ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Croatian linguistic purism

Okay, imagine you have a special toy that you really love. You want to protect that toy because it's important to you. Well, Croatian linguistic purism is like that, but instead of a toy, it's about protecting the Croatian language.

Linguistic purism means making sure that the words we use in a language are pure, or as close to their original form as possible. In Croatia, people care a lot about their language and want to keep it pure from foreign words.

For example, let's say there is a word in English that is commonly used in Croatia. Instead of using the English word, people might try to find a Croatian word that means the same thing. That way the Croatian language stays pure and doesn't become too mixed with other languages.

Some people really care about this and are called linguistic purists. They want to make sure that all the Croatian words are used correctly and that the language stays pure. It might seem a bit strict, but they believe that it's important to protect the language and keep it alive.

So, in short, Croatian linguistic purism is about protecting the Croatian language by keeping it as pure as possible from foreign words.