it can even have a long accent). For example, the tongue-twister
na vrh brda vrba mrda involves four words with syllabic /r/. A similar feature exists in Serbian
, Croatian
, Macedonian
, Slovene, Czech
, and Slovak
. Very rarely, /l/ can be syllabic (in the name for the river Vltava, for example) as well as lj, m, n and nj in jargon
.
Bosnian-Turkish Dictionary (1631.)
South Slavic languages
The South Slavic languages comprise one of three branches of the Slavic languages. There are approximately 30 million speakers, mainly in the Balkans. These are separated geographically from speakers of the other two Slavic branches by a belt of German, Hungarian and Romanian speakers...
, spoken by Bosniaks
Bosniaks
The Bosniaks or Bosniacs are a South Slavic ethnic group, living mainly in Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a smaller minority also present in other lands of the Balkan Peninsula especially in Serbia, Montenegro and Croatia...
. As a standardized
Standard language
A standard language is a language variety used by a group of people in their public discourse. Alternatively, varieties become standard by undergoing a process of standardization, during which it is organized for description in grammars and dictionaries and encoded in such reference works...
form of the Shtokavian dialect
Shtokavian dialect
Shtokavian or Štokavian is the prestige dialect of the Serbo-Croatian language, and the basis of its Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian, and Montenegrin standards...
, it is one of the three official languages of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina , sometimes called Bosnia-Herzegovina or simply Bosnia, is a country in Southern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. Bordered by Croatia to the north, west and south, Serbia to the east, and Montenegro to the southeast, Bosnia and Herzegovina is almost landlocked, except for the...
.
The same subdialect of Shtokavian is also the basis of standard Croatian
Croatian language
Croatian is the collective name for the standard language and dialects spoken by Croats, principally in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Serbian province of Vojvodina and other neighbouring countries...
, Serbian
Serbian language
Serbian is a form of Serbo-Croatian, a South Slavic language, spoken by Serbs in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia and neighbouring countries....
, and Montenegrin
Montenegrin language
Montenegrin is a name used for the Serbo-Croatian language as spoken by Montenegrins; it also refers to an incipient standardized form of the Shtokavian dialect of Serbo-Croatian used as the official language of Montenegro...
, so all are mutually intelligible. Up until the dissolution of former SFR Yugoslavia, they were treated as a unitary Serbo-Croatian language
Serbo-Croatian language
Serbo-Croatian or Serbo-Croat, less commonly Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian , is a South Slavic language with multiple standards and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro...
, and that term is still used to refer to the common base (vocabulary, grammar and syntax) of what are today officially four national standards. The Bosnian standard uses both Latin and Cyrillic alphabet
Cyrillic alphabet
The Cyrillic script or azbuka is an alphabetic writing system developed in the First Bulgarian Empire during the 10th century AD at the Preslav Literary School...
. The first dictionary in the Bosnian language was printed in the early 17th century, while first dictionary in Serbian was printed in the early 19th century.
Sometimes, the name of the language is referred to as Bosniak (also spelled "Bosniac"; bošnjački), mostly by Croats and Serbs stating it is the standard language just of ethnic Bosniaks, not of ethnic Croats and Serbs who respectively use Croatian or Serbian language standard.
History
The modern Bosnian language uses the Latin alphabet. However, scripts other than Latin were used much earlier, most notably the indigenous Bosnian CyrillicBosnian Cyrillic
Bosnian Cyrillic or Croatian Cyrillic, widely known as Bosančica, is an extinct Cyrillic script, that originated in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It was widely used in Bosnia and Croatia . Its name in Bosnian and Croatian is bosančica or bosanica, which can literally be translated as Bosnian script...
called bosančica (literally "Bosnian script") and dates back to the 10th/11th century. The Humac tablet
Humac tablet
Humac tablet is one of the oldest literacy monuments from Bosnia and Herzegovina, dated to the 10th/11th century. It is found in the village of Humac near Ljubuški in Hercegovina, containing an inscription in Bosnian Cyrillic script, as well as a few Glagolitic letters...
