Central South Slavic Linguistic Taxonomies and the Language/Dialect Dichotomy: Rhetorical Strategies and Faulty Epistemologies

Maxwell Alexander (), Vukotić Vuk () and Klaver Susie
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Maxwell Alexander: School of History, Philosophy, Political Science and International Relations, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand
Vukotić Vuk: Institute for the Languages and Cultures of the Baltic, Scandinavian Studies Centre, Vilnius University, Vilnius, Lithuania
Klaver Susie: School of History, Philosophy, Political Science and International Relations, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand

Comparative Southeast European Studies, 2025, vol. 73, issue 1, 36-58

Abstract: This article analyzes the epistemology of the language/dialect (L/D) dichotomy. The L/D dichotomy gives rise to disputes between “splitters”, who want to split the speech of a given region into more than one “language”, and “lumpers”, who view the region as speaking one “language” albeit with diverse “dialects”. While numerous linguists have declared the L/D dichotomy theoretically meaningless, thus taking an “agnostic” approach, linguists interested in a particular case study often take sides in lumper/splitter disputes. Such linguists, who the authors call “assertionists”, adopt a variety of rhetorical strategies to make their case. Taking as a case study assertionists writing about Central South Slavic, this article identifies three main strategies: the “avalanche of trivia”; the “appeal to imaginary evidence”; and the “denigration of the political”. Both lumpers and splitters adopt all three strategies to conceal the poor epistemological foundations of assertionism.

Keywords: linguistic nationalism; language/dialect dichotomy; Serbian; Croatian; The Yugoslav Wars and the Year 1995 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bpj:soeuro:v:73:y:2025:i:1:p:36-58:n:1004

DOI: 10.1515/soeu-2024-0047

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