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| Total population | |
|---|---|
| Overall unknown 302 in Serbia (2022 census)[1] | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
 Croatia:Slavonia andBaranya Serbia:Vojvodina Hungary:Baranya | |
| Languages | |
| Croatian[citation needed] | |
| Religion | |
| Roman Catholicism | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Bunjevci,Croats, andSouth Slavs |
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| Croats |
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Šokci (Serbo-Croatian:Šokci /Шокци,pronounced[ʃǒkt͡si],SHOCK-tsee;singular masculine:Šokac /Шокац,feminine:Šokica /Шокица;Hungarian:Sokácok) are aSouth Slavicethnic group native tohistorical regions ofBaranya,Bačka,Slavonia, andSyrmia. These regions today span easternCroatia, southwesternHungary, and northernSerbia. They primarily self-identify as a subgroup ofCroats and therefore they are not considered a separate ethnicity inCroatia[2] and elsewhere.
Šokci are considered to be a native population of Slavonia and Syrmia in Croatia.[3] TheCroatian Bureau of Statistics does not record the Šokci as a separate ethnicity.[2] According to the 2022 census in Serbia, 302 people declared as ethnic Šokci.[4] Outside of Slavonia and Syrmia, they live in the settlements ofBački Monoštor,Sonta,Sombor,Bački Breg in the SerbianBačka, andHercegszántó in Hungary.
The termŠokac (masculine),Šokica andŠokčica (feminine), is used for the part of CroatianIkavian speakers native in Slavonia, Baranja, Bačka and Bosnia. The oldest documents are from 1644–1698, 1702 (population ofĐakovo Diocese),katolici, Šokci jali Slovinci ... Šokci rehuć Slovinci katolici.[5] According to the contemporaryAntun Kanižlić (1699–1766), the termŠokci was a slang reference to Catholic Slavonians that was used by the Orthodox.[6] In Croatia, particularly in Lika it is opposed to termVlachs (for Orthodox Serbs), and the Serbs pejoratively use it for the Croats.[5] Denominalšokčiti ("Catholicize"),šoketati ("to speak Ikavian").[5] Eastern Slavonia and western Syrmia in Croatia is often referred to as Šokadija ("land of the Šokci"),[3] although the term is not geographically limited, it is rather a general moniker for the Šokac "ancestral land".[7]
The ethnonym is of unknown etymological derivation, and there are several hypotheses on the origin:Matija Petar Katančić (1750–1825), the first to theorize on the name,[8] connected the ethnonym with the toponym ofSucci orSuccus inThrace, found in the work ofAmmianus Marcellinus (fl. 353–378).[9] He also derived it fromšljivov sok (plum juice).[5]Ćiro Truhelka derived it from Albanianshoq < Latinsočius, but comparison to Montenegrin surname Šoć makes it dismissive.[5] Others, includingVuk Karadžić, derived it from Italian wordsciocco[ˈʃɔkko] ("frenzied, insane").[5][10]F. Kluge (1924) derived it from Germanschock, "a detachment of 60 men", which was the size of historical border patrols on the Sava.[8] V. Skarić (1932) theorized that it was derived from Germander Sachse ("Saxon", sh.Sas), for which there's lack of historical evidence.[5][8]Petar Skok derived it from Turkish-Persian nounšoh ~ suh ("wicked, shameless, unclean") with suffix "-gin, -kin" ("unclean"). In his unfinished etymological dictionary published in 1973, the editors considered most reasonable the Romanianşoacăţ with primary meaning a mouse, and secondary meaning a mockery for Western Europeans (especially Germans) who dressed in urban fashion, from which derives adjectiveşoacăfesc (German), abstractionįoacăţie.[5] Other assumptions are from Serbo-Croatian wordskok oruskok ("to jump, leap, to jump in"),[10] or from folk etymologyšaka ("fist"), from the way they make thesign of the cross which is different from Orthodox's sign with three fingers.[10]
