Chakavian dialect
Encyclopedia
Chakavian or Čakavian is a dialect of the Croatian language
. The name stems from the word for "what?", which is "ča" (or "ca") in Čakavian. Čakavian is nowadays spoken mainly in the northeastern Adriatic: in Istria
, Kvarner Gulf, in most Adriatic islands, and in the interior valley Gacka, more sporadically in the Dalmatia
n littoral
and central Croatia
.
Chakavian was the basis for the first literary standard of the Croats
. Today, it is spoken almost entirely within Croatia's borders, apart from the Burgenland Croats in Austria and in Hungary.
. All these and other early Čakavian texts up to 17th century are mostly written in Glagolitic alphabet
.
Initially, the Čakavian dialect covered a much wider area than today including about 2/3 of medieval Croatia
: the major part of central and southern Croatia southwards of Kupa and westwards of Una river, as well as western and southwestern Bosnia and Herzegovina
. During and after the Ottoman intrusion and subsequent warfare (15th-18th centuries), the Čakavian area has become greatly reduced and in the Croatian mainlands it has recently been almost entirely replaced by Štokavian, so it is now spoken in a much smaller coastal area than indicated above.
As expected, in over nine centuries Čakavian has undergone many phonetic, morphological and syntactical changes chiefly in turbulent mainlands, and less in isolated islands. Yet, contemporary dialectologists are particularly interested in it since it has retained the old accentuation system characterized by a Proto-Slavic new rising accent and the old position of stress, and also numerous Proto-Slavic and some Proto-Indo-European
archaisms in its vocabulary.
Obsolete literature commonly refers to Ikavian-Ekavian dialects as "mixed", which is a misleading term because yat reflex was governed in them by proven Meyer-Jakubinskij's law.
According to their prosodical (accentual) features, Čakavian dialects are divided into the following groups:
Using a combination of accentual and phonological criteria, Croatian dialectologist Dalibor Brozović
divided the Čakavian dialect system into six (sub)dialects:
There is no unanimous opinion on the set of traits a dialect has to possess to be classified as Čakavian (rather than its admixture with Štokavian or Kajkavian); the following traits were mostly proposed:
The largest area of tsakavism is in eastern Istra at Labin, Rabac and a dozen nearby villages; minor mainland enclaves are the towns Bakar and Trogir. Tsakavism is also frequent in Adriatic islands: part of Lošinj and nearby islets, Baška in Krk, Pag town, the western parts of Brač (Milna
), Hvar town, and subentire Vis with adjacent islets.
The first two features are similar to Mazurzenie
, occurring in a few dialects of Polish, and Tsokanye
, occurring in the Old Novgorod dialect
of Old East Slavic.
Monuments of literacy began to appear in the 11th and 12th centuries, and artistic literature in the 15th. While there were two zones of Čakavian, northern and southern (both mainly along the Adriatic coast and islands, with centres like Senj, Zadar, Split, Hvar, Korčula), there is enough unity in the idiom to allow us to speak of one Čakavian literary language with minor regional variants. This language by far surpassed the position of a simple vernacular dialect and strongly influenced other Croatian literary dialects, particularly Štokavian: the first Štokavian texts such as the Vatican Croatian Prayer Book
, dated to 1400, are transcriptions from a Čakavian original. The early Štokavian literary and philological output, mainly from Dubrovnik
(1500–1600) up to Džore Držić
, was essentially a mixed idiom Štokavian-Čakavian, mostly similar as now Yekavian-Čakavian of Lastovo and Janjina.
The most famous early Čakavian author is Marko Marulić
in 15th/16th century. Also, the first Croatian dictionary, authored by Faust Vrančić
, is mostly Čakavian in its form. The tradition of the Čakavian literary language had declined in the 18th century, but it has helped shape the standard Croatian language
in many ways (chiefly in morphology and phonetics), and Čakavian dialectal poetry is still a vital part of Croatian literature
.
The most prominent representatives of Čakavian poetry in the 20th century are Vladimir Nazor
and Drago Gervais
. At the end of the 1980s in Istria there began a special sub-genre of pop-rock music "Ča-val" (Cha wave); artists that were part of this scene used the Čakavian dialect in their lyrics, and often fused rock music with traditional Istra-Kvarner music.
The Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts
is currently engaged in editing a multivolume dictionary of the Čakavian literary language, based on the wealth of literature written in Čakavian. So far one published more than forty dictionaries of local Čakavian tongues, the largest among them including more than 20,000 words are from locations such as Split town, Gacka valley, Brač and Vis islands, Baška in Krk, and Beli in Cres.
