Shtokavian dialect
Encyclopedia
Shtokavian or Štokavian (icon; Serbo-Croatian
: štokavski ~ штокавски) is the prestige dialect
of the Serbo-Croatian
language, and the basis of its Bosnian
, Croatian
, Serbian
, and Montenegrin
standards. It is sometimes called the Shtokavian diasystem or Central South Slavic diasystem when considered with its standard forms.
The Štokavian dialect is spoken in Serbia
, Montenegro
, Bosnia and Herzegovina
, major part of Croatia
, and in southern part of Austria
’s Burgenland
. The Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian, and Montenegrin standard language
s are all based on the Eastern Herzegovinian variety of Štokavian. Its name comes from the form for the interrogatory pronoun for "what" which is što/што or šta/шта in the Štokavian dialect. This is in contrast to the Croatian
dialects of Kajkavian
and Čakavian
(kaj and ča also meaning "what").
The primary subdivisions of Štokavian are based on two principles: one is whether the subdialect is Old-Štokavian or Neo-Štokavian, and the different ways the old Slavic phoneme jat
has been changed. Generally, modern dialectology recognises seven Štokavian subdialects (there are opinions that one or two subdialects more exist, but this is not universally accepted).
and Slavonia
in Croatia
, and eastern, dominant in easternmost Bosnia and Herzegovina
and greater parts of Montenegro
and Serbia
. Western Štokavian was principally characterized by three-accentual system, while eastern Štokavian was marked by two-accentual system. According to research of historical linguistics, the Old-Štokavian 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 Čakavian and Kajkavian dialects spoken on the territory of today's Croatia
, with which it had constituted a natural dialectal continuum.
As can be seen from the image on the right, originally the Štokavian dialect covered a significantly smaller area than it covers today, meaning that the Štokavian speech had spread for the last 5 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 the migrations
resulting from the spread of Ottoman Empire
on the Balkans
. 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 eastern Herzegovina
, who have flooded most of Western Serbia, many areas of eastern and western Bosnia, large swathes of Croatia (Banovina, Kordun
, Lika
, parts of Gorski kotar
, continental pats of northern Dalmatia
, some places north of Kupa
, parts of Slavonia
, southeastern Baranya
etc.). This is the reason why Eastern 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.
s, accentual
changes, changes in inflection
, morphology
and syntax
. 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 of Bulgaria
and 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.
The main bundle of isoglosses separates Kajkavian and Slovenian dialects on the one hand from Štokavian and Čakavian on the other. These are::
Other characteristics distinguishing Kajkavian from Štokavian, beside the demonstrative/interrogatory pronoun kaj (as opposed to što/šta used in Štokavian), are:
Characteristics distinguishing Čakavian from Štokavian, beside the demonstrative/interrogatory pronoun ča, are:
As can be seen from the list, many of this isoglosses are missing from particular Štokavian idioms, just as many of them are shared with neihgboring non-Štokavian dialects.
near the Bulgaria
n border to Prizren
. There is disagreement among linguists whether these dialects belong to the Štokavian area, as there are many other morphological characteristics apart from rendering of što (also, some dialects use kakvo or kvo, typical for Bulgarian) which would place them into a "transitional" group between Štokavian and Eastern South Slavic languages (Bulgarian
and Macedonian
). The Timok-Prizren group falls to the Balkan linguistic union
: declension has all but disappeared, the infinitive
has yielded to subjunctives
da-constructions, and adjectives are compared exclusively with suffixes. The accent in the dialect group is a stress accent, and it falls on any syllable in the word. The old semi-vowel has been retained throughout. The vocalic l has been retained (vlk = vuk), and some dialects don't distinguish ć/č and đ/dž by preferring the latter, postalveolar variants. Some subdialects preserve l at the end of words (where otherwise it has developed into a short o) došl, znal, etc. (cf. Kajkavian
and Bulgarian
); in others, this l has become the syllable ja.
These speeches are dominant in Metohija
, around Prizren
, Gnjilane
and Štrpce
especially, in Southern Serbia around Bujanovac
, Vranje
, Leskovac
, Niš
, Aleksinac
, in the part of Toplica Valley around Prokuplje
, in Eastern Serbia around Pirot
, Svrljig
, Soko Banja, Boljevac
, Knjaževac
ending up with the area around Zaječar
, where the Kosovo-Resava dialect becomes more dominant.
, Bačka
, Baranja, Syrmia
, in Croatia and Vojvodina, as well as in northern Bosnia. The Slavonian dialect has mixed ikavian and ekavian pronunciation. Ikavian is predominant in the Posavina, Baranja, Bačka, and in the Slavonian sub-dialect enclave of Derventa
, while ekavian is predominant in Podravina
. There are also enclaves of one of both variants in the main territory of other and vice-versa, as well as mixed ekavian-ikavian and jekavian-ikavian areas. In some villages in Hungary
the original yat is preserved. Local variants can widely differ in the degree of neo-shtokavian accent influences. In two villages in Posavina
, Siče and Magića Male the l, as in the verb nosil, has been retained in place of the modern nosio. In some villages in the Podravina čr instead of the usual cr is preserved, for example in črn instead of crn. Both forms are usual in Kajkavian but very rare in Shtokavian.
, Tuzla
and Zenica
, and by most of Croats and Serbs that live in that area. Together with basic jekavian pronunciation, mixed pronunciations exist in Tešanj
and Maglaj
dete-djeteta (ekavian-jekavian) and around Žepče
and Jablanica
djete-diteta (jekavian-ikavian). In the central area of the subdialect, the diphthong
uo exists in some words instead of the archaic l and more common u like vuok or stuop, instead of the standard modern vuk and stup.
and Cetinje
, around the city of Novi Pazar
in eastern Sandžak
in Serbia, and in the village of Peroj
in Istria
. Together with the dominant jekavian pronunciation, mixed pronunciations like djete-deteta (jekavian-ekavian) around Novi Pazar and Bijelo Polje
, dite-đeteta (ikavian-jekavian) around Podgorica and dete-đeteta (ekavian-jekavian) in the village of Mrkojevići in southern Montenegro. Mrkovići are also characterised by remainings of čr instead of cr as in the previously mentioned villages in Podravina.
Some vernaculars have a special reflex of ь/ъ in some cases (between a and e) which is very rare in Štokavian and Čakavian vernaculars (sän and dän instead of san and dan). Other special phonetic features include sounds like ʝ in iʝesti instead of izjesti, ç as in śekira instead of sjekira. However these sounds are known also to many in East-Herzegovina like those in Konavle
, and are not necessarily "Montenegrin" specificum. There is a loss of the /v/ sound apparent, seen in čo'ek or đa'ola. The loss of distinction between /lj/ and /l/ in some vernaculars is based on Albanian adstrate. Word pļesma is a hypercorrection (instead of pjesma) since many vernaculars know lj>j.
All verbs in infinitive finish with "t" (example: pjevat). These future have also most respective vernaculars of East-Herzegovinian, and actually almost all Serbian and Croatian vernaculars.
The group a + o gave a ("ka" instead "kao", reka for rekao), like in other Serbian and Croatian seaside vernaculars. Otherwise, more common is ao>o.
Currently the Montenegrin language
is undergoing a standardization process which will be somewhat based on the Zeta subdialect.
and also around Peć
), in Ibar Valley with Kraljevo
, around Kruševac
, Trstenik
and in Župa
, in the part of Toplica Valley (Kuršumlija
) in Morava Valley (Jagodina
, Ćuprija
, Paraćin
, Lapovo
), in Resava Valley (Svilajnac
, Despotovac
) and northeastern Serbia (Smederevo
, Požarevac
, Bor
, Majdanpek
, Negotin
, Velika Plana
) with one part of Banat
(around Kovin
, Bela Crkva
and Vršac
). This dialect can be also found in parts of Banatska klisura
(Clisura Dunării) in Romania, in places where Romanian Serbs live (left bank of the Danube).
Substitution of jat is dominantly ekavian even on the end of datives (žene instead of ženi), in pronouns (teh instead of tih), in comparatives (dobrej instead of dobriji) and in the negative of biti (nesam instead of nisam) and in Smederevo
-Vršac
speeches ikavian forms can be found (di si instead of gde si?). However, Smederevo-Vršac speeches (spoken in northeastern Šumadija, lwer Great Morava valley and Banat) are considered to be part of a separate dialect, as they represent mixed speeches of Šumadija-Vojvodina and Kosovo-Resava speeches.
who live in Lika
, Kvarner, Dalmatia
, Herzegovina
and Bunjevci and Croats of Bačka
. The minority speakers of it include Bosniaks
in western Bosnia, mostly around the city of Bihać
, and also in central Bosnia where Croats and Bosniaks (Travnik
, Jajce
, Bugojno
, Vitez
, ..) used to speak this dialect. Exclusively ikavian, Bosnian and Herzegovinian forms use o in verb participle, while those in Dalmatia and Lika use -ija or ia like in vidija/vidia. Local form of Bačka
was proposed as the base for the Bunjevac dialect of Bunjevci in Vojvodina.
and Valjevo
in Šumadija
, in Mačva but only around Šabac
and Bogatić
excluding Loznica and Podrinje, in Belgrade and in eastern Croatia around the town of Vukovar
. It is dominately ekavian (ikavian forms are of morphophonological origin). In some parts of Vojvodina the old declination is preserved. Most Vojvodina dialects and some dialects in Šumadija have an open e and o. However the vernaculars of western Serbia, and in past to them connected vernaculars of (old) Belgrade and southwestern Banat (Borča, Pančevo
, Bavanište) are close to standard as a vernacular can be. The dialect presents a base for the Serbian Ekavian standard.
, Bosnian
, Serbian
, and Montenegrin
languages. It encompasses by far the largest area and the number of speakers of all Štokavian dialects.
Micro groups:
has changed over time and is now being rendered in three different ways or reflexes:
Historically, the yat reflexes had been inscribed in Church Slavic texts before the significant development of Štokavian dialect, reflecting the beginnings of the formative period of the vernacular. In early documents it is still either almost exclusively or predominantly Church Slavic of Serbian or Croatian variant (the technical term is recension). First undoubtedly ekavian "yat reflex" had been inscribed in a document in Serbia (/it was), dated 1289, ikavian in Bosnia in 1331 (/witnesses), and first ijekavian in Croatia in 1399 (/we wish, a "hyperijekavism"). Partial inscriptions can be found in earlier texts (for instance, ikavian form is written in a few Bosnian documents in the latter half of the 13th century), but philologists generally accept the aforementioned data for yat reflexes. In second half of 20th century, many vernaculars with unsubstituted yat are found. The intrusion of the vernacular into Church Slavic grew in time, to be finally replaced by the vernacular idiom. This process has taken place for Croats, Serbs and Bosniaks
independently and without mutual interference until the mid-19th century. Historical linguistics, textual analysis and dialectology have dispelled myths about allegedly "unspoilt" vernacular speech of rural areas: for instance, it is established that Bosniaks have retained phoneme "h" in numerous words (unlike Serbs and Croats), due to elementary religious education based on the Koran, where this phoneme is the carrier of specific semantic value.
