Differences between Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian Language

The goal of this project is to determine and explain the phonetic-phonologic, orthographic, orthoepic, lexical, idiomatic, morphologic and syntactic differences between Bosnian/Bosniac, Croatian and Serbian (B, C, S) on the bases of presented materials and in-depth scholarly analysis. The work for this project is fivefold. Within the framework of the first of five aspects, material will be compiled for the developing parallel corpus of B, C, S which represents the collective functional, stylistic variety of the aforementioned languages. The second aspect is directly related to the first, with the intentional function of a lexical and grammatical data base on the basis of which a correlating dictionary and correlating grammar is being developed. The third aspect consists of the collaboration of 59 scholars from eleven countries (Bosnia-Herzegovina, Germany, France, Croatia, Norway, Austria, Poland, Serbia and Montenegro, Slovenia, Ukraine and the USA), at which certain thematic units are discussed annually: the first year (a) the basic and social framework of the differentiation between B, C, S and (b) the phonetic-phonologic, orthoepic and orthographic differences between B, C, S; in the second year, lexical, idiomatic and derivative differences between B, C, S and in the third year, the grammatical differences. The results of the collaborative research from the third aspect of this project will be debated annually in Graz at a three-day long symposium and published accordingly in a monograph in a series from the publishing house LIT Verlag Wien under the title "Slawische Sprachkorrelationen" (Slavic Language Correlations). The topics are as follows: Volume 2006/1: The differences between related languages; Volume 2 - 2007/2: The phonetic-phonologic, orthoepic and orthographic differences between Bosnian/Bosniac, Croatian and Serbian; Volume 2008/3: The lexical, idiomatic and derivative differences between Bosnian/ Bosniac, Croatian and Serbian; Volume 2009/4: The morphologic and syntactic differences between Bosnian/ Bosniac, Croatian and Serbian. The fourth area of research is focused on a speech recognition program for B, C, S and a program called "BCS-Voice." Lastly, the fifth area of research consists of project collaboration from students (for the purpose of developing their careers) whose dealing with individual topics in the form of theses and dissertations is added to the corpus, the data base, the publication and the annual symposium. During the fourth year, and upon completion of the three-year project, some publications will result, for instance: Lemmatisierter Online-"Gralis BKS-Korpus"; Correlative Dictionary (available in printed and online versions); Correlative Grammar; three national monographs in the countries in which B, C, S are spoken (Bosnia- Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia and Montenegro): The Differences between Bosnian/ Bosniac, Croatian and Serbian - the Bosnian/ Bosniac Perspective (in Sarajevo), the Croatian Perspective (in Zagreb), the Serbian Perspective (in Belgrade or Novi Sad). Due to the fact that a significant number of colleagues from various institutes, faculties, universities and countries are going to participate in this project, it will be structured in the following manner: a) international collaboration amongst scholars from eleven countries, b) Austrian inter-university collaboration (Graz, Innsbruck), c) collaboration amongst Karl-Franzens-University Graz faculty (Humanities Department, Law School), d) interdepartmental collaboration (within the humanities faculty at the University of Graz: Department for Slavic Languages, Department for General Linguistics, Department for Romantic Languages and the Department for Academic Translation).

The purpose of the project consisted of investigating the system-immanent phonetic-phonological, orthographic, orthoepical, lexical, idiomatical, morphological and syntactic differences between Bosnian/Bosniakian, Croatian and Serbian (B, C, S) on the basis of representative material and on thorough scientific analysis and its explanation. The work on the project occurred in five research directions. Within the first direction, the material was collected for the parallel corpus of B, C, S (Gralis-Corpus), which represents the entire functional-stylistic variety of mentioned languages. The second direction was connected with the first one in which the lexical and grammatical data bank was established for the purpose of creating a correlative dictionary and a correlative grammar. The third direction formed the cooperation of 58 linguists from 14 states who worked individually each year on certain thematic unities: in the first year (a) the general and social basic conditions of the differentiation of B, C, S and (b) the phonetic-phonological, orthoepical and orthographic differences between these languages; in the second year the lexical, idiomatic and derivative differences between B, C, S and in the third year the grammatical differences. The results of the researches were discussed on 3 symposia (1 each year), held in Graz and were published in omnibus volumes within the publication series `Slavic linguistic correlations` of LIT publishing house in Münster. The fourth research direction had the elaboration of speech recognition software under name "BCS-Voice". At the end, the fifth research direction formed the students-cooperation (for the purposes of a career development) in the form of their researches in dissertations and theses, assistance on the project, work on BCS-Corpus, publications and participation on symposia. In the fourth year, after the three-year-old project ended, several publications occurred: four national monographs in the states in which B, C, S is spoken (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia wo publications/). On grounds of the fact that numerous assistants from different institutes, faculties, universities and states participated in this project, it put a form of an a) international collaboration of linguists from 14 states, b) Austrian interuniversity collaboration (Graz, Innsbruck) and c) institutes- collaboration (within Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences of University of Graz: Institute of Slavistics, Center for Information Modelling in Humanities, Institute of Romanistics).