Transmission

Identity and Language

It makes me giddy when my passions and current events collide like this. National identity is plastic as is the birth or rebirth of a national language. I wonder to what extent the new languages spoken and taught in the former Yugoslavian states are derived from the literary high culture. While language is a living breathing organism, it is typically the language of the administrators and officials (i.e. upper class) that becomes the official language of the nation.