Ekavian, sometimes called eastern, is spoken primarily in Serbia, and in some very limited eastern parts of Croatia. Ikavian, sometimes called western, is spoken in western and central Bosnia, western Herzegovina, in Slavonia and the major part of Dalmatia in Croatia. Ijekavian, sometimes called southern, is spoken in many parts of Croatia including southern Dalmatia, most of Bosnia, Herzegovina, Montenegro. The following are some generic examples:
Long ije is diphthong
al among the majority of Ijekavian speakers; some Croatian authors recognize it as the 31st phoneme
of Croatian . In Zeta dialect and most of East Herzegovina dialect, it represents two syllable
s though. Serbian phonologists do not recognize it as separate phoneme (possibly as a heritage that East Herzegoviniana was the native dialect of Vuk Karadžić, the reformer of Serbian language). The distinction can be clearly heard in first verses of national anthems of Croatia
and Montenegro
—they're sung as "Lije-pa na-ša do-mo-vi-no" and "Oj svi-je-tla maj-ska zo-ro" respectively.
, the Slovak Pavel Šafárik, the Slovenes Jernej Kopitar
and Franc Miklošič
, the Serb Vuk Karadžić, the Croat of Slovak orgin Bogoslav Šulek
, and the Croatians Vatroslav Jagić
and Ante Starčević
.
The dispute was primarily concerned with who can, philologically, be labelled as "Slovene", "Croat" and "Serb" with the aim of expanding one's national territory and influence. Born in the climate of romanticism and national awakening, these polemical "battles" led to increased tensions between the aforementioned nations, especially because the Štokavian dialect cannot be split along ethnic lines in an unequivocal manner.
However, contemporary native speakers, after process of national crystallization and identification had been completed, can be roughly identified as predominant speakers of various Štokavian subdialects. Since standard languages propagated through media have strongly influenced and altered the situation in the 19th century, the following attribution must be treated with necessary caution.
The distribution of old-Štokavian speakers along ethnic lines in present times is as follows:
Generally, the neo-Štokavian dialect is divided as follows with regard to the ethnicity of its native speakers:
, regulating the commerce between Bosnia and Dubrovnik in Croatia, dated 1189, and in liturgical texts like Gršković’s and Mihanović’s fragments, ca. 1150, in southern Bosnia or Herzegovina. Experts' opinions are divided with regard to the extent these texts, especially the Kulin ban parchment, contain contemporary Štokavian vernacular. Mainly Štokavian, with ingredients of Church Slavic, are numerous legal and commercial documents from pre-Ottoman Bosnia
, Hum
, Serbia
, Zeta
, and southern Dalmatia
, especially Dubrovnik
. The first comprehensive vernacular Štokavian text is the Vatican Croatian Prayer Book
, written in Dubrovnik
a decade or two before 1400. In the next two centuries Štokavian vernacular texts had been written mainly in Dubrovnik, other Adriatic cities and islands influenced by Dubrovnik, as well as in Bosnia, by Bosnian Franciscans and Bosniak Muslim vernacular alhamiado literature the first example being "Chirwat turkisi" or "Croatian song", dated 1589.
, Croatian
, Montenegrin
and Serbian
are all based on Neo-Štokavian dialect.
However, it must be stressed that standard languages, irrespectively of their mutual differences, have been stylised in such manners that parts of the Neo-Štokavian dialect have been retained—for instance, declension—but other features were purposely omitted or altered—for instance, the phoneme "h" was reinstated in standard languages.
The Croatian language has had a long tradition of Štokavian vernacular literacy and literature. It took almost four and half centuries for Štokavian to prevail as the dialectal basis for Croatian standard. In other periods, Čakavian and Kajkavian dialects, as well as hybrid Čakavian–Kajkavian–Štokavian interdialect "contended" for the Croatian national koine but eventually lost, mainly due to historical and political reasons. By 1650s it was fairly obvious that Štokavian would become the dialectal basis for the Croatian standard, but this process was finally completed in 1850s, when Neo-Štokavian Ijekavian, based mainly on Ragusan (Dubrovnik), Dalmatian, Bosnian, and Slavonian literary heritage became the national standard language.
Serbian language was much faster in standardisation. Although vernacular literature
was present in the 18th century, it was Vuk Karadžić who, between 1818 and 1851, made a radical break with the past and established Serbian Neo-Štokavian folklore idiom as the basis of standard Serbian (until then, educated Serbs had been using Serbian Slavic, Russian Slavic and hybrid Russian-Serbian language). Although he wrote in Serbian Ijekavian, the majority of Serbs have adopted Ekavian, which is dominant in Serbia. Serbs in Croatia and Bosnia, as well as Montenegrins, use the Ijekavian variant.
The Bosnian language is only currently beginning to take shape. The Bosniak idiom can be seen as a transition between Serbian Ijekavian and Croatian varieties, with some specific traits. After the collapse of Yugoslavia, Bosniaks affirmed their wish to stylise their own standard language, based on the Neo-Štokavian dialect, but reflecting their characteristics—from phonetics to semantics.
Also, the contemporary situation is unstable with regard to the accentuation, since phoneticians have observed that the 4-accents speech has, in all likelihood, shown to be increasingly unstable, which resulted in proposals that a 3-accents norm be prescribed. This is particularly true for Croatian
, where, contrary to all expectations, the influence of Čakavian
and Kajkavian dialect
s on the standard language has been waxing, not waning, in the past 50–70 years.
The Croatian, Serbian, and Bosnian standard languages, although all based on the East Herzegovinian subdialect of Neo-Štokavian and mutually intelligible, are recognizably different in their prescribed forms as standard or literary languages. Their structures are grammatically and phonologically almost identical, but have differences in vocabulary and semantics. See Differences between standard Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian.
Example:
(The first option (in brackets) in the middle of the sentence represents the difference between Ekavian and Ijekavian, whereas the second option in the middle represents the difference between Serbian and Croatian norms, respectively.)
Another example is:
Serbo-Croatian language
Serbo-Croatian or Serbo-Croat, less commonly Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian , is a South Slavic language with multiple standards and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro...
: štokavski ~ штокавски) is the prestige dialect
Prestige dialect
In sociolinguistics, prestige describes the level of respect accorded to a language or dialect as compared to that of other languages or dialects in a speech community. The concept of prestige in sociolinguistics is closely related to that of prestige or class within a society...
of the Serbo-Croatian
Serbo-Croatian
Serbo-Croatian or Serbo-Croat, less commonly Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian , is a South Slavic language with multiple standards and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro...
language, and the basis of its Bosnian
Bosnian language
Bosnian is a South Slavic language, spoken by Bosniaks. As a standardized form of the Shtokavian dialect, it is one of the three official languages of Bosnia and Herzegovina....
, Croatian
Croatian language
Croatian is the collective name for the standard language and dialects spoken by Croats, principally in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Serbian province of Vojvodina and other neighbouring countries...
, Serbian
Serbian language
Serbian is a form of Serbo-Croatian, a South Slavic language, spoken by Serbs in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia and neighbouring countries....
, and Montenegrin
Montenegrin language
Montenegrin is a name used for the Serbo-Croatian language as spoken by Montenegrins; it also refers to an incipient standardized form of the Shtokavian dialect of Serbo-Croatian used as the official language of Montenegro...
standards. It is sometimes called the Shtokavian diasystem or Central South Slavic diasystem when considered with its standard forms.
The Štokavian dialect is spoken in Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
, Montenegro
Montenegro
Montenegro Montenegrin: Crna Gora Црна Гора , meaning "Black Mountain") is a country located in Southeastern Europe. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea to the south-west and is bordered by Croatia to the west, Bosnia and Herzegovina to the northwest, Serbia to the northeast and Albania to the...
, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina , sometimes called Bosnia-Herzegovina or simply Bosnia, is a country in Southern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. Bordered by Croatia to the north, west and south, Serbia to the east, and Montenegro to the southeast, Bosnia and Herzegovina is almost landlocked, except for the...
, major part of Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
, and in southern part of Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
’s Burgenland
Burgenland
Burgenland is the easternmost and least populous state or Land of Austria. It consists of two Statutarstädte and seven districts with in total 171 municipalities. It is 166 km long from north to south but much narrower from west to east...
. The Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian, and Montenegrin standard language
Standard language
A standard language is a language variety used by a group of people in their public discourse. Alternatively, varieties become standard by undergoing a process of standardization, during which it is organized for description in grammars and dictionaries and encoded in such reference works...
s are all based on the Eastern Herzegovinian variety of Štokavian. Its name comes from the form for the interrogatory pronoun for "what" which is što/што or šta/шта in the Štokavian dialect. This is in contrast to the Croatian
Croatian language
Croatian is the collective name for the standard language and dialects spoken by Croats, principally in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Serbian province of Vojvodina and other neighbouring countries...
dialects of Kajkavian
Kajkavian dialect
The Kajkavian dialect is one of the three main dialects of Croatian. It has low mutual intelligibility with the other two dialects, Štokavian and Čakavian. All three are named after their word for "what?", which in Kajkavian is kaj....
and Čakavian
Chakavian dialect
Chakavian or Čakavian is a dialect of the Croatian language. The name stems from the word for "what?", which is "ča" in Čakavian...
(kaj and ča also meaning "what").
The primary subdivisions of Štokavian are based on two principles: one is whether the subdialect is Old-Štokavian or Neo-Štokavian, and the different ways the old Slavic phoneme jat
Yat
Yat or Jat is the thirty-second letter of the old Cyrillic alphabet. Its name in Old Church Slavonic is jěd’ or iad’ . In the common scientific Latin transliteration for old Slavic languages, the letter is represented by e with caron: .The yat represented a Common Slavic long vowel...
has been changed. Generally, modern dialectology recognises seven Štokavian subdialects (there are opinions that one or two subdialects more exist, but this is not universally accepted).