, one of the oldest Bosnian literacy monuments, is written in this script. The script is of the greatest significance to Bosnian history and linguistics, since it is the one script that is purely native to Bosnia and Herzegovina and is linked to the Bosnian medieval monarchy and the medieval Bosnian religion
Bosnian Church
The Bosnian Church is historically thought to be an indigenous branch of the Bogomils that existed in Bosnia during the Middle Ages. Adherents of the church called themselves simply Krstjani...
where it was used abundantly. It can also be found in many royal state documents and as well on old stećak
Stecak
The Stećci , are monumental medieval tombstones that lie scattered across Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the border parts of Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia. An estimated 60,000 are found within the borders of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the rest of 10,000 are found in Croatia, Serbia, and Montenegro...
s. The substantial influence of bosančica on medieval Bosnia has unfortunately made it a target of controversial debates and propaganda throughout the history which has led to the tendency of some Croat and Serb philologists and paleographers to deny the exclusivity of association of the script with medieval Bosnian state, and associate it to Croatian and Serbian cultural provenience, despite its geographical origin and the historical prevalence of usage. Other scripts used include: begovica (used by Bosniak nobility) and arebica
Arebica
Arebica or arabica was a variant of the Perso-Arabic script used to write the Bosnian language. It was used mainly between the 15th and 19th centuries. Before WWI there were unsuccessful efforts by Muslims to officially adopt Arebica as the third alphabet for Bosnian alongside Latin and Cyrillic...
– Arabic script adjusted to write Slavic speech, also chiefly used by Bosniak nobility during the Ottoman era.
In addition, the oldest South Slavic document is the Bosnian statehood charter from 1189, written by Bosnian ruler Kulin Ban in Bosnian Cyrillic. Some other early mentions include one from July 3, 1436, where, in the region of Kotor
Kotor
Kotor is a coastal city in Montenegro. It is located in a secluded part of the Gulf of Kotor. The city has a population of 13,510 and is the administrative center of the municipality....
, a duke bought a girl that is described as: "Bosnian woman, heretic
Bosnian Church
The Bosnian Church is historically thought to be an indigenous branch of the Bogomils that existed in Bosnia during the Middle Ages. Adherents of the church called themselves simply Krstjani...
and in Bosnian language called Djevena".
The irony of the Bosnian language is that its speakers are, on the level of colloquial idiom, more linguistically homogeneous than either Serbs or Croats but they failed, for the historical reasons outlined below, to standardize their language in the crucial 19th century. The first Bosnian dictionary, a rhymed Bosnian–Turkish glossary authored by Muhamed Hevaji Uskufi, was composed in 1631 . But unlike e.g. Croatian dictionaries, which were written and published regularly, Uskufi's work remained an isolated foray. At least two factors were decisive:
- The Bosniak elite wrote almost exclusively in foreign (Turkish, Arabic, Persian) languages. Vernacular literatureVernacular literatureVernacular literature is literature written in the vernacular—the speech of the "common people".In the European tradition, this effectively means literature not written in Latin...
, written in modified Arabic script, was thin and sparse. - The Bosniaks' national emancipation lagged behind that of the Serbs and Croats, and since denominational rather than cultural or linguistic issues played the pivotal role, a Bosnian language project didn't arouse much interest or support.
Prescriptions for the language of Bosniaks in the 19th and 20th centuries were written outside of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Probably the most authentic Bosniak writers (the so-called "Bosniak revival" at the turn of the century) wrote in an idiom that is closer to the Croatian
Croatian language
Croatian is the collective name for the standard language and dialects spoken by Croats, principally in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Serbian province of Vojvodina and other neighbouring countries...
form than to the Serbian
Serbian language
Serbian is a form of Serbo-Croatian, a South Slavic language, spoken by Serbs in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia and neighbouring countries....
one (western Štokavian-Ijekavian idiom, Latin script), but which possessed unmistakably recognizable Bosniak traits, primarily lexical ones. The main authors of the "Bosniak renaissance" were the polymath, politician and poet Safvet-beg Bašagić, the "poète maudit" Musa Ćazim Ćatić
Musa Cazim Catic
Musa Ćazim Ćatić was a Bosnian Muslim poet of Croat orientation. He is currently featured on the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina 50 km note ....
and the storyteller Edhem Mulabdić.
During the Austro-Hungarian occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina (Austro-Hungarian condominium)
The Austro-Hungarian condominium of Bosnia and Herzegovina was a condominium established after the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina by Austria-Hungary in 1908, following its occupation in 1878 under the terms of the Treaty of Berlin.-History:...