Other recent titles include Janne Kalsbeek's work on The Cakavian Dialect of Orbanici near Zminj in Istria, as well as Keith Langston's Cakavian Prosody: The Accentual Patterns of the Cakavian Dialects of 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...
. The name stems from the word for "what?", which is "ča" (or "ca") in Čakavian. Čakavian is nowadays spoken mainly in the northeastern Adriatic: 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...
, Kvarner Gulf, in most Adriatic islands, and in the interior valley Gacka, more sporadically in the 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....
n littoral
Littoral
The littoral zone is that part of a sea, lake or river that is close to the shore. In coastal environments the littoral zone extends from the high water mark, which is rarely inundated, to shoreline areas that are permanently submerged. It always includes this intertidal zone and is often used to...
and central 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 ...
.
Chakavian was the basis for the first literary standard of the Croats
Croats
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...
. Today, it is spoken almost entirely within Croatia's borders, apart from the Burgenland Croats in Austria and in Hungary.
History
Čakavian is the oldest written Croatian dialect that had made a visible appearance in legal documents - as early as 1275 ("Istrian land survey") and 1288 ("Vinodol codex"), the predominantly vernacular Čakavian is recorded, mixed with elements of Church Slavic. Archaic Čakavian can be traced back to 1105 in the Baška tabletBaška tablet
Baška tablet is one of the first monuments containing an inscription in the Croatian language, dating from the year 1100.The tablet was discovered by scholars in 1851 in the paving of the Romanesque church of St. Lucy in Jurandvor, near Baška, on the island of Krk...
. All these and other early Čakavian texts up to 17th century are mostly written in Glagolitic alphabet
Glagolitic alphabet
The Glagolitic alphabet , also known as Glagolitsa, is the oldest known Slavic alphabet. The name was not coined until many centuries after its creation, and comes from the Old Slavic glagolъ "utterance" . The verb glagoliti means "to speak"...
.
Initially, the Čakavian dialect covered a much wider area than today including about 2/3 of medieval 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 ...
: the major part of central and southern Croatia southwards of Kupa and westwards of Una river, as well as western and southwestern 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...
. During and after the Ottoman intrusion and subsequent warfare (15th-18th centuries), the Čakavian area has become greatly reduced and in the Croatian mainlands it has recently been almost entirely replaced by Štokavian, so it is now spoken in a much smaller coastal area than indicated above.
As expected, in over nine centuries Čakavian has undergone many phonetic, morphological and syntactical changes chiefly in turbulent mainlands, and less in isolated islands. Yet, contemporary dialectologists are particularly interested in it since it has retained the old accentuation system characterized by a Proto-Slavic new rising accent and the old position of stress, and also numerous Proto-Slavic and some Proto-Indo-European
Proto-Indo-European language
The Proto-Indo-European language is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European languages, spoken by the Proto-Indo-Europeans...
archaisms in its vocabulary.
Area of use
Čakavian in its actual use is the rarest Croatian dialect being spoken only by 12% Croats. It is now mostly reduced in southwestern Croatia along the eastern Adriatic: Adriatic islands, and sporadically in the mainland coast, with rare inland enclaves up to central Croatia, and minor enclaves in Austria and Montenegro.- The majority of Adriatic islands are Čakavian, except the easternmost ones (MljetMljetMljet is the most southerly and easterly of the larger Adriatic islands of the Dalmatia region of Croatia. The National Park includes the western part of the island, Veliko jezero, Malo jezero, Soline Bay and a sea belt 500 m wide from the most prominent cape of Mljet covering an area of...
and Elafiti); and easternmost areas of Hvar and Brač, as well as the area around the city of KorčulaKorcula (town)Korčula is a historic fortified town on the protected east coast of the island of Korčula in the Adriatic. It is geographically located at 42°57′N, 17°07′E.-Population:...
on the island of KorčulaKorculaKorčula is an island in the Adriatic Sea, in the Dubrovnik-Neretva County of Croatia. The island has an area of ; long and on average wide — and lies just off the Dalmatian coast. Its 16,182 inhabitants make it the second most populous Adriatic island after Krk...