The origin of Šokci people is not completely clear. The prevalent opinion of modern scholars, based onetymology, is that they were Catholics who moved from the south, across theSava fromBosnia, by the end of theOttoman wars in Europe, as the Ottomans were retreating.[7] The Šokci in Baranja are considered to be descendants of settlers from a mass migration of Croats from an area nearSrebrenica, Bosnia into the region after the Ottoman retreat in the 18th century.[11] However, there's also a theory, based on historical sources, that the Šokci need to be considered as autochthonous Catholic population ofSlavonia andSyrmia (i.e. both Slavonian and Bosnian Posavina and Syrmia).[12][13][14] The feeling of being indigenous rather than a settler is an important characteristic of the population.[7]
The appearance and spreading of the name Šokac is relation with the Ottoman conquest and subsequent migrations of different confessional populations.[15] The earliest known mention of the name Šokac, in the sense of toponym, is fromMačva in theSanjak of Zvornik (1533).[15] In the 1560s are recorded many anthroponyms deriving from the ethnonym of Šokac (Sokaç, Şokçe, Şokçit) inSrijem.[16][17] A decade later are also present inNógrád County andSanjak of Požega.[18] Since the late 16th century beganFranciscans missions (mostly on the initiative ofRagusan priests) in Slavonia, Srijem andPodunavlje (including Bačka).[19]
Bartol Kašić in 1613 recorded that most of Christian Catholics inSanjak of Syrmia,Sanjak of Segedin, Sanjak ofMohács and else are "sokaci di lingua croata".[20] Four years later, Marin Dobrojević recorded that in that area of the Southern Pannonian Plain there's many Catholics who are "almost all of Slavic language, who are usually called Šokci".[20] A 1615 Ottomanferman by sultanAhmed I prohibitedSerb Orthodox metropolitans from taking various fees from [Catholic] "Hungarian and Šokci infidels".[16][21] Another such ferman was issued in 1627 byMurat IV for "Šokci infidels" in the Sanjak of Požega.[22] In 1628 and 1632 there was a dispute between "Dubrovnik Latins", "Šokci" and "Bosniaks" for the use of Catholic chapel inBelgrade,[22] with the Šokci described as "artisans fromPosavina and the villages around Belgrade andPožega".[16] In 1633 are recorded inNašice.[22]
They are also mentioned in the documents of theRoman Catholic Church where they requested Jeronim Lučić to become the bishop of Bosnia and Slavonia in 1635, a military court case regardingSerbian Patriarchate of Peć in Bosnia (with "Latin and Šokcidhimmi" ofMotike andDragočaj nearBanja Luka,Kotor,Jajce),[22] and in one writing from the time whenEugene of Savoy invaded Ottoman territory down toSarajevo in 1697.[citation needed]
In the 1702 census ofĐakovo, one of the cities that was retaken from the Ottoman Empire following theTreaty of Karlowitz, there were 500–600 inhabitants described as Catholic Slav/Slavonian (Latin:Slavi catholicae fidae).[6]Tadija Smičiklas later republished the same census and used the terms "Slovinci" and/or "Šokci", and claimed 400 inhabitants.[6]
According to the Austrian census inBačka from 1715,Serbs,Bunjevci, and Šokci comprised 97.6% of population.[23] The 1720 census in Bačka recorded 72% Serbs and 22% Bunjevci and Šokci.[24] After theTreaty of Passarowitz (1718), the first Habsburg census recorded inBanat about 20,000 citizens, mostly Serbs.[25]
In the oldAustro-Hungarian censuses there was large number of Šokci, both in Croatia/Slavonia and in Serbia/Vojvodina. According to the 1840 data, the population of Croatia, Slavonia andSerbian Vojvodina numbered 1,605,730 people, of which 777,880 (48%) wereCroats, 504,179 (32%)Serbs, and 297,747 (19%) Šokci.[citation needed] The Šokci were concentrated in thePožega,Virovitica, andSyrmia counties, and in theSlavonian Military Frontier.[citation needed]
According to the 1910 census in Austria-Hungary, there were 88,209Bunjevci and Šokci in the Hungarian part.[26]
Šokci living inCroatia andHungary, as well as many of those living inSerbia, today usually consider themselves to be a subgroup of Croats. In Serbia, Šokci andBunjevci have been recorded as a separate "modality" or national or ethnic affiliation by the national censuses in 1991, 2002, 2011, and 2022.[27] Unlike Bunjevci, the other Catholic Slavic group from the same area, Šokci mostly declare themselves as Croats rather than the separate group, and some have also declared themselvesYugoslavs in the census. In the 1991 census, there were 1,922 declared Šokci in Serbia, and a much larger number of Croats. The population that declared "Šokci" as an ethnicity in the 2022 census is small (302), while there were 39,107 declared Croats.[28]
