About involving of Noam Chomsky in ambiguity of Common Language Declaration

Portal N1 has published that “one of the most cited living intellectuals in the world, the American linguist, philosopher and one of the most prominent socially engaged authors of today, Noam Chomsky, joined the list of signatories of the Common Language Declaration, which these days marks its first anniversary.”

Safer Grbic, the young Bosnian-Herzegovian writer and a master degree student of Philosophy at the University of Sarajevo, according to this occasion wrote on his Facebook profile:

It was thievishly to ask the living people to answer a question:  if we have a common language, what is its name?

The background of this idea, as we can see, is nothing less than  re(naming) the name of language – in singular or plural – which was intentionally hidden in a public dialogue on monolayes. This populist declaration of common language found its way to a linguistic philosopher – Noam Chomsky – not on common, but on english language.

The subject declaration does not recognize the distinction between Vernakular (folk speech), as a current language that comes from the depth of history, and the Standard, as a language which is conditioned by the rules and norms. Advocates of the common language thesis speak of Vernakulation, but with desire to put under the name of the language the Standard Language established by the state.

The question is now: if we have to write about common language, on which language we will do it? There is a thesis: there is one language with variants of it. Croatian variant, in Serbian language? It is a matter of fact that the advocates of the common language could not even write the Joint Language Declaration as the one that could represent this thesis they advocate, which is extremely inaccurate and overwhelmingly degrading.

Varnekular (folk speech) is something much more deeper that Standard: those who insist on a common language, as if they do not know that Croatian language could have been Kajkavian, it could have been one of the variants of Međimurje, but as a Standart of that language the Stokavian variant was taken. The Standard is set as a state-militant-ideological determinant with a pretension to form unity.

In other words, our Standards are different in lexicon, the word is owned by a particular collective. There is a question when the Croatian people will use old Bosnian terms borrowed from Turkish or Arabic language, for words like coffee, lady (spouse), bedspring ect, or when will Bosniak use term:  course, edition, helicopter[1] etc.

So when a Bosniak says rahat, halal, sabah[2] it actually refers to something symbolic that  belongs to certan nation, culture and history. Somebody will say: but we all understand each other. Yes, we all understand each other, but nobody will speak at the Standard of the other people.

The member of Croatin Standard will use for his lifetime the term opće (general), and he will never say opšte[3], as well, a member of the Bosnian Standard always speaks according to its Standard.

The question is why is this the case? If they talk to another Standard they will lose their identity. So what was meant by the statement: we have a common language under which we do not mean Vernacular (folk speech), because that’s a pure fact.  As a matter of fact we want to establish a common standard? It means nothing else then ”we have the common identity”, which is not some unsubstantial identity, but Serbian-Croatian identity.

We should read books of Noam Chomsky: he did not signed a common standard declaration, but a common vernekular declaration.

Translate into English from Bosnian: A. Delić

Link teksta na bosanskom:  https://bit.ly/2qzbTAv

[1] Bosniaks use the term ”helikopter” which is taken from Franch name for the propeller or air screw, while Croatian for the same thing use terms  through the function of what that term signifies.

[2]  Carefree, allowed, early morning – old Bosnian terms taken from Arabic or Turkish language.

[3] Those two word has the same menaning but there is different  form of it, one specific for Croatian, and the other for Bosnian language, although they look almost identical.

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