Declaration on the Status and Name of the Croatian Standard Language

Declaration on the Status and Name of the Croatian Standard Language ( _hr. Deklaracija o nazivu i položaju hrvatskog književnog jezika) was a document brought by Croat scholars.

Declaration was brought March 13 1967. It was published in "Telegram", Yugoslav newspapers for social and cultural questions, nr. 359, 17 March 1967.

It contributed a lot towards the conserving of independence of Croatian language inside SR Croatia and all areas inhabited by Croats.

This document warned Sabor SR Croatia and the Assembly of SFR Yugoslavia (to which it was addressed), that in "state administrative system, in the means of public and mass-communications, as well as in language praxis in federal army, federal governing bodies, legislature, diplomacy and political organizations" Croat language is being pushed out and brought into unequal position, into the level of province speech, through the imposing of a "state language" (that in fact was the Serbian language). The signers required the equality of four languages and the use of Croatian literary language in schools and media. State authorities were accused of imposing of Serbian as official language. hr icon [http://www.hercegbosna.org/ostalo/jezik.html Excerpt from the book] Miro Kačić: "Jezikoslovna promišljanja"]

Yugounitarist pressure towards Croats was the strongest in the language area. But, the Croat resistance to that policy was strongest in that area. "Yugounitarists, especially those of Croat origin, and Greater Serbian elements, comprehended that theirs final goal was essentially endangered and that Croat linguistic mutiny must be energically broken. The force and drasticity of reaction had a goal of intimidation and breaking of moral; yugounitarists wanted to create the atmosphere of apathy and lowness of spirits among Croat masses and intellectuals, even bigger one than it existed before the Declaration..." The Declaration proved that Novi Sad agreement was a house of cards. (Dalibor Brozović)" ]

Consequently, it was required that in the Yugoslav constitution enters the formulation, that will explicitly guarantee the use and equality of Croat language.

Very important thing was that in this Declaration was required that a new formulation should be in Yugoslav constitution, which would state that Croatian language is independent.

References

External links

* [http://www.ihjj.hr/oHrJeziku-jeziku-pov-deklaracija.html 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