Bosnian has nothing to do with nationality
My compliments on this website! I need to make a comment since this concerns all people living in Bosnia. Bosnian is not closely related to Serbian or Croatian - it is Serbo-Croat. But since they have invented Bosnian nationality they probably think they should also invent a Bosnian language.There are approximately 4 million people living in Bosnia, - half of them are Bosniaks, the other half is made up of Croats and Serbs. Croats speak Croatian, Serbs speak Serbian, Bosniaks speak Bosnian and any of them would take it for a personal offence if you would tell them otherwise. Bosnia is only a geographical term for Serbs and Croats and it has nothing to do with nationality. Just try to imagine how someone from Scotland or Ireland etc. would react if you would call him Englishman! It has nothing to do with the conflict in Bosnia, trust me. That's the way it is!
Sent by: Vlatka
Comments
For Leon! It's not kemiiska olovka but Penkala (named after the man who invented the fountain pen and ball point pen). Kemijska olovka is later used, generally accepted slang for the item originally named Penkala!
I agree. Croatian, Serbian and Bosnian do share some words. Other than that the pronunciation and spelling of similar words differs. An example is the word for a pen: kemijska olovka (Croatian), hemijska olovka (Serbian). Some people would call these merely dialects of the same language, Serbo-Croat. The existence of such a language is not even accepted by many Croats, Serbs and Bosniaks. It is just a name coined by linguists who put the three languages in one group. This is not so.
From Mars, dear Kate! Probably someone who made such a nonsense of a test forgot to enter Croat into the system as one of the possibilities. Therefore you got everything that was in the system. A common mistake. If you wish to go so deep into history, I can give you an exact answer without you having to get tested. We all come from two species of the human race - let's call them Adam and Eve.
Ok someone explain to me when I had my dna tested, I matched with every single Balkan country Serbia, Slovenia, Bosnia etc even Hungary but got no match to Croatia AT ALL.I dont get it? Where do the Croats come from?
I totally agree with Brett, Martin and Lara. But I need to compliment Andrew on regarding Vlatka's comment, and being able to spot a hard line nationalist, but to me it sounds lika a Muslim nationalist, not a Serbian ...
I am not sorry to say that Vlatka is just plain stupid. The terms Serb or Croat was never used before the 19th century in Bosnia for Catholics or Orthodoxs. Therefore, all people were just of Bosnian nationality since Bosnia has been a country for many centuries. After all, language represents people, who they are including cultural inheritance from one generation to another.
I work with immigrants who moved from Bosnia to Sweden. I can clearly hear from what part of Bosnia they come from. But I never know what they are going to answer when I ask them what is the name of their language. It is only the name of the language that is the problem here. We know that we understand each other but we do not know how to name our language if we do not want to hurt someone's feelings.
I agree with Brett, Martin and Lara. Bosnia is just as old as Serbia, Croatia or Slovenia or any other country for that matter. Bosnian language exists, and has existed for decades, although this was denied by Greater-Serbia and Greater-Croatia politicians. I suspect Vlatka is a hard line nationalist, supposedly a Serbian one?
"But since they have invented Bosnian nationality they probably think they should also invent a Bosnian language." Shame on you, nobody invents languages. You should know that the Bosnian language is one of the oldest Slavic languages, but in communist times you could end up in jail stating this. In 1631 a Turkish-Bosnian dictionary has been written, you can see a copy of this in the Swedish Uppsala University! So next time think twice if you write stuff like this.
Actually it has a lot to do with the war. If you called a Bosnian a Serb today, they would be greatly offended.
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