South Slavic Languages

"The people of Bosnia -- meaning Bosniaks, Croats, and Serbs -- could each say they're speaking their own, individual language. They say that it's their national language, and that it's not for Europe, Belgrade, or Zagreb to decide differently... The same is true for Montenegrins. If they think Montenegrin is a distinct language, then basically it is. If on the other hand they decide to share a language with Serbs or Croats, that would work just as well. But the tendency here is to see each of these languages as special and distinct."

"When several nations or countries speak a common language, linguists do not list all these peoples in the name of the language because that would be too long a name... In our case, linguists introduced a two-part name in the 19th century, and today's linguists have inherited it, just like today's chemists inherited terms in chemistry, or as American linguists inherited the name for their language. The edges of the tongue are named with the two-part name model, and the central zone is not necessarily named when the edges are known. This is the same as with Indo-European names, the edges are named, and the central zones of Armenian and Persian are not. I must point out that all these names only bind linguists and not ordinary people, they can call the language whatever they want, and they don't have to call it at all."

"When foreigners come to our country ... they point out that in Zagreb they are told that they speak Croatian very well, in Belgrade that they speak Serbian very well, and in Sarajevo that they speak Bosnian very well, and they always say the same thing. But how can a resident, let's say, from Posavina, let's say, a Croat, find it acceptable to claim that he and a Dalmatian, not to mention a Zagorac, speak the same Croatian language, and that he and his neighbor, a Bosniak or a Serb with whom he communicates on a daily basis, do not speak the same, but different languages."

"Macedonian is similar to Bulgarian and is sometimes been regarded as a variety of that language."

"The (modern) Macedonian language is actually an artifact produced for primarily political reasons."

"The ethnic Macedonians and the Macedonian language are a result of a Comintern conspiracy."

"From a strictly linguistic point of view Macedonian can be called a Bulgarian dialect, as structurally it is most similar to Bulgarian."

"Macedonian national conscience and from that conscientious promotion of Macedonian as a written language, first appears just in the beginning of our century and is strengthened particularly during in the years between the two world wars."

"Macedonian is Bulgarian typed on a Serbian type-writer."