Good morning! This will not be a lesson in linguistics, but in common sense. Why are special Montenegrin phonemes gaining in popularity and why have massive propaganda attacks on the Montenegrin language only produced a counter-effect?
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Ś
The letter Ś has become a symbol of resistance and a symbol of Montenegrin identity. This is natural, because it is a part of our daily routine – from the procrastinating “śutra” (tomorrow), through the “kiśela” (sparkling water) along with the Deutsche coffee, to the malicious “śedi” (sit down), even those who would rather make fun of it cannot avoid it.
I would love for someone to steal the idea and make a brand. Kappa t-shirts. But of good quality.
Monk Rafailo, the abbot of the Maine monastery, often pops up on my social networks. My good fellow citizen Blazo also spams me with Rafailo. Rafailo can sometimes be arrogant and proud, but he also knows how to talk about the Christian faith. He can do it. And I never heard him talk about nation and identity. Rafailo knows that these are not God’s themes, but human themes.
Why am I telling this story this morning? Because Rafailo speaks the purest Montenegrin language. Rafailo is not ashamed to say “śutra” and “śedi”. He is not ashamed to say “đeca” (children) and “đe” (where). Not because Rafailo is ignorant and illiterate, although he is of dogmatic anti-scientifical and anti-enlightenment orientation, but because Rafailo, whether we like him or not, is authentic.
Rafailo is very popular throughout the Serbian World, although he doesn’t talk much about Serbia. I don’t remember ever hearing him talk about it at all, though I could be wrong. The phenomenon of those video clips with Rafailo is interesting – from the old famous one about bad, useless heroin to deep and serious talks about faith. Most of those clips are subtitled, not only to grab the eager attention of the average social media user but to translate Rafailo’s words. Most of those subtitles are in the Serbian language of the Ekavian dialect.
Adnan Cirgic says that we all speak one language. From Sjenica to Herceg Novi. Whatever we call it. And part of us calls it the Montenegrin language. Some call it Bosnian, and some call it Serbian. Some call it Croatian.
I liked the joke of some members of the Montenegrin community in Croatia, who met the Croats of Montenegro in Zagreb and concluded that the Montenegrins in Zagreb speak Croatian, and the Croats from the Bay of Kotor speak Montenegrin. Because there are structural differences between the two languages, which are much more serious than whether someone says “hiljadu” or “tisuću” (both meaning a thousand) and “organizirati” or “organizovati” (both meaning organize). But I would leave that to the scientists, and I would emphasize that people have the political right to self-determine about language, just like about other identity issues. Serbs in Montenegro speak Serbian, Bosniaks speak Bosnian, Croats speak Croatian and Montenegrins speak Montenegrin, Serbian, Montenegrin-Serbian and Serbian-Montenegrin. Some, like the president, sometimes speak Montenegrin and sometimes Serbian. Although, if they all went to Zagreb, Sarajevo or Belgrade together, as soon as they spoke, the locals would very easily conclude where they came from.
A man from Serbia told me yesterday on Twitter that people forcefully say ś and ź, breaking their tongues to prove that they are Montenegrins. Some people have been really convinced that we invented two letters. I don’t know about you, but for me, there are no more natural two phonemes, besides the unfairly neglected and rejected ż (dz). From my school days to date, I have only broken my tongue when I have to forcefully say “sjutra” (tomorrow) or “gdje” (where) or “djeca” (children). Or even worse “ponedjeljak” (Monday).
That’s it for today. We wish you a pleasant rest of the day.
Kind regards,
Ljubomir Filipovic, CdM analyst and columnist
(Columnists’ opinions and views are not necessarily those of the CdM editorial staff)