Early history of Štokavian
The Proto-Štokavian idiom appeared in the 12th century. In the following century or two, Štokavian was divided into two zones: western, which covered the major part of Bosnia and HerzegovinaBosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina , sometimes called Bosnia-Herzegovina or simply Bosnia, is a country in Southern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. Bordered by Croatia to the north, west and south, Serbia to the east, and Montenegro to the southeast, Bosnia and Herzegovina is almost landlocked, except for the...
and Slavonia
Slavonia
Slavonia is a geographical and historical region in eastern Croatia...
in Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
, and eastern, dominant in easternmost Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina , sometimes called Bosnia-Herzegovina or simply Bosnia, is a country in Southern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. Bordered by Croatia to the north, west and south, Serbia to the east, and Montenegro to the southeast, Bosnia and Herzegovina is almost landlocked, except for the...
and greater parts of Montenegro
Montenegro
Montenegro Montenegrin: Crna Gora Црна Гора , meaning "Black Mountain") is a country located in Southeastern Europe. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea to the south-west and is bordered by Croatia to the west, Bosnia and Herzegovina to the northwest, Serbia to the northeast and Albania to the...
and Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
. Western Štokavian was principally characterized by three-accentual system, while eastern Štokavian was marked by two-accentual system. According to research of historical linguistics, the Old-Štokavian 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 Čakavian and Kajkavian dialects spoken on the territory of today's Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
, with which it had constituted a natural dialectal continuum.
As can be seen from the image on the right, originally the Štokavian dialect covered a significantly smaller area than it covers today, meaning that the Štokavian speech had spread for the last 5 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 the migrations
Human migration
Human migration is physical movement by humans from one area to another, sometimes over long distances or in large groups. Historically this movement was nomadic, often causing significant conflict with the indigenous population and their displacement or cultural assimilation. Only a few nomadic...
resulting from the spread of Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
on the Balkans
Balkans
The Balkans is a geopolitical and cultural region of southeastern Europe...
. 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 eastern Herzegovina
Herzegovina
Herzegovina is the southern region of Bosnia and Herzegovina. While there is no official border distinguishing it from the Bosnian region, it is generally accepted that the borders of the region are Croatia to the west, Montenegro to the south, the canton boundaries of the Herzegovina-Neretva...
, who have flooded most of Western Serbia, many areas of eastern and western Bosnia, large swathes of Croatia (Banovina, Kordun
Kordun
The Kordun region is a part of central Croatia from the bottom of the Petrova Gora mountain range, which extends along the rivers Korana and Slunjčica, and forms part of the border region to Bosnia and Herzegovina. The southern border of Kordun touches the Lika region...
, Lika
Lika
Lika is a mountainous region in central Croatia, roughly bound by the Velebit mountain from the southwest and the Plješevica mountain from the northeast. On the north-west end Lika is bounded by Ogulin-Plaški basin, and on the south-east by the Malovan pass...
, parts of Gorski kotar
Gorski kotar
Gorski kotar is the mountainous region in Croatia between Karlovac and Rijeka. Together with Lika and the Ogulin-Plaški valley it forms Mountainous Croatia. Because 63% of its surface is forested it is popularly called the green lungs of Croatia or Croatian Switzerland...
, continental pats of northern Dalmatia
Dalmatia
Dalmatia is a historical region on the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea. It stretches from the island of Rab in the northwest to the Bay of Kotor in the southeast. The hinterland, the Dalmatian Zagora, ranges from fifty kilometers in width in the north to just a few kilometers in the south....
, some places north of Kupa
Kupa
Kupa may refer to:*Kupa River, a river in Croatia and Slovenia*Kupa River , a river in Lithuania*Kupa River in Siberia, see Kuta River*Kupa Synagogue, a synagogue in Krakow*Kupa, Hungary, a village in Northern Hungary...
, parts of Slavonia
Slavonia
Slavonia is a geographical and historical region in eastern Croatia...
, southeastern Baranya
Baranya (region)
Baranya or Baranja is a geographical region between the Danube and the Drava rivers. Its territory is divided between Hungary and Croatia...
etc.). This is the reason why Eastern Herzegovinian dialect
Eastern Herzegovinian dialect
The Eastern Herzegovinian dialect is the most widespread dialect of the Štokavian dialect system, both by territory and the number of speakers...
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.
Relationship towards neighboring dialects
Shtokavian dialect system (diasystem) is charactarized by a number of characteristic historical sound changeSound change
Sound change includes any processes of language change that affect pronunciation or sound system structures...
s, accentual
Accent (linguistics)
In linguistics, an accent is a manner of pronunciation peculiar to a particular individual, location, or nation.An accent may identify the locality in which its speakers reside , the socio-economic status of its speakers, their ethnicity, their caste or social class, their first language In...
changes, changes in inflection
Inflection
In grammar, inflection or inflexion is the modification of a word to express different grammatical categories such as tense, grammatical mood, grammatical voice, aspect, person, number, gender and case...
, morphology
Morphology (linguistics)
In linguistics, morphology is the identification, analysis and description, in a language, of the structure of morphemes and other linguistic units, such as words, affixes, parts of speech, intonation/stress, or implied context...
and syntax
Syntax
In linguistics, syntax is the study of the principles and rules for constructing phrases and sentences in natural languages....
. 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 of Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
and Macedonia
Republic of Macedonia
Macedonia , officially the Republic of Macedonia , is a country located in the central Balkan peninsula in Southeast Europe. It is one of the successor states of the former Yugoslavia, from which it declared independence in 1991...
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.
The main bundle of isoglosses separates Kajkavian and Slovenian dialects on the one hand from Štokavian and Čakavian on the other. These are::
- long falling accent of newer origin (neocircumflex)
- development of the consonant group rj (as opposed to consonant /r/) from former soft /r'/ before a vowel (e.g. morjem, zorja)
- reflexes of /o/ or /ọ/ of the old Common Slavic nasal vowelNasal vowelA nasal vowel is a vowel that is produced with a lowering of the velum so that air escapes both through nose as well as the mouth. By contrast, oral vowels are ordinary vowels without this nasalisation...
/ǫ/, and not /u/ - inflectional morpheme -o (as opposed to -ojo) in the instrumental singular of a-declension
Other characteristics distinguishing Kajkavian from Štokavian, beside the demonstrative/interrogatory pronoun kaj (as opposed to što/šta used in Štokavian), are:
- a reflex of old semivowelsYerThe letter yer of the Cyrillic alphabet, also spelled jer or er, is known as the hard sign in the modern Russian and Rusyn alphabets and as er golyam in the Bulgarian alphabet...
of /ẹ/ (e.g. dẹn < Common Slavic *dьnь, pẹs < Common Slavic *pьsъ); closed /ẹ/ appearing also as a jatYatYat or Jat is the thirty-second letter of the old Cyrillic alphabet. Its name in Old Church Slavonic is jěd’ or iad’ . In the common scientific Latin transliteration for old Slavic languages, the letter is represented by e with caron: .The yat represented a Common Slavic long vowel...
reflex - retention of word-final -l (e.g. došel, as opposed to Štokavian došao)
- word-initial u- becoming v- (e.g. vuho, vuzel, vozek)
- dephonemicization of affricates /č/ and /ć/ to some form of middle value
- genitive plural of masculine nouns has the morpheme -of / -ef
- syncretizedSyncretism (linguistics)In linguistics, syncretism is the identity of form of distinct morphological forms of a word. This phenomenon is typical of fusional languages....
dative, locative and instrumental plural has the ending -ami - the ending -me in the first-person plural present (e.g. vidime)
- affix š in the formation of adjectival comparativeComparativeIn grammar, the comparative is the form of an adjective or adverb which denotes the degree or grade by which a person, thing, or other entity has a property or quality greater or less in extent than that of another, and is used in this context with a subordinating conjunction, such as than,...
s (e.g. debleši, slabeši) - supineSupineIn grammar a supine is a form of verbal noun used in some languages.-In Latin:In Latin there are two supines, I and II . They are originally the accusative and dative or ablative forms of a verbal noun in the fourth declension, respectively. The first supine ends in -um. It has two uses. The first...
- future tense formation in the form of bom/bum došel, došla, došlo
Characteristics distinguishing Čakavian from Štokavian, beside the demonstrative/interrogatory pronoun ča, are:
- preservation of polytonic three-acentual system
- vocalization of weak jersHavlík's lawHavlík's law is a Slavic rhythmic law dealing with the reduced vowels in Proto-Slavic. It is named for the Czech scholar Antonín Havlík , who determined the pattern in 1889. While Havlík's law was a precursor to the loss of the jers, that process is part of the individual history of the various...
(e.g. malin/melin < Common Slavic *mъlinъ; cf. Štokavian mlin) - vowel /a/ as opposed to /e/ after palatal consonants /j/, /č/, /ž/ (e.g. Čk. jazik/zajik : Št. jezik, Čk. počati : Št. početi, Čk. žaja : Št. želja)
- the appearance of extremely palatal /t'/ or /ć'/ (< earlier /t'/) and /j/ (< earlier /d'/) either in free positions or in groups
št' ,žd' - depalatalization of /n'/ and /l'/
- /ž/ instead of /dʒ/ (c.f. Čk. žep : Št. džep)
- /č/ > /š/ (c.f. Čk. maška : Št. mačka)
- word-initial consonant groups čr-, čri-, čre- (c.f. Čk. črivo/črevo : Št. cr(ij)evo, Čk. črn : Št. crn)
- conditional moodConditional moodIn linguistics, the conditional mood is the inflectional form of the verb used in the independent clause of a conditional sentence to refer to a hypothetical state of affairs, or an uncertain event, that is contingent on another set of circumstances...
with biš in the 2nd-person singular - non-syncretizedSyncretism (linguistics)In linguistics, syncretism is the identity of form of distinct morphological forms of a word. This phenomenon is typical of fusional languages....
dative, locative and instrumental plural
General characteristics
General characteristics of Štokavian diasystem are the following:- što or šta as the demonstrative/interrogative pronoun
- differentiation between two short (in addition to two or three long) accents, rising and falling, though not in all Štokavian speakers
- preservation of unaccented length, but not consistenly across all speeches
- /u/ as the reflex of Common Slavic back nasal vowel /ǫ/ as well as the syllabic /l/ (with the exception of central Bosnia where a diphthongal /uo/ is also recorded as a reflex)
- initial group of v- + weak semivowelHavlík's lawHavlík's law is a Slavic rhythmic law dealing with the reduced vowels in Proto-Slavic. It is named for the Czech scholar Antonín Havlík , who determined the pattern in 1889. While Havlík's law was a precursor to the loss of the jers, that process is part of the individual history of the various...
yields u- (e.g. unuk < Common Slavic *vъnukъ) - schwaSchwaIn linguistics, specifically phonetics and phonology, schwa can mean the following:*An unstressed and toneless neutral vowel sound in some languages, often but not necessarily a mid-central vowel...
resulting from the jer merger yields /a/, with the exception of Zeta-South Sandžak dialect - metathesisMetathesis (linguistics)Metathesis is the re-arranging of sounds or syllables in a word, or of words in a sentence. Most commonly it refers to the switching of two or more contiguous sounds, known as adjacent metathesis or local metathesis:...
