Why is Croatian Language Still Suppressed in Croatia?
by Prof. Marijan Krmpotic
NDH, Zagreb, Croatia, December 1997
Another new year is here. On December 21 1997 we celebrated seven years since
our first Constitution. That's why we named it the "Christmas" Constitution.
However, although its article 12 states that "in the Republic of Croatia,
Croatian language and Roman script are in official use", unfortunately a
rebirth of Croatian language hasn't occured in the meantime. Will the most
recent changes of our Constitution bring about the return of the original character
of the Croatian language? Most likely not.
What is behind that?
The most important obstacle are the followers of Vuk Karadzic: linguistic unitarists
who desired full linguistic unity with the Serbs, and whom we inherited together
with Yugoslav/Croatian academy of Sciences and Arts from brotherhood and
unity [the former Yugoslavia]. Today, they are still at the same positions
from which (armed with
the authority they earned as yugoexperts for their bastard serbicized
Croato-Serb language) they continue to slow down the rebirth and renewal of
the uniqueness of the Croatian language. Some of them have rejected their
Communist party and joined the newly founded political parties and even, in order
to improve their financial situation, managed to squeeze themselves into the
upper chamber of the Croatian state parliament.(...)
New times
Am I the only one to notice that some of the members of "Forum 21" used to
be journalists and pseudo-journalists during the Yugosystem? some of them
learned their journalistic skills under the guidance of the Serb (who has supposedly
said that all of us Croatian patriots should be hanged) Lazo Rakijas, then the editor
of "Zagrebacka Panorama"; then, as his good students, they maliciously smiled at us in 1990
when the demands of Croatian patriots from the Group 37 remained
a lonely voice? I wonder whether these people are today hypocritically repeating
our sincere demands for the improvement of Croatia, in order to (God, how
quickly things change!) damage the image of Croatia abroad? I wonder where
they have been until now?
I wonder because I know that these people from "Forum 21"
in front of cameras and microphones still use Croat-Serb language; how come they suddenly
care about the Croatian language so much? I wonder, since as a former member
of "GROUP 37" I have a right to doubt their sincerity although I myself, but as
a sincere Croat patriot, am still dissatisfied with Croatian Television because
there they still use Serbocroatian language and corrupt the speech of our Croatian
youth since at the HTV the model inherited from the previous system still hasn't
been destroyed.(..)
With their demands for separate Serb schools, text books in Serb language,
and the demand that Serb children in Baranja be taught only in Serb language, the Serbs have
finally, after almost 150 years, publicly admitted that Croatian and Serb are
two separate languages.
But, be careful: although they were punished when they tried to steal what is ours,
their Byzantine corrupt soul, cheating nature, and their hatred of everything Croatian,
instruct them to continue to lie and mislead the world and claim that they had
been forced to adopt "Serb ekavian [dialect]" instead of "Vuk's Serb ijekavian [dialect]" because
the Croats had stolen "Vuk's Serb ijekavian [dialect] and phonetic orthography" for their
language! Only the return of Croatian "korienski" orthography into public use
in Croatia can take that false argument away from the Serbs.(...)
Attention! Only the renewal and rebirth of the unique character
of the Croatian language and "korienski" orthography (because that way Croatian
and Serb languages would become mutually unintelligible) can destroy Serb appetite
for Croatian lands and free us from fear of violent "unification" of parts of
Croatia with Serbia. In addition, the loss of mutual intelligibility of Croatian
and Serb languages is the best guarantee that Croatia will never again join some
Yugo-associations which could lead to the renewal of the common state with
the Serbs, because our languages, cultures, and religions would be different.
Since [Serbs and Croats belong to] two different civilizations there can be no
coexistence for us. Let us work hard, with love, and learn the Croatian language
cleansed of all non-Croatian traces which had been imposed by force on it, and
renew its Croatian character.
Translated on 2/5/98
