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The Language Issue in the Context of Minorities' and Identity Policies In

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The Language Issue in the Context of Minorities' and Identity Policies In Sofi ya Zahova* Th e Language Issue in the Context of Minorities’ and Identity Policies in Montenegro One of the pillars of the new Montenegrin identity in the process of state- building has been the Montenegrin language. In 2007, it was named the offi cial language of the country, despite the lack of an offi cial standard, while Serbian became one of the minorities’ languages. At the same time, Serbs in Montenegro have been constantly arguing that Serbian should still be the offi cial language because, according to the last two censuses (2003 and 2011), more than 50% of the citizens declared that they spoke Serbian. Th is article provides an overview of the language debate that was again sparked in 2011 and the reaction of the Serbian minority organizations and institutions on several occasions, including: the com- pulsory study of the Montenegrin language in schools, the April 2011 census and the changes in the Constitution debated in the second half of 2011. I. Introduction Montenegro is the last among the former republics of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia to fi nally complete its way to independence in 20061 and quickly take the road to EU integration.2 Th e republic was also the last to name its offi cial * Sofi ya Zahova is a post-doctoral researcher at the Balkan Ethnology Department, Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Studies (Bulgarian Academy of Sciences). Her main research interests are in the fi eld of ethnicity, Balkan Studies, Roma/Gypsies, minorities, nation-building policies in the Balkans and former Yugoslavia. She is author of the book Dynamics of Identity in Montenegro (in Bulgarian) and a number of articles on current nation-building in Montenegro and on the Roma in the Balkans. 1 Independent since February 2008; Kosovo was not a republic in the federation, but an autonomous region and Socialist Autonomous Province within the Socialist Republic of Serbia (since 1974). Currently, Kosovo’s independence is recognized by 90 countries, 88 of which are members of the United Nations. 2 On 1 May 2010, the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) between Mon- tenegro and the EU came into force, and accession negotiations started in June 2012. European Yearbook of Minority Issues Vol 10, 2011, ISBN 978-90-04-25634-7. pp. 667-700. Copyright 2013 Koninklijke Brill NV. Sofi ya Zahova language after the nation-state and adopt a Montenegrin language standard. Th e “language issue” was among the fi rst independent government priorities because of its importance to the identity of the new state. During the last decade, the language issue has been interlinked with the general debate over Montenegrins’ identity and their “right” to be a nation separate from Serbia.3 Since 2002, the debates regarding the language spoken by the Montenegrins, along with several other issues about language, have been persistently present in the political agenda of the state. Th ey also shape the wider public discussion on the status and rights of minorities. After their independence, the language and identity debate became enriched with an additional dimension: namely, the issue of the status of Serbs as a minority in Montenegro and the status of the Serbian language within the republic. Despite the “solved” constitutional status and fi nal linguistic standardization (Montenegrin is the offi cial state language according to Art. 13 of the Constitution of Montenegro4), the debate over the use of the Montenegrin language in the educational system remains unsolved. Th e majority of the population does not speak the country’s offi cial language (36% of the population declared speaking it on the last census in April 20115), and the government’s attempt to introduce Montenegrin as an obligatory subject in school since September 2011 has not been successful. Also unsolved is the status of the Serbian language. Historically, it has been the language studied in schools since the introduction of mass educa- tion in Montenegro and was the offi cial language of the republic from 1992 until 2007 (when it replaced Serbo-Croatian as the offi cial state language). Today, the pro-Serbian opposition parties are against giving Serbian the status of a minority language and insist on its restoration as the offi cial language at educational and administrative levels. Th is article suggests two aspects of the language issue in Montenegro. Th e fi rst views the importance of the language in the context of state- and nation-building and the role of linguistic rights as the core of minorities’ rights in Montenegro. Th e second aspect refers to the developments surrounding the Montenegrin language with regard to the status of the Serbian language in present day Montenegro. Th e 3 Beáta Huszka, “Th e Dispute over Montenegrin Independence”, in Florian Bieber (ed.), Montenegro in Transition (Nomos, Baden-Baden, 2003), 43-62; Srdja Pavlović, “Who are Montenegrins? Statehood, Identity and Civil Society”, in Florian Bieber (ed.), Montenegro in Transition (Nomos, Baden-Baden, 2003), 83-107; Sinisa Malesević and Gordana Uzelac, ”A Nation-state without the Nation? Th e Trajectories of Nation- formation in Montenegro”, 13(4) NN (2007), 695-730; Saša Nedeljković (ed.), Th e Challenges of Contemporary Montenegrin Identity. Anthropological Research of the Trans- formation of Montenegrin Identity Formula since World War Two (Baštinik, Kruševac, 2009). 4 Offi cial Gazette of Montenegro No. 01/07 [Službeni list Grne Gore br. 01/07]. 5 “Population of Montenegro by sex, type of settlement, ethnicity, religion and mother tongue, per municipalities”, Release No. 83 of 12 July 2011 (Statistical Offi ce of Mon- tenegro, Podgorica, 2011), 17-18. 668.
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