Bosna : The Australian-Bosnian Weekly (The Bosnian Language in Australia)

This paper investigates the state of the Bosnian language on the basis of an analysis of the Australian-Bosnian weekly Bosna. The concept of a Bosnian language (bosanski jezik) is not new but has taken on a new lease on life with the establishment of an independent state of Bosnia and Hercegovina (BH). The general consensus is that, while there is still a common vernacular in that republic and beyond within the neoštokavian area, a new BH standard is coming into being. It still has a very flexible ("wide" or "soft") norm and this is reflected in the enormous degree of variation in the newspaper Bosna