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Thedialects of Serbo-Croatian include the vernacular forms andstandardized sub-dialect forms ofSerbo-Croatian as a whole or as part of its standard varieties: Bosnian,Croatian,Montenegrin, andSerbian. They are part of thedialect continuum ofSouth Slavic languages[1][2] that joins through the transitionalTorlakian dialects theMacedonian dialects to the south,Bulgarian dialects to the southeast andSlovene dialects to the northwest.[3]
The division of South Slavic dialects to "Slovene", "Serbo-Croatian", "Macedonian" and "Bulgarian" is mostly based on political grounds: for example all dialects within modern Slovenia are classified as "Slovene", despite some of them historically originating from other regions, while all dialects in modern Croatia are classified as "Croatian" (or "Croato-Serbian" before 1990) despite not forming a coherent linguistic entity (and some are proven to originate from parts of what is today Slovenia). Therefore, "Serbo-Croatian dialects" are simply South Slavic dialects in countries where a variant of Serbo-Croatian is used as the standard language.[3][4] However, in broad terms, theEastern South Slavic dialects differ most from theWestern South Slavic dialects.
The primary dialects are named after the most common question word forwhat:Shtokavian (štokavski) uses the pronounšto oršta,Chakavian (čakavski) usesča orca,Kajkavian (kajkavski),kaj orkej. The pluricentric Serbo-Croatian standard language and all four contemporary standard variantsare based on theEastern Herzegovinian subdialect of Neo-Shtokavian.[5][6][7] The other dialects are not taught in schools or used by the state media. TheTorlakian dialect is often added to the list, though sources usually note that it is a transitional dialect between Shtokavian and the Bulgaro-Macedonian dialects.Burgenland Croatian andMolise Slavic are varieties of the Chakavian dialect spoken outside the South Slavic dialect continuum, which combine influences from other dialects of Serbo-Croatian as well as influences from the dominantly spoken local languages.
Another frequently-noted distinction among the dialects is made through the reflex of the longCommon Slavic voweljat; the dialects are divided along Ikavian, Ekavian, and Ijekavianisoglosses, with the reflects ofjat being /i/, /e/, and /ije/ or /je/ respectively.
| South Slavic languages and dialects | ||||||
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Western South Slavic
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Transitional dialects
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The Proto-Shtokavian idiom appeared in the 12th century.[citation needed] In the following century or two, Shtokavian was divided into two zones: western, which covered the major part ofBosnia and Herzegovina andSlavonia inCroatia, and eastern, dominant in easternmostBosnia and Herzegovina and greater parts ofMontenegro andSerbia.Western Shtokavian was principally characterized by three-accentual system, whileEastern Shtokavian was marked by two-accentual system. According to research of historical linguistics, the Old-Shtokavian was well established by the mid-15th century. In this period it was still being mixed with Church Slavonic to varying degrees, as geographically transitory to Chakavian and Kajkavian dialects spoken on the territory of today's Croatia, with which it had constituted a naturaldialect continuum.
Originally the dialect covered a significantly smaller area than it covers today, meaning that the Štokavian speech had spread for the last five centuries, overwhelmingly at the expense of Čakavian and Kajkavian idioms. Modern areal distribution of these three dialects as well as their internal stratification (Štokavian and Čakavian in particular) is primarily a result of themigrations resulting from the spread ofOttoman Empire on theBalkans.[8] Migratory waves were particularly strong in the 16th–18th century, bringing about large-scale linguistic and ethnic changes on the Central South Slavic area (See:Great Serb Migrations).
By far the most numerous, mobile and expansionist migrations were those of Ijekavian Štokavian speakers of easternHerzegovina, who have flooded most of Western Serbia, many areas of eastern and westernBosnia, large swathes of Croatia (Banovina,Kordun,Lika, parts ofGorski kotar, continental parts of northernDalmatia, some places north ofKupa, parts ofSlavonia, southeasternBaranya etc.).[9] This is the reason whyEastern Herzegovinian dialect is the most spoken Serbo-Croatian dialect today, and why it bears the name that is only descriptive of its area of origin. These migrations also played the pivotal role in the spread of Neo-Štokavian innovations.[10]
Shtokavian dialect spoken by Croats has more dialects, there are innovative new Shtokavian dialect ikavian as it is spoken inwest Herzegovina,Dalmatian Hinterland,Lika, parts ofVelebit area and in some places ofGorski kotar,Vojvodina,Bačka and in neighboring Hungarian areas. New Shtokavian is spoken by Croats ineast Herzegovina, more recently in theDubrovnik area and in many places of the formerMilitary Frontier.[11]
The Shtokavian dialect is divided into Old Shtokavian and Neo-Shtokavian subdialects.
