Shtokavian dialect

Shtokavian or Štokavian () is the primary dialect of the Central South Slavic languages system, Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian language.

The Štokavian dialect is spoken in Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Hercegovina, and the greater part of Croatia. The Serbian, Croatian, and Bosnian standard languages are all based on the Neo-Štokavian dialect. Its name comes from the form for the interrogatory pronoun "what", which is "što" in the Štokavian dialect.

The primary subdivisions of Štokavian are based on 2 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 recognizes 7 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 had 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 Herzegovina and Slavonia in Croatia, and eastern, dominant in the easternmost Bosnia and Herzegovina and greater parts of Montenegro and Serbia. The western Štokavian was characterized by 3-accents speech, while eastern štokavian was marked by 2-accents. According to the research of historical linguistics, the old-štokavian was well established by the mid-1400s. In this period it had been still mixed with Church Slavonic in various degrees, as well as with Chakavian dialect in Croatia and many parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Štokavian subdialects

Štokavian dialect is divided into Old-Shtokavian and Neo-Shtokavian subdialects.

Old-Shtokavian

Timok-Prizren (Torlakian)

The oldest dialects stretch southeast from Timok near the Bulgarian border to Prizren. There is disagreement among linguists whether these dialects belong to Štokavian area, as there are many other morphological characteristics apart from rendering of "što" which would place them into a "transitional" group between Štokavian and Eastern South Slavic languages (Bulgarian and Macedonian). These dialects split from the rest of the group at the onset of the Turkish conquest in the fourteenth century. 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 (schwa) 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".

Slavonian

Also called the šokački or archaic šćakavian dialect, it is spoken by Šokci that live in some parts of Slavonia, Bačka, Baranja, Srem/Srijem, 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 influneces. 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.

East-Bosnian

Also called , it has jekavian prounanciation 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 Sarajevo, 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 Žepča 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.

Zeta

Also known as the Zeta-Novopazar dialect or the East-Montengrin dialect, as well as "Old jekavian". It is spoken in eastern Montenegro, in Podgorica and Cetinje, around the city of Novi Pazar in eastern Sandžak in Serbia, and in the village of Peroj in Istria. Togheter 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 Mirkovići in southern Montenegro. Mirkovići are also characterised by remainings of čr instead of cr as in the previously mentioned villages in Podravina. The Zeta sub-dialect is also charactericized by several "hyper-ijekavisms" (nijesam, sjutra where the rest of shtokavian area uses nisam, sutra) and "hyper-iotations" (đevojka for djevojka, đeca for djeca etc). Many local forms have unique vocal like in words sän and dän instead of san and dan. Other special phonetic features inlude sounds like in iʝesti instead of izjesti, as in śjekira instead of sjekira and ' like in pļesma insted of pjesma. Currently there is an attempt by Montenegrin nationalists to create separate Montenegrin language standard based on Zeta subdialect.

Kosovo-Resava

Also called older jekavian, is spoken mostly in western Kosovo and northeastern Serbia. Pronunciation is dominatly 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.

Neo-Shtokavian

Western ikavian

Also called Bosnian-Dalmatian, younger ikavian is spoken mostly by Croats that live in Lika, Kvarner, Dalmatia, Herzegovina and Bačka and by Bosniaks that live in western Bosnia mostly around city of Bihać. Exclusively ikavian, Bosnian and Herzegovinian forms use o in verb participle, while those in Dalmatia and Lika use -ija like in vidija. Local form of Bačka was proposed as base of new Bunjevac language proposed standard by some Bunjevci in Vojvodina.

Šumadija-Vojvodina

Also caled younger ekavian, is spoken across most of Vojvodina, north-west Serbia and in eastern Croatia around town of Vukovar. It is completely ekavian and on whole area in declination yat before o and j goes to i like in sobi and živio. Short e and o are pronounced openly, and from east to west non-accented vocals get shorter. In some parts of Vojvodina old declination is preserved. The dialect presents a base for Serbian ekavian standard.

