DRŽAVNA (NE)BRIGA ZA SRPSKI JEZIK

Abstract

The paper analyzes the attitude of the Republic of Serbia, i.e. of its (ir)responsible institutions towards the Serbian language based on the status of the Serbian language defined in three laws and one strategy, as follows: 1) Law on the Use of Serbian Language in Public Life and Protection and Preservation of the Cyrillic Script, 2) Law on the Official Use of Languages and Scripts, 3) Law on Gender Equality, and 4) National Strategy for Gender Equality 2021–2030, with an action plan for its implementation for the period of 2021‒2023. Only the first of these laws is in favour of the Serbian language. But it has more symbolic than practical value, as it is still inferior in key provisions to the current Law on the Official Use of Languages and Scripts. The analysis showed that the three documents, two laws and one strategy, are inconsistent with the Constitution of the Republic of Serbia. But the current government does not think so, and the Constitutional Court did not state its position regarding the incompatibility of the documents with the Constitution. Both the Law on the Official Use of Languages and Scripts and the Law on Gender Equality are in fact laws against the Serbian language, as their provisions directly deny and/or undermine the Serbian language, especially as a Serbian identity criterion. The degradation does affect only the Serbian language; negative consequences of the National Strategy for Gender Equality have an effect on the entire Serbian educational system ‒ from preschool to higher education – as well as scientific research work in the field of humanities and social sciences.