of vьse to sve - čr- > cr-, with the exception of Slavonian, Molise and Vlachia (Gradišće) dialect
- word-final -l changes to /o/ or /a/; the exception is verbal adjective in the Slavonian southwest
-
d' > /dʑ/ (<đ>) with numerous exceptions - cr > tr in the word trešnja "cherry"; some exceptions in Slavonia, Hungary and Romania
- /ć/ and /đ/ from jt, jd (e.g. poći, pođem); exceptions in Slavonian and Eastern Bosnian dialect
- so-called "new iotation" of dentals and labials, with many exceptions, especially in Slavonia and Bosnia
- general loss of phoneme /x/, with many exceptions
- ending -ā in genitive plural of masculine and feminine nouns, with many exceptions
- ending -u in locative singular of masculine and neuter nouns (e.g. u gradu, u m(j)estu)
- infix -ov- / -ev- in the plural of most monosyllabic masculine nouns, with many exceptions (e.g. in the area between Neretva and Dubrovnik)
- syncretismSyncretism (linguistics)In linguistics, syncretism is the identity of form of distinct morphological forms of a word. This phenomenon is typical of fusional languages....
of dative, locative and instrumental plural of nouns, with many exceptions - preservation of ending -og(a) in genitive and accusative singular of masculine and neuter gender if pronominal-adjectival declension (e.g. drugoga), with exceptions on the area of Dubrovnik and Livno
- special form with the ending -a for the neuter gender in nominative plural of pronominal-adjectival declension (e.g. ova m(j)esta and no ove m(j)esta)
- preservation of aoristAoristAorist is a philological term originally from Indo-European studies, referring to verb forms of various languages that are not necessarily related or similar in meaning...
, which is however missing in some areas (e.g. around Dubrovnik) - special constructs reflecting old dual for numerals 2-4 (dva, tri, četiri stola)
- lots of so-called "Turkisms" (turcizmi) or "Orientalisms", i.e. words borrowed from Ottoman TurkishOttoman Turkish languageThe Ottoman Turkish language or Ottoman language is the variety of the Turkish language that was used for administrative and literary purposes in the Ottoman Empire. It borrows extensively from Arabic and Persian, and was written in a variant of the Perso-Arabic script...
As can be seen from the list, many of this isoglosses are missing from particular Štokavian idioms, just as many of them are shared with neihgboring non-Štokavian dialects.
Štokavian dialects
The Štokavian dialect is divided into Old-Shtokavian and Neo-Shtokavian subdialects.Timok-Prizren (Torlakian)
The most conservative dialects stretch southeast from TimokTimok
-Places:*Timočka Krajina, a region in Serbia*Timok , a river in Serbia and Bulgaria**Beli Timok, a river in Serbia**Trgoviški Timok, a river in Serbia**Svrljiški Timok, a river in Serbia**Crni Timok, a river in Serbia-Other:...
near the Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
n border to Prizren
Prizren
Prizren is a historical city located in southern Kosovo. It is the administrative center of the eponymous municipality and district.The city has a population of around 131,247 , mostly Albanians...
. There is disagreement among linguists whether these dialects belong to the Štokavian area, as there are many other morphological characteristics apart from rendering of što (also, some dialects use kakvo or kvo, typical for Bulgarian) which would place them into a "transitional" group between Štokavian and Eastern South Slavic languages (Bulgarian
Bulgarian language
Bulgarian is an Indo-European language, a member of the Slavic linguistic group.Bulgarian, along with the closely related Macedonian language, demonstrates several linguistic characteristics that set it apart from all other Slavic languages such as the elimination of case declension, the...
and Macedonian
Macedonian language
Macedonian is a South Slavic language spoken as a first language by approximately 2–3 million people principally in the region of Macedonia but also in the Macedonian diaspora...
). The Timok-Prizren group falls to the Balkan linguistic union
Balkan linguistic union
The Balkan sprachbund or linguistic area is the ensemble of areal features—similarity in grammar, syntax, vocabulary and phonology—among the languages of the Balkans. Several features are found across these languages though not all need apply to every single language...
: declension has all but disappeared, the infinitive
Infinitive
In grammar, infinitive is the name for certain verb forms that exist in many languages. In the usual description of English, the infinitive of a verb is its basic form with or without the particle to: therefore, do and to do, be and to be, and so on are infinitives...
has yielded to subjunctives
Subjunctive mood
In grammar, the subjunctive mood is a verb mood typically used in subordinate clauses to express various states of irreality such as wish, emotion, possibility, judgment, opinion, necessity, or action that has not yet occurred....
da-constructions, and adjectives are compared exclusively with suffixes. The accent in the dialect group is a stress accent, and it falls on any syllable in the word. The old semi-vowel has been retained throughout. The vocalic l has been retained (vlk = vuk), and some dialects don't distinguish ć/č and đ/dž by preferring the latter, postalveolar variants. Some subdialects preserve l at the end of words (where otherwise it has developed into a short o) došl, znal, etc. (cf. Kajkavian
Kajkavian dialect
The Kajkavian dialect is one of the three main dialects of Croatian. It has low mutual intelligibility with the other two dialects, Štokavian and Čakavian. All three are named after their word for "what?", which in Kajkavian is kaj....
and Bulgarian
Bulgarian language
Bulgarian is an Indo-European language, a member of the Slavic linguistic group.Bulgarian, along with the closely related Macedonian language, demonstrates several linguistic characteristics that set it apart from all other Slavic languages such as the elimination of case declension, the...
); in others, this l has become the syllable ja.
These speeches are dominant in Metohija
Metohija
Metohija , is a large basin and the name of the region covering the southwestern part of Kosovo.It encompasses three of the seven districts of Kosovo, namely the historical :* District of Peć * District of Đakovica * District of Prizren...
, around Prizren
Prizren
Prizren is a historical city located in southern Kosovo. It is the administrative center of the eponymous municipality and district.The city has a population of around 131,247 , mostly Albanians...
, Gnjilane
Gnjilane
Gnjilane or Gjilan is a city and municipality in eastern Kosovo. It is the administrative center of the District of Gjilan. It is famous for having been recorded the lowest temperature in Kosovo with on 25 January 1963.-Name and history:...
and Štrpce
Štrpce
Štrpce is a town and municipality in the District of Uroševac, Kosovo and Metohija.According to the 1991 census, the municipality of Štrpce had a population of around 12,800 people...
especially, in Southern Serbia around Bujanovac
Bujanovac
Bujanovac is a town and municipality in Pčinja District of southern Serbia, located at the South Morava basin.It is known for its source of mineral water, so it is also known as Bujanovačka Banja ....
, Vranje
Vranje
Vranje is a city and municipality located in southern Serbia. In 2011 the city has total population of 82,782, while the urban area has 54,456...
, Leskovac
Leskovac
Leskovac is a city and municipality in southern Serbia. It is the administrative center of the Jablanica District of Serbia...
, Niš
Niš
Niš is the largest city of southern Serbia and third-largest city in Serbia . According to the data from 2011, the city of Niš has a population of 177,972 inhabitants, while the city municipality has a population of 257,867. The city covers an area of about 597 km2, including the urban area,...
, Aleksinac
Aleksinac
Aleksinac is a town which is a center of Aleksinac Municipality, located in the Nišava District of Serbia. According to 2011 census, the town has a population of 16,420 inhabitants, while the municipality has 51,462.-Name:...
, in the part of Toplica Valley around Prokuplje
Prokuplje
Prokuplje is a town and municipality located in Serbia at 43.24° North, 21.59° East. According to 2011 census, the town has a total population of 27,163 inhabitants, while population of municipality is 43,631. It is the administrative center of the Toplica District of Serbia. It is one of the...
, in Eastern Serbia around Pirot
Pirot
Pirot is a town and municipality located in south-eastern Serbia. According to 2011 census, the town has a total population of 38,432, while the population of the municipality is 57,911...
, Svrljig
Svrljig
Svrljig is a town and municipality located in the Nišava District of Serbia. According to 2011 census, the town has a population of 7,543 inhabitants, while the municipality has 14,224.-Geography:...
, Soko Banja, Boljevac
Boljevac
Boljevac is a town and municipality located in the Zaječar District of Serbia. According to 2011 census, the population of the town is 3,332, while population of the municipality is 12,865....
, Knjaževac
Knjaževac
Knjaževac is a town and municipality situated in the eastern part of Serbia bordering the Republic of Bulgaria and is part of Timočka Krajina region. It is found between the latitudes of 43°20' and 43°45' north and between the longitudes 22°11' and 22°41' east. The town is situated between three...
ending up with the area around Zaječar
Zajecar
Zaječar is a city and municipality in the eastern part of Serbia. According to the 2011 census the town has a population of 36,830, and its coordinates are 43.91° North, 22.30° East...
, where the Kosovo-Resava dialect becomes more dominant.
Slavonian
Also called the Archaic Šćakavian dialect, it is spoken by Croats who live in some parts of SlavoniaSlavonia
Slavonia is a geographical and historical region in eastern Croatia...
, Bačka
Backa
Bačka is a geographical area within the Pannonian plain bordered by the river Danube to the west and south, and by the river Tisza to the east of which confluence is located near Titel...
, Baranja, Syrmia
Syrmia
Syrmia is a fertile region of the Pannonian Plain in Europe, between the Danube and Sava rivers. It is divided between Serbia in the east and Croatia in the west....
, in Croatia and Vojvodina, as well as in northern Bosnia. The Slavonian dialect has mixed ikavian and ekavian pronunciation. Ikavian is predominant in the Posavina, Baranja, Bačka, and in the Slavonian sub-dialect enclave of Derventa
Derventa
Derventa is the name of a town and municipality of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the northern part of Republika Srpska just northwest of the town of Doboj, in the Posavina region...
, while ekavian is predominant in Podravina
Podravina
Podravina or Podravje are Slavic names for the Drava river basin in Croatia and Slovenia.-History:...
. There are also enclaves of one of both variants in the main territory of other and vice-versa, as well as mixed ekavian-ikavian and jekavian-ikavian areas. In some villages in Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
the original yat is preserved. Local variants can widely differ in the degree of neo-shtokavian accent influences. In two villages in Posavina
Posavina
Posavina is a Slavic name for the region of the Sava river basin in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbia that is adjacent or near the Sava river itself.-History:...
, Siče and Magića Male the l, as in the verb nosil, has been retained in place of the modern nosio. In some villages in the Podravina čr instead of the usual cr is preserved, for example in črn instead of crn. Both forms are usual in Kajkavian but very rare in Shtokavian.