. - Its largest mainland area is the subentire IstriaIstriaIstria , 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...
peninsula, and Kvarner littoral and islands; minor coastal enclaves occur sporadically in the Dalmatian mainland around ZadarZadarZadar is a city in Croatia on the Adriatic Sea. It is the centre of Zadar county and the wider northern Dalmatian region. Population of the city is 75,082 citizens...
, Biograd, SplitSplit (city)Split is a Mediterranean city on the eastern shores of the Adriatic Sea, centered around the ancient Roman Palace of the Emperor Diocletian and its wide port bay. With a population of 178,192 citizens, and a metropolitan area numbering up to 467,899, Split is by far the largest Dalmatian city and...
, and in PelješacPelješacPelješac is a peninsula in southern Dalmatia in Croatia. The peninsula is part of the Dubrovnik-Neretva County and is the second largest peninsula in Croatia...
peninsula. - Within the Croatian inland, its major area is the Gacka valley, and minor enclaves occur in Pokupje valley and 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....
hills, northwards around KarlovacKarlovacKarlovac is a city and municipality in central Croatia. The city proper has a population of 49,082, while the municipality has a population of 59,395 inhabitants .Karlovac is the administrative centre of Karlovac County...
. - Čakavians outside of Croatia: minor enclave of Bigova (Trašte) at Boka Kotorska in Montenegro, refugees before Turks in BurgenlandBurgenlandBurgenland 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...
(eastern Austria) and SW Slovakia, and recent emigrants in North America (chiefly in New Orleans, Los AngelesLos ÁngelesLos Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, and VancouverVancouverVancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
).
Phonology
The basic phonology of Chakavian, with representation in Gaj's Latin alphabet and IPA, is as follows:| Labial Labial consonant Labial consonants are consonants in which one or both lips are the active articulator. This precludes linguolabials, in which the tip of the tongue reaches for the posterior side of the upper lip and which are considered coronals... |
Alveolar Alveolar consonant Alveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli of the superior teeth... |
Post- alveolar Postalveolar consonant Postalveolar consonants are consonants articulated with the tongue near or touching the back of the alveolar ridge, further back in the mouth than the alveolar consonants, which are at the ridge itself, but not as far back as the hard palate... |
Palatal Palatal consonant Palatal consonants are consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the hard palate... |
Velar Velar consonant Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum).... |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal Nasal consonant A nasal consonant is a type of consonant produced with a lowered velum in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. Examples of nasal consonants in English are and , in words such as nose and mouth.- Definition :... |
m m |
n n |
ɲ nj |
||
| Plosive | p b p b |
t d t d |
c ć |
k ɡ k g |
|
| Affricate Affricate consonant Affricates are consonants that begin as stops but release as a fricative rather than directly into the following vowel.- Samples :... |
ts c |
tʃ č |
|||
| Fricative Fricative consonant Fricatives are consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate, in the case of German , the final consonant of Bach; or... |
f f |
s z s z |
ʃ ʒ š ž |
x h |
|
| Approximant Approximant consonant Approximants are speech sounds that involve the articulators approaching each other but not narrowly enough or with enough articulatory precision to create turbulent airflow. Therefore, approximants fall between fricatives, which do produce a turbulent airstream, and vowels, which produce no... |
ʋ v |
l l |
j j |
||
| Trill Trill consonant In phonetics, a trill is a consonantal sound produced by vibrations between the articulator and the place of articulation. Standard Spanish <rr> as in perro is an alveolar trill, while in Parisian French it is almost always uvular.... |
r r |
Dialects
The Čakavian dialect is divided along several criteria. According to the reflex of the Common Slavic phoneme yat */ě/, it is categorized as:- Ekavian (northeastern Istria, Rijeka and Bakar, Cres island): */ě/ > /e/
- Ikavian-Ekavian (islands Lošinj, Krk, Rab, Pag, Dugi, mainland Vinodol and Pokupje): */ě/ > /i/ or /e/, according to Jakubinskij's lawJakubinskij's lawJakubinskij's law, or Meyer-Jakubinskij's law, is a sound law that operated in Croatian Čakavian dialect area in the 12th-13th century, named after Lav Jakubinski who discovered it in 1925, and sometimes also after K.H, Meyer who expanded and refined the rule in 1926.Law governs the distribution of...
- Ikavian (southwestern Istria, islands Brač, Hvar, Vis, Korčula, Pelješac, Dalmatian coast at Zadar and Split, inland Gacka): */ě/ > /i/
- Ijekavian (Lastovo island, Janjina in Pelješac): */ě/ > /je/ or /ije/
Obsolete literature commonly refers to Ikavian-Ekavian dialects as "mixed", which is a misleading term because yat reflex was governed in them by proven Meyer-Jakubinskij's law.