Subdialects grouped under Old-Shtokavian are the following:
Neo-Shtokavian dialects comprise the following subdialects:
Shtokavian is characterized by a number of characteristic historicalsound changes,accentual changes, changes ininflection,morphology andsyntax. Some of these isoglosses are not exclusive and have also been shared by neighboring dialects, and some of them have only overwhelmingly but not completely been spread on the whole Štokavian area. The differences between Štokavian and the neighboring Eastern South Slavic dialects ofBulgaria andNorth Macedonia are clear and largely shared with other Western South Slavic dialects, while the differences to the neighboring Western South Slavic dialect of Čakavian and Kajkavian are much more fluid in character, and the mutual influence of various subdialects and idioms play a more prominent role.
General characteristics of Štokavian are the following:[12]
As can be seen from the list, many of these isoglosses are missing from certain Štokavian idioms, just as many of them are shared with neighboring non-Štokavian dialects.
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Chakavian is the oldest written Serbo-Croatian dialect that had made a visible appearance in legal documents – as early as 1275 ("Istrian land survey") and 1288 ("Vinodol codex"), the predominantly vernacular Chakavian is recorded, mixed with elements of Church Slavic. Archaic Chakavian can be traced back to 1105 in theBaška tablet. All these and other early Chakavian texts up to 17th century are mostly written inGlagolitic alphabet.
Initially, the Chakavian dialect covered a much wider area than today including about two thirds of medievalCroatia: the major part of central and southern Croatia southwards ofKupa and westwards ofUna river, as well as western and southwesternBosnia and Herzegovina. During and after the Ottoman intrusion and subsequent warfare (15th–18th centuries), the Chakavian area has become greatly reduced and in the Croatian mainland it has recently been almost entirely replaced by Shtokavian, so it is now spoken in a much smaller coastal area than indicated above.
Chakavian is now mostly reduced in southwestern Croatia along the eastern Adriatic: Adriatic islands, and sporadically in the mainland coast, with rare inland enclaves up to central Croatia, and minor enclaves in Austria and Montenegro.
The Chakavian dialect comprises the following subdialects:
There is no generally accepted opinion on the set of characteristics a dialect has to possess to be classified as Chakavian (rather than its admixture with Shtokavian or Kajkavian), but the following characteristics are most commonly proposed:
Besides the usual Chakavian (with typical pronoun "ča"), in some Adriatic islands and in eastern Istra another special variant is also spoken which lacks most palatals, with other parallel deviations called"tsakavism" (cakavizam):
The largest area of tsakavism is in eastern Istra at Labin, Rabac and a dozen nearby villages; minor mainland enclaves are the towns Bakar and Trogir. Tsakavism is also frequent in Adriatic islands: part of Lošinj and nearby islets, Baška in Krk, Pag town, the western parts of Brač (Milna), Hvar town, and subentire Vis with adjacent islets.
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Dialectogical investigations of the Kajkavian dialect had begun at the end of the 19th century: the first comprehensive monograph was written in Russian by Ukrainian philologist A. M. Lukjanenko in 1905 (Kajkavskoe narečie). Kajkavian is not only a folk dialect, but in the course of history of Serbo-Croatian it has been the written public language (along with the corpus written in Čakavian and Štokavian). Kajkavian was the last to appear on the scene, mainly due to economic and political reasons. Although the first truly vernacular Serbo-Croatian texts (i.e. not mixed with Church Slavonic) go back to the 13th century (Chakavian) and to the 14th century (Shtokavian), the first Kajkavian published work wasPergošić's "Decretum" from 1574. After that, numerous works appeared in Serbo-Croatian Kajkavian literary language in the following centuries.
Kajkavian literary language gradually fell into disuse sinceCroatian National Revival, ca. 1830–1850, when leaders of the Croatian National Unification Movement (the majority of them being Kajkavian native speakers themselves) adopted the most widespread and developed Serbo-Croatian Shtokavian literary language as the basis for the Croatian standard language. However, after a period of lethargy, the 20th century has witnessed new flourishing of literature in Kajkavian dialect – this time as Croatian dialectal poetry, main authors beingAntun Gustav Matoš,Miroslav Krleža,Ivan Goran Kovačić,Dragutin Domjanić,Nikola Pavić etc. Nowadays, Kajkavian lexical treasure is being published by theCroatian Academy of Sciences and Arts in "Rječnik hrvatskoga kajkavskoga književnoga jezika"/Dictionary of the Croatian Kajkavian Literary Language, 8 volumes (1999).