East-Bosnian
Also called , it has jekavian pronunciation in the vast majority of local forms and it is spoken by the majority of Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims) living in area that include bigger Bosnian cities SarajevoSarajevo
Sarajevo |Bosnia]], surrounded by the Dinaric Alps and situated along the Miljacka River in the heart of Southeastern Europe and the Balkans....
, Tuzla
Tuzla
Tuzla is a city and municipality in Bosnia and Herzegovina. At the time of the 1991 census, it had 83,770 inhabitants, while the municipality 131,318. Taking the influx of refugees into account, the city is currently estimated to have 174,558 inhabitants...
and Zenica
Zenica
Zenica is an industrial city in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is the capital of the Zenica-Doboj Canton of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina entity...
, and by most of Croats and Serbs that live in that area. Together with basic jekavian pronunciation, mixed pronunciations exist in Tešanj
Tešanj
Tešanj is a city and municipality in the northern part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, located near Teslić, Doboj and Zavidovići. Administrativley, it belongs to the Zenica-Doboj Canton of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.-About Tešanj:...
and Maglaj
Maglaj
Maglaj is a town and municipality in Bosnia-Herzegovina. It is situated in the northern part of Bosnia-Herzegovina, in the Zenica-Doboj canton. The city lies south of the city of Doboj, the regional trade, education, culture, entertainment, and business centre. The municipality of Maglaj is one of...
dete-djeteta (ekavian-jekavian) and around Žepče
Žepce
Žepče is a town and municipality in central Bosnia and Herzegovina, located between Doboj and Zenica. It is administratively part of the Zenica-Doboj Canton of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.-About Žepče:...
and Jablanica
Jablanica, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Jablanica is a town and municipality of the same name in central Bosnia and Herzegovina. The town is situated on the Neretva river and Jablanica lake. Jablanica is a part of the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton.-Geography:...
djete-diteta (jekavian-ikavian). In the central area of the subdialect, the diphthong
Diphthong
A diphthong , also known as a gliding vowel, refers to two adjacent vowel sounds occurring within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: That is, the tongue moves during the pronunciation of the vowel...
uo exists in some words instead of the archaic l and more common u like vuok or stuop, instead of the standard modern vuk and stup.
Zeta-South Sandžak
Also known as Old Ijekavian. It is spoken in eastern Montenegro, in PodgoricaPodgorica
Podgorica , is the capital and largest city of Montenegro.Podgorica's favourable position at the confluence of the Ribnica and Morača rivers and the meeting point of the fertile Zeta Plain and Bjelopavlići Valley has encouraged settlement...
and Cetinje
Cetinje
Cetinje , Цетиње / Cetinje , Italian: Cettigne, Greek: Κετίγνη, Ketígni) is a town and Old Royal Capital of Montenegro. It is also a historical and the secondary capital of Montenegro , with the official residence of the President of Montenegro...
, around the city of Novi Pazar
Novi Pazar
Novi Pazar is a city and municipality located in southwest Serbia, in the Raška District. According to the official census in 2011, number of inhabitants of municipality is 92,776, while the city itself has a population of 60,638...
in eastern Sandžak
Sandžak
Sandžak also known as Raška is a historical region lying along the border between Serbia and Montenegro...
in Serbia, and in the village of Peroj
Peroj
Peroj is a village in the Vodnjan municipality on the south-western coast of Istria, currently inhabited by ~400 inhabitants, dating back to the Copper age of prehistory, as testified by a necropolis within the old walls of the town. The town has been settled with families from a variety of origins...
in Istria
Istria
Istria , formerly Histria , is the largest peninsula in the Adriatic Sea. The peninsula is located at the head of the Adriatic between the Gulf of Trieste and the Bay of Kvarner...
. Together with the dominant jekavian pronunciation, mixed pronunciations like djete-deteta (jekavian-ekavian) around Novi Pazar and Bijelo Polje
Bijelo Polje
Bijelo Polje is a town in northern Montenegro. It has a population of 15,883 .Bijelo Polje is the center of municipality . It is unofficial center of north-eastern region of Montenegro...
, dite-đeteta (ikavian-jekavian) around Podgorica and dete-đeteta (ekavian-jekavian) in the village of Mrkojevići in southern Montenegro. Mrkovići are also characterised by remainings of čr instead of cr as in the previously mentioned villages in Podravina.
Some vernaculars have a special reflex of ь/ъ in some cases (between a and e) which is very rare in Štokavian and Čakavian vernaculars (sän and dän instead of san and dan). Other special phonetic features include sounds like ʝ in iʝesti instead of izjesti, ç as in śekira instead of sjekira. However these sounds are known also to many in East-Herzegovina like those in Konavle
Konavle
Konavle is a small region and municipality located southeast of Dubrovnik, Croatia.It is administratively part of the Dubrovnik-Neretva County and forms a municipality with its center at Gruda with a total population of 8,250 people split in 32 villages, in which 96.5% are Croats...
, and are not necessarily "Montenegrin" specificum. There is a loss of the /v/ sound apparent, seen in čo'ek or đa'ola. The loss of distinction between /lj/ and /l/ in some vernaculars is based on Albanian adstrate. Word pļesma is a hypercorrection (instead of pjesma) since many vernaculars know lj>j.
All verbs in infinitive finish with "t" (example: pjevat). These future have also most respective vernaculars of East-Herzegovinian, and actually almost all Serbian and Croatian vernaculars.
The group a + o gave a ("ka" instead "kao", reka for rekao), like in other Serbian and Croatian seaside vernaculars. Otherwise, more common is ao>o.
Currently the Montenegrin language
Montenegrin language
Montenegrin is a name used for the Serbo-Croatian language as spoken by Montenegrins; it also refers to an incipient standardized form of the Shtokavian dialect of Serbo-Croatian used as the official language of Montenegro...
is undergoing a standardization process which will be somewhat based on the Zeta subdialect.
Kosovo-Resava
Also called Older Ekavian, spoken mostly in western and northeastern Kosovo (Kosovo Valley with Kosovska MitrovicaKosovska Mitrovica
Kosovska Mitrovica , is a city and municipality in northern Kosovo. It is the administrative centre of the homonymous district....
and also around Peć
Pec
Peć or Pejë is a city and municipality in north-western Kosovo and Metohija - Serbia, and the administrative centre of the homonymous district. Governor of city is Ali Berisha....
), in Ibar Valley with Kraljevo
Kraljevo
Kraljevo is a city and municipality in central Serbia, built beside the river Ibar, 7 km west of its confluence with the Western Morava. It is located in the midst of an upland valley, between the mountains of Kotlenik in the north, and Stolovi in the south.In 2011 the city has population of...
, around Kruševac
Kruševac
Kruševac is a city and municipality, and the administrative center of the Rasina District, in central Serbia. According to the 2011 census, the municipality has a population of 127,429, while the town has 57,627....
, Trstenik
Trstenik
Trstenik is a town and municipality located in the Rasina District of Serbia. According to 2011 census, the population of the town is 15,329, while population of the municipality was 42,989. It lies on the West Morava. The town is known for its industry of hydraulics and pneumatics company, Prva...
and in Župa
Župa
A Župa is a Slavic term, used historically among the Southern and Western branches of the Slavs, originally denoting various territorial and other sub-units, usually a small administrative division, especially a gathering of several villages...
, in the part of Toplica Valley (Kuršumlija
Kuršumlija
Kuršumlija is a town and municipality located in the south of Serbia, nearby the rivers Toplica, Kosanica and Banjska, on the southeast of mountain Kopaonik, and northwest of Radan Mountain...
) in Morava Valley (Jagodina
Jagodina
Jagodina is a city and municipality located in central Serbia, 136 km south of Belgrade, on the banks of Belica River. Its name stems from the word for strawberry in Serbian. It is the administrative centre of the Pomoravlje District of Serbia...
, Ćuprija
Cuprija
Ćuprija is a town and administrative district in Serbia, at 43.93° North, 21.38° East...
, Paraćin
Paracin
Paraćin is a town and municipality in Serbia, located in the valley of the Velika Morava river, north of Kruševac and southeast of Kragujevac. In 2011 the town has total population of 24,573 and it has a civil airport, also known as Davidovac Airport....
, Lapovo
Lapovo
Lapovo is a municipality located in the central part of Serbia and in east part of Šumadija district which it belongs to and extends to 5,522 acres. The population of the town is 7,404, according to 2011 census.-History:...
), in Resava Valley (Svilajnac
Svilajnac
Svilajnac is a town and municipality located in central Serbia at 44.13° North, 21.12° East, south-east of Belgrade, on the banks of the river Resava, and bordering the river Morava. Its name stems from the word for silk in Serbian. It is the de facto administrative center of the Resava region...
, Despotovac
Despotovac
Despotovac is a town and municipality located in Serbia, around 130 kilometers southeast of Belgrade. Its name stems from Despot, a title of Serbian medieval prince Stefan Lazarević...
) and northeastern Serbia (Smederevo
Smederevo
Smederevo is a city and municipality in Serbia, on the right bank of the Danube, about 40 km downstream of the capital Belgrade. According to official results of the 2011 census, the city has a population of 107,528...
, Požarevac
Požarevac
Požarevac is a city and municipality in eastern Serbia. It is the administrative center of the Braničevo District of Serbia...
, Bor
Bor
Bor may refer to:* Matej Bor, the pen name of the Slovene poet Vladimir Pavšič *Bor , a location in Afghanistan*Bor , a town in Plzeň Region , Czech Republic...
, Majdanpek
Majdanpek
Majdanpek is a town and municipality in Bor District of Serbia. According to 2011 census, the municipality of Majdanpek has a population of 18,179 people, while the town of Majdanpek has a population of 7,367....
, Negotin
Negotin
Negotin is a town and municipality in the Bor District of north-eastern Central Serbia. It is situated near the borders between Serbia, Romania and Bulgaria. It is the judicial center of the Bor District. The population of the town is 16,716 while municipality has 36,879.-Name:The etymology of the...
, Velika Plana
Velika Plana
Velika Plana , is a town and municipality located in the Podunavlje District of Serbia. In 2011, the population of the municipality is 40,578 . It is estimated that about 5,500-6,500 IDP's from Kosovo & Metohija also live in Velika Plana but are unregistered...
) with one part of Banat
Banat
The Banat is a geographical and historical region in Central Europe currently divided between three countries: the eastern part lies in western Romania , the western part in northeastern Serbia , and a small...
(around Kovin
Kovin
Kovin is a town and municipality in South Banat District of Vojvodina, Serbia. The town has a population of 14,250, while the municipality has 36,802 inhabitants.- Name :...
