Language fact: Bosnian vs. Serbian vs. Croatian
Written by Andres Heuberger on Sunday, February 15, 2009
How different are these languages?
Having a common root in Serbo-Croat, the three languages are very similar. Compared to Serbian, Croatian and Bosnian have developed a little further. These languages have acquired (invented, actually) new words and phrases. There are also some grammar, style and vocabulary differences between them.
The need to be seen as different languages is primarily political in nature. Speakers of the different languages understand each other in every way, and there is no need for any translations between these languages.
The language group is sometimes referred to as "BSC" (for instance, in the Hague tribunal - see this example). Some say that the languages differ even less than various versions of English (e.g., British versus American English).
UPDATE: In honor of International Mother Language Day, Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty ran an interesting article on this same topic.
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