Croat and Bosnian neologisms

The creation and dissolution of the common Serbo-Croat language saw the rise of "newspeak" (novogovor) or neologisms in the former Yugoslavia. From the 1960’s, due in large part to Brozovic, coining new words was used to disassociate the Croat Shtokavian speakiers from their Serb neighbours and the Serbian language in general. The whole issue became the target of jokes, not just among Serbs but also among the Bosnian Muslims, Slavic Macedonians, Slovenes as well as some Croats.

During the 1990s, it was time for the Bosnian Muslims linguists to follow suit by also coining new words with Islamic loanwords from Turkish, Arabic and Persian.

The whole issue became the target of jokes much appreciated by all nationalities in the former Yugoslavia, most of them products of a Carlinesque imagination.

English	Serbo-Croat	Croat neologism	Literal translation
airplane	avion	zrakoplov	air-floater
airport	aerodrome	zrakoplovna luka	air-floater port
archive	arhiva/kartoteka	pismohrana	letter-keeper
belt	kaiš	okolotrbušni pantalonodržač	around-the-waist-pants-holder
gutter	oluk	okolokućno pišalo	around-the-house-leaker
helicopter	helikopter	zrakomlat	air-beater
helicopter (2)	helikopter	uvrtnjak	self-spinner
patriot	patriota	domoljub	home-country-lover
power line	dalekovod	munjovod	lightning-carrier
radio frequency	radio talas	krugoval	round veil?
telephone	telefon	brzoglas	quick-voice
television	televizija	dalekovidnica	far-away view
thunder	grom	zrakotres	air-shaker
traffic sign	saobraćajni znak	prometalo	traffic-helper

English	Serbo-Croat	Bosnian neologisms	Literal translation
aunt	ujna	dajdžinica	uncle (female, deminutive slavicized Turkish word)
coffee	kafa	kahva
shell	čaura	čahura
simple/easy/light	lako	lahko
soft	meko	mehko
obituary	umrlica/smrtovnica	rahmetli poster	RIP poster