The language debates: Preparing for the war in Yugoslavia, 1980-1991

Abstract

Sociolinguists and other social scientists often play an influential role in determining the symbolic value of language and in shaping public attitudes toward language. In the decade prior to the civil wars in Yugoslavia, social scientists were prominent in the public discussion of nationalism, national identity, state formation, and political options for the future such as confederation and dissolution. Linguists were especially influential in public debates in Slovenia and Serbia. In Slovenia, independence was a major theme of linguistic analysis, with linguists arguing in both scholarly and popular publications that independence from Yugoslavia most effectively protected the Slovene language. In Serbia, Serb nationalists argued in the Memorandum of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts that crucial sociolinguistic and ethnocultural issues divided Serbs from other nationalities in Yugoslavia. In examining the deep personal involvement of linguists and other social scientists in the politics of dissolution in Yugoslavia, this article argues that the technical work of social scientists often has broad sociopolitical aims that must be critically examined. © Walter de Gruyter.