Legal decree on the Croatian language, its purity and spelling

[Pandur]

Legal decree on the Croatian language, its purity and spelling


Article 1.
The language spoken by Croats, by its pronunciation, by its historical development, by its prevalence in the Croatian national area, by the style of pronunciation, by spelling rules and by the meaning of certain words, is the primary and peculiar language of the Croatian people, and therefore not identical with any other language, nor it is a dialect of any other language, nor related to any other nation's common language. That is why it is called the "Croatian language".

Article 2.
The Croatian language is the public welfare of the Croatian people, and therefore nobody should distort or deform it. That is why it is forbidden in pronunciation and in spelling to use words which do not conform with the spirit of the Croatian language, usually foreign words, borrowed from other, even similar languages. Exceptionally, words with special meanings can be used when it is difficult or impossible to find domestic equivalents.

Article 3.
It is forbidden to give non-Croatian names and identifiers to shops, companies, associations or any kind of institutions, and it is also forbidden to hang or lay out any kind of signs contrary to articles of this legal decree.

Article 4.
The Croatian official and literary language is stokavian dialect with jekavian and iekavian pronunciation. In ikavian pronunciation, the short "i" should be written and pronounced as "je", and also in ikavian pronunciation the long "i" should be written and pronounced as "ie".

Article 5.
On literary works written in any dialect or pronunciation there should be a visible sign in a prominent place, marking that it is written in that dialect.

Article 6.
The indefinite verb form shouldn't be used in the future tense "to" with present tense.

Article 7.
In the Croatian language people should write by word root spelling, not by phonetic spelling.

Article 8.
The Ministry of Education will set up an agency by an order which will determine everything necessary to execute the articles of this decree, and which will take care that the Croatian language is cleansed, and spelling affixed in the spirit of this legal decree, and it will at the same time determine penalties for the protection of the purity of the language and its spelling.

Article 9.
While the agency, mentioned in Article 8, determines final rules of Croatian spelling in the spirit of this legal decree, schools will temporarily use books coordinated on basis of the order of this ministry about spelling dated June the 23rd 1941.

Article 10.
This legal decree gains legal power on the day of its declaration, and its implementation is entrusted to the Minister of Education.


Declared in Zagreb, the 14th of August 1941.
Number CCXLIX-1083-Z-p.-1941
Minister of Education:
Dr. Mile Budak, v.r. [by his own hand]

Poglavnik of the
Independent State of Croatia
Dr. Ante Pavelic, v.r. [by his own hand]

[Pandur]

"The Croatian language and the Latin script shall be in official use in the Republic of Croatia..."

-The Constitution of the Republic of Croatia (December 22, 1990), basic provisions, article 12.

[Luger]

This strikes me as somewhat insecure. This overbearing need to legislate the tiniest details in an attemt to save the "purity" of something. I wouldnt like to be the poor student that pronounces something wrong in class and commits the henious crime of destroying the purity of the Croatian language

[Heretik]

Originally Posted by Luger

This strikes me as somewhat insecure. This overbearing need to legislate the tiniest details in an attemt to save the "purity" of something. I wouldnt like to be the poor student that pronounces something wrong in class and commits the henious crime of destroying the purity of the Croatian language

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