Abstract
Language in the Balkan region of Southeastern Europe has a complex and turbulent history, acutely embodied in the tripartite and trilingual state of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) in which Bosniaks, Croats, and Serbs all make claim to their own mutually-intelligible varieties of local “languages”. This study utilizes a linguistic landscape methodology to consider language use in Sarajevo, the capital of BiH, approximately 20 years after a brutal war that led to the establishment of the country. Data originate from three municipalities within the Sarajevo Canton – namely, Old Town, Center, and Ilidža – because of their representation of the region’s diversity and history. Signs were classified according to the three primary language varieties, i.e., Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian; BCS, representing a common core among the three varieties, as well as English, other languages, and mixed languages. The application of BCS uniquely positions the present research in comparison to other studies of language use in the region and allows for a more nuanced, less politically and ethnolinguistically fraught analysis of the communicative tendencies of users. More specifically, data indicate that actors in the linguistic landscape transcend the boundaries of their national, ethnic, and religious identities by tending towards the more neutral BCS, suggesting an orientation towards more translingual dispositions than previous variety-bound approaches have indicated. Thus, instead of the divisiveness of linguistic identity politics, the linguistic landscape of Sarajevo indicates a tendency toward inclusion and linguistic egalitarianism.
Zusammenfassung
Eine komplexe und turbulente Geschichte der Sprachen der Südosteuropäischen Balkanregion, die im dreigliedrigen und dreisprachigen Staat Bosnien-Herzegowina akut verkörpert wird, in dem Bosniaken, Kroaten und Serben sich für ihre Sprachvarianten der lokalen „Sprachen“ zu eigen machen. Diese Studie untersucht den Sprachgebrauch in Sarajevo durch eine Methode der „linguistic landscape“. Sarajevo ist die Hauptstadt von Bosnien-Herzegowina, die etwa 20 Jahre zuvor einen brutalen Krieg erlebte, der zur Gründung des Landes führte. Die Daten stammen aus drei Gemeinden des Kantons Sarajevo nämentlich Altstadt, Zentrum und Ilidza, die die Vielfalt und Geschichte der Region darstellen. Die Schilder wurden nach den drei Hauptsprachen (d. h., Bosnisch, Kroatisch, Serbisch) klassifiziert, sowie BKS, welches einen gemeinsamen Kern von den drei Sprachvarianten darstellt. Englisch, andere Sprachen, und gemischte Sprachen wurden auch betrachtet. Die Anwendung von BKS positioniert die vorliegende Forschung einzigartig im Vergleich zu vorherigen Studien des Sprachgebrauches in der Region und ermöglicht eine mehr nuancierte, weniger politische und ethnolinguistische belastete Analyse der Kommunikationstendenzen von Nutzern. Die Daten weisen darauf hin, dass Akteure in der Sprachlandschaft die Grenzen ihrer nationalen, ethnischen und religiösen Identität überschreiten, indem sie zu dem neutraleren BKS tendieren und die Orientierung an mehr translinguale Neigungen vorschlagen, als frühere Zugänge vorgeschlagen haben. Anstatt der Spaltung der linguistischen Identitatspolitik weist die Sprachlandschaft von Sarajevo also auf Tendenzen der Inklusion und des Sprachegalitarismus hin.
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