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Print Price: $52.50

Format:
Paperback
200 pp.
maps, 156 mm x 234 mm

ISBN-13:
9780199208753

Publication date:
September 2007

Imprint: OUP UK

Language and Identity in the Balkans

Serbo-Croatian and Its Disintegration

Robert D. Greenberg

Language rifts in the Balkans are endemic and have long been a symptom of ethnic animosity and a cause for inflaming it. But the break-up of the Serbo-Croat language into four languages on the path towards mutual unintelligibility within a decade is, by any previous standard of linguistic behaviour, extraordinary. Robert D. Greenberg describes how it happened. Basing his account on first-hand observations in the region before and since the communist demise, he evokes the drama and emotional discord as different factions sought to exploit, prevent, exacerbate, accelerate, or just make sense of the chaotic and unpredictable language situation. His fascinating account offers insights into the nature of language change and the relation between language and identity. It also provides a uniquely vivid perspective on nationalism and identity politics in the former Yugoslavia and its successor states.

"The book will become a classic reference for those who wish to study the dramatic rise and fall of the language-formerly-known-as-Serbo-Croatian." Award citation

Readership : Scholars in social science and humanities fields with an interest in South-eastern Europe, identity issues, and sociolinguistic topics; the policy community and individuals involved with the many NGO's active in the Balkans; students in classes involving the Serbo-Croatian language, Balkan history, or contemporary Balkan politics.

Reviews

Review from previous edition BEST BOOK IN SLAVIC LINGUISTICS 2005, awarded by the American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages.
liThe detailed exposition and copious citation of relevant scholarly literature in many languages, together with the eminently readable text providing a masterful summation of a unique constellation of sociolinguistic phenomena, suggest that the book will become a classic reference for those who wish to study the dramatic rise and fall of the language-formerly-known-as-Serbo-Croatian.r
Review from previous edition BEST BOOK IN SLAVIC LINGUISTICS 2005, awarded by the American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages.
liThe detailed exposition and copious citation of relevant scholarly literature in many languages, together with the eminently readable text providing a masterful summation of a unique constellation of sociolinguistic phenomena, suggest that the book will become a classic reference for those who wish to study the dramatic rise and fall of the language-formerly-known-as-Serbo-Croatian.r

1. Introduction
2. Serbo-Croatian: United or Not We Fall
3. Serbian: Isn't My Language Your Language?
4. Montenegrin: A Mountain out of a Mole Hill?
5. Croatian: We are Separate but Equal Twins
6. Bosnian: A Three-Humped Camel?
7. Conclusion
Works Cited
Index

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Robert Greenberg is Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of New Haven and Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures at Yale University. He received his Ph.D. from Yale University in 1991 where he taught 1991-1992. He then taught at Georgetown University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill before taking up his current position in 2003.

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Special Features

Charts the extraordinary disintegration of Serbo-Croatia
Based on author's first-hand observations
Winner of the American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages 2005 AWARD for the BEST BOOK IN SLAVIC LINGUISTICS.