, Bosnian was introduced as the sole official language; it was the language of all Bosnians: Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats. This was in conjunction with administrator Benjamin Kallay
Benjamin von Kállay
Béni Kállay de Nagy-Kálló or Benjamin von Kállay , Austro-Hungarian statesman, was born in Budapest. His family derived their name from their estates at Nagykálló, in Szabolcs, and claimed descent from the Balogh Semsen tribe, which colonized the counties of Borsod, Szabolcs, and Szatmár, at the...
's promotion of Bošnjaštvo, a policy that aimed to inspire in Bosnia's people 'a feeling that they belong to a great and powerful nation' and viewed Bosnians
Bosnians
Bosnians are people who reside in, or come from, Bosnia and Herzegovina. By the modern state definition a Bosnian can be anyone who holds citizenship of the state. This includes, but is not limited to, members of the constituent ethnic groups of Bosnia and Herzegovina: Bosniaks, Bosnian Serbs and...
as "speaking the Bosnian language and divided into three religions with equal rights." With the death of Kallay the policy was abandoned and in 1907 the name was changed to Serbo-Croatian, and this was the official language of Bosnia and Herzegovina throughout the parliamentary period, from annexation until the dissolution of Austria-Hungary after World War I.
In the days of Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was the Yugoslav state that existed from the abolition of the Yugoslav monarchy until it was dissolved in 1992 amid the Yugoslav Wars. It was a socialist state and a federation made up of six socialist republics: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia,...
the lexis was influenced by standard Serbo-Croatian
Serbo-Croatian language
Serbo-Croatian or Serbo-Croat, less commonly Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian , is a South Slavic language with multiple standards and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro...
and the Latin script became dominant. The official language name was Serbo-Croatian.
On a formal level, the Bosnian language began to take a distinctive shape in the 1990s and 2000s: lexically, Islamic-Oriental loan words are becoming more frequent; phonetically: the phoneme /x/ is reinstated in many words as a distinct feature of vernacular Bosniak speech and language tradition; also, there are some changes in grammar, morphology and orthography that reflect the Bosniak pre-World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
literary tradition, mainly that of the Bosniak renaissance at the beginning of the 20th century. The legal distinction occurred in the mid 1990s. The 1993 language law declared that there was a single official language for Bosnians: "In the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Ijekavian standard literary language of the three constitutive nations is officially used, designated by one of the three terms: Bosnian, Serbian, Croatian. Both alphabets, Latin and Cyrillic, are equal." However, the 1994 constitution declared that these were three official languages: "The official languages of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina
The Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina is one of the two political entities that compose the sovereign country of Bosnia and Herzegovina . The two entities are delineated by the Inter-Entity Boundary Line...
shall be: Bosnian language, Croat language and Serb language. The official scripts shall be Latin and Cyrillic."
The constitution of Republika Srpska
Republika Srpska
Republika Srpska is one of two main political entities of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the other being the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina...
, the Serbian entity within Bosnia and Herzegovina, did not recognize any language or ethnic group other than Serbian. Bosniaks were mostly expelled from the territory controlled by the Serbs from 1992, but immediately after the war demanded to restore their civil rights on those territories. The Bosnian Serbs refused to make references to the Bosnian language in their constitution and as a result had constitutional amendments imposed by High Representative
High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina
The High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, with the Office of the High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina, was created in 1995 immediately after the Dayton Peace Agreement to oversee the civilian implementation of this agreement. The High Representative and the OHR represent the...
Wolfgang Petritsch
Wolfgang Petritsch
Wolfgang Petritsch is an Austrian diplomat of Slovene ethnicity. He was born to a Carinthian Slovene family in Klagenfurt and spent his childhood in a partially Slovene, partially German-speaking environment. He has a PhD from the University of Vienna and was a Fulbright Scholar at the University...
. However, the constitution of Republika Srpska refers to it as the "Language spoken by Bosniaks", due to the fact that the Serbs had to officially recognize it, but still avoid recognition of its name.
The International Organization for Standardization
International Organization for Standardization
The International Organization for Standardization , widely known as ISO, is an international standard-setting body composed of representatives from various national standards organizations. Founded on February 23, 1947, the organization promulgates worldwide proprietary, industrial and commercial...
(ISO), United States Board on Geographic Names
United States Board on Geographic Names
The United States Board on Geographic Names is a United States federal body whose purpose is to establish and maintain uniform usage of geographic names throughout the U.S. government.-Overview:...
