The law on Montenegrin language caused a lot of controversies: The experts divided, and some are taking Serbia as an example

Montenegrin language experts are divided whether that state needs a law to protect the official Montenegrin language, and while some think that the law is necessary, the others claim that they will achieve nothing with the law and fines.

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The linguist Sanja Orlandic considers that the law on language is necessary for Montenegro because it should "determine what was defined in the constitution as an official language, in relations to what was determined as languages in official use", reported the portal RTCG.

Her colleague, Rajka Glusica, the linguist as well, says that "it is completely wrong to introduce any kind of laws, regulations, orders because you can't achieve anything in a language with restrictions, laws, and fines". 

The President of the Management Board of the Faculty of Montenegrin Language and Literature believes that the law on the Montenegrin language, as well as in all regulated countries that have it, is needed in Montenegro as well.

When asked what does that mean and what are the precise reasons why the law on Montenegrin language is necessary, Petrovic said: "First of all, to regulate the matter of language policy in a more orderly way, as an extremely important part of the overall state policy. To develop Montenegrin language study in a well-founded way as a part of a culture and to ultimately prevent the negative process of language culture, or to say cultural ignorance."

Foto: arhivska fotografija, Wikipedia/B1mbo, Froztbyte

Orlandic, however, gives an example of Slovenian language, where it states that besides the foreign name, a name in Slovenian must be provided, and it cannot be less visible than the one in the foreign language.

- High penalties are also imposed in Serbia for those who don't respect the usage of Serbian language and Cyrillic alphabet - says Orlandic.

Some linguists see that kind of solutions as alphabetical purism.

- We shouldn't make this into a political question in Montenegro, we should simply protect Montenegrin language as much as possible, and language culture and awareness about it should remain in the domain of education - said Orlandic.

Whether the language was endangered or not, we should be concerned with its development and improvement, because the smart state will not leave the language to spontaneous development, she said.

(Telegraf.co.uk / Tanjug)