A Brief History of Croatian Language
The Croatian language dates back to the 9th century when Old Church Slavonic was introduced to the Croatian region by the Byzantine missionaries Saints Cyril and Methodius. This language was used primarily in religious texts and was written using the Glagolitic (Glagoljica) alphabet, a precursor to the Cyrillic and Latin alphabets and believed to be derived from Greek.
By the mid-11th Century, Old Church Slavonic evolved into local Slavic vernaculars, which eventually gave rise to several distinct South Slavic languages.
Toward the 17th century, the Zrinski and the Frankopan families attempted to unify Croatia both culturally and linguistically, writing in a mixture of all three principal dialects (Chakavian, Kajkavian and Shtokavian), and calling it “Croatian”, “Dalmatian”, or “Slavonian”. At this point, the Kajkavian–Ikavian dialect became the most standardised, and was used by intellectuals and in administration in Croatia. However, this linguistic renaissance was halted by the executions of Zrinski and Frankopan in 1671.
Until the 19th century, the South Slavic language group was not recognised as separate languages, but rather as regional dialects of a larger, Pan-Slavic language. Croatian nationalism then began to emerge within Croatian lands in the Habsburg Empire, where there was a renewed interest in the development of the Croatian language as a distinct national language.
The Illyrian Movement (1835–1863) sought to establish Croatian as a separate literary language, distinct from Serbian, and to promote the use of the Latin alphabet for writing, rather than the Cyrillic alphabet, which was more commonly used at the time.
The movement was led by a group of intellectuals, writers, and artists who sought to promote the Croatian language and culture through the establishment of literary societies, journals, and schools. Some of the most notable figures associated with the Illyrian Movement included Ljudevit Gaj, Ivan Mažuranić, and Stanko Vraz.
Gaj developed a standardised written form of the Croatian language based on the Shtokavian (Štokavski) dialect and also created a new alphabet in 1835 and based it on the Latin script, which became known as Gaj’s Latin Alphabet (Gajeva latinica). The alphabet, which is still in use today, contains a total of 30 letters; omitting q, w, x and y from the basic Latin alphabet, and including the letters č, ć, dž, đ, lj, nj, š and ž.
The movement had a significant impact on Croatian society, helping to establish a sense of national identity and promoting the use of the Croatian language in everyday life. The movement also had a broader impact on the development of Slavic nationalism in the Balkans, with similar other movements emerging in other parts of the region.
This form of the newly established Croatian language became the basis for the Serbo-Croatian language which was used in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, formed after World War I from 1918. The language has since been split into several separate languages, including Croatian, Bosnian, Montenegrin, and Serbian. However, they remain very similar, with a high degree of mutual intelligibility.
The Declaration on the Name and Status of the Croatian Standard Language was officially published by Croatian scholars on 17 March 1967 in the Telegram newspaper arguing for the equal treatment of Croatian language standards in Yugoslavia.
The Declaration affirmed that the Croatian language demanded separate standards in Yugoslavia with its own “national” language name. The demands were initially rejected but eventually granted in the new Yugoslav constitution of 1974, and remained in effect until the until the dissolution of Yugoslavia in 1991.
Croatian Language Today
Bosnian (ISO 639–3 — bos), Croatian (ISO 639–3 — hrv), Montenegrin (ISO 639–3 — cnr), and Serbian (ISO 639–3 — srp) are still closely related languages but have somewhat diverged, particularly in areas such as politics, law, and technology. The differences between them are primarily in terms of vocabulary, pronunciation, and spelling. Here are some of the key differences:
- Vocabulary: While Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian share a large amount of vocabulary, there are some words that are used differently in each language. For example, the word for “bread” is “hljeb” in Bosnian, “kruh” in Croatian, and “hleb” in Serbian. Similarly, the word for “car” is “auto” in Croatian and Serbian, but “automobil” in Bosnian.
- Pronunciation: The stress patterns of words can vary between the three languages. For example, the word “povrće” (meaning “vegetables” in all three languages) is stressed on the first syllable in Bosnian and Croatian, but on the second syllable in Serbian.
- Spelling: The main differences in spelling in these languages are that Croatian exclusively uses the Latin alphabet, Bosnian uses Latin but also uses and recognises Cyrillic, and Serbian uses both Cyrillic and Latin.
- Grammar: The grammar of Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian is very similar, with the same cases, declensions, and verb conjugations. However, there are some minor differences in grammar, such as the use of the genitive case.
It’s worth noting that the differences between these languages are relatively small, and speakers of one language are generally able to understand the others with little difficulty. The process of language standardisation and normalisation is ongoing in the region, and the precise nature of these languages will likely continue to evolve over time.
Today, Croatian is spoken by around 5 million people, primarily in Croatia, but also in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, and other neighbouring countries. It is the official language of Croatia, an official language in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia (Vojvodina), Austria (Burgenland), and the European Union. It is also a recognised minority language in Slovakia, Czech Republic, Hungary (Baranya County), and Italy.
Ultimately, the Croatian language can be defined as a national standard language, based on the Štokavian prestige supradialect of the pluricentric Serbo-Croatian (Štokavian) language, which is part of the South Slavic dialect continuum.
Croatian Dialects — Što, Kaj, and Ča
Although there is a Croatian Standard language, linguistic characteristics can vary from town to town. However, there are three dialects that are widely spoken across Croatia which can be broken down further into sub-dialects. These are known as:
- Shtokavian, Štokavian or Stokavian dialect (Štokavsko narječje, štokavski or štokavština)
- Kajkavian (Kajkavsko narječje, kajkavščina or kajkavski)
- Chakavian or Čakavian (Čakavsko narječje, čakavica or čakavština)
Each of these dialects are known by their interrogative pronouns of “what”:
Shtokavian: “Što” and “šta”
Shtokavian is the most widespread dialect of Croatian and is spoken throughout most of the country and around 55% of the population, as well as in parts of Serbia, Montenegro, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is the basis for the standardised form of the language used in schools and official documents. However, there are still some regional variations in pronunciation and vocabulary within the Shtokavian dialect. Since Shtokavian was used to form Serbo-Croatian, it’s registered under the language code ISO 639–3 — hbs.
Kajkavian: “Kaj”, “kej”, and “kuoj”
Kajkavian is spoken primarily in northern Croatia where around 35% of all Croatians use it, but more particularly in Zagreb and the surrounding areas. The dialect is more similar to Slovene, but isn’t as similar to Shtokavian and Chakavian. It is characterised by its use of the letter “k” instead of “h” in certain words, as well as its unique intonation patterns. Kajkavian was officially recognised as a language in 2015 and received its own ISO 639–3 language code — kjv.
Chakavian: “Ča”
Chakavian is spoken primarily along the Adriatic coast and on the islands, as well as in some parts of Istria and Kvarner, and used by around 10% of the population. It is characterised by its use of the letter “č” instead of “ć”, as well as its unique pronunciation of certain consonants. Chakavian was officially recognised as a language in 2020 and received its own ISO 639–3 language code — ckm.
Below are some examples between Standard Croatian, and the Shtokavian, Kaykavian, and Chakavian dialects: