World renown linguist, philosopher and author Noam Chomsky signed a declaration that concludes that Bosniaks, Serbs, Croats and Montenegrins all use variations of the same language.

The Declaration on the Common Language, which has since March last year gathered more than 8.000 signatures, was put together by linguists and other experts from the four countries.

Chomsky confirmed to N1 he signed the Declaration, saying there is nothing he thinks needs to be added to its text. The Declaration states that the politics of to emphasizing the differences between the variations of the same language have brought on a series of negative developments in the four countries, in which strongly expressing these differences became a criteria of ethnic affiliation and a tool for expressing political loyalty.

According to those who put it together, language and ethnicity do not have to coincide and that each group may have its own variation that it may standardize into its society, and that all those variations are equally legitimate.

The document also calls for an end to the practice of separating children based on them speaking different variations of this universal language in the education system, but also for the freedom for each individual to express their preffered variation.

The Declaration has caused a stir among conservatives in all the relevant countries, especially in Croatia.

According to renown linguist Snjezana Kordic, however, Croatian media has also produced more articles supporting the Declaration than media in the other three countries. Kordić is the one who invited Chomsky to sign the declaration, which the intellectual did that same day.