Bosnia

Bosnia and Herzegovina is a country on the Balkan peninsula of South Eastern Europe.

Learn more about Bosnia and Herzegovina

• • Population: 2.6 million (down from 4.3 million before the war in the 1990s)

  • Capital: Sarajevo

  • Language: Bosnian (untill 1990's known as Serbo-Croatian)

  • Ethnic groups: Bosniak (48%), Serb (37%), Croat (14.3%), other (0.6%) (2000 census)

  • Religion: Islam (40%),Orthodox (31%), Roman Catholicism (15%), Other (14%)

  • Literacy: 97%

Language

Untill 1990's Serbo-Croatian was the official language of Yugoslavia.

Since Serbian, Croatian and Bosnian once created one linguistic system, and the division into three separate languages is more political than linguistic, an SLP can use information about Bosnian phonology and grammar included in Serbian.

Bosnians in Portland, OR

Bosnian Cultural and Education Center 8021 SE Stark Street Portland, OR 97215

Most of the members of the small Bosnian community in Portland came here as refugees between 1992 and 1997, during the civil war that followed the breakup of Yugoslavia. Church-sponsored-refugee programs, such as the Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon's Sponsors Organized to Assist Refugees (SOAR), played a key role in accommodating Bosnian refugees in Portland. This group of refugees formed a tight-knit community in southeast Portland. During these years, there were no major social outlets – save for a Bosnian soccer team and occasional social events for Bosnians in Portland.

During Ramadan in 2002, some members of the Bosnian community rented a space for worship and social activities. After this, they decided that they needed a more permanent social/religious center. Shortly thereafter, the Bosnian Cultural and Education Center was founded. The Center began operation with approximately 50 families. It now reports an approximate membership of 100 families.

The center functions as both a cultural and religious center; rarely is the entire space used for religious activity.

It is also open on Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings. Activities during these evenings include socializing, ritual prayers, youth meetings, occasional lectures, potlucks, and a Bosnian language school. Bosnian is the main language used for all activities at the center. During Ramadan, the center is open throughout the week. Eid prayers are performed at the center, while most other Muslims in Portland perform Eid prayers at the Convention Center under the auspices of the Islamic Center of Greater Portland.

Bosnia Speech and Hearing project:

American SLPs travel annually to Bosnia to provide speech-language and hearing services in a country with SLP shortages.

Speech-language pathology in Bosnia:

There is a four-year training program that includes special education classes as well as speech-language pathology, and students may choose to focus on hearing children or children with hearing impairments. Now approximately 12 students can graduate annually from the University of Tuzla, but they work primarily in special schools as special ed teachers since there is little integration and mainstreaming in Bosnia.

Implications for the SLPs

It is important to remember that people, regardless of their ethnicity or culture, are unique individuals who experience a varied set of experiences. These experiences may be similar to other individuals within their culture, but they could be very different. If you encounter a person from Bosnia in your practice, remember that although they belong to the overarching “Bosnian” or “Yugoslavian” culture, they are also unique individuals. Given that, the following may be helpful when working with individuals from this region of the world.6)

Bosnian recent history of the war, ethnic cleansing and rape used as a weapon affected the ones who came to the US as war refugees. Be sensitive when discussing politics and religion. The ex-Yugoslavians may be reluctant to talk about the war.

Bosnian muslems (called Bosniaks) lived in a communist Yugoslavia, where religion was treated as “opium for masses”. Thus the public manifestation of religious symbols was frown upon. While working with Bosniaks one should remember that:

• • The Balkan war radicalized some individuals; the national identity is equated with the adherence to a given religion(Bosniaks-Islam, Serbs- Orthodox Christianity, Croats- Roman Catholics).

  • Make sure that you are aware of Ramadan dietary limitation if working with muslem patients with dysphagia.

  • Many Bosnian muslems grew up in a westernized society and do not adhere to any religion.

  • Intermarriages were common in Yugoslavia.

A bilingual Bosnian/Serb/Croat may have speech and language differences in English as a result of the transfer of phonological/grammatical rules from their native language to English. If these rule transfers are consistent with the rules outlined in the language section, they may not indicate disorder.

Bosnian/Serb/Croat may consider mental illness and disability as shameful, and as a result deny services or deny existing problems.

Original Contributor: Gosha Spiess, Winter term 2009

References and Resources