(BGN), and the Permanent Committee on Geographical Names (PCGN) recognize the Bosnian language. Furthermore the status of the Bosnian language is also recognized by bodies such as the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
, UNESCO
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
, and translation and interpreting accreditation agencies.
Serbia includes the Bosnian language as an elective subject in primary schools. Montenegro
Montenegro
Montenegro Montenegrin: Crna Gora Црна Гора , meaning "Black Mountain") is a country located in Southeastern Europe. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea to the south-west and is bordered by Croatia to the west, Bosnia and Herzegovina to the northwest, Serbia to the northeast and Albania to the...
officially recognizes the Bosnian language, as its 2007 Constitution
Constitution of Montenegro
The current Constitution of Montenegro was ratified and adopted by the Constitutional Parliament of Montenegro on 19 October 2007 on an extraordinary session by achieving the required two-thirds supermajority of votes. The Constitution was officially proclaimed as the Constitution of Montenegro on...
specifically states that while Montenegrin is the "official language," also "in official use are Serbian, Bosnian, Albanian and Croatian languages."
Controversy
The name for the language is a controversial issue, primarily for CroatsCroats
Croats are a South Slavic ethnic group mostly living in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and nearby countries. There are around 4 million Croats living inside Croatia and up to 4.5 million throughout the rest of the world. Responding to political, social and economic pressure, many Croats have...
and Serbs
Serbs
The Serbs are a South Slavic ethnic group of the Balkans and southern Central Europe. Serbs are located mainly in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and form a sizable minority in Croatia, the Republic of Macedonia and Slovenia. Likewise, Serbs are an officially recognized minority in...
, and as was mentioned above, it is alternatively referred to as "Bosniak" (bošnjački; also spelled "Bosniac"). Of the three Bosnian ethnicities (Bosniaks, Croats, and Serbs) only the Bosniak
Bosniaks
The Bosniaks or Bosniacs are a South Slavic ethnic group, living mainly in Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a smaller minority also present in other lands of the Balkan Peninsula especially in Serbia, Montenegro and Croatia...
ethnicity overwhelmingly speak the Bosnian language. The name "Bosnian language" is controversial for those Serbs and Croats who think the name of the language implies it is the language of all Bosnians, which includes Bosnian Croats and Serbs. Croats and Serbs mostly use the Croatian
Croatian language
Croatian is the collective name for the standard language and dialects spoken by Croats, principally in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Serbian province of Vojvodina and other neighbouring countries...
and the Serbian
Serbian language
Serbian is a form of Serbo-Croatian, a South Slavic language, spoken by Serbs in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia and neighbouring countries....
, respectively. It should be noted that all three languages are mutually intelligible and are examples of ausbauspraches. Due to the conjunction of historical circumstances, all are essentially identical due to being codified on the same Neoshtokavian dialect, with a number of people identifying their language as the unified Serbo-Croatian language
Serbo-Croatian language
Serbo-Croatian or Serbo-Croat, less commonly Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian , is a South Slavic language with multiple standards and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro...
.
A number of Croatian linguists, specifically Radoslav Katičić
Radoslav Katicic
Radoslav Katičić is a Croatian linguist, classical philologist, Indo-Europeanist, Slavist and Indologist, one of the most prominent Croatian scholars in the field of humanities.-Biography:...
, Dalibor Brozović
Dalibor Brozovic
Dalibor Brozović was a Croatian linguist, Slavist, dialectologist and politician. He studied the history of standard Slavic languages, especially Croatian. He was an active Esperantist since 1946, and wrote Esperanto poetry as well as translated works into the language. -Life and career:He was...
, and Tomislav Ladan
Tomislav Ladan
Tomislav Ladan was a Croatian essayist, critic and novelist.Ladan was born in Ivanjica, Serbia, and spent his formative years in his native Bosnia and Herzegovina , where he graduated at Philosophical Faculty in Sarajevo...
, consider the appropriate name to be "Bosniak" rather than "Bosnian" whilst some other Croatian linguists (Zvonko Kovač, Ivo Pranjković
Ivo Pranjkovic
Ivo Pranjković is a Croatian linguist.Pranjković is a Bosnian Croat, born in Kotor Varoš in Bosnia and Herzegovina. After the classical secondary school in Visoko, he received a BA degree in the Croatian language from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Zagreb...
