The speech of Goranies

Abstract

In the 1991 census more than half of the inhabitants of Gora declared themselves as members of the Gorany ethnic group. In an approximate measure (54.8%) they reported that the Gorany tongue is their mother tongue. Slightly less than half of them regarded Serbian as their mother tongue. Although the speech of Goranies had not been listed in the questionnaire such a reaction could be expected because their tongue represents a symbol of delimitation in regard to the neighboring groups with the same religious beliefs in the first place, and the symbol of their Slavic (Serbian) origin at he same time. When they join a multilanguage group with a dominant non-Gorany language system they accept the speech of the major group, preserving at the same their Gorany speech, which they use in inter-personal communications. As soon as they break connection with their Gorany speech they become ethnically assimilated.