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(E) Croatian language holds its own - NEEDS YOUR RESPONS
By Nenad N. Bach | Published  11/23/2002 | Letters to the Editors | Unrated
(E) Croatian language holds its own - NEEDS YOUR RESPONS

Dear Fellow Croatian-Americans:

I work in the film business and recently was doing research on a very
popular internet website IMDb, Internet Movie Database. To my horror, all
Croatian language films were listed as Serbo-Croatian. IMDb is a very
widely used research tool for professionals and film buffs alike, the world
over. Everyone uses it. Naturally, I wrote to the language department to
bring their attention to the misconception. I have also written to the
Embassy of Croatia to make them aware of the error and I sent IMDb evidence
from the CIA website to prove they were incorrect. Obviously, they're not
so much at fault as the website they use that disseminates the erroneous
information. Please help me in convincing both websites that they need to
make corrections. IMDb have not responded to my emails since I sent them
the CIA website information. This was almost a month ago. Please be
polite when responding, as I know you will be. We need to show we are
civilized people and would just prefer that they correct their mistake. 
Unless we tell them, no one else will stand up and tell them for us.

This is a copy of the email in response to the one I sent to IMDb:

email #1:

Hello 

Thank you for your message. 

I'm sorry, but this is not possible at the moment. 

There is no scientific evidence that these are two languages. Web sites such as 

http://www.rosettaproject.org:8080/live/search/detailedlanguagerecord?ethnocode=SRC 


clearly list Serbo-Croatian as one language spoken in Croatia, Federal
Republic of Yougoslavia and some other countries. 

Just because there are now two countries does not change anything regarding
the language. Either it is one language and always was or there are two
languages, in which case they were two languages even when the country was
Yugoslavia. We let the ethnologists and linguists decide here. This is not
a political case. 

Unless there is some widely accepted scientific evidence that these are two
languages, we will stick to Serbo-Croatian. 

Regards, 

Peter W. Simeon
simeon@imdb.com
 

email #2:

Thank you for your feedback about the language section of the Internet
Movie 
Database. 

Language definitions used in the IMDb are based on standard linguistical 
conventions. According to most reputable sources, Serbian and Croatian are 
not two different languages. Web sites such as 

http://www.rosettaproject.org:8080/live/search/detailedlanguagerecord?ethnocodeŠC  

clearly list Serbo-Croatian as one language spoken in Croatia, Federal 
Republic of Yugoslavia and other countries. Serbian and Croatian may be 
sometimes listed as dialects but they're not considered to be 
distinct/separate languages. 

Our aim is simply to provide generic information about the language spoken 
in films and our choices are solely based on linguistical, not historical or 
geographical, data. Based on the current scientific consensus on this topic, 
we'll stick to listing Serbo-Croatian as a single language. 

Regards, 
the IMDb Helpdesk 

Here's is the contact informaiton for rosettastone:

telephone number (415) 561-6297 or mail to: 

The Rosetta Project
Long Now Foundation
PO Box 29462 
San Francisco, CA 94129-0462

For other questions, comments, concerns or input, we encourage you to
contact Jim Mason, the Director of the Rosetta Project, at
jimmason@longnow.org
, at the above address or telephone (415) 561-6582. 

Thank you for helping me in this situation.

Best,

Ms. Ziggy Mrkich

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