Croatian Language

Status

Croatian language is today the official language of the Republic of Croatia and, along with Bosnian and Serbian, one of three official languages of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

There is at present no sole regulatory body which determins correct usage of the Croatian language. There is however an Institute for the Croatian language and linguistics with a prescription department. Judging by the patterns of the neighbouring South Slavic languages, it is most likely that Croatian will remain a language of academy and not a demotic language (eg. English, Greek).

The current rules of the language are generally laid out in the grammar books and dictionaries used in education facilities, such as the school curriculum prescribed by the Ministry of Education and the university programmes of the Faculty of Philosophy at the four main universities. The most prominent recent editions describing the rules of Croatian are:

* Hrvatski pravopis' by Babić, Finka, Moguš,
* Rječnik hrvatskoga jezika by Šonje et al.,
* Hrvatski enciklopedijski rječnik, by a group of authors,
* Hrvatska gramatika by Barić et al,

The Rječnik hrvatskoga jezika by Anić, is often referenced, though not particularly purist.