Croatian language

The Croatian language is a language of the western group of South Slavic languages which is used primarily by the Croats. It is one of the standard versions of the Central-South Slavic diasystem.

Modern language and standardisation

Although the first purely vernacular texts in a Croatian distinctly different from Church Slavonic date back to the 13th century, it was in the 14th and 15th centuries that the modern Croatian language emerged (recorded in texts as Vatican Croatian prayer book from 1400.) in the form (morphology, phonology and syntax) that only slightly differs from contemporary Croatian standard language.

Related Topics:
Church Slavonic - 1400 - Morphology - Phonology - Syntax - Standard language

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The standardization of Croatian language can be traced back to the first Croatian dictionary (Faust Vran?i?: Dictionarium quinque nobilissimarum Europae linguarum—Latinae, Italicae, Germanicae, Dalmatiae et Ungaricae, Venice 1595) and first Croatian grammar (Bartul Ka?i?: Institutionum linguae illyricae libri duo, Rome 1604).

Related Topics:
Dictionary - Faust Vran?i? - 1595 - Grammar - Bartul Ka?i? - 1604

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Interestingly enough, the language of Jesuit Ka?i?'s translation of the Bible (Old and New Testament, 1622-1636; unpublished until 2000) in the Croatian ?tokavian-ijekavian dialect (the ornate style of the Dubrovnik Renaissance literature) is as close to the contemporary standard Croatian language (problems of orthography apart) as are French of Montaigne's "Essays" or King James Bible English to their respective successors—modern standard languages.

Related Topics:
Jesuit - Bible - 1622 - 1636 - Dubrovnik - Orthography - Montaigne - King James Bible

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This period, sometimes called "Baroque Slavism" was crucial in formation of literary idiom that was to become Croatian standard language—the 17th century witnessed flowering in three fields that shaped modern Croatian:

Related Topics:
Baroque - Standard language

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• One was the linguistic works of Jesuit philologists Ka?i? and Mikalja;
• the other energetic literary activity of Bosnian Franciscan Matija Divkovi?, whose Counter-Reformation writings (popular tales from the Bible, sermons and polemics) were widespread among Croats both in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia;
• and, last but not least, in aesthetically refined poetry of Ivan Gunduli? from Dubrovnik.

This "triple achievement" of Baroque Slavism in first half of the 17th century laid the firm foundation upon which later Illyrian movement completed the work of language standardisation.

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: See also: Croatian-language grammar books, Croatian dictionaries

Related Topics:
Croatian-language grammar books - Croatian dictionaries

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