SOME FEATURES OF GERMAN ADMINISTRATIVE LANGUAGE IN THE AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

Abstract

This paper aims at discussing some prominent features of the German administrative language in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the Austro-Hungarian period (1878-1918). After the occupation of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Austria-Hungary conducted comprehensive reforms of the administrative system and employed numerous civil servants from the Austrian and the Hungarian parts of the Monarchy in the occupied country. The German language played an important role as the administrative language, especially in the internal operations of the administration. Administrative German in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the Austro-Hungarian time shows strong features of Austrian administrative terminology, but contains also some Bosnian cultural loanwords which can be interpreted as a formal wish to connect with existing, though rather weak administrative tradition in Bosnia and Herzegovina from the Ottoman period.