According to their prosodical (accentual) features, Čakavian dialects are divided into the following groups:
- dialects with "classical" Čakavian three-accent system
- dialects with two accents
- dialects with four accents similar to that of Štokavian speeches
- dialects with four-accent Štokavian system
- dialects mixing traits of the first and the second group
Using a combination of accentual and phonological criteria, Croatian dialectologist Dalibor Brozović
Dalibor Brozovic
Dalibor Brozović was a Croatian linguist, Slavist, dialectologist and politician. He studied the history of standard Slavic languages, especially Croatian. He was an active Esperantist since 1946, and wrote Esperanto poetry as well as translated works into the language. -Life and career:He was...
divided the Čakavian dialect system into six (sub)dialects:
| Name | Reflex of Common Slavic yat 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... |
Distribution |
|---|---|---|
| Buzet dialect Buzet dialect Buzet dialect is a Čakavian Croatian dialect spoken in the southern Istria, in the area around Buzet.Dialect is transitional to Slovenian and Kajkavian dialects. Some consider him a part of Kajkavian dialect area, and in the past it has been classified Buzet dialect is a Čakavian Croatian dialect... |
Ekavian (closed e) | Northern Istria |
| Southwest Istrian dialect | Ikavian | Western Istria |
| Northern Čakavian Northern Cakavian Northern Čakavian is one of the dialects of the Čakavian Croatian dialect system.It is spoken in the area northern of the Middle Čakavian area: eastern Istria, outskirts of Žminj and Pazin, Croatian Littoral up to Bakar, on the islands of Cres and northern Lošinj.Speech of the major Croatian city... |
Ekavian | Northeast Istria, Istra, Kastav, Rijeka, Cres |
| Middle Čakavian Middle Cakavian Middle Čakavian is one of the dialects of the Čakavian Croatian dialect system.It is spoken on the territory lying between the Northern Čakavian and Southern Čakavian dialect: it covers the islands of Dugi otok, Kornati, Lošinj, Krk, Rab, Pag, and on the land the cities of Vinodol, Ogulin, Brinje,... |
Ikavian-Ekavian | Dugi otok Dugi Otok Dugi otok is the seventh largest island in the Adriatic Sea, part of Croatia. It is located off the Dalmatian coast, west of Zadar. It is the largest and eastern-most of the Zadarian Islands, and derives its name from its distinctive shape... , Kornati Kornati The Kornati archipelago in Croatia is located in the northern part of Dalmatia, west from Šibenik, in the Šibenik-Knin county. With 35 km in length and 140 islands, some large, some small, in a sea area of about 320 km², Kornati are the densest archipelago in the Mediterranean Sea... , Lošinj Lošinj Lošinj is a Croatian island in the northern Adriatic Sea, in the Kvarner Gulf. It is almost due south of the city of Rijeka and part of the Primorje-Gorski Kotar county.... , Krk Krk Krk is a Croatian island in the northern Adriatic Sea, located near Rijeka in the Bay of Kvarner and part of the Primorje-Gorski Kotar county.... , Rab Rab Rab is an island in Croatia and a town of the same name located just off the northern Croatian coast in the Adriatic Sea.The island is long, has an area of and 9,480 inhabitants . The highest peak is Kamenjak at 408 meters... , Pag Pag (island) Pag is a Croatian island in the northern Adriatic Sea. It is the fifth-largest island of the Croatian coast, and the one with the longest coastline.... , Vinodol Vinodol Vinodol is a village and municipality in the Nitra District in western central Slovakia, in the Nitra Region.-Geography:The village lies at an altitude of 124 metres and covers an area of 14.982 km²... , Ogulin Ogulin Ogulin is a town in north-western Croatia, in Karlovac County. It has a population of 8,712 , and a total municipal population of 15,054... , Brinje Brinje Brinje is a municipality in Lika-Senj County, Croatia, located about 35 miles from Gospić. According to 2001 census, Brinje had 4,108 inhabitants, out of which 92% were Croats. The municipality is part of Lika.... , Otočac Otocac Otočac is a town in Lika, Croatia. It lies in the northwestern part of Lika, in the Gacka river valley. The population of the town is 4,354 as of 2001, with a total of 10,411 people within the municipality at large, the majority of whom are Croats .... , Duga Resa Duga Resa Duga Resa is a town in Karlovac County, Croatia. It is located east of Rijeka.-Name:The earliest reference to Duga Resa is from the year 1380... |