, Bela Crkva
Bela Crkva
Bela Crkva translates to "White Church" in the south Slavic languages in the Ekavian accent regions. As a settlement name, it can refer to:* Bela Crkva, Vojvodina, a town in Vojvodina, Serbia...
and Vršac
Vršac
Vršac is a town and municipality located in Serbia. In 2002 the town's total population was 36,623, while Vršac municipality had 54,369 inhabitants. Vršac is located in the Banat region, in the Vojvodina province of Serbia. It is part of the South Banat District.-Name:The name Vršac is of Serbian...
). This dialect can be also found in parts of Banatska klisura
Clisura Dunarii
Defileul Dunării, locally known also as Clisura Dunării is a geographical region in Romania. It is located in southern Banat, along the northern bank of the river Danube...
(Clisura Dunării) in Romania, in places where Romanian Serbs live (left bank of the Danube).
Substitution of jat is dominantly ekavian even on the end of datives (žene instead of ženi), in pronouns (teh instead of tih), in comparatives (dobrej instead of dobriji) and in the negative of biti (nesam instead of nisam) and in Smederevo
Smederevo
Smederevo is a city and municipality in Serbia, on the right bank of the Danube, about 40 km downstream of the capital Belgrade. According to official results of the 2011 census, the city has a population of 107,528...
-Vršac
Vršac
Vršac is a town and municipality located in Serbia. In 2002 the town's total population was 36,623, while Vršac municipality had 54,369 inhabitants. Vršac is located in the Banat region, in the Vojvodina province of Serbia. It is part of the South Banat District.-Name:The name Vršac is of Serbian...
speeches ikavian forms can be found (di si instead of gde si?). However, Smederevo-Vršac speeches (spoken in northeastern Šumadija, lwer Great Morava valley and Banat) are considered to be part of a separate dialect, as they represent mixed speeches of Šumadija-Vojvodina and Kosovo-Resava speeches.
Bosnian-Dalmatian
Also called Western Ikavian or Younger Ikavian. The majority of its speakers are CroatsCroats
Croats are a South Slavic ethnic group mostly living in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and nearby countries. There are around 4 million Croats living inside Croatia and up to 4.5 million throughout the rest of the world. Responding to political, social and economic pressure, many Croats have...
who live in Lika
Lika
Lika is a mountainous region in central Croatia, roughly bound by the Velebit mountain from the southwest and the Plješevica mountain from the northeast. On the north-west end Lika is bounded by Ogulin-Plaški basin, and on the south-east by the Malovan pass...
, Kvarner, Dalmatia
Dalmatia
Dalmatia is a historical region on the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea. It stretches from the island of Rab in the northwest to the Bay of Kotor in the southeast. The hinterland, the Dalmatian Zagora, ranges from fifty kilometers in width in the north to just a few kilometers in the south....
, Herzegovina
Herzegovina
Herzegovina is the southern region of Bosnia and Herzegovina. While there is no official border distinguishing it from the Bosnian region, it is generally accepted that the borders of the region are Croatia to the west, Montenegro to the south, the canton boundaries of the Herzegovina-Neretva...
and Bunjevci and Croats of Bačka
Backa
Bačka is a geographical area within the Pannonian plain bordered by the river Danube to the west and south, and by the river Tisza to the east of which confluence is located near Titel...
. The minority speakers of it include Bosniaks
Bosniaks
The Bosniaks or Bosniacs are a South Slavic ethnic group, living mainly in Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a smaller minority also present in other lands of the Balkan Peninsula especially in Serbia, Montenegro and Croatia...
in western Bosnia, mostly around the city of Bihać
Bihac
Bihać is a city and municipality on the river Una in the north-western part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in the Bosanska Krajina region. Bihać is located in the Una-Sana Canton in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.-History:...
, and also in central Bosnia where Croats and Bosniaks (Travnik
Travnik
Travnik is a city and municipality in central Bosnia and Herzegovina, 90 km west of Sarajevo. It is the capital of the Central Bosnia Canton, and is located in the Travnik Municipality. Travnik today has some 27,000 residents, with a metro population that is probably close to 70,000 people...
, Jajce
Jajce
Jajce is a city and municipality located in the central part of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is part of the Central Bosnia Canton of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina entity...
, Bugojno
Bugojno
Bugojno is a town and municipality of the same name in central Bosnia and Herzegovina on the river Vrbas. It is located in the Central Bosnia Canton of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina entity. The town is to the northwest from Sarajevo, with an estimated population of 50,000 .To the west...
, Vitez
Vitez
Vitez is a town and municipality in central Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is administratively part of the Central Bosnia Canton of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.-Name:...
, ..) used to speak this dialect. Exclusively ikavian, Bosnian and Herzegovinian forms use o in verb participle, while those in Dalmatia and Lika use -ija or ia like in vidija/vidia. Local form of Bačka
Backa
Bačka is a geographical area within the Pannonian plain bordered by the river Danube to the west and south, and by the river Tisza to the east of which confluence is located near Titel...
was proposed as the base for the Bunjevac dialect of Bunjevci in Vojvodina.
Dubrovnikan
In earlier centuries, this subdialect was the independent subdialect of Western Shtokavian subdialect. Today it is considered a part of East Herzegovina subdialect. It retained certain unique features that distinguish it from the original East Herzegovina subdialect.Šumadija-Vojvodina
Also known as Younger Ekavian, it is spoken across most of Vojvodina excluding easternmost parts around Vršac, north-western Serbia, around KragujevacKragujevac
Kragujevac is the fourth largest city in Serbia, the main city of the Šumadija region and the administrative centre of Šumadija District. It is situated on the banks of the Lepenica River...
and Valjevo
Valjevo
Valjevo is a city and municipality located in western Serbia. It is the center of the Kolubara District, which includes five other smaller municipalities with a total population of almost 180,000 people...
in Šumadija
Šumadija
Šumadija is a geographical region in Serbia. The area is heavily covered with forests, hence the name...
, in Mačva but only around Šabac
Šabac
Šabac is a city and municipality in western Serbia, along the Sava river, in the historic region of Mačva. It is the administrative center of the Mačva District. The city has a population of 52,822 , while population of the municipality is 115,347...
and Bogatić
Bogatic
Bogatić is a little town and municipality located in the Mačva District of Serbia. In 2011, the population of the town is 6,470, while population of the municipality is 28,879.-History:...
excluding Loznica and Podrinje, in Belgrade and in eastern Croatia around the town of Vukovar
Vukovar
Vukovar is a city in eastern Croatia, and the biggest river port in Croatia located at the confluence of the Vuka river and the Danube. Vukovar is the center of the Vukovar-Syrmia County...
. It is dominately ekavian (ikavian forms are of morphophonological origin). In some parts of Vojvodina the old declination is preserved. Most Vojvodina dialects and some dialects in Šumadija have an open e and o. However the vernaculars of western Serbia, and in past to them connected vernaculars of (old) Belgrade and southwestern Banat (Borča, Pančevo
Pancevo
Pančevo is a city and municipality located in the southern part of Serbian province of Vojvodina, 15 km northeast from Belgrade. In 2002, the city had a total population of 77,087, while municipality of Pančevo had 127,162 inhabitants. It is the administrative center of the South Banat...
, Bavanište) are close to standard as a vernacular can be. The dialect presents a base for the Serbian Ekavian standard.
Eastern Herzegovinian
Also called Eastern-Herzegovininan-Krajina dialect (Serbo-Croatian: istočnohercegovačko-krajiški), or younger Ijekavian (Serbo-Croatian: mlađi ijekavski). It is the dialectal basis of the standard literary CroatianCroatian language
Croatian is the collective name for the standard language and dialects spoken by Croats, principally in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Serbian province of Vojvodina and other neighbouring countries...
, Bosnian
Bosnian language
Bosnian is a South Slavic language, spoken by Bosniaks. As a standardized form of the Shtokavian dialect, it is one of the three official languages of Bosnia and Herzegovina....
, Serbian
Serbian language
Serbian is a form of Serbo-Croatian, a South Slavic language, spoken by Serbs in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia and neighbouring countries....
, and Montenegrin
Montenegrin language
Montenegrin is a name used for the Serbo-Croatian language as spoken by Montenegrins; it also refers to an incipient standardized form of the Shtokavian dialect of Serbo-Croatian used as the official language of Montenegro...
languages. It encompasses by far the largest area and the number of speakers of all Štokavian dialects.
Micro groups:
- western MontenegroMontenegroMontenegro Montenegrin: Crna Gora Црна Гора , meaning "Black Mountain") is a country located in Southeastern Europe. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea to the south-west and is bordered by Croatia to the west, Bosnia and Herzegovina to the northwest, Serbia to the northeast and Albania to the...
. - CroatsCroatsCroats are a South Slavic ethnic group mostly living in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and nearby countries. There are around 4 million Croats living inside Croatia and up to 4.5 million throughout the rest of the world. Responding to political, social and economic pressure, many Croats have...
western ijekavian micro groups in region SlavoniaSlavoniaSlavonia is a geographical and historical region in eastern Croatia...
, Banovina, KordunKordunThe Kordun region is a part of central Croatia from the bottom of the Petrova Gora mountain range, which extends along the rivers Korana and Slunjčica, and forms part of the border region to Bosnia and Herzegovina. The southern border of Kordun touches the Lika region...
, ŽumberakŽumberakŽumberak or Gorjanci is a range of mountains or hills between Croatia and Slovenia. The highest peak is Sveta Gera on the border between Croatia and Slovenia, being tall....
, NeretvaNeretvaNeretva is the largest river of the eastern part of the Adriatic basin. It has been harnessed and controlled to a large extent by four HE power-plants with large dams and their storage lakes, but it is still recognized for its natural beauty, diversity of its landscape and visual...
, East HerzegovinaEast HerzegovinaEast Herzegovina is the geographical term that is used to describe the eastern part of Herzegovina region.It is located in country of Bosnia and Herzegovina, eastwards from river Neretva, in the hinterland of southern Croatia....
(RavnoRavnoRavno is a town and the seat of its municipality in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is located in the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina entity. Ravno was a municipality until 1963, when it became a part of the Trebinje municipality...
, StolacStolacStolac is a town and municipality in Bosnia and Herzegovina, located in the southern part of Herzegovina. Administratively, it is part of the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina....
, BunaBunaBuna may refer to the official Mbum language of Cameroon, as well as:People:*Buna Lawrie, an Australian Aboriginal musician.Places:*Buna village, a small Bosnia and Herzegovina village at the confluence of the Buna and Neretva rivers...
, NeumNeumNeum is the only coastal town in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It comprises of coastline, the country's only access to the Adriatic Sea. As of 2009, municipal population was of 4,605 and the one of Neum main town was of 4,268 .-Features:Neum has steep hills, sandy beaches, and several large tourist...
