You remember the legend of the Gordian knot. The shepherd made a knot that no one could untangle. Alexander, according to legend, untangled the knot - with a sword. He interrupted him, and said the famous one - The method is not important. But, as we will see - sometimes the way you do something is important... Some knots can be "disentangled" in Alexander's way, but some definitely - not.
The Gordian knot has become a commonly accepted metaphor for an intractable problem, that is, a problem that can only be solved by a radical method.
Even today, children compete to see who can tie this or that knot, preferably as complicated as possible. Dead knot, sailor's knot... However, children do it for fun, for fun or boredom, and politicians for somewhat different reasons. And these knots of ours are not tied by children, but by politicians. Admittedly, with the hearty assistance of Montenegrin intellectuals of a patriotic and knotty orientation.
However, there are also problems that this and that political and intellectual elite have not dealt with, nor do they intend to, as things stand. The current language policy will have disastrous consequences for the Montenegrin language community. It is relatively compact.
So that in a nearer, more normal future, the tensions between supporters of different language names would naturally be relativized. The term language community is broader than the speakers of one language, that is, the users of the name of one language. Namely, in Montenegro, local Montenegrins, Serbs, Croats and Bosniaks speak a language which, regardless of the different names, is linguistically the same language.
The Montenegrin language community consists of all those who understand each other in their own language. After such dilettantish and politically motivated standardization of the Montenegrin language, what will happen? The almost certain reaction of the Montenegrin Serbs, Bosniaks and Croats will be that they see as the norm of their language only what is determined in Belgrade, Sarajevo, Zagreb...
Since the norm decided upon by the Montenegrin educational and political authorities excludes the possibility of finding them in such a linguistic-normative concept. The consequence will be the destruction, as we said, of the relatively compact Montenegrin language community - which is not good for Montenegrin or the other (Stokavian) languages in Montenegro.
But, knot-makers, be they shepherds or politicians, generally do not think about such things... I must admit that it always seems somewhat sad to me when I read that people, suddenly, advocate what they do not believe in.
I think - some great trouble must have forced them to do that. Namely, now among the defenders of the official concept of the Montenegrin language, there are suddenly (or – expectedly, depending on the angle of view) those who I know do not think so. But they are willing to create some more confusion with some Žižekian thought ornament. To further tangle the knot.
One of the recently launched arguments talks about people who stand for a different concept of normalization of the Montenegrin language as those who are inclined - autocolonization. In that verbal equilibrium, those people are accused of wanting to keep the Serbo-Croatian language, only under the name of Montenegrin!? And thus they autocolonize, because it is common knowledge, isn't it, that Serbo-Croatian is not Montenegrin...
Let's see, is that true? The language we used to call "Serbo-Croatian" is as much Montenegrin as it is Serbian or Croatian. (That's what it says in the preamble of the Novi Sad agreement.) If that's not the case, then Montenegrin literature of the XNUMXth and XNUMXth centuries was written in a language other than Montenegrin?
And to assert such a thing would be complete nonsense. It will not be the case that Montenegrins did not have a language until the current government "discovered" it for them. How can one "autocolonize" with one's own language? Of course, if the matter wanted to stay in the serious zone, such fouls would not have occurred. So - let's remind you: there are many advocates of the Montenegrin language who do not think that this norm is good.
Will the label of national traitors be attached to them soon? I see that branch of the small economy - the production of traitors - is flourishing again. Instead of going to Europe, we headed back to the - nineties?
So the current political operetta about seeking an agreement between the government and the opposition acts only as a new knot thrown to the kids to have fun... Until then, the "serious players" will do everything they need to do. I don't know which is worse for the linguistic situation in Montenegro: "linguists" like this, or politicians like this. After all, what do politicians know about language. With them, everything turns into a market joke...
Good old Gordius. What one shepherd messes up, he cannot mess up a hundred philosophers. And the saddest thing: Montenegrins being what they are, everything will end with a choral invocation of Alexander and his sword.
Bonus video:
