Language fuels the Balkans' ethnic tensions, linguist says

Nowhere has linguistic research involved more discord than in the Balkans. Serbian and Bulgarian linguists have both attempted to prove that Macedonian - one of the official languages of the Republics of Yugoslavia after World War II - was a degenerated dialect of their own languages, thus supporting their respective rights to rule. Horace Lunt's classic work on Macedonian grammar, identifying it as its own language, met with nasty criticism, says linguistics professor Wayles Browne, a former student of Lunt. Bosnian, Serbian and Croatian, the languages Browne speaks best and the subject of much of his research, are close to being the same language, as close as British and American English. "But in the Balkans, whatever country you're in the language serves as a national symbol. It's a big part of their identity," Browne says. In his general linguistic work Browne focuses on syntax and the phonology (sounds) and morphology (forms) of words.