When speaking about the Balkans, the first thing that comes to mind for anyone at all familiar with its history and politics are bitter disputes between small nation states, inflamed relations between ethnic groups and the bloody breakup of Yugoslavia. The area has been called anything from “the Orient of Europe” to “the powderkeg of Europe”. In the popular imagination the area is hopelessly fragmented–Balkanised. But the linguist has a very different understanding.

When I was appointed in 1986 I was the youngest professor in the University. During my academic career the organisation has undergone a complete change. In the past the subject head’s competence extended to the acquisition of stationery–even typewriters required a separate dispensation. Nowadays the head of department is in charge of a multimillion euro budget and ensuring that there’s enough money to go round for tens and even hundreds of staff. Research and academic publications are counted and compiled on databases, and departments, faculties and entire universities are locked in competition with one another.

Jouko Lindstedt uses Esperanto on a daily basis at home and, after Finnish, reckons it is the language he is most fluent in, even if his research is on Bulgarian and Macedonian. He says that a number of linguists have reservations about Esperanto: the very idea of a consciously invented language feels odd for researchers of “natural” languages, or at any rate not terribly interesting. Lindstedt sees Esperanto as a part of his linguistic habitus, in three respects.