Kajkavian is spoken inNorth Croatia, including the capitalZagreb, as well as in a few enclaves inAustria,Hungary, andRomania. Though its speakers are ethnic Croats and Kajkavian is thus generally considered a dialect of Serbo-Croatian, it is closer to neighboringSlovene than it is to Chakavian or Shtokavian.[13] The Kajkavian area of Croatia is bordered on the northwest bySlovene language territory. It is bordered on the east and southeast by Shtokavian dialects roughly along a line that was the former division betweenCivil Croatia and theHabsburgMilitary Frontier; in southwest along Kupa and Dobra rivers, it persisted in ancient (medieval) contact with Chakavian dialects.
The major cities in northern Croatia with prevailing urban Kajkavians are chiefly Zagreb (old central city, Sesvete and V. Gorica), Koprivnica, Krapina, Križevci, Varaždin, Čakovec, etc. The typical and archaic Kajkavian is today spoken chiefly inZagorje hills andMedjimurje plain, and in adjacent areas of northwestern Croatia where other immigrants and Štokavian standard had much less influence. The most peculiar Kajkavian archidiom(Baegnunski) is spoken atBednja in northernmost Croatia. The mixed half-Kajkavian towns along the eastern and southern edge of Kajkavian speaking area arePitomača,Čazma,Kutina,Popovača,Sunja,Petrinja,Ozalj,Ogulin,Fužine, andČabar, with included newer Štokavian enclaves ofBjelovar,Sisak,Glina,Dubrava, Zagreb andNovi Zagreb. The southernmost Kajkavian villages areKrapje atJasenovac; andPavušek,Dvorišče andHrvatsko selo in Zrinska Gora.[14]
Kajkavian dialects have been classified along various criteria: Serbian philologistAleksandar Belić had divided (1927) the Kajkavian dialect according to the reflexes of Proto-Slavic phonemes /tj/ and /DJ/ into three subdialects: eastern, northwestern and southwestern. However, later investigations have not corroborated Belić's division. Contemporary Kajkavian dialectology originates mainly from Croatian philologistStjepan Ivšić's work "Jezik Hrvata kajkavaca"/The Language of Kajkavian Croats, 1936, which is based on accentuation characteristics. Due to great diversity of Kajkavian speech, primarily in phonetics, phonology and morphology – the Kajkavian dialectological atlas is notable for its bewildering proliferation of subdialects: from four identified by Ivšić, up to six proposed by Croatian linguistBrozović (formerly accepted division) and even as many as fifteen, according to a monograph authored by Croatian linguistMijo Lončarić (1995).
The most commonly accepted division of Kajkavian dialect lists the following subdialects:
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Kajkavian is closely related to Slovene and toPrekmurje Slovene in particular. The speakers of [Prekmurje Slovene areSlovenes andHungarian Slovenes who belonged to theArchdiocese of Zagreb during the Habsburg era. Higher amounts of correspondences between the two exist in inflection and vocabulary. Some Kajkavian words also bear a closer resemblance to other Slavic languages (such asRussian) than they do to Shtokavian or Chakavian. For instancegda seems (at first glance) to be unrelated tokada, however, when compared to the Russianкогда, the relationship becomes more apparent, at the same time in Slovene:kdaj, in Prekmurje Slovenegda, kda. Kajkaviankak (how) andtak (so) are exactly like their Russian cognates, as compared to Shtokavian and Chakaviankako andtako, in Prekmurje Slovene in turntak, kak (in Slovene like Chakavian:tako, kako). (This vowel loss occurred in most other Slavic languages; Shtokavian is a notable exception, whereas the same feature ofMacedonian is probably not a Serbian influence, because the word is preserved in the same form inBulgarian, to which Macedonian is much more closely related than to Serbian.). Another distinctive feature of Kajkavian is the use of anotherfuture tense. Instead of Shtokavian and Chakavian future I ("ću", "ćeš", and "će" + infinitive), Kajkavian speakers use future II ("bum", "buš" and "bu" + active verbal adjective). Future II in Standard Croatian can only be used in subordinate clauses to refer to a condition or an action which will occur before other future action. For example, the phrase"I'll show you" is"Ti bum pokazal" in Kajkavian whereas in standard Croatian it is"Pokazat ću ti". This is a feature shared with Slovene:bom,boš,bo.
