15 NOVEMBER 1935, Page 19

TURKISH IN MOSTAR AND SARAJEVO .

[To the Editor of TILE SPECTATOR..]

Sin„—In the opening paragraph of his article on Iraq, Mr. 11f. Langley states that " in the bazaars of Mostar and SarajeVo Turkish is the current language - . . " This is most emphatically not the case. Under 1 per cent, of the Moslems population of Bosnia (capital Sarajevo) or Herzegovina (capital Mostar) know even a smattering of Turkish. The people in question speak the Bosnian and Herzegovinian dialects of Serbo-Croat, and always have done so, both before and since the Austrian occupation and the subsequent incor- poration of these provinces in the Kingdom now called Jugoslavia. The dialect, as spoken by the Moslems, abounds in Turkish loan-words, and this fact may possibly have Misled Mr. Langley. Slavic, as defined above, is the only current language in the bazaars of Sarajevo and Mostar.- Yours faithfully,