), around of region DubrovnikDubrovnikDubrovnik is a Croatian city on the Adriatic Sea coast, positioned at the terminal end of the Isthmus of Dubrovnik. It is one of the most prominent tourist destinations on the Adriatic, a seaport and the centre of Dubrovnik-Neretva county. Its total population is 42,641...
, and is the basis of the Croatian standard. City: (OsijekOsijekOsijek is the fourth largest city in Croatia with a population of 83,496 in 2011. It is the largest city and the economic and cultural centre of the eastern Croatian region of Slavonia, as well as the administrative centre of Osijek-Baranja county...
, BjelovarBjelovarBjelovar is a city in central Croatia. It is the administrative centre of Bjelovar-Bilogora County. During the 2001 census, there were 41,869 inhabitants, 90.51% which are Croats....
, DaruvarDaruvarDaruvar is a town in central Croatia, population 9,815 , total municipality population 13,243 ....
, SisakSisakSisak is a city in central Croatia. The city's population in 2011 was 33,049, with a total of 49,699 in the administrative region and it is also the administrative centre of the Sisak-Moslavina county...
, PakracPakracPakrac is a town in western Slavonia, Croatia, population 4,852, total municipality population 8,482 . Pakrac is located on the road and railroad connecting the regions of Posavina and Podravina.-Name:...
, PetrinjaPetrinjaPetrinja is a city in central Croatia near Sisak in the historic region of Banovina. The city belongs to Sisak-Moslavina County .- History :The name of Petrinja has its roots in Latin petrus, meaning "stone"...
DubrovnikDubrovnikDubrovnik is a Croatian city on the Adriatic Sea coast, positioned at the terminal end of the Isthmus of Dubrovnik. It is one of the most prominent tourist destinations on the Adriatic, a seaport and the centre of Dubrovnik-Neretva county. Its total population is 42,641...
, MetkovićMetkovicMetković is a city in the Dubrovnik-Neretva county of Croatia, located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the river Neretva and on the border with Herzegovina.-Demographics:...
...). - SerbsSerbsThe Serbs are a South Slavic ethnic group of the Balkans and southern Central Europe. Serbs are located mainly in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and form a sizable minority in Croatia, the Republic of Macedonia and Slovenia. Likewise, Serbs are an officially recognized minority in...
east ijekavian groups; East Bosnia, east Herzegovina (TrebinjeTrebinjeTrebinje is the southernmost municipality and town in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is administratively part of the Republika Srpska entity and is located in southeastern Herzegovina, some from the Adriatic Sea....
, NevesinjeNevesinjeNevesinje is a town and municipality in Bosnia and Herzegovina, located in eastern Herzegovina between Mostar and Gacko. It is administratively part of the Republika Srpska entity.-Geography:...
, BilećaBilecaBileća is a town and municipality in the southeast of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the entity of Republika Srpska. It is in eastern Herzegovina near the border with Montenegro, north of Trebinje and south of Gacko...
), Bosnian kraina, western Serbia and Podrinje ( UžiceUžiceUžice is a city and municipality in western Serbia, located at the banks of the Đetinja river. It is the administrative center of the Zlatibor District...
, ČačakCacakČačak is a city in central Serbia. It is the administrative center of the Moravica District of Serbia. Čačak is also the main industrial, cultural and sport center of the district...
, IvanjicaIvanjicaIvanjica is a town and municipality located in the Moravica District of Serbia. The population of the town is 11,810, while population of the municipality is 32,047....
, Loznica, PribojPribojPriboj is a town and municipality located in the Zlatibor District of Serbia at 43.59° North, 19.54° East. In 2011, the town has a total population of 14,015, while population of the municipality is 27,127.- History :...
, PrijepoljePrijepoljePrijepolje is a town and municipality in the Zlatibor District of Serbia. According to the 2011 census, the municipality of Prijepolje has a population of 36,713 people, while the town itself has a population of 13,068...
) and minority Croatian Serbs. City: TrebinjeTrebinjeTrebinje is the southernmost municipality and town in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is administratively part of the Republika Srpska entity and is located in southeastern Herzegovina, some from the Adriatic Sea....
, BijeljinaBijeljinaBijeljina is a city and municipality in northeastern Bosnia and Herzegovina. The city is the second largest in the Republika Srpska entity after Banja Luka and fifth largest city in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and is situated on the flat rich plains of Semberija...
, Banja LukaBanja Luka-History:The name "Banja Luka" was first mentioned in a document dated February 6, 1494, but Banja Luka's history dates back to ancient times. There is a substantial evidence of the Roman presence in the region during the first few centuries A.D., including an old fort "Kastel" in the centre of...
, NevesinjeNevesinjeNevesinje is a town and municipality in Bosnia and Herzegovina, located in eastern Herzegovina between Mostar and Gacko. It is administratively part of the Republika Srpska entity.-Geography:...
, Pale. - Its south-eastern form is characterised by the total lack of /x/ sound that is sometimes not only left out or replaced by more common /j/ or /v/ but is replaced as well by less common /k/ and /ɡ/ (bijak, bijaku imperfect of verb biti). Local forms in the ŽumberakŽumberakŽumberak or Gorjanci is a range of mountains or hills between Croatia and Slovenia. The highest peak is Sveta Gera on the border between Croatia and Slovenia, being tall....
enclave and around Dubrovnik have some special features, influenced from Chakavian and the western subdialect.
The yat reflexes
The Proto-Slavic vowel jatYat
Yat or Jat is the thirty-second letter of the old Cyrillic alphabet. Its name in Old Church Slavonic is jěd’ or iad’ . In the common scientific Latin transliteration for old Slavic languages, the letter is represented by e with caron: .The yat represented a Common Slavic long vowel...
has changed over time and is now being rendered in three different ways or reflexes:
- In Ekavian (ekavski), jat has morphed into the vowel e
- in Ikavian (ikavski), the vowel i
- in Ijekavian or Jekavian (ijekavski or jekavski), ije or je depending on whether the vowel was long or short.
Historically, the yat reflexes had been inscribed in Church Slavic texts before the significant development of Štokavian dialect, reflecting the beginnings of the formative period of the vernacular. In early documents it is still either almost exclusively or predominantly Church Slavic of Serbian or Croatian variant (the technical term is recension). First undoubtedly ekavian "yat reflex" had been inscribed in a document in Serbia (/it was), dated 1289, ikavian in Bosnia in 1331 (/witnesses), and first ijekavian in Croatia in 1399 (/we wish, a "hyperijekavism"). Partial inscriptions can be found in earlier texts (for instance, ikavian form is written in a few Bosnian documents in the latter half of the 13th century), but philologists generally accept the aforementioned data for yat reflexes. In second half of 20th century, many vernaculars with unsubstituted yat are found. The intrusion of the vernacular into Church Slavic grew in time, to be finally replaced by the vernacular idiom. This process has taken place for Croats, Serbs and Bosniaks
Bosniaks
The Bosniaks or Bosniacs are a South Slavic ethnic group, living mainly in Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a smaller minority also present in other lands of the Balkan Peninsula especially in Serbia, Montenegro and Croatia...
independently and without mutual interference until the mid-19th century. Historical linguistics, textual analysis and dialectology have dispelled myths about allegedly "unspoilt" vernacular speech of rural areas: for instance, it is established that Bosniaks have retained phoneme "h" in numerous words (unlike Serbs and Croats), due to elementary religious education based on the Koran, where this phoneme is the carrier of specific semantic value.
Ekavian, sometimes called eastern, is spoken primarily in Serbia, and in some very limited eastern parts of Croatia. Ikavian, sometimes called western, is spoken in western and central Bosnia, western Herzegovina, in Slavonia and the major part of Dalmatia in Croatia. Ijekavian, sometimes called southern, is spoken in many parts of Croatia including southern Dalmatia, most of Bosnia, Herzegovina, Montenegro. The following are some generic examples:
| English | Predecessor | Ekavian | Ikavian | Ijekavian |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| time | vrěme | vreme | vrime | vrijeme |
| beautiful | lěp | lep | lip | lijep |
| girl | děvojka | devojka | divojka | djevojka |
| true | věran | veran | viran | vjeran |
| to sit | sědĕti | sedeti (sèdeti) | siditi (sìdeti) | sjediti |
| to grow gray hairs | sědeti | sedeti (sédeti) | siditi (sídeti) | sijediti |
| to heat | grějati | grejati | grijati | grijati |
Long ije is diphthong
Diphthong
A diphthong , also known as a gliding vowel, refers to two adjacent vowel sounds occurring within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: That is, the tongue moves during the pronunciation of the vowel...
al among the majority of Ijekavian speakers; some Croatian authors recognize it as the 31st phoneme
Phoneme
In a language or dialect, a phoneme is the smallest segmental unit of sound employed to form meaningful contrasts between utterances....
of Croatian . In Zeta dialect and most of East Herzegovina dialect, it represents two syllable
Syllable
A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds. For example, the word water is composed of two syllables: wa and ter. A syllable is typically made up of a syllable nucleus with optional initial and final margins .Syllables are often considered the phonological "building...
s though. Serbian phonologists do not recognize it as separate phoneme (possibly as a heritage that East Herzegoviniana was the native dialect of Vuk Karadžić, the reformer of Serbian language). The distinction can be clearly heard in first verses of national anthems of Croatia
Lijepa naša domovino
"Lijepa naša domovino" is the national anthem of Croatia. It is often referred to as just "Lijepa naša" in Croatia, which is also a phrase widely used as a metonym for the country....
and Montenegro
Oj, svijetla majska zoro
"Oj, svijetla majska zoro" is the official state anthem of Montenegro. Before becoming the anthem, it was a popular folk song of the Montenegrins, with many variations of its text...
—they're sung as "Lije-pa na-ša do-mo-vi-no" and "Oj svi-je-tla maj-ska zo-ro" respectively.
Ethnic affiliation of native speakers of Štokavian dialect
During the 1st half of the 19th century, protagonists of nascent Slavic philology were, as far as South Slavic dialects were concerned, embroiled in frequently bitter polemic about "ethnic affiliation" of native speakers of various dialects. This, from contemporary point of view, rather bizarre obsession was motivated primarily by political and national interests that prompted philologists-turned-ideologues to express their views on the subject. The most prominent contenders in the squabble, with conflicting agenda, were the Czech philologist Josef DobrovskýJosef Dobrovský
Josef Dobrovský was a Bohemian philologist and historian, one of the most important figures of the Czech national revival.- Life & Work :...
, the Slovak Pavel Šafárik, the Slovenes Jernej Kopitar
Jernej Kopitar
Jernej Bartol Kopitar was a Slovene linguist and philologist working in Vienna. He also worked as the Imperial censor for Slovene literature in Vienna...
and Franc Miklošič
Franc Miklošic
Fran Miklošič , was a Slovene philologist.-Biography:Miklošič was born in the small village of Radomerščak near the Lower Styrian town of Ljutomer, then part of the Austrian Empire....
