Nationalist terminologies impose artificial distinctions on one shared language.

Evidence

Thus, Serb nationalists call the language spoken in Bosnia “Serbian” and consider Bosnian Muslims and to some extent even Bosnian Croats to be Serbs who have fallen away from their true identity. Similarly, Croat nationalists speak of the language as “Croatian.” Caught in between the two nationalist terminologies, which are based on visions of an identity among religion, language, and nation, Muslims in Bosnia and those Croats and Serbs who do not identify with Croat and Serb visions of a Greater Croatia and a Greater Serbia now speak of the Bosnian language. As the conflict continues, the artificial differences in the languages are reinforced by a politically correct vocabulary for each grouping. Certain key words can determine whether one is speaking Serbian, Croatian, or Bosnian-even though, from the standpoint of linguistic comprehension, all three are the same language. — Michael A. Sells, The Bridge Betrayed, 438

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s interest in how language and identity get weaponized; parallels the class/identity signaling in the immodesty article.

Related

• Serbs, Croats, and Bosnian Muslims spoke one shared language despite script differences. (similarity 0.83)
• The Bosnian conflict divided people on religious identity despite shared language and Slavic descent (similarity 0.80)
• Bosnian identity is civic and multi-religious, not ethnoreligious (similarity 0.78)