This paper examines the political strategies of three dominant ideological currents among Slovenians in the early 20 th century with the aim of clarifying the role that lan- guage policy played within these strategies. The author focuses on Slovenian percep- tions of the relationship between Croatian and Serbian languages, the (dis)inclination of Slovenian politicians towards merging the Croatian and Slovenian languages, and the ways in which any potential convergence was to be implemented. Before the formation of the Kingdom of SCS, Slovenian liberals believed that Slovenians should become part of a solid monolithic entity. Therefore, some advocated for the linguistic assimilation of all South Slavs into Yugoslavs. While certain Slovenian liberals indeed supported aban- doning Slovenian linguistic distinctiveness, this cultural assimilation did not imply a one-way spread of Serbian cultural elements to other South Slavs. Rather, it involved rec- iprocity, expecting Serbs to incorporate elements of the culture and language of Catholic South Slavs. Despite initial reservations from the liberals, Catholic populists also began to lean towards the idea of a Croatian-Slovenian nation at the beginning of the 20th cen- tury, considering Croatization as a preferable alternative to Germanization. In this sce- nario, Slovenians would adopt only the Croatian language, with a significant impact on Croats in other cultural areas. Thus, the assimilation of Slovenians into Croats was seen as a way to extend Slovenian cultural influence. Within the social-democratic faction, there were different and opposing ideas. Some members supported the idea of spreading cultural Yugoslavism, including a shared language, without a distinct political ambition to unite South Slavs into a single state. Others opposed cultural convergence altogether and endorsed only political Yugoslavism.
|
