-----Original Message----- To: service@worldlanguage.com Subject: Croatian and Serbian
Dear Sir:
As is correctly pointed out in your description of the Croatian and Serbian, many words are entirely different in both languages. The reason the people understand each other is that they lived together in Yugoslavia for 72 years and the ruling Serbs deliberately put Serb words into use in Croatian schools, in order to obliterate the difference, thus coining the language "Serbo-Croatian".
Since Croatians first came to the Adriatic and the rest of today's Croatia in the 7th century, they of course spoke Croatian, not "Serbo-Croatian" which expression is still too often found in the media and academia. Croats are proud of their language and would like to have it recognized as such.
Sincerely, Hilda M. Foley Media Relations National Federation of Croatian Americans
From: "John" <john@worldlanguage.com> To: "Gerard , Hilda Foley" hmfgsf@juno.com Date: Sun, 14 Apr 2002 02:13:00 -0700 Subject: RE: Croatian and Serbian