| Southern Čakavian Southern Cakavian Southern Čakavian or Ikavian Čakavian is one of the dialects of the Čakavian Croatian dialect system.It is spoken in the area southern of the Middle Čakavian area, in a narrow strip of Croatian Littoral and the neighbouring islands: outskirts of Split and Zadar; Korčula, Pelješac, Brač, Hvar, Vis... |
Ikavian | Korčula Korcula Korčula is an island in the Adriatic Sea, in the Dubrovnik-Neretva County of Croatia. The island has an area of ; long and on average wide — and lies just off the Dalmatian coast. Its 16,182 inhabitants make it the second most populous Adriatic island after Krk... , Pelješac Pelješac Pelješac is a peninsula in southern Dalmatia in Croatia. The peninsula is part of the Dubrovnik-Neretva County and is the second largest peninsula in Croatia... , Brač Brac Brač is an island in the Adriatic Sea within Croatia, with an area of 396 km², making it the largest island in Dalmatia, and the third largest in the Adriatic. Its tallest peak, Vidova Gora, or Mount St. Vid, stands at 778 m, making it the highest island point in the Adriatic... , Hvar Hvar - Climate :The climate of Hvar is characterized by mild winters and warm summers. The yearly average air temperature is , 686 mm of precipitation fall on the town of Hvar on average every year and the town has a total of 2800 sunshine hours per year. For comparison Hvar has an average of 7.7... , Vis Vis (town) Vis is a town on the Vis island of the same name in Croatia. It has a population of 1960 residents . It is the center of the Vis municipality and part of Split-Dalmatia County.-History:... , Šolta Šolta Šolta is an island in Croatia. It is situated in the Adriatic Sea in the central Dalmatian archipelago, west of the island of Brač, south of Split and east of the Drvenik islands . Its area is 58.98 km2 and it has a population of 1,675 .The highest peak of Šolta is the summit Vela Straža... , outskirts of Split Split (city) Split is a Mediterranean city on the eastern shores of the Adriatic Sea, centered around the ancient Roman Palace of the Emperor Diocletian and its wide port bay. With a population of 178,192 citizens, and a metropolitan area numbering up to 467,899, Split is by far the largest Dalmatian city and... and Zadar Zadar Zadar is a city in Croatia on the Adriatic Sea. It is the centre of Zadar county and the wider northern Dalmatian region. Population of the city is 75,082 citizens... |
| Southeastern Čakavian | jekavski | Lastovo Lastovo Lastovo is an island municipality in the Dubrovnik-Neretva County in Croatia. The municipality consists of 46 islands with a total population of 792 people, of which 93% are ethnic Croats, and a land area of approximately . The biggest island in the municipality is also named Lastovo, as is the... , Janjina on Pelješac, Bigova on the south of Montenegro |
There is no unanimous opinion on the set of traits a dialect has to possess to be classified as Čakavian (rather than its admixture with Štokavian or Kajkavian); the following traits were mostly proposed:
- interrogatory pronoun is "ča" or "zač" (in some islands also "ca" or "zace");
- old accentuation and 3 accents (mostly in ultima or penultima);
- phonological features that yield /a/ for Old Slavic phonemes in characteristic positions: "language" is jazik (or zajik) in Čakavian and jezik in Štokavian;
- "j" replacing the Štokavian "đ" (dj): for "between", Čakavian meju, Štokavian među;
- "m" shifts to "n" at the end of words: standard Croatian volim ("I love"), sam ("I am"), selom ("village" - Instrumental case) become Čakavian volin, san, selon.
- in conditional occur specific prefixes: bin-, biš-, bimo-, bite-, bis
- contracted or lacking aorist tense;
- some subdialects on island of Pag have kept the archaic form of imperfect
Non-palatal tsakavism
Besides the usual Čakavian (with typical pronoun "ča"), in some Adriatic islands and in eastern Istra another special variant is also spoken which lacks most palatals, with other parallel deviations called "tsakavism" (cakavizam):- Instead of palatal "č" is the sibilant "ts" (c): pronouns ca and zac (or ce and zace).
- Instead of palatals š (sh) and ž (zh) are sibilants s and z (or transitive sj and zj).
