SLAVIC LANGUAGES IN THE XVIIITH CENTURY: CROATIAN LITERARY AND LINGUISTIC TRADITION IN THE SLAVIC STUDIES FOG

Accepting the well-known studies and attitudes within Slavic and Croatian studies concerning the criteria and conditions of linguistic standardization, the paper deals with a sociolinguistic comparison of Croatian with other Slavic languages in the XVIIIth century. The Croatian sociolinguistic situation of that period is being observed externally, i. e. from a wider Slavic studies perspective. Within this framework we are again questioning the role and contribution of the literary tradition to the process of standardization. The contemporary Slavic studies (and not only Croatian studies) should finally provide us with a clearer and more specific answer to that issue