Chakavian dialect

Chakavian dialect
Chakavian
akavica
Native to

Croatia

Native speakers

ca. 660,000 (2001)[citation needed]

Language family Indo-European

Balto-Slavic

Slavic

South Slavic

Western

Serbo-Croatian

Standard forms

Burgenland Croatian

Dialects

Slavomolisano

Chakavian

Language codes
ISO 639-3

svm (Slavomolisano)

Linguist List

hrv-cha

[1]

Distribution of Chakavian

South Slavic languages and dialects

Chakavian or akavian /tkvin/ (Serbo-Croatian: akavski, proper name: akavica or akavtina, own name:
okovski, akavski, ekavski; Italian: ciacavo) is a dialect of the Serbo-Croatian language spoken by a minority of
Croats. It has low mutual intelligibility with the other two dialects, Shtokavian and Kajkavian. All three are named
after their word for "what?", which in akavian is a or ca. Chakavian is spoken mainly in the northeastern Adriatic:
in Istria, Kvarner Gulf, in most Adriatic islands, and in the interior valley of Gacka, more sporadically in the
Dalmatian 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 Hungary, and Slavomolisano in Italy.

Chakavian dialect

History
Chakavian is the oldest written Serbo-Croatian dialect that had made a visible appearance in legal documents - as
early as 1275 ("Istrian land survey")[2] and 1288 ("Vinodol codex"), the predominantly vernacular Chakavian is
recorded, mixed with elements of Church Slavic. Archaic Chakavian can be traced back to 1105 in the Baka tablet.
All these and other early Chakavian texts up to 17th century are mostly written in Glagolitic alphabet.
Initially, the Chakavian dialect covered a much wider area than today including about two thirds 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
(15th18th centuries), the Chakavian area has become greatly reduced and in the Croatian mainland it has recently
been almost entirely replaced by Shtokavian, so it is now spoken in a much smaller coastal area than indicated
above.
As expected, in over nine centuries Chakavian has undergone many phonetic, morphological and syntactical changes
chiefly in the turbulent mainlands, but 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.

Area of use
Chakavian in its actual use is the least spoken Serbo-Croatian dialect, being spoken only by 12% Croats.[citation
needed]
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 Chakavian, except the easternmost ones (Mljet and Elafiti); and easternmost
areas of Hvar and Bra, as well as the area around the city of Korula on the island of Korula.
Its largest mainland area is the subentire Istria peninsula, and Kvarner littoral and islands; minor coastal enclaves
occur sporadically in the Dalmatian mainland around Zadar, Biograd, Split, and in Peljeac peninsula.
Within the Croatian inland, its major area is the Gacka valley, and minor enclaves occur in Pokupje valley and
umberak hills, northwards around Karlovac.
Chakavians outside of Croatia: minor enclave of Bigova (Trate) at Boka Kotorska in Montenegro, the mixed
iarija dialect in Slovenia, refugees from the Turks in Burgenland (eastern Austria) and SW Slovakia, and recent
emigrants in North America (chiefly in New Orleans, Los Angeles, and Vancouver).

Phonology
The basic phonology of Chakavian, with representation in Gaj's Latin alphabet and IPA, is as follows:

Chakavian dialect

Labial Alveolar

Post- Palatal Velar

alveolar

Nasal

m
m

n
n

nj

Plosive

pb
pb

td
td

Affricate

ts
c

Fricative

f
f

sz
sz

Approximant

l
l

j
j

Trill

k
kg

x
h

r
r

Dialects
The Chakavian dialect is divided along several criteria. According to the reflex of the Common Slavic phoneme yat
*//, there are four accents:
1. Ekavian accent (northeastern Istria, Rijeka and Bakar, Cres island): *// > /e/
2. IkavianEkavian accent (islands Loinj, Krk, Rab, Pag, Dugi, mainland Vinodol and Pokupje): *// > /i/ or /e/,
according to Jakubinskij's law
3. Ikavian accent (southwestern Istria, islands Bra, Hvar, Vis, Korula, Peljeac, Dalmatian coast at Zadar and
Split, inland Gacka): *// > /i/
4. Ijekavian accent (Lastovo island, Janjina in Peljeac): *// > /je/ or /ije/
Obsolete literature commonly refers to IkavianEkavian dialects as "mixed", which is a misleading term because the
yat reflexes were governed by Meyer-Jakubinskij's law.
According to their tonal (accentual) features, Chakavian dialects are divided into the following groups:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

dialects with the "classical" Chakavian three-tone system

dialects with two tonic accents
dialects with four tonic accents similar to that of Shtokavian dialects
dialects with four-tonic Shtokavian system
dialects mixing traits of the first and the second group

Using a combination of accentual and phonological criteria, Croatian dialectologist Dalibor Brozovi divided
Chakavian into six (sub)dialects:

Chakavian dialect

Name

Reflex of Common Slavic yat

Distribution

Buzet dialect

Ekavian (closed e)