, the Serb Vuk Karadžić, the Croat of Slovak orgin Bogoslav Šulek
Bogoslav Šulek
Bogoslav Šulek, born Bohuslav Šulek , was a Croatian philologist, historian and lexicographer. He founded much of the Croatian terminology in the areas of social and natural sciences, technology and civilization. He is considered one of the most influential Croatian philologists of all time.-Early...
, and the Croatians Vatroslav Jagić
Vatroslav Jagic
Vatroslav Jagić was a Croatian language researcher and a famous expert in Slavic languages in the second half of the 19th century.-Life:...
and Ante Starčević
Ante Starcevic
Ante Starčević , was a Croatian politician and writer whose activities and works laid the foundations for the modern Croatian state.His works are base for Croatian nationalism, he is often referred to as Father of the Fatherland by Croats.-Life:...
.
The dispute was primarily concerned with who can, philologically, be labelled as "Slovene", "Croat" and "Serb" with the aim of expanding one's national territory and influence. Born in the climate of romanticism and national awakening, these polemical "battles" led to increased tensions between the aforementioned nations, especially because the Štokavian dialect cannot be split along ethnic lines in an unequivocal manner.
However, contemporary native speakers, after process of national crystallization and identification had been completed, can be roughly identified as predominant speakers of various Štokavian subdialects. Since standard languages propagated through media have strongly influenced and altered the situation in the 19th century, the following attribution must be treated with necessary caution.
The distribution of old-Štokavian speakers along ethnic lines in present times is as follows:
- Kosovo-Resava (Ekavian) dialect: vastly Serbian
- Zeta-South Sanjak dialect (Ijekavian): Montenegrin, Bosniak and Serbian.
- Slavonian dialect (fluctuating "yat": mainly Ikavian, also Ijekavian and Ekavian): vastly Croatian
- Eastern-Bosnian dialect (Ijekavian): vastly Bosniak and Croatian
Generally, the neo-Štokavian dialect is divided as follows with regard to the ethnicity of its native speakers:
- Šumadija-Vojvodina dialect (Ekavian): vastly Serbian
- Dalmatian-Bosnian dialect (Ikavian): vastly Croatian and Bosniak
- Eastern-Herzegovinian (Ijekavian): Serbian, Montenegrin, Croatian and Bosniak
| Group | Sub-Dialect | Serbian | Croatian | Bosnian | Montenegrin |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| old-Štokavian | Kosovo-Resava | x | |||
| Zeta-South Sanjak | x | x | x | ||
| Slavonian | x | ||||
| Eastern Bosnian | x | x | |||
| neo-Štokavian | Šumadija-Vojvodina | x | |||
| Dalmatian-Bosnian | x | x | |||
| Eastern Herzgovinian | x | x | x | x | |
Earliest texts of Štokavian dialect
Proto-Štokavian, or Church Slavic with ingredients of nascent Štokavian, were recorded in legal documents like the charter of Ban KulinBan Kulin
Ban Kulin was a notable Ban of Bosnia who ruled from 1180 to 1204 first as a vassal of the Byzantine Empire and then of the Kingdom of Hungary. He was brought to the power by Byzantine Emperor Manuel I Comnenus. He had a son, Stjepan Kulinić who succeeded him as Bosnian Ban...
, regulating the commerce between Bosnia and Dubrovnik in Croatia, dated 1189, and in liturgical texts like Gršković’s and Mihanović’s fragments, ca. 1150, in southern Bosnia or Herzegovina. Experts' opinions are divided with regard to the extent these texts, especially the Kulin ban parchment, contain contemporary Štokavian vernacular. Mainly Štokavian, with ingredients of Church Slavic, are numerous legal and commercial documents from pre-Ottoman Bosnia
Bosnia (region)
Bosnia is a eponomous region of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It lies mainly in the Dinaric Alps, ranging to the southern borders of the Pannonian plain, with the rivers Sava and Drina marking its northern and eastern borders. The other eponomous region, the southern, other half of the country is...
, Hum
Zahumlje
Zachlumia or Zahumlje was a medieval principality located in modern-day regions of Herzegovina and southern Dalmatia...
, Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
, Zeta
Principality of Zeta
Zeta was a medieval state, which territory encompassed parts of present-day Montenegro and Northernwestern Albania. From 1360. to 1421. Zeta was independent state administered by local noble family Balšić. From 1185. to 1360. and from 1421. - 1451, Zeta was province of medieval Serbia...
, and southern Dalmatia
Dalmatia
Dalmatia is a historical region on the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea. It stretches from the island of Rab in the northwest to the Bay of Kotor in the southeast. The hinterland, the Dalmatian Zagora, ranges from fifty kilometers in width in the north to just a few kilometers in the south....
, especially Dubrovnik
Dubrovnik
Dubrovnik is a Croatian city on the Adriatic Sea coast, positioned at the terminal end of the Isthmus of Dubrovnik. It is one of the most prominent tourist destinations on the Adriatic, a seaport and the centre of Dubrovnik-Neretva county. Its total population is 42,641...
. The first comprehensive vernacular Štokavian text is the Vatican Croatian Prayer Book
Vatican Croatian Prayer Book
Vatican Croatian Prayer Book is the oldest Croatian vernacular prayer book and the finest example of early štokavian vernacular literary idiom....
, written in Dubrovnik
Dubrovnik
Dubrovnik is a Croatian city on the Adriatic Sea coast, positioned at the terminal end of the Isthmus of Dubrovnik. It is one of the most prominent tourist destinations on the Adriatic, a seaport and the centre of Dubrovnik-Neretva county. Its total population is 42,641...
a decade or two before 1400. In the next two centuries Štokavian vernacular texts had been written mainly in Dubrovnik, other Adriatic cities and islands influenced by Dubrovnik, as well as in Bosnia, by Bosnian Franciscans and Bosniak Muslim vernacular alhamiado literature the first example being "Chirwat turkisi" or "Croatian song", dated 1589.
Standard languages
Standard languages BosnianBosnian language
Bosnian is a South Slavic language, spoken by Bosniaks. As a standardized form of the Shtokavian dialect, it is one of the three official languages of Bosnia and Herzegovina....
, Croatian
Croatian language
Croatian is the collective name for the standard language and dialects spoken by Croats, principally in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Serbian province of Vojvodina and other neighbouring countries...
, Montenegrin
Montenegrin language
Montenegrin is a name used for the Serbo-Croatian language as spoken by Montenegrins; it also refers to an incipient standardized form of the Shtokavian dialect of Serbo-Croatian used as the official language of Montenegro...
and Serbian
Serbian language
Serbian is a form of Serbo-Croatian, a South Slavic language, spoken by Serbs in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia and neighbouring countries....
are all based on Neo-Štokavian dialect.
However, it must be stressed that standard languages, irrespectively of their mutual differences, have been stylised in such manners that parts of the Neo-Štokavian dialect have been retained—for instance, declension—but other features were purposely omitted or altered—for instance, the phoneme "h" was reinstated in standard languages.
The Croatian language has had a long tradition of Štokavian vernacular literacy and literature. It took almost four and half centuries for Štokavian to prevail as the dialectal basis for Croatian standard. In other periods, Čakavian and Kajkavian dialects, as well as hybrid Čakavian–Kajkavian–Štokavian interdialect "contended" for the Croatian national koine but eventually lost, mainly due to historical and political reasons. By 1650s it was fairly obvious that Štokavian would become the dialectal basis for the Croatian standard, but this process was finally completed in 1850s, when Neo-Štokavian Ijekavian, based mainly on Ragusan (Dubrovnik), Dalmatian, Bosnian, and Slavonian literary heritage became the national standard language.
Serbian language was much faster in standardisation. Although vernacular literature
Vernacular literature
Vernacular literature is literature written in the vernacular—the speech of the "common people".In the European tradition, this effectively means literature not written in Latin...
was present in the 18th century, it was Vuk Karadžić who, between 1818 and 1851, made a radical break with the past and established Serbian Neo-Štokavian folklore idiom as the basis of standard Serbian (until then, educated Serbs had been using Serbian Slavic, Russian Slavic and hybrid Russian-Serbian language). Although he wrote in Serbian Ijekavian, the majority of Serbs have adopted Ekavian, which is dominant in Serbia. Serbs in Croatia and Bosnia, as well as Montenegrins, use the Ijekavian variant.
The Bosnian language is only currently beginning to take shape. The Bosniak idiom can be seen as a transition between Serbian Ijekavian and Croatian varieties, with some specific traits. After the collapse of Yugoslavia, Bosniaks affirmed their wish to stylise their own standard language, based on the Neo-Štokavian dialect, but reflecting their characteristics—from phonetics to semantics.
Also, the contemporary situation is unstable with regard to the accentuation, since phoneticians have observed that the 4-accents speech has, in all likelihood, shown to be increasingly unstable, which resulted in proposals that a 3-accents norm be prescribed. This is particularly true for Croatian
Croatian language
Croatian is the collective name for the standard language and dialects spoken by Croats, principally in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Serbian province of Vojvodina and other neighbouring countries...
, where, contrary to all expectations, the influence of Čakavian
Chakavian dialect
Chakavian or Čakavian is a dialect of the Croatian language. The name stems from the word for "what?", which is "ča" in Čakavian...
and Kajkavian dialect
Kajkavian dialect
The Kajkavian dialect is one of the three main dialects of Croatian. It has low mutual intelligibility with the other two dialects, Štokavian and Čakavian. All three are named after their word for "what?", which in Kajkavian is kaj....
s on the standard language has been waxing, not waning, in the past 50–70 years.
The Croatian, Serbian, and Bosnian standard languages, although all based on the East Herzegovinian subdialect of Neo-Štokavian and mutually intelligible, are recognizably different in their prescribed forms as standard or literary languages. Their structures are grammatically and phonologically almost identical, but have differences in vocabulary and semantics. See Differences between standard Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian.
Example:
(The first option (in brackets) in the middle of the sentence represents the difference between Ekavian and Ijekavian, whereas the second option in the middle represents the difference between Serbian and Croatian norms, respectively.)
Another example is:
- Cooking salt is a compound of sodium and chlorine.
Further reading
- Peco, A.Asim PecoDr. Asim Peco is a renowned Bosnian linguist, academician, professor, author and editor.Peco's work is credited for the development of Bosnian and Herzegovinian linguistics. His areas of specialization include dialectology of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia, namely the Štokavian and Torlakian...
(1967). "Uticaj turskog jezika na fonetiku štokavskih govora". Naš jezik, 16, 3.