) recognize it as Bosnian. In the opinion of the former, the appellation "Bosnian" refers to the whole country, therefore implying that "Bosnian" is the national standard language of all Bosnians, not only Bosniaks. According to Croatian participant Radoslav Dodig, the renaming of "Bosniak" into "Bosnian" was not a process, but a semi-hidden maneuver.
Vowels
The Bosnian vowelVowel
In phonetics, a vowel is a sound in spoken language, such as English ah! or oh! , pronounced with an open vocal tract so that there is no build-up of air pressure at any point above the glottis. This contrasts with consonants, such as English sh! , where there is a constriction or closure at some...
system is simple, with only five vowels. All vowels are monophthong
Monophthong
A monophthong is a pure vowel sound, one whose articulation at both beginning and end is relatively fixed, and which does not glide up or down towards a new position of articulation....
s. The oral vowels are as follows:
| Latin script | Cyrillic script | IPA International Phonetic Alphabet The International Phonetic Alphabet "The acronym 'IPA' strictly refers [...] to the 'International Phonetic Association'. But it is now such a common practice to use the acronym also to refer to the alphabet itself that resistance seems pedantic... |
Description | English approximation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| i | и | [i] | front closed unrounded | seek |
| e | е | [ɛ] | front half open unrounded | ten |
| a | а | [a] | central open unrounded | father |
| o | о | [ɔ] | back half open rounded | awe |
| u | у | [u] | back closed rounded | boom |
The letter r can also represent a vowel, when surrounded by two other consonants as in the words brzo (quick), trn (thorn), mrk (dark), vrlo (very).
Consonants
The consonantConsonant
In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are , pronounced with the lips; , pronounced with the front of the tongue; , pronounced with the back of the tongue; , pronounced in the throat; and ,...
system is more complicated, and its characteristic features are series of affricate and palatal
Palatal consonant
Palatal consonants are consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the hard palate...
consonants. As in English and most other Indo-European languages
Indo-European languages
The Indo-European languages are a family of several hundred related languages and dialects, including most major current languages of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and South Asia and also historically predominant in Anatolia...
west of India, voicedness is phonemic
Phoneme
In a language or dialect, a phoneme is the smallest segmental unit of sound employed to form meaningful contrasts between utterances....
, but aspiration
Aspiration (phonetics)
In phonetics, aspiration is the strong burst of air that accompanies either the release or, in the case of preaspiration, the closure of some obstruents. To feel or see the difference between aspirated and unaspirated sounds, one can put a hand or a lit candle in front of one's mouth, and say pin ...
is not.
| Latin script | Cyrillic script | IPA International Phonetic Alphabet The International Phonetic Alphabet "The acronym 'IPA' strictly refers [...] to the 'International Phonetic Association'. But it is now such a common practice to use the acronym also to refer to the alphabet itself that resistance seems pedantic... |
Description | English approximation | |
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| Trill Trill consonant In phonetics, a trill is a consonantal sound produced by vibrations between the articulator and the place of articulation. Standard Spanish <rr> as in perro is an alveolar trill, while in Parisian French it is almost always uvular.... |
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| r | р | /r/ | alveolar trill Alveolar trill The alveolar trill is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents dental, alveolar, and postalveolar trills is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is r. It is commonly called the rolled R, rolling R, or trilled R... |
rolled r as in Spanish Spanish language Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the... carro |
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| Approximant Approximant consonant Approximants are speech sounds that involve the articulators approaching each other but not narrowly enough or with enough articulatory precision to create turbulent airflow. Therefore, approximants fall between fricatives, which do produce a turbulent airstream, and vowels, which produce no... |
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| v | в | /ʋ/ | labiodental approximant Labiodental approximant The labiodental approximant is a type of consonantal sound, similar to an English double-u pronounced with the teeth and lips held in the position used to articulate the letter vee, used in some spoken languages... |
vase | |
| j | ј | /j/ | palatal approximant Palatal approximant The palatal approximant is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is '... |
yes | |
| Lateral Lateral consonant A lateral is an el-like consonant, in which airstream proceeds along the sides of the tongue, but is blocked by the tongue from going through the middle of the mouth.... |
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| l | л | /l/ | lateral alveolar approximant | lock | |
| lj | љ | /ʎ/ | palatal lateral approximant Palatal lateral approximant The palatal lateral approximant is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , a rotated lowercase letter ⟨y⟩ , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is L.-Features:Features of the palatal lateral... |
volume | |
| Nasal Nasal consonant A nasal consonant is a type of consonant produced with a lowered velum in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. Examples of nasal consonants in English are and , in words such as nose and mouth.- Definition :... |
