The Croatian Language Question: From Illyrian to Modern Standard

In this episode of The History of Croatia, Lucas and Luna explore the long and contested history of the Croatian language. From the medieval Glagolitic and Cyrillic scripts to the Illyrian movement's quest for a unified South Slavic language, and the 19th-century debates over Croatian vs. Serbian, they trace the linguistic threads that shaped national identity. They discuss the Novi Sad Agreement of 1954, which declared Serbo-Croatian a single language with two pronunciations, and the Croatian Spring's later push for linguistic independence. The story culminates in the Declaration on the Name and Status of the Croatian Literary Language (1967) and the eventual recognition of Croatian as a separate language in independent Croatia. Along the way, they meet figures like Ljudevit Gaj, Vuk Karadžić, and Stjepan Babić, and examine the politics of script, dialect, and vocabulary. A conversation that reveals how language is never just grammar—it's power, identity, and memory.

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