Croatian Language in the Standards of the International Organization for Standardization Cover Image

Hrvatski jezik u normama Međunarodne organizacije za normizaciju
Croatian Language in the Standards of the International Organization for Standardization

Author(s): Mario Grčević
Subject(s): South Slavic Languages, Philology
Published by: Hrvatsko filološko društvo
Keywords: Croatian language; ISO; SIL International; Croatian macro language;

Summary/Abstract: In the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) system, language codes and language names are defined within the ISO 639 standard. At present, the standard consists of five parts (ISO 639 1-5). Infoterm (International Information Centre for Terminology), an organization founded by UNESCO, is responsible for ISO 639-1. ISO 639-2 is the responsibility of the Registration Authority of the Library of Congress in Washington, and ISO 639-3 is the responsibility of SIL International from Dallas, also known as the Summer Institute of Linguistics. SIL International declares certain dialects and subsystems of the Croatian language to be separate Slavic languages, supposedly independent of Croatian, and reduces the scope of the Croatian language, as an individual language, merely to the Štokavian dialect of the modern Croatian standard language. At the same time, it constructs „the Serbo-Croatian macro language“ and encourages the return of this phantom creation as an entity. This paper examines the activities of the SIL International and its approach to the Croatian language. The goal is to identify problematic points and propose scientifically based solutions for them. The paper does not question whether the actions of SIL International are the result of miscommunication and coincidence, or whether they are perhaps a part of a planned action that aims to promote a new geopolitical realignment on our part of the European map, with a Serbo-Croatian shadow over it.

  • Issue Year: 70/2023
  • Issue No: 2-3
  • Page Range: 41-72
  • Page Count: 32
  • Language: Croatian
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