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| m | м | /m/ | bilabial nasal Bilabial nasal The bilabial nasal is a type of consonantal sound used in almost all spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is m... |
man | |
| n | н | /n/ | alveolar nasal Alveolar nasal The alveolar nasal is a type of consonantal sound used in numerous spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents dental, alveolar, and postalveolar nasals is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is n.... |
not | |
| nj | њ | /ɲ/ | palatal nasal Palatal nasal The palatal nasal is a type of consonant, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , a lowercase letter n with a leftward-pointing tail protruding from the bottom of the left stem of the letter. The equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is J... |
canyon | |
| Fricative Fricative consonant Fricatives are consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate, in the case of German , the final consonant of Bach; or... |
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| f | ф | /f/ | voiceless labiodental fricative Voiceless labiodental fricative The voiceless labiodental fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is .-Features:Features of the voiceless labiodental fricative:... |
fit | |
| s | с | /s/ | voiceless alveolar fricative Voiceless alveolar fricative The voiceless alveolar sibilant is a common consonant sound in spoken languages. It is the sound in English words such as sea and pass, and is represented in the International Phonetic Alphabet as . It has a characteristic high-pitched, highly perceptible hissing sound... |
some | |
| z | з | /z/ | voiced alveolar fricative Voiced alveolar fricative The voiced alveolar fricatives are consonantal sounds. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents these sounds depends on whether a sibilant or non-sibilant fricative is being described.... |
zero | |
| š | ш | /ʃ/ | voiceless postalveolar fricative Voiceless postalveolar fricative The voiceless palato-alveolar fricative or voiceless domed postalveolar fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in many spoken languages, including English... |
sheer | |
| ž | ж | /ʒ/ | voiced postalveolar fricative Voiced postalveolar fricative The voiced palato-alveolar fricative or voiced domed postalveolar fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is Z. An alternative symbol used in some... |
vision | |
| h | х | /x/ | voiceless velar fricative Voiceless velar fricative The voiceless velar fricative is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. The sound was part of the consonant inventory of Old English and can still be found in some dialects of English, most notably in Scottish English.... |
loch (Scottish) | |
| Affricate Affricate consonant Affricates are consonants that begin as stops but release as a fricative rather than directly into the following vowel.- Samples :... |
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| c | ц | /ts/ | voiceless alveolar affricate Voiceless alveolar affricate The voiceless alveolar affricate is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The sound is transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet with ⟨⟩ or ⟨⟩ . The voiceless alveolar affricate occurs in such languages as German, Cantonese, Italian, Russian, Japanese and Mandarin... |
pots | |
| dž | џ | /dʒ/ | voiced postalveolar affricate Voiced postalveolar affricate The voiced palato-alveolar affricate, also described as voiced domed postalveolar affricate, is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The sound is transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet with ⟨⟩ , and the equivalent X-SAMPA representation is ⟨dZ⟩... |
judge | |
| č | ч | /tʃ/ | voiceless postalveolar affricate Voiceless postalveolar affricate The voiceless palato-alveolar affricate or domed postalveolar affricate is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. The sound is transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet with ⟨⟩ or ⟨⟩... |
chair | |
| đ | ђ | /ɟʝ/ | voiced alveolo-palatal affricate | Similar to schedule | |
| ć | ћ | /cç/ | voiceless alveolo-palatal affricate | Similar to nature | |
| Plosive | |||||
| b | б | /b/ | voiced bilabial plosive Voiced bilabial plosive The voiced bilabial plosive is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is b. The voiced bilabial plosive occurs in English, and it is the sound denoted by the... |
abuse | |
| p | п | /p/ | voiceless bilabial plosive Voiceless bilabial plosive The voiceless bilabial plosive is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is p... |
top | |
| d | д | /d/ | voiced alveolar plosive Voiced alveolar plosive The voiced alveolar plosive is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents voiced dental, alveolar, and postalveolar plosives is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is d.-Features:Features of the voiced... |
dog | |
| t | т | /t/ | voiceless alveolar plosive Voiceless alveolar plosive The voiceless alveolar plosive is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents voiceless dental, alveolar, and postalveolar plosives is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is t... |
talk | |
| g | г | /ɡ/ | voiced velar plosive Voiced velar plosive The voiced velar plosive is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is g. Strictly, the IPA symbol is the so-called "opentail G" , though the "looptail G" is... |
god | |
| k | к | /k/ | voiceless velar plosive Voiceless velar plosive The voiceless velar stop or voiceless velar plosive is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is k.... |
duck | |
In consonant cluster
Consonant cluster
In linguistics, a consonant cluster is a group of consonants which have no intervening vowel. In English, for example, the groups and are consonant clusters in the word splits....
