[Foundation-l] Montenegrin request for new language wikipedia

[Bence Damokos]

Hi!
I am an outsider in this dispute, but I would like to give my opinion on the
state of these four languages as I see them, after learning for some time
Croatian, and having spoken with a friend who is more knowledgable than me.

What I see is that Montenegrin uses the ijekavica dialect of the so-called
Serbo-Croatian language (which I think is THE artificial one from the 5
mentioned), while the Serbians use the ekavica dialect. This makes every
second word different. Even though either is acceptable, you wouldn't wanna
mix them in an article (as mixing British or American spelling: no one would
really notice), it would stop your "train of thought" to decode each woord
and decide which dialect it was written in. Requiring the use of either one
would be unfair, and would violate the free speech rights of either of them,
also it would lead to some more unnecessary tension.

Croatian uses latin script, and ijekavica (at least the official dialect),
so Montenegrins could integrate there? Wrong. Montenegrin has many words
borrowed from Turkish that Croatians might not understand, or would
constantly replace with their Croatian counterparts, or just remove from
articles.

The difference of words and dialect is a main difference between Serbian in
Croatian. Apart from the dialet problem mentioned with the Montenegrins,
Serbian language tends to use Western words by transliterating it
phonetically into Serbian language, while Croatian tends to invent their own
words. Compromise on this ground would either ignite tension, or be a factor
in "deteriorating" Croatian language by introducing foreign words, for which
there is already a Croatian version in use.

Bosnian: I'm no expert here, why this is a separate language :), if not for
political reasons. I guess they have many Turkish words too. Anyway, if
there is a Bosnian wiki, a Montenegrin one could also be.

Also, if I'm correct Montenegro had its state television in the Serbia and
Montenegro era, that was broadcast it Montenegrin (language/dialect).

In conclusion, Serbo-Croatian was an invented language, without machine
translation between the ijekavica/ekavica/ikavica dialects choosing either
that is not the official in any a part of the region would lead to tensions,
and the difference in words might also lead to misunderstandings, or at
least heart national feelings if a "dialect version of a word" is changed to
an other "for better understanding".

Anyway, I hope I didn't upset any one, and that I wasn't factually wrong, or
misleading.

Regards, Bence Damokos

ps. OFF. why are there so many wikis in Italy?