Bosnian has nothing to do with nationality
My compliments on this website! I need to make a comment since this concerns all people living in Bosnia. Bosnian is not closely related to Serbian or Croatian - it is Serbo-Croat. But since they have invented Bosnian nationality they probably think they should also invent a Bosnian language.There are approximately 4 million people living in Bosnia, - half of them are Bosniaks, the other half is made up of Croats and Serbs. Croats speak Croatian, Serbs speak Serbian, Bosniaks speak Bosnian and any of them would take it for a personal offence if you would tell them otherwise. Bosnia is only a geographical term for Serbs and Croats and it has nothing to do with nationality. Just try to imagine how someone from Scotland or Ireland etc. would react if you would call him Englishman! It has nothing to do with the conflict in Bosnia, trust me. That's the way it is!
Sent by: Vlatka
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From Mars, dear Kate! Probably someone who made such a nonsense of a test forgot to enter Croat into the system as one of the possibilities. Therefore you got everything that was in the system. A common mistake. If you wish to go so deep into history, I can give you an exact answer without you having to get tested. We all come from two species of the human race - let's call them Adam and Eve.
Ok someone explain to me when I had my dna tested, I matched with every single Balkan country Serbia, Slovenia, Bosnia etc even Hungary but got no match to Croatia AT ALL.I dont get it? Where do the Croats come from?
I totally agree with Brett, Martin and Lara. But I need to compliment Andrew on regarding Vlatka's comment, and being able to spot a hard line nationalist, but to me it sounds lika a Muslim nationalist, not a Serbian ...
I am not sorry to say that Vlatka is just plain stupid. The terms Serb or Croat was never used before the 19th century in Bosnia for Catholics or Orthodoxs. Therefore, all people were just of Bosnian nationality since Bosnia has been a country for many centuries. After all, language represents people, who they are including cultural inheritance from one generation to another.
I work with immigrants who moved from Bosnia to Sweden. I can clearly hear from what part of Bosnia they come from. But I never know what they are going to answer when I ask them what is the name of their language. It is only the name of the language that is the problem here. We know that we understand each other but we do not know how to name our language if we do not want to hurt someone's feelings.
I agree with Brett, Martin and Lara. Bosnia is just as old as Serbia, Croatia or Slovenia or any other country for that matter. Bosnian language exists, and has existed for decades, although this was denied by Greater-Serbia and Greater-Croatia politicians. I suspect Vlatka is a hard line nationalist, supposedly a Serbian one?
"But since they have invented Bosnian nationality they probably think they should also invent a Bosnian language." Shame on you, nobody invents languages. You should know that the Bosnian language is one of the oldest Slavic languages, but in communist times you could end up in jail stating this. In 1631 a Turkish-Bosnian dictionary has been written, you can see a copy of this in the Swedish Uppsala University! So next time think twice if you write stuff like this.
I agree with Lara. I would also like to point out that most Bosnian Serbs or Croats have never been to Serbia or Croatia, neither have their ancestors. They are all Bosnians, but have a different religion (Catholic, Orthodox). I believe that there is a number of Jewish people living there too. At the end of the day these people have more important things to worry about than nationality. I am sure that most of them wouldn't mind to be called whatever as long as they have a nice, peaceful and comfortable life.
It seems to me Vlatka (and people like her) only like to go back into history, as far as it suits their viewpoint. Bosnia has been a nation state for, as far back as the middle ages. Most Bosnians were happy to keep a common language but both Croatia and Serbia reinvented their language and started bringing back words to emphasis this situation. Bosnians were left with little choice (as normal) but to follow. Many people moved around Yugoslavia in post-war years for work etc. Therefore your use of the Scots and Irish example is distorted. You should say 'how would an Englishman react if all Scots and Irish living in England wanted to divide England in three parts'. In addition many Bosnian people of Serbian Orthodox or Catholic faith who move to Serbia or Croatia soon find they are seen and treated as foreigners and are not welcomed as countrymen. My wish is that people would find things that make their lives better not differences that tear their lives apart.
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I agree. Croatian, Serbian and Bosnian do share some words. Other than that the pronunciation and spelling of similar words differs. An example is the word for a pen: kemijska olovka (Croatian), hemijska olovka (Serbian). Some people would call these merely dialects of the same language, Serbo-Croat. The existence of such a language is not even accepted by many Croats, Serbs and Bosniaks. It is just a name coined by linguists who put the three languages in one group. This is not so.
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