The Declaration on the Name and Status of the Croatian Literary Language ( hr, Deklaracija o nazivu i položaju hrvatskog književnog jezika) is the statement adopted by Croatian scholars in 1967 arguing for the equal treatment of the Serbian, Croatian, Slovene, and Macedonian language standards in Yugoslavia. Its demands were granted by the
1974 Yugoslav Constitution
The 1974 Yugoslav Constitution was the fourth and final constitution of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. It came into effect on 21 February 1974.
With 406 original articles, the 1974 constitution was one of the longest constitutio ...
.
Content
The declaration was published on March 13, 1967 in the ''Telegram'', Yugoslav newspapers for social and cultural issues, nr. 359, March 17, 1967.
The Declaration affirms that Serbian and Croatian are linguistically the same, but demands separate language standards, each with their own "national" language name.
This document addressed the
Sabor
The Croatian Parliament ( hr, Hrvatski sabor) or the Sabor is the unicameral legislature of the Republic of Croatia. Under the terms of the Croatian Constitution, the Sabor represents the people and is vested with legislative power. The Sabor ...
of
SR Croatia
The Socialist Republic of Croatia ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Socijalistička Republika Hrvatska, Социјалистичка Република Хрватска), or SR Croatia, was a constituent republic and federated state of the Social ...
and the Assembly of
SFR Yugoslavia
The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, commonly referred to as SFR Yugoslavia or simply as Yugoslavia, was a country in Central and Southeast Europe. It emerged in 1945, following World War II, and lasted until 1992, with the breakup of Yug ...
, stating:
The signers of the declaration demanded the equality of the four Yugoslav language standards and the use of the Croatian literary language in schools and media. State authorities were accused of imposing an official state language.
Legacy
The demands were rejected, and the
Croatian Spring
The Croatian Spring ( hr, Hrvatsko proljeće), or Maspok, was a political conflict that took place from 1967 to 1971 in the Socialist Republic of Croatia, at the time part of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. As one of six republic ...
(MASPOK) movement was stopped. However, the Declaration was taken into consideration in the new
Yugoslav constitution of 1974. Nearly all requests were granted in the formulation, and it remained in effect until the
breakup of Yugoslavia
The breakup of Yugoslavia occurred as a result of a series of political upheavals and conflicts during the early 1990s. After a period of political and economic crisis in the 1980s, constituent republics of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yu ...
.
The Declaration prompted
Pavle Ivić
Pavle Ivić ( sr-cyr, Павле Ивић, ; 1 December 1924 – 19 September 1999) was a Serbian South Slavic dialectologist and phonologist.
Biography
Both his field work and his synthesizing studies were extensive and authoritative. A few of ...
to respond with his 1971 monograph ''Srpski narod i njegov jezik'' ("The Serbian People and Their Language").
In 2012,
Josip Manolić
Josip Manolić (; born 22 March 1920) is a Croatian former politician and communist revolutionary during World War II in Yugoslavia. He served as a high-ranking official of the Yugoslav State Security Administration (OZNA or UDBA) and later as ...
publicly claimed that that long-standing
State Security agent 'Forum' contributed to the writing of the Declaration, which journalists attributed to
Dalibor Brozović
Dalibor Brozović (; 28 July 1927 – 19 June 2009) was a Croatian linguist, Slavist, dialectologist and politician. He studied the history of standard languages in the Slavic region, especially Croatian. He was an active Esperantist since ...
. The same year, a 1997 manuscript by a Zadar university professor Ante Franić was published that had implicated Brozović, at the time one of his colleagues, in a similar manner.
On the publication's 45th anniversary in 2012, the Croatian weekly journal ''Forum'' republished the Declaration, accompanied by a critical analysis. On the occasion of the 50th anniversary, a new
Declaration on the Common Language
The Declaration on the Common Language ( sh, Deklaracija o zajedničkom jeziku / ) was issued in 2017 by a group of intellectuals and NGOs from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia who were working under the banner of a projec ...
of the Croats, Montenegrins, Serbs and Bosniaks was written in 2017 in
Zagreb
Zagreb ( , , , ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slop ...
.
Signatories
*
Matica hrvatska
Matica hrvatska ( la, Matrix Croatica) is the oldest independent, non-profit and non-governmental Croatian national institution. It was founded on February 2, 1842 by the Croatian Count Janko Drašković and other prominent members of the Illyri ...
*
Croatian Writers' Association
Croatian Writers' Association ( hr, Društvo hrvatskih književnika; abbreviated DHK) is the official association of Croatian writers. It was founded in 1900 in Zagreb with the goal "to unite writers and help them support one another, and promote ...
* Croatian
PEN
A pen is a common writing instrument that applies ink to a surface, usually paper, for writing or drawing. Early pens such as reed pens, quill pens, dip pens and ruling pens held a small amount of ink on a nib or in a small void or cavity wh ...
* Various departments of
JAZU
The Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts ( la, Academia Scientiarum et Artium Croatica, hr, Hrvatska akademija znanosti i umjetnosti, abbrev. HAZU) is the national academy of Croatia.
HAZU was founded under patronage of the Croatian bishop Jo ...
and the
Faculty of Philosophy in Zagreb
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences or the Faculty of Philosophy in Zagreb ( Croatian: ''Filozofski fakultet Sveučilišta u Zagrebu'') is one of the faculties of the University of Zagreb.
History
The Faculty of Philosophy is the oldest fac ...
and in
Zadar
Zadar ( , ; historically known as Zara (from Venetian and Italian: ); see also other names), is the oldest continuously inhabited Croatian city. It is situated on the Adriatic Sea, at the northwestern part of Ravni Kotari region. Zadar serv ...
*
Old Church Slavonic Institute The Old Church Slavonic Institute ( hr, Staroslavenski institut) is Croatian public institute founded in 1952 by the state for the purpose of scientific research on the language, literature and paleography of the mediaeval literary heritage of the ...
* The association of the literary translators of Croatia (Društvo književnih prevodilaca Hrvatske)
See also
*
Croatian Spring
The Croatian Spring ( hr, Hrvatsko proljeće), or Maspok, was a political conflict that took place from 1967 to 1971 in the Socialist Republic of Croatia, at the time part of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. As one of six republic ...
*
SR Croatia
The Socialist Republic of Croatia ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Socijalistička Republika Hrvatska, Социјалистичка Република Хрватска), or SR Croatia, was a constituent republic and federated state of the Social ...
*
Croatian language
Croatian (; ' ) is the standardized variety of the Serbo-Croatian pluricentric language used by Croats, principally in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Serbian province of Vojvodina, and other neighboring countries. It is the official ...
*
Croato-Serbian language
*
Days of the Croatian Language Croatian Language Days ( hr, Dani hrvatskoga jezika) is an annual week-long cultural event established by Matica hrvatska which celebrates the Croatian language. It is held from March 11 to March 17.
It was first held upon Croatian independence ...
*
*
Declaration on the Common Language
The Declaration on the Common Language ( sh, Deklaracija o zajedničkom jeziku / ) was issued in 2017 by a group of intellectuals and NGOs from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia who were working under the banner of a projec ...
2017
References
External links
Original text ''Deklaracija o nazivu i položaju hrvatskog književnog jezika'' published in ''Telegram'', "Yugoslav newspapers for social and cultural questions, nr. 359, 17 March 1967
{{Croatian language
Serbo-Croatian language
Croatian language
1967 in Croatia
1967 documents
Linguistics
Linguistic controversies
Language policy in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia