Senahid Halilović

Senahid Halilović (born 22 March 1958 in Kladanj, Bosnia and Herzegovina) is a Bosnian linguist. Senahid Halilović studied at the University of Belgrade where he acquired his PhD in Dialectology, exploring the East-Bosnian dialect. He has published over one hundred professional and scientific papers in the field of dialectology.

He is best known for his contribution to the standardisation of the Bosnian language. His best known works are Orthography of the Bosnian language (Pravopis bosanskog jezika), The Bosnian language (Bosanski jezik) and Grammar of the Bosnian language (Gramatika bosanskoga jezika). Characteristics of this spelling is equidistance towards the Croatian and Serbian spelling and morphological prescriptions, and expressions that are held for the typical Bosnian norm (formalisation of the phoneme "h" in certain words in the Bosnian language as seen in the words mehko, lahko, kahva, mahrama). 2018, in the new issue of the Orthography of the Bosnian language, Halilović accepts expressions without the phoneme "h" due to their prevalence in language practice. He was criticized for that by Bosniak prescriptivists and defended by other linguists.

Halilović is a founding member and current president of the Slavic Committee in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In September 2008, the Slavic Committee was officially inducted into the International Slavic Committee (MSK), a worldwide community of Slavic Association. Halilović is signatory of the Declaration on the Common Language of the Croats, Serbs, Bosniaks and Montenegrins.