Making Boshnjak Ethnonational Identity by creation of Bosniak Language in Bosnia & Sandžak, 1993-2007

Abstract

The research object of the paper is to examine the process of making separate (from Serbian, Croatian and Montenegrin) Boshnjak ethnonational identity by using the technique of "linguistic engineering/chirurgic" in the process of creation of an independent (from Serbian./ Montenegrin and Croatian) Bosnian Language as a national language of Bosnian-Herzegovinian and Sandžak South Slavic Muslims (former speakers of common Serbo-Croat language). The final aim of the paper is to discover/present the ways in which various elements of linguistic diversity within former Serbo-Croat language have been "emblematized" and taken as markers of ethno national and political identity of Muslim Boshnjaks and multicultural Bosnia & Herzegovina and Sandžak from 1993 up today. The politics of "linguistic engineering" or "linguistic chirurgic" in the case of Bosnian and Croatian languages was implied for the final aim to create firstly independently standardized national languages within officially common Serbo-Croatian internationally recognized separate languages by deepening and using as much as the dialectical/regional differences of the same spoken Serbo-Croatian language. The ultimate result was that minor speaking differences were proclaimed for the national characteristics and as such have been used to be the foundations of the newly declared autonomous national languages. Consequently, common Serbo-Croatian language ceased to exists and a common Serbo-Cruatian nationality as well.