The Serbo-Croatian dialects differ not only in the question word they are named after, but also heavily in phonology, accentuation and intonation, case endings and tense system (morphology) and basic vocabulary. In the past, Chakavian and Kajkavian dialects were spoken on a much larger territory, but have subsequently been replaced by Štokavian during the period of migrations caused by Ottoman Turkish conquest of the Balkans in the 15th and the 16th century. These migrations caused the koinéisation of the Shtokavian dialects, that used to form the West Shtokavian (more closer and transitional towards the neighbouring Chakavian and Kajkavian dialects) and East Shtokavian (transitional towards the Torlakian and the whole Bulgaro-Macedonian area) dialect bundles, and their subsequent spread at the expense of Chakavian and Kajkavian. As a result, Štokavian now covers an area larger than all the other dialects combined, and continues to make its progress in the enclaves where subliterary dialects are still being spoken.[15]
The main bundle of isoglosses separates Kajkavian and Slovenian dialects on the one hand from Štokavian and Čakavian on the other. These are:[16]
Other characteristics distinguishing Kajkavian from Štokavian, beside the demonstrative/interrogatory pronounkaj (as opposed tošto/šta used in Štokavian), are:[17]
Characteristics distinguishing Čakavian from Štokavian, beside the demonstrative/interrogatory pronounča, are:[17]
The differences among the dialects can be illustrated on the example ofSchleicher's fable. Diacritic signs are used to show the difference in accents and prosody, which are often quite significant, but which are not reflected in the usual orthography.
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The Torlakian dialects are intermediate between the Eastern and Western branches of South Slavic, and have been variously described, in whole or in parts, as belonging to either group. In the 19th century, their classification was hotly contested between Serbian and Bulgarian writers.[18]
Most Serbian linguists (likePavle Ivić and Asim Peco) classify Torlakian as anOld-Shtokavian dialect, referring to it asPrizren-Timok dialect.[19][20] However, this opinion was not shared by the Croatian linguists and thusMilan Rešetar classified the Torlak dialects (which he calledSvrlijg) as a different group from Shtokavian.[21]
All old Bulgarian scientists as Benyo Tsonev, Gavril Zanetov andKrste Misirkov[22][23] classified Torlakian as dialect of Bulgarian language. They noted the manner of the articles, the loss of most of the cases, etc. Today Bulgarian linguists (Stoyko Stoykov, Rangel Bozhkov) also classify Torlakian as a "Belogradchik-Tran" dialect of Bulgarian, and claim that it should be classified outside the Shtokavian area. Stoykov further argued that the Torlak dialects having a grammar that is closer to Bulgarian was indicative of them being originally Bulgarian.[24]
In Macedonian dialectology, the Torlakian varieties spoken on Macedonian territory (Kumanovo,Kratovo andKriva Palanka dialects) are classified as part of a North-Eastern group of Macedonian dialects.[25]
The Torlakian dialects, together with Bulgarian and Macedonian, display many properties of theBalkan linguistic area, a set of structural convergence features shared also with other languages of the Balkans such asAlbanian andAromanian. In terms of areal linguistics, they have therefore been described as part of a prototypical "Balkan Slavic" area, as opposed to other parts of Serbo-Croatian, which are only peripherally involved in the convergence area.[18][26][27][28]
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Burgenland Croatian (gradišćanskohrvatski jezik) is a regional variety of theChakavian dialect spoken in Austria, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. It is recognized as aminority language in the Austrianstate ofBurgenland where it is spoken by 19,412 people according to official reports (2001).
This variety was the language ofCroatian refugees who fled Croatia during theTurkish Wars and settled in the western part of what was then Hungary, the area where they still live. Burgenland Croats included speakers of all three dialects ofCroatian (Shtokavian,Chakavian andKajkavian), with the majority being the Chakavians who originally came from the northernAdriatic coast. Burgenland Croats did not take part in the shaping of the present Croatian standard language in the 19th century. Instead, they constructed their own written standard based mainly on the local Chakavian speech and adopted theCroatian alphabet, a modified Latin alphabet, as their script.
It is still a matter of debate whether Burgenland Croatian should be classified as a Slavic micro-language of its own. Burgenland Croatian dialects are mostly viewed as isolated dialects ofCroatian. Burgenland Croatian and thePrekmurje Slovene of Slovene (spoken inPrekmurje and Hungary) was to press with interact. The first Prekmurje Slovene works (for exampleOld hymn-book of Martjanci) was applied to the Burgenland Croatian books. A few writers of the Prekmurje Slovene were of Burgenland Croatian descent (for exampleJakab Szabár) and also Burgenland Croatian (József Ficzkó).
The variety uses theLatin alphabet with the same diacritical modifiers as theCroatian alphabet. In the course of language development it acquired some of its own specialised vocabulary, sometimes different from that used in standard Croatian. Sampled differences from standard Croatian are presented in the table in turn.