In general, the number and the percentage of the Šokci has decreased because of an unwritten policy that each family should have only one child, because they did not wish to divide their estate and other riches in each following generation. Unfortunately such a practice worked up until the 19th/20th century, at which point they were practically overwhelmed in number by the immigrants which had a much larger reproduction rate (certainly over two children per family at the time).[citation needed]
Villages with numerous Šokac population in the region ofBačka are:Sonta (Apatin municipality),Bački Breg andBački Monoštor (Sombor municipality). In 2022 census in Serbia, most of the inhabitants of these villages declared themselves as Croats.
Most of the Hungarian Šokci live in theBaranya region, particularly in the town ofMohács.
The Šokci areRoman Catholic by faith and follow theLatin Rite.[citation needed]
The Šokci speak an old-Shtokavian Slavonian sub-dialect that is almost exclusively spoken by Šokci. The Slavonian dialect has a mixedIkavian andEkavian accent: Ikavian is predominant inPosavina,Baranja,Bačka and in the Slavonian sub-dialect enclave ofDerventa; and Ekavian inPodravina. There are also enclaves of one accent in the territory of the other, and also of mixed Ekavian–Ikavian andJekavian–Ikavian accents. In some villages in Hungary, the original Slavicyat sound[clarification needed] is preserved.
Many of the traditions of the Šokci are influenced by their environment – they live in the fertilePannonian plain where they cultivate grains and corn in large fields surrounding their villages. The villages often have one main street (šor) where each subsequent family house has auxiliary buildings and a spacious yard, as well as a water well. The central street is surrounded on both sides by water channels, which have small crossings in order for one to reach the house.
Families often keep poultry, particularly ducks and geese, although the main source of meat are the pigs, which are almost inevitably kept by a Šokac. They enjoy pork-based products such as ham, sausages (particularlykulen) and bacon. These products are customarily obtained by thetraditional autumn slaughtering. The most common fruit areplums, not least because it is often fermented into liquor calledrakija.
The abundance in which they have traditionally lived has made the Šokci a naturally merry people, who pay a lot of attention to folklore. Each Šokac village inevitably has a cultural society where they cultivate their folk songs and dances. A popular folk custom is thebećarac. They also hold a yearly festivity called the "Šokačko sijelo", held over a nine-day period in February, being the largest traditional event in the area ofPosavina nearŽupanja, featuring local culture and traditions.
The most recognisable feature of Šokci culture is their music which is played mostly on thetambura instrument. Many tambura bands achieved nationwide fame in Croatia. The body of the tambura was traditionally made of the wood ofmaple,poplar orplum trees, while today it's mostly made ofspruce orfir trees. Another instruments used in the past was thebagpipe. The traditional wedding festivities are paid much attention to, sometimes even catching the attention of entire villages.
The traditional outfit of the Šokci, called therubina, is made of white linen cloth with lace decorations, and the main part of it is a blouse calledoplećak i krila. The women mostly wear the entire outfit only in the summer, replacing it with a wool skirt in the winter. The most esteemed decoration of a Šokac outfit are the gold coins known asdukati (ducats). A rich Šokac girl would have a large number of dukati weaved onto her chest not only as a decoration but as a clear sign that she comes from a wealthy family.
U mojem selu, u Sikirevcima, ima mnoštvo Rakitića, ali samo jedan mi je rođak. A svi se zovu Ivan Rakitić. Šokci smo sto posto...
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