- Instead of đ (dj), lj and nj are the simple d, l and n (without iotationIotationIotation is a linguistic phenomenon very characteristic of the Slavic languages. It should not be confused with palatalization, which is an entirely different process....
). - Frequent diphthongs instead of simple vowels: o > uo, a > oa, e > i.e., etc.
- Yat (jat): besides usual short i (or e) also is presented longer y (= ue).
- Appurtenance is often noted by possessive dative (rarely adjective nor genitive)
- Vocative is mostly lacking and replaced by a nominative in appellating construction.
- Auxiliary particles are always before the main verb: se- (self), bi- (if), će- (be).
The largest area of tsakavism is in eastern Istra at Labin, Rabac and a dozen nearby villages; minor mainland enclaves are the towns Bakar and Trogir. Tsakavism is also frequent in Adriatic islands: part of Lošinj and nearby islets, Baška in Krk, Pag town, the western parts of Brač (Milna
Milna
Milna is a village and municipality on the western side of the island of Brač, Split-Dalmatia county, Croatia.It is situated in a deep bay oriented towards the island of Mrduja and Split Channel, on the west.The village was settled in the 16th century, by sheppards from Nerežišća.- Villages in the...
), Hvar town, and subentire Vis with adjacent islets.
The first two features are similar to Mazurzenie
Mazurzenie
Mazurzenie or mazuration is the replacement or merger of Polish's series of retroflex fricatives and affricates into the alveolar series...
, occurring in a few dialects of Polish, and Tsokanye
Ts-ch merger
In phonology, the ts-ch merger is the merger of the voiceless alveolar affricate and the voiceless postalveolar affricate.In Russian language it is the merger of the consonants rendered by letters Che and Tse...
, occurring in the Old Novgorod dialect
Old Novgorod dialect
Old Novgorod dialect is a term introduced by Andrey Zaliznyak to describe the astonishingly diverse linguistic features of the Old East Slavic birch bark writings from the 11th to 15th centuries excavated in Novgorod and its surroundings...
of Old East Slavic.
Čakavian literary language
Since Čakavian was the first Croatian dialect to emerge from the Church Slavic matrix, both literacy and literature in this dialect abound with numerous texts - from legal and liturgical to literary: lyric and epic poetry, drama, novel in verses, as well as philological works that contain Čakavian word-stock. Čakavian was the main public and official language in medieval Croatia from 13th to 16th century.Monuments of literacy began to appear in the 11th and 12th centuries, and artistic literature in the 15th. While there were two zones of Čakavian, northern and southern (both mainly along the Adriatic coast and islands, with centres like Senj, Zadar, Split, Hvar, Korčula), there is enough unity in the idiom to allow us to speak of one Čakavian literary language with minor regional variants. This language by far surpassed the position of a simple vernacular dialect and strongly influenced other Croatian literary dialects, particularly Štokavian: the first Štokavian texts such as 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....
, dated to 1400, are transcriptions from a Čakavian original. The early Štokavian literary and philological output, mainly from 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...
(1500–1600) up to Džore Držić
Džore Držic
Džore Držić was a Croatian poet and playwright, one of the fathers of Croatian literature.This respectable citizen of Dubrovnik, the uncle of the greatest Croatian playwright Marin Držić, the rector of the Church of All Saints, the chancellor of the Dubrovnik chapter, a contemporary of the poet...
, was essentially a mixed idiom Štokavian-Čakavian, mostly similar as now Yekavian-Čakavian of Lastovo and Janjina.
The most famous early Čakavian author is Marko Marulić
Marko Marulic
Marko Marulić |Split]], 18 August 1450 – Split, 5 January 1524) was a Croatian national poet and Christian humanist, known as the Crown of the Croatian Medieval Age and the father of the Croatian Renaissance. He signed his works as Marko Marulić Splićanin , Marko Pečenić, Marcus Marulus ...
in 15th/16th century. Also, the first Croatian dictionary, authored by Faust Vrančić
Faust Vrancic
Fausto Veranzio or Faust Vrančić was a polymath and bishop from the Venetian Republic.-Family history:...
, is mostly Čakavian in its form. The tradition of the Čakavian literary language had declined in the 18th century, but it has helped shape the standard Croatian language
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...
in many ways (chiefly in morphology and phonetics), and Čakavian dialectal poetry is still a vital part of Croatian literature
Croatian literature
Croatian literature is a definition given to the compilation of novels, dramas, short stories, poems and other various work of written kind entirely attributed to the medieval and modern culture of the Croats and the Croatian language....
