Size isn't everything: the relation between Slovenian and Serbo-Croatian in Slovenia
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Marko Stabej
Abstract
The history of the Slovenian standard language has been marked by its relationship with other Slavic languages since its very beginning. The closer connection with Slavic languages in the nineteenth century was first seen as a necessary step in Slovenian language planning in order to eliminate the overwhelming German influence. Nevertheless, integrational Slavic language planning never really prevailed in the Slovenian language community. Contact between Slovenian and Serbo-Croatian became more extensive and sociolinguistically relevant in Yugoslavia. Although both languages formally had the same status, Serbo-Croatian tended to overtake prestige functions via various strategies in the language policy. Serbo-Croatian was dominant in some of the language domains in the Slovenian language community, for example, in the military; Slovenian territory was populated with speakers of Serbo-Croatian without any plans to make them proficient in Slovenian, etc. Serbo-Croatian thus became the hidden second language in Slovenia. The act of Slovenian independence in 1991, however, changed the linguistic situation considerably.
© Walter de Gruyter
Articles in the same Issue
- Introduction
- Size isn't everything: the relation between Slovenian and Serbo-Croatian in Slovenia
- Lower Sorbian — twice a minority language
- Closely-related languages in contact: Czech, Slovak, “Czechoslovak”
- The Rusyn language in Slovakia: between a rock and a hard place
- In the grip of replacive bilingualism: the Belarusian language in contact with Russian
- Ukrainian and Russian in contact: attraction and estrangement
- On the relationship between small and large Slavic languages
- Book review
Articles in the same Issue
- Introduction
- Size isn't everything: the relation between Slovenian and Serbo-Croatian in Slovenia
- Lower Sorbian — twice a minority language
- Closely-related languages in contact: Czech, Slovak, “Czechoslovak”
- The Rusyn language in Slovakia: between a rock and a hard place
- In the grip of replacive bilingualism: the Belarusian language in contact with Russian
- Ukrainian and Russian in contact: attraction and estrangement
- On the relationship between small and large Slavic languages
- Book review
