Hrvatski jezik, promatran u cjelokupnome mu tijeku i sveukupnu njegovu kompleksu, zbog povijesnih, socioloških, geografskih, demografskih, ekonomskih i inih razloga, ima osobit tijek i vrlo slojevitu strukturu. To se očituje sve od njegova ranog doba (vremena Baščanske i Humačke ploče iz 12. stoljeća) kad se ostvaruje kao jezik pismenosti i književnog početništva, zatim pojave regionalnih književnosti kad se hrvatski jezik pokazuje u tri različita narječja, preko određene standardizacije hrvatskog jezika u 18. i 19. stoljeću u kojoj dominiraju novoštokavština i ikavsko-ijekavski izgovor jata čime navlastito pridonose pisci franjevci Bosne Srebrene, a napose tom procesu normiranja hrvatskog jezika pridonosi preporodno-ilirsko razdoblje obilježeno borbom nekoliko filoloških škola da bi na smjeni 19. i 20. stoljeća »pobijedili« hrvatski vukovci dominirajući desetljećima 20. stoljeća u vidu svojevrsne unitarizacije, izuzev onog vremena Nezavisne Države Hrvatske koje je u jeziku poznato po raznim pokušajima i eksperimentima u kojima je primjenjivana isključivost kao rješenje. I vrijeme druge Jugoslavije puno je unitarističko-represivnih mjera na provođenju jezične standardizacije, sve pod krinkom »jezične tolerancije «, a posebno u Bosni i Hercegovini gdje se trebao ustrojiti i usvojiti »jedinstveni bosanskohercegovački književnojezični izraz«. Pa ipak, unatoč svim tim zabranama, prijetnjama, kaznama i svakoj kušnji, hrvatski je jezik opstao kao samosvojan, normiran jezik u svom standardu. Danas je on i ustavno i zakonski ravnopravan s drugim jezicima u Bosni i Hercegovini. Bez obzira što su u neskladu njegova ustavnopravna rješenja i praktična ostvarenja, izdržat će on sve aktualne zamke, pritiske, nepravde i kušnje i ostati jedinstven jezik hrvatskoga naroda i u Bosni i Hercegovini, i u Republici Hrvatskoj, i u svijetu., The Croatian language, observed in its entirety, owing to historical, sociological, geographical, demographic, economic and other reasons, has a special course and very stratified structure. This has been manifested since its early period (the period of the Baška and Humac Stone Tablets of the 12th century), when it was developing into a language of literacy and literary beginning, emergence of regional literatures when the Croatian language appeared in three different dialects, through a certain standardization of the Croatian language in the 18th and 19th century which was dominated by the new štokavian dialect and ikavian-jekavian pronunciation of the letter yat, which was mostly the merit of Franciscans from the Silver Bosnia. The Illyrian Revival Period provided a special contribution to the process of Croatian langugage standardization. That period was marked by conflicts between different philological schools. At the turn of the 20th century, however, one of those schools, the Croatian vukovci (followers of Vuk Karadžić), »won«. The Croatian vukovci dominated during most of the 20th century, advocating some kind of unitarism, except during the rule of the Independent State of Croatia, when the standardization strategy tended towards exclusivity. Post-WWII Yugoslavia was also full of the unitarianist-repressive measures in the implementation of language standardization, all under the pretence of »language tolerance«, and especially in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where »a unique Bosnian-Herzegovinian standard form of linguistic expression« should have been constituted and adopted. However, in spite of all those prohibitions, threats, punishments and every temporal temptation, the Croatian language survived as an independent, standardized language. Today it is both constitutionally and legally equal with other languages in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Regardless of the disharmony of its constitutional-legal solutions and practical realizations, it will survive all the current traps, pressures, injustices and temptations, and it will continue to be the unique language of the Croatian people in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the world.