ABSTRACT
The Serbo-Croat (or Serbo-Croatian) area is a striking example of mismatching between dialect differentiation and the rise of standard languages. The line which divided Europe into east and west, Orthodox and Catholic, runs right
through this part of South-east Europe. Various states have prospered at different times in this region, such as the Serbian medieval kingdom under rulers like Stefan Nemanja and Stefan Dušan and the unique city-state of Dubrovnik (Ragusa). Parts of the territory have been under Venice, Austro-Hungary and the Turks. We can only hope to hint at the complex and turbulent history of the area. The ancestors of the South Slavs arrived in the Balkans during the sixth and seventh
centuries and within the next two centuries the first Slav states of the area sprang up. By this time too the main linguistic divisions were evident. There were two main sets of dialects: East South Slavonic would later develop into Bulgarian and the closely related Macedonian, while West South Slavonic was the basis for Slovene and SerboCroat. From the ninth century the Slovenes in the north-west were ruled by Bavarian and Austrian princes and so were separated from their Slavonic neighbours. In the remaining area, roughly equivalent to modern Bosnia-Hercegovina, Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia (or former Yugoslavia excepting Slovenia and Macedonia), a range of dialects developed. Christianity was accepted in the ninth century, with certain political repercussions.
The tenth-century Croatian kingdom looked to Rome in matters of religion. Serbia’s adoption of Orthodoxy meant that it looked first to Constantinople and later, after the fall of Constantinople, to Moscow for support. Montenegro was also Orthodox. The picture was complicated by the invasion of the Turks, who defeated the Serbs at Kosovo in 1389, and by the resulting migrations of population. In the next century the Turks occupied Bosnia and Hercegovina, where a large proportion of the population adopted Islam, and parts of Montenegro. By the time the Turks were finally removed (1878), Croatia was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which took over BosniaHercegovina. It was not until 1918 that the different groups were united into one state –