s, all obstruents are either voiced or voiceless depending on the voicing of the final consonant in the cluster. This rule does not always apply to foreign words (Washington would be transcribed as VašinGton/ВашинГтон), personal names and across syllable boundaries.
/r/ can be syllabic, playing the role of the syllable nucleus in certain words (occasionally, it can even have a long accent). For example, the tongue-twister
Tongue-twister
A tongue-twister is a phrase that is designed to be difficult to articulate properly, and can be used as a type of spoken word game. Some tongue-twisters produce results which are humorous when they are mispronounced, while others simply rely on the confusion and mistakes of the speaker for their...
na vrh brda vrba mrda involves four words with syllabic /r/. A similar feature exists in Serbian
Serbian language
Serbian is a form of Serbo-Croatian, a South Slavic language, spoken by Serbs in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia and neighbouring countries....
, Croatian
Croatian language
Croatian is the collective name for the standard language and dialects spoken by Croats, principally in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Serbian province of Vojvodina and other neighbouring countries...
, Macedonian
Macedonian language
Macedonian is a South Slavic language spoken as a first language by approximately 2–3 million people principally in the region of Macedonia but also in the Macedonian diaspora...
, Slovene, Czech
Czech language
Czech is a West Slavic language with about 12 million native speakers; it is the majority language in the Czech Republic and spoken by Czechs worldwide. The language was known as Bohemian in English until the late 19th century...
, and Slovak
Slovak language
Slovak , is an Indo-European language that belongs to the West Slavic languages .Slovak is the official language of Slovakia, where it is spoken by 5 million people...
. Very rarely, /l/ can be syllabic (in the name for the river Vltava, for example) as well as lj, m, n and nj in jargon
Jargon
Jargon is terminology which is especially defined in relationship to a specific activity, profession, group, or event. The philosophe Condillac observed in 1782 that "Every science requires a special language because every science has its own ideas." As a rationalist member of the Enlightenment he...
.
Grammar
The first grammar of Bosnian was published in 1890. The first dictionary of Bosnian language was published in 1631. (Bosnian-Turkish dictionary).Bosnian-Turkish Dictionary (1631.)
See also
- Bosnian CyrillicBosnian CyrillicBosnian Cyrillic or Croatian Cyrillic, widely known as Bosančica, is an extinct Cyrillic script, that originated in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It was widely used in Bosnia and Croatia . Its name in Bosnian and Croatian is bosančica or bosanica, which can literally be translated as Bosnian script...
- Humac tabletHumac tabletHumac tablet is one of the oldest literacy monuments from Bosnia and Herzegovina, dated to the 10th/11th century. It is found in the village of Humac near Ljubuški in Hercegovina, containing an inscription in Bosnian Cyrillic script, as well as a few Glagolitic letters...
- Hval ManuscriptHval ManuscriptThe Hval Manuscript or "Hval's Miscellany" is a 353 page 15th century Bosnian Church codex.It was written in 1404 by Hval Krstyanin in Bosnian/Croatian Cyrillic Script in ikavian dialect with a Glagolitic introduction that reads, "in honour of praised sir Hrvoje, duke of Split and the knight of...
- ArebicaArebicaArebica or arabica was a variant of the Perso-Arabic script used to write the Bosnian language. It was used mainly between the 15th and 19th centuries. Before WWI there were unsuccessful efforts by Muslims to officially adopt Arebica as the third alphabet for Bosnian alongside Latin and Cyrillic...
- Proto-Slavic
- Differences between standard Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian
- Oriental Institute in SarajevoOriental Institute in SarajevoThe Oriental Institute in Sarajevo , its premises, research library and complete manuscript collection was deliberately destroyed in shelling on May 18, 1992 by Serb forces around the besieged city of Sarajevo. The Oriental Institute had clearly been singled out...