.
The most prominent representatives of Čakavian poetry in the 20th century are Vladimir Nazor
Vladimir Nazor
Vladimir Nazor was the first head of state of modern Croatia. A member of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia , he led the Croatian World War II wartime assembly, the ZAVNOH, and later served as the President of the Presidium of the People's Assembly of PR Croatia - the head of state of the People's...
and Drago Gervais
Drago Gervais
Drago Gervais was a Croatian Istrian poet and playwright, one of the most prominent authors of Istrian poetry in Chakavian dialect.Drago Gervais was born in 1904 in Opatija...
. At the end of the 1980s in Istria there began a special sub-genre of pop-rock music "Ča-val" (Cha wave); artists that were part of this scene used the Čakavian dialect in their lyrics, and often fused rock music with traditional Istra-Kvarner music.
Recent studies
Due to its archaic nature, early medieval development, and impressive corpus of vernacular literacy, the typical Čakavian dialect has attracted numerous dialectologists who have meticulously documented its nuances, so that Čakavian was among the best described Slavic dialects, but its atypical tsakavism was partly neglected and less studied. The representative modern work in the field is Čakavisch-deutsches Lexikon, vol. 1.-3, Koeln-Vienna, 1979–1983, by Croatian linguists Hraste and Šimunović and German Olesch.The Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts
Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts
The Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts is the national academy of Croatia. It was founded in 1866 as the Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts , and was known by that name for most of its existence.- History :...
is currently engaged in editing a multivolume dictionary of the Čakavian literary language, based on the wealth of literature written in Čakavian. So far one published more than forty dictionaries of local Čakavian tongues, the largest among them including more than 20,000 words are from locations such as Split town, Gacka valley, Brač and Vis islands, Baška in Krk, and Beli in Cres.
Other recent titles include Janne Kalsbeek's work on The Cakavian Dialect of Orbanici near Zminj in Istria, as well as Keith Langston's Cakavian Prosody: The Accentual Patterns of the Cakavian Dialects of Croatian.
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Čakavian media
In Yugoslavia during the twentieth century, the archaic Čakavian was mostly restricted in private communication, poetry and folklore. Through the recent regional democratizing and cultural revival starting in the 1990s, Čakavians partly regained their former half-public positions chiefly in the Istra peninsula and coastal towns, being now presented there in some modern public media, for example:- A special project Čakavian Wiki-encyclopaedia or WikiCha on the Internet, started in autumn 2007: chak.volgota.com. As of autumn 2009, it included 506 articles.
- Another similar site from autumn 2009 is Chakavian Zohowiki, a minor Čakavian Wiki-lexicon about Čakavian culture and ecumena in Adriatic.
- Biannual periodical "Čakavska rič" (Čakavian word), with 34 annual volumes, published from 1967 by the Literal Association ('Književni krug') in Split city.
- Annual periodical Pannonische Jahrbuch with dozen volumes partly in Čakavian of Burgenland Croats, published since 1994 by Pannonisches Institut in Gutterbach (Burgenland, Austria).
- Annual periodical 'Vinodolski zbornik' with a dozen volumes published in Crikvenica, including different texts in the local Čakavian of Vinodol valley.
- Annual singing festival 'Melodije Istre i Kvarnera' takes place every year in different town of Istria and Kvarner regions. Performers perform in local chakavian dialect exclusivly.
- A major perpetual program in the Čakavian of Dalmatia is given by the local television stations in Split, Rijeka and Pula. Other minor half-Čakavian media with temporary Čakavian contents also include the local radio programs in the towns of SplitSplit (city)Split is a Mediterranean city on the eastern shores of the Adriatic Sea, centered around the ancient Roman Palace of the Emperor Diocletian and its wide port bay. With a population of 178,192 citizens, and a metropolitan area numbering up to 467,899, Split is by far the largest Dalmatian city and...
and RijekaRijekaRijeka is the principal seaport and the third largest city in Croatia . It is located on Kvarner Bay, an inlet of the Adriatic Sea and has a population of 128,735 inhabitants...
and KrkKrkKrk is a Croatian island in the northern Adriatic Sea, located near Rijeka in the Bay of Kvarner and part of the Primorje-Gorski Kotar county....
island radio.
Examples
- Ča je, je, tako je vavik bilo, ča će bit, će bit, ma nekako će već bit! (mainland half-Čakavian)