Modeling Linguistic Dominance in the South Slavic Region. The Current Pluricentricity Debate

Abstract

The article contextualizes the post-Yugoslav pluricentricity debate within the current sociolinguistic discourse. The shift in perspective from the pluricentricity model, which was largely advanced by Michael Clyne and Ulrich Ammon, to Rudolf Muhr’s concept of dominant vs. non-dominant varieties, which is more oriented towards power relations and discourse control, allows for a comparison with the Macedonian-Bulgarian relationship at a standard level. Overall, developments in the post-Yugoslav region contribute to the fact that standardology takes more account of socio-psychological and situational factors and thus places formal linguistic criteria such as intercomprehension in a lower position. Simultaneously, Muhr’s notion of graduable (low, medium, and full) pluricentricity allows for an exit to the deadlocked debate about “one or four languages.” The article focuses on the performance of Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian pluricentricity in Tito’s Yugoslavia and asks about continuities and ruptures across political fissures in the 19^th to 21^st centuries.