Organisation:    Slavic Chair, University of Amsterdam (UvA)
                                                                                                    Drs. Radovan Lucic
                                                                                                    Drs. Guido Snel
                                                                                                    Prof. Dr. William Veder
E-mail: LPLsymposium@hum.uva.nl
 

On 23 and 24 November 2000, The Slavic Department of the University of Amsterdam organizes a symposium entitled ‘Language Policy and Lexicography in Slavic languages after 1989’.

A book containing the papers presented on the symposium appeared In March 2002. In consultation with the members of the conference, it was decided to make a thematic whole by reclassifying the papers and adding a few more contributions to reach an adequate overview of the relevant issues with regard to the subject in question. This resulted in a book conception which differs slightly from the conception of the original conference. While the conference intended to describe the current situation in lexicography as a tool and instrument of language policy in Slavic languages - with the accent on Croatian and Serbian, - the book is in the first place concerned with standardisation processes in the central South-Slavic language area mainly from the lexicographic point of view, in the last century as well as in the present .

The symposium has been organized in four themes:

Day 1.

1) Language, politics and language policy
    Sprekers: R.Detrez, N.Mišeska-Tomic, R.Bugarski, B.Tafra/M.Bratanic

2) Language and lexicographic practice
    Sprekers: V.Ðukanovic, D.Šipka, W.Honselaar, R.Genis
 

Day 2.

3) Language variants and practical solutions
    Sprekers: B.Šljivic-Šimšic, R.Lucic, J.Novakovic-Lopušina, M.Drazenovic-Carrieri

4) Normalization and codification of standard languages
    Sprekers: D.Škiljan, D.Kalogjera, M.Radovanovic, J.Marvan
 

Abstracts
 
The complicated relationships within this area are probably unique in the world. On the Balkan periphery, there is nowadays one linguistic system, containing two alphabets, three standard languages, four nations; three religions and three dialects, the biggest of which divides into three pronounciation areas, regardless of nationality. For many centuries, this linguistic area has been right on the border between East and West: between Byzantium and Rome, Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic Christianity, and between the Osman and Habsburg empires. During its history, the language has used four different alphabetical systems, and has had as many as thirty different names, none of which has ever been accepted by the majority of its speakers.
Lexicographical works can give us the clearest illustration of concrete issues in language policy and standardisation. The changing attitudes towards the position of the Croatian, Bosnian and Serbian languages in lexicography are particularly interesting in this context. Since the title of a dictionary mostly includes the name of the languages concerned, certain political choices have and have had to be made along with the publishing of a dictionary from this linguistic area. The relationship between the content and the title of a dictionary should be reconsidered due to the changed position and new mutual relationships between the languages in that region.

In order to retain the concept of the conference, articles on Macedonian and Bulgarian as well as the lexicographical issues in Polish and Russian are also included in this book.
The additional paper presented at the conference, Prof. Willy Martin's work: "A model for the Lexicographical Description of Closely Related Languages: Dutch and Afrikaans as a case-in-point", was excluded, as it deals with non-Slavic languages (although it is very interesting from the lexicographical point of view, as a comparison with the situation in closely related South-Slavic languages).
Since not all the planned issues were presented at the conference, we addressed a number of experts for contributions to this book in order to get a more comprehensive picture of current socio-linguistic situation in the South-Slavic linguistic area: Mr. Miloš Okuka contributed his paper on Montenegrin, and Miss Sigrid Darinka Völkl on the Bosnian language. Further, Mr. Mario Grcevic analyses current lexical changes in codification of standard Croatian, and Mr. Nikola Rašic gives a broad overview of sociolinguistic changes on different language levels in Serbo-Croatian.
In this way, we completed the list regarding South-Slavic national-linguistic issues.

The presentation of the book will take place at the Department of Slavistics, UvA, Spuistraat 210, fifth floor, on Friday, June 16th 2002 at 17.00

You can order the book (36 €) at:

Verlag Otto Sagner
c/o Kubon & Sagner
D-80328 München
E-mail: postmaster@kubon-sagner.de

Lexical Norm and National Language.
Lexicography and Language Policy in
South-Slavic Languages after 1989. (R. Lucic, ed.)
(Die Welt der Slaven. Sammelbände - Sborniki. 14.)