Northern Istria

Southwestern Istrian

Ikavian

Western Istria

Northern Chakavian

Ekavian

Northeast Istria, Istra, Kastav, Rijeka, Cres

Middle Chakavian

IkavianEkavian

Dugi otok, Kornati, Loinj, Krk, Rab, Pag, Vinodol, Ogulin, Brinje, Otoac, Duga Resa

Southern Chakavian

Ikavian

Korula, Peljeac, Bra, Hvar, Vis, olta, outskirts of Split and Zadar

Southeastern Chakavian Ijekavian

Lastovo, Janjina on Peljeac, 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 Chakavian
(rather than its admixture with Shtokavian or
Kajkavian); the following traits were mostly proposed:
interrogatory pronoun is "a" or "za" (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 Chakavian and jezik in
Shtokavian;
"j" replacing the Shtokavian "" (dj): for "between",
Chakavian meju, Shtokavian meu;
"m" shifts to "n" at the end of words: standard
Croatian volim ("I love"), sam ("I am"), selom
("village" - Instrumental case) become Chakavian
volin, san, selon.
in conditional occur specific prefixes: bin-, bi-,
bimo-, bite-, bis
contracted or lacking aorist tense;
some subdialects on island of Pag have kept the
archaic form of imperfect

Chakavian dialect in Istria, by D. Brozovi

sjevernoakavskibuzetski ili
gornjomiranskisrednjeakavskijunoakavskijugozapadni istarski

Non-palatal tsakavism
Besides the usual Chakavian (with typical pronoun "a"), 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):

palatal "" is replaced by the sibilant "ts" (c): pronouns ca and zac (or ce and zace).
palatals (sh) and (zh) are replaced by sibilants s and z (or transitive sj and zj).
(dj), lj and nj are replaced by the simple d, l and n (without iotation).
Frequent diphthongs instead of simple vowels: o > uo, a > oa, e > ie, etc.
Yat (jat): longer y (= ue) exists in addition to the usual short i (or e).
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), e- (be).

Chakavian dialect
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 Loinj and nearby
islets, Baka in Krk, Pag town, the western parts of Bra (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.

Chakavian literary language

Since Chakavian was the first Serbo-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 Chakavian vocabulary. Chakavian 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 akavian, northern and southern (both mainly along the Adriatic coast and islands, with centres
like Senj, Zadar, Split, Hvar, Korula), there is enough unity in the idiom to allow us to speak of one Chakavian
literary language with minor regional variants. This language by far surpassed the position of a simple vernacular
dialect and strongly influenced other Serbo-Croatian literary dialects, particularly Shtokavian: the first Shtokavian
texts such as the Vatican Croatian Prayer Book, dated to 1400, are transcriptions from a Chakavian original. The
early Shtokavian literary and philological output, mainly from Dubrovnik (15001600) up to Dore Dri, was
essentially a mixed ShtokavianChakavian idiom, mostly similar to the Jekavian Chakavian of Lastovo and Janjina.
Chakavian literature uses many words of Latin, Dalmatian, and Italian origin due to the numerous contacts with
these languages.
The most famous early Chakavian author is Marko Maruli in 15th/16th century. Also, the first Croatian dictionary,
authored by Faust Vrani, is mostly Chakavian in its form. The tradition of the Chakavian 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 Chakavian dialectal poetry is still a vital part of Croatian literature.
The most prominent representatives of Chakavian poetry in the 20th century are Vladimir Nazor and Drago Gervais.
At the end of the 1980s in Istria there began a special subgenre of pop-rock music "a-val" (Cha wave); artists that
were part of this scene used the Chakavian 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
Chakavian dialect has attracted numerous dialectologists who have meticulously documented its nuances, so that
Chakavian 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 akavisch-deutsches Lexikon, vol. 1.-3, Koeln-Vienna,
19791983, by Croatian linguists Hraste and imunovi and German Olesch.
The Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts is currently engaged in editing a multivolume dictionary of the
Chakavian literary language, based on the wealth of literature written in Chakavian. So far one published more than
forty dictionaries of local Chakavian varieties, the largest among them including more than 20,000 words are from
locations such as Split town, Gacka valley, Bra and Vis islands, Baka 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.

Chakavian dialect

Location map of dialects in Croatia and areas in BiH with Croat majority.
Chakavian in blue.

Distribution of Chakavian, Kajkavian, and Western Shtokavian

before migrations. Chakavian in blue.

Chakavian media
In Yugoslavia during the twentieth century, the archaic Chakavian was mostly restricted in private communication,
poetry and folklore. Through the recent regional democratizing and cultural revival starting in the 1990s, Chakavians
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 akavian 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 [3], a minor akavian Wiki-lexicon about
akavian culture and ecumena in Adriatic.
Biannual periodical "akavska ri" (Chakavian word), with 34 annual volumes, published from 1967 by the
Literal Association ('Knjievni krug') in Split city.
Annual periodical Pannonische Jahrbuch with dozen volumes partly in Chakavian 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 Chakavian 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 exclusively.
A major perpetual program in the Chakavian of Dalmatia is given by the local television stations in Split, Rijeka
and Pula. Other minor half-Chakavian media with temporary Chakavian contents also include the local radio
programs in the towns of Split and Rijeka and Krk island radio.

