On the classification of the Bosnian alhamijado literary-linguistic tradition

Abstract

Bosnian aljamiado literature represents a particularly important and rich source for studying not only the historical development of the Bosnian language, but also the literary-linguistic discourse of this form of literacy that belongs to prestandard idioms. The range and diversity of literary-linguistic creativity as expressed in the writings in the Bosnian Arabic script points to a particular spread of this literacy among Bosniaks, which corresponds both to the oriental cultural code and to the domestic, Slavic-European identity.

Based upon a review of aljamiado works, the author emphasizes the richness of this literary output in terms of content, poetic and functional criteria, which range from prose in the broadest sense of the word and its subtypes, to an extensive poetic tradition, lexicographic works, grammatical-orthographic manuals and various journalistic texts. All this confirms the importance of this literary-linguistic tradition for studying broader historical and cultural circumstances of Bosnia, Bosnian language and the Bosniak people.