Language & Identity in the Balkans Ch 4 Montenegrin: A mountain out of a mole hill?

4.0 Introduction In Montenegro, a Western variant of Serbo- Croatian was spoken that: –Was usually written only in Latin –Included many Croatian elements (phonological) –Lexically similar to (Western) Serbian Montenegrin was omitted in 1954 Novi Sad Agreement; 1974 Montenegro constitution only provided recognition of a Montenegrin “idiom”, a subvariant of the unified language

4.0 Introduction, cont’d idea of a separate Montengrin emerges once Serbo-Croatian no longer exists Montenegrin language gains steam with new president and secessionist aims 2003 federation gives Montenegro more authority, and they may assert Montenegrin In order to declare a new language, it is necessary to show how it is distinct from other languages, and Montenegrin has focused on differences from Serbian -- not yet recognized as much as Bosnian

4.1 Montenegro’s dialects and its literary traditions Historically an integral part of Serbian Orthodox speech community Neo- š tokavian/ijekavian dialect is identical to that spoken by some Serbs, and is the one chosen by Vuk Montenegrin identity creation since 1945: –Recognition as “nation” of Yugoslavia and increased local political control, failure to agree on a narrative of a separate historical identity, and Serbs reject such a narrative since it would appropriate culture/literature they consider Serbian

4.1.1 The sociolinguistics of dialect geography Montenegrin dialects (all are ijekavian) –Northwestern neo- š tokavian/ijekavian (this version chosen as basis for a Montenegrin standard, despite overlaps with Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian) –Southeastern Old š tokavian/ijekavian (relatively distinct) But Montenegrin dialects do not correspond to political boundaries, they extend into Serbia & Albania

4.1.2 The literary traditions in Montenegro 19th c š tokavian/ijekavian epic poetry (esp. by Njego š ) are claimed Montenegrin by separatists, but considered Serbian classics, however: –these writings cannot be definitively identified as exclusively Montenegrin or Serbian in form or content

4.2 Montenegro’s two factions Two opposing trajectories for Montenegrin language planning: –Pro-Serbian, Neo-Vukovite: advocate ijekavian as a standard Serbian variant –Pro-Montenegrin (Nik čevic) : allege that Vuk was trying to make all of štokavian Serbian and thus deny rights of Croats, Bosniacs, Montenegrins

4.2.1 The Neo-Vukovites 1990s Montenegrin & Serbian linguists agree that Montenegrin dialects belong to Serbian speech territory, and have discredited the claims of the Neo-Vukovites Montenegrin separatists think Neo-Vukovites have sold out to Serbs But if Neo-Vukovites are excluded from Serbian linguistic discussions, they may join separatists

4.2.2 Nikcevic and his supporters Separatists supported by writers groups Montenegrin separatists have made false claims about the origin of Montenegrin (Polabian, Polish) It is likely that there will be continued emphasis on a separate Montenegrin

4.3 The proposed standard Nikcevic has made bizarre claims about the origin of Montenegrin, but he has also done a lot to codify a new Montenegrin standard He focuses mainly on features specific to Montenegrin, ones that motivate modifications of orthography

4.3.1 New letters and new pronunciations Nikcevic argues that new jotations create three extra consonants in Montenegrin dialects But these sounds –Are rare and not clearly phonemes –Are shared with contiguous Serbian dialects

4.3.2 The expansion of ijekavian features Nikcevic incorporated ijekavian endings (in Gsg, Gpl, Lsg -- found in Njegoš’s writings) into his Montenegrin standard, even though they are not a regular feature of most Montenegrin dialects Ultimately Nikcevic created an artificial language -- it was distinct from Serbian, but too alien for Montenegrins to accept it

4.4 Conclusions Pressures that motivated distinction of Montenegrin: –Bosnian Serbs decreed use of ekavian, leaving Montenegrins as last with mandated ijekavian –Status-quo linguists’ downgrading of ijekavian and promotion of Matica srpska pravopis –Pro-independence Montenegrin president in 1997 Predictions: –There will probably be an independent Montenegrin in the future, though not Nikcevic’s version –Overall, trend is to create ethnic successor languages to the non-ethnic unified Serbo-Croatian