engleski

Croatian language in the expanding transnational space

This contribution analyses dynamics of the Croatian language in the changing social environment and the expanding Australian-Croatian transnational social space. Having survived various endogenous and exogenous challenges over time this small European language is widely dispersed today in the space marked by major global languages. Generations of migrants expanded it spatially and made efforts to maintain it with mixed success. It is a language of communication and adaptation to a new home, a constitutive element of institutional completeness in the Croatian diaspora, and embedded in Australian cultural diversity. As a symbol of migrant identity it is also a medium of linkages and exchange, of communication flows between two spatially distant nodes, or homes. Australian-Croatian transnational social space has evolved out of countless linkages at the grass roots level over the past century. It is underpinned not only by the collectively developed communal places throughout Australia but also by many other forms of institutional development generated out of expanding exchange and communication flows as many constraints disappeared. Dramatic social, political and technological changes replaced the impact of large scale migration to Australia with the enhanced flow of investment, tourism and return migration to Croatia. Such developments generate new perspectives for the Croatian language in transnational social space established from below, providing it with new dynamics. The fortunes of the Croatian language are enhanced as it appropriates a new role through applications in cultural and commercial exchange in addition to representation of identity in a culturally diverse society. Unlike the experience of other smaller continental European language at Macquarie University, the number of students enrolled for this language is sustained over years despite generational changes. Such developments ground perspectives for this embattled language as an important medium of communication in transnational space. It is appropriating the role of a companion language to major global languages to travellers and a culturally hybrid second generation in an ever expanding transcultural space.

Croatian language; identity; second generation; transnational space; communication

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