Chakavian dialect

Examples
a je, je, tako je vavik bilo, a e bit, e bit, ma nekako e ve bit! (mainland half-Chakavian)
Ca je, je, tako je vajka bilo, ca e bit, e bit, ma nekokor e ve bit! (vicinity of Labin in eastern Istria)

Notes
[1] http:/ / multitree. linguistlist. org/ codes/ hrv-cha
[2] http:/ / www. istrianet. org/ istria/ history/ 1000-1799AD/ istarski_razvod/ intro3-institute. htm
[3] http:/ / chakavia. wiki. zoho. com

References

J. Boani: akavska ri, vol. 1.- 32., Knjievni krug Split.

J. Hamm, M. Hraste, P. Guberina: Govor otoka Suska. Hrvatski dijalektoloki zbornik 1, Zagreb 1956.
M. Hraste, P. imunovi, R. Olesch: akavisch-deutsches Lexikon, Band I-III, Kln-Wien, 1979 - 1983.
J. Kalsbeek: The Cakavian Dialect of Orbanici near Zminj in Istria (http://books.google.com/
books?id=5ExIm5OHoO4C&pg=PR1&dq=cakavian+orbanici). Studies in Slavic and General Linguistics.
Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1998. 608 pp

M. Kranjevi: Rinik gacke akavine. akavski sabor, Otoac 2003.

K. Langston: Cakavian Prosody: The Accentual Patterns of the Cakavian Dialects of Croatian (http://books.
google.com/books?id=BjeAAAAAIAAJ&q=cakavian+Langston&pgis=1). Bloomington: Slavica 2006. 314pp
I. Lukei: Trsatsko-bakarska i crikvenika akavtina (http://library.foi.hr/m3/jdetaljia.asp?sqlx=12737&
ser=&sqlid=88&U=800). Izdavaki centar Rijeka, Rijeka 1996.
B. Matokovi-Dobrila: Rinik velovarokega Splita, Denona, Zagreb 2004.
A. Roki-Fortunato: Libar Vikiga jazika. Libar Publishing, Toronto 1997.
P. imunovi: Rjenik brakih akavskih govora, Brevijar, Supetar 2006.
Z. Turina, A. epi-Tomin: Rjenik akavskih izraza - podruje Bakarca i krljeva, Rijeko knjievno i nauno
drutvo, Rijeka 1977.
N. Veli: Besedar Bejske Tramuntane. akavski sabor i Adami d.o.o, Cres-Loinj 2003.

External links
Dictionary of Istrian dialects (http://www.istarski-rjecnik.com/)
Early Adriatic Gan-Veyn (in English) (http://www.wikinfo.org/index.php/Early_Adriatic_Gan-Veyn)
Veglian Legends (in English) (http://www.wikinfo.org/index.php/Veglian_Legends)

Article Sources and Contributors

Article Sources and Contributors

Chakavian dialect Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=565795206 Contributors: Adenovo, Aeusoes1, Angr, Antmusic, Anrion, Argo Navis, Avicennasis, Bertrand Bellet,
Boraczek, Brutaldeluxe, Ceha, Celtmist, ChrisGualtieri, DIREKTOR, DanCBJMS, Dbachmann, Deflective, Dijxtra, Doncsecz, Doremo, Duja, Elephantus, Eugene-elgato, Evlekis, FelixReimann,
Filelakeshoe, GD 6041, GregorB, Hadija, Hergilfs, Ivan tambuk, IvanOS, Ivana1, Jenniferz, JohnCD, JorisvS, Joy, Kubura, Kwamikagami, LegacyOfValor, Lfdder, Litany, LittleWink,
London321, Luka Jaov, Lukaivezic, Luzzifer, MacedonianBoy, Man vyi, Maniwar, Marko Leljak, Mir Harven, PRODUCER, Paul Clapham, PhnomPencil, Phyzome, Pigman, R9tgokunks,
Recontextual, Sassisch, Scrosby85, SofieElisBexter, Sokac121, Steinbach, Sulejman, Taivo, Tropylium, VKokielov, Varlaam, Vstarsky, Weseo, Wrdstck, Zocky, Zoupan,
, 61 anonymous edits

Image Sources, Licenses and Contributors

File:Croatia Dialects Cakavian.svg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Croatia_Dialects_Cakavian.svg License: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike Contributors:
dnik
File:Map Istrian Dialects Cakavian Brozovic.svg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Map_Istrian_Dialects_Cakavian_Brozovic.svg License: Public Domain Contributors:
Dnik
Image:Croatian dialects in Cro and BiH 1.PNG Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Croatian_dialects_in_Cro_and_BiH_1.PNG License: GNU Free Documentation
License Contributors: Ceha
File:Serbo croatian dialects historical distribution.png Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Serbo_croatian_dialects_historical_distribution.png License: Public Domain
Contributors: PANONIAN

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