“A language is a dialect with an army and a navy”

Until a few years ago, residents of Belgrade, Podgorica, Sarajevo and Zagreb were told that they spoke the same language, albeit with some distinct dialectical features. I even have a book on my shelf which offers to help me learn that very language: Teach Yourself Serbo-Croat. At the time the book was printed, all four of the cities mentioned were part of one country, which no longer exists: Yugoslavia. Now they are the capitals of Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Croatia, respectively.

But does the language still exist? Or have things changed so much that people in Belgrade and Zagreb can no longer understand one another? No, but the Serbian and Croatian dialects now have their own army and navy. That changes everything. New “languages” have been created at the point of a gun. But politics doesn’t affect the fact that Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin and Serbian are still essentially dialects of one language – and we only need to learn one of them in order to communicate in that part of the Balkans.

An extract from The Language Secret: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09HFSN7Y5