Duhovi i Kula babilonska. Jezična raznolikost i međusobno razumijevanje
Spirits and the Tower of Babel. Language Diversity and Mutual Understanding

Summary/Abstract: Starting from the initial (topical) issue of language diversity and criteria for demarcation of particular languages, this paper analyzes the essence of language, i.e. the essential function of language. On the one hand, the analysis deals with the communicational function of language, which is generally recognized as its fundamental function; on the other hand, however, language is analyzed as a means of social identification, i.e. as a cohesion factor in the foundation and preservation of identity („identitätsstiftende Funktion“). The paper provides arguments that this function is on, more or less, the same level of importance as the communicational function with which it is mostly inseparably connected. Only when both these functions are regarded as equally important, it is possible to understand the logic of differentiation of languages, of language diversity in the world, and of drawing boundaries between languages, even where perfunctory observers may see these languages as identical or only insignificantly distinct.

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