Burgenland Croatian written language is based mainly on the localChakavian speech with some influences from the other Croatian dialects spoken in Burgenland, which are categorized asSouthern Chakavian,Central Chakavian andWestern Ikavian.[29][30]
| English | Standard Croatian | Burgenland Croatian |
|---|---|---|
| black | crna | črna |
| diver | ronilac | ronilac |
| word | riječ | rič |
| Jesus Christ | Isus Krist | Jezuš Kristuš |
| squash | buča | tikva, tikvica |
| floor | dno | tlo |
| village, settlement | selo, mjesto, naselje | selo |
| rural | seoski, mjesni | seoski |
| lower | donji | dolnji |
Molise Slavic orSlavomolisano is a variety of the Shtokavian dialect with some Chakavian influences spoken in theprovince of Campobasso, in theMolise Region of southernItaly, in the villages ofMontemitro (Mundimitar),Acquaviva Collecroce (Živavoda Kruč) andSan Felice del Molise (Štifilić). There are fewer than 1,000 active speakers, and fewer than 2,000 passive speakers.[31] The language has been preserved since a group ofCroats emigrated fromDalmatia abreast of advancingOttoman Turks. The residents of these villages speak aChakavian dialect withIkavian accent. TheMolise Croats, however, consider themselves to be Italians who speak a Slavic language, rather than ethnic Slavs.[31] Some speakers call themselvesZlavi orHarvati and call their language simplyna našo ("our language").
The language was preserved until today only in the aforementioned three villages, although several villages in Molise and Abruzzo region are aware of theirSlavic andCroatancestry. The existence of this Croatcolony was unknown outside Italy until 1855 whenMedo Pucić, a linguist fromDubrovnik, during one of his journeys in Italy overheard a tailor inNaples speaking with his wife in a language very similar to Pucić's own. The tailor then told him that he came from the village of Kruč, then part of theKingdom of the Two Sicilies. Subsequently, theGajica, the modernCroatian alphabet, was adopted to the language.
The language is highly Italianized and also retains manyarchaic features. Because the colony was established before the discovery of theAmericas, all the names of animals and plants introduced from the Americas are borrowed from Italian or created from whole cloth. Along with these, Molise Slavic features the following characteristics:
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A basic distinction among the dialects is in the reflex of the longCommon Slavic voweljat, usually transcribed as *ě. Depending on the reflex, the dialects are divided into Ikavian, Ekavian, and Ijekavian, with the reflects ofjat being /i/, /e/, and /ije/ or /je/ respectively. The long and shortjat is reflected as long or short */i/ and /e/ in Ikavian and Ekavian, but Ijekavian dialects introduce aije/je alternation to retain a distinction.
Standard Croatian and Bosnian are based on Ijekavian, whereas Serbian uses both Ekavian and Ijekavian forms (Ijekavian for Montenegrin, Croatian and Bosnian Serbs; Ekavian for most of Serbia). Influence of standard language through state media and education has caused non-standard varieties to lose ground to the literary forms.
The jat-reflex rules are not without exception. For example, when shortjat is preceded byr, in most Ijekavian dialects developed into /re/ or, occasionally, /ri/. The prefixprě- ("trans-, over-") when long becamepre- in eastern Ijekavian dialects but toprije- in western dialects; in Ikavian pronunciation, it also evolved intopre- orprije- due to potential ambiguity withpri- ("approach, come close to"). For verbs that had-ěti in their infinitive, the past participle ending-ěl evolved into-io in Ijekavian Neoštokavian.
The following are some examples:
| English | Predecessor | Ekavian | Ikavian | Ijekavian | Ijekavian development |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| beautiful | *lěp | lep | lip | lijep | longě →ije |
| time | *vrěme | vreme | vrime | vrijeme | |
| faith | *věra | vera | vira | vjera | shortě →je |
| crossing | *prělaz | prelaz | prеlazor prijelaz | prеlazor prijelaz | pr + longě →prije |
| times | *vrěmena | vremena | vrimena | vremena | r + shortě →re |
| need | *trěbati | trebati | tribat(i) | trebati | |
| heat | *grějati | grejati | grijati | grijati | r + shortě →ri |
| saw | *viděl | video | vidio | vidio | ěl →io |
| village | *selo | selo | selo | selo | e in root, notě |
Lisac, Josip (2009).Hrvatska Dijalektologija 2. Čakavsko narječje. Zagreb: Golden Marketing – Tehnička knjiga.ISBN 9789532121698.
