Jezik kao bitna odrednica kulturnog identiteta
Language as an Essential Determiner of Cultural Identity

Summary/Abstract: In Bosnia and Herzegovina the standard languages of the three constituent peoples i.e. Bosniacs, Croats and Serbs, have the status of official languages. Those three languages show very specific common features including a high degree of mutual intelligibility. On the other hand they function in practice in the same way as other European standard languages. The co-existence of the three official languages in the same state with their users mixed in the same territory gives rise to a number of problems. There are tendencies that the language of the Bosniacs, who are concentrated in Bosnia and Herzegovina, becomes, under the name Bosnian, the common official language of all the three constituent peoples. This is not acceptable for the Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina as it entails the change of their current language and the loss of the common cultural identity with the Croats in Croatia. As far as it is known the Serbs in Bosnia and Herzegovina share the same view.

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