East Herzegovinian

Also called East Herzegovina-Krajina and younger jekavian. It is the biggest Shtokavian and Serbo-Croatian dialect. It is spoken by most Bosnian Serbs, Croatian Serbs as well in western Serbia, western Montenegro and by Croats in Slavonia, Banija, Kordun and Dalmatia east of Neretva around city of Dubrovnik and is the base of standard Croatian language and Serbian jekavian standard. Southeastern form are charactiresed by total lack of h 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 g (bijak, bijaku imperfect of verb biti). Local forms in Žumberak enclave and around Dubrovnik have some special features, influenced from Chakavian and western subdialect.

The yat reflexes

The Proto-Slavic vowel jat 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), the diphthong 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 (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. 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 very limited area in eastern 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	sěditi	sedeti	siditi	sjediti
to grow gray hairs	sědeti	sedeti	siditi	sijediti
to heat	grějati	grejati	grijati	grijati

One must, however, be cautious with the Ijekavian version – the presented examples are actually from Croatian standard language, while Serbian and Montenegrin speakers of Ijekavian variant of standard Serbian tend to "ekavise" their speech in numerous occasions – in short, Croatian on one hand, and Serbian Ijekavian and Bosnian (predominantly) on the other, tend to differ also in the frequency of "ije/je" form, Croatian showing the tendency of "ijekavisation". Examples would, for instance, include word for "transport", which is "prijevoz" in Croatian, and "prevoz" in Bosnian and Serbian Ijekavian.

Long ije is diphthongal among the majority of Ijekavian speakers; some Croatian authors recognize it as 31st phoneme of Croatian . In Zeta dialect and most of East Herzegovina dialect, it represents two syllables 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.

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 Czech philologist Josef Dobrovsky, Slovak Pavel Šafarik, Slovene Jernej Kopitar and Franz Miklosich, Serb Vuk Karadžić and Croatian Bogoslav Šulek and Vatroslav Jagić.

Essentially, the dispute was about who can, philologically, be labelled as "Slovene", "Croat" and "Serb"-with the very mundane aim of expanding one's national territory and influence. Born in the climate of romanticism and national awakening, these polemical "battles" only succeeded in poisoning relations between the aforementioned nations, especially because the štokavian dialect cannot be split along ethnic lines. Like many other dialects (for instance, Plattdeutsch), it is "multiethnic" by its very nature.

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-Sanjak dialect (Ijekavian): Bosnian Muslim (Bosniak) and Serbian
Slavonian dialect (fluctuating "yat": mainly Ikavian, also Ijekavian and Ekavian): vastly Croatian
Eastern-Bosnian dialect(Ijekavian): vastly Bosnian Muslim (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 Bosnian Muslim (Bosniak)
Eastern-Herzegovinian (Ijekavian): Serbian (predominantly- well over 50%), Croatian and Bosnian Muslim (Bosniak)

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 Kulin, 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. But, their idiom being almost exclusively Church Slavic, these documents cannot be considered to represent proper štokavian texts. First vernacular štokavian text is the Vatican Croatian Prayer Book, written a decade or two before 1400 in Dubrovnik. In next two centuries štokavian vernacular texts had been written mainly in Dubrovnik, other Croatian cities and islands influenced by Dubrovnik, as well as in Bosnia, by Croatian Franciscans and Bosniak Muslim vernacular alhamiado literature — the first example being "Chirwat turkisi" or "Croatian song", dated 1589. First Serbian štokavian vernacular texts are from the 18th century, Gavrilo Venclović’s and Jovan Rajić’s poems.

Standard languages

Standard languages Croatian, Bosnian 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 re-instated in standard languages.

The Croatian language has had the longest tradition of štokavian vernacular literacy and literature, but due to the influence of the other Croatian dialects, čakavian and kajkavian, 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-an), Dalmatian, Bosnian and Slavonian literary heritage became national standard language.

Serbian language was much faster in standardisation. Although vernacular literature was present in the 18th century, it was Vuk Karadzic 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 Ijekavian variant of standard Serbian language.

Bosnian language is only currently beginning to take shape. Bosniaks have been using a sort of hybrid of Serbian Ijekavian and Croatian languages, with some specific traits. After the collapse of Yugoslavia, Bosniaks affirmed their wish to stylise their own standard language, based on neo-štokavian dialect, but reflecting their characteristics — from phonetics to semantics.

Also, contemporary situation is unstable with regard to the accentuation, since phoneticians have observed that 4-accents speech has, in all likelihood, shown to be increasingly unstable, which resulted in proposals that 3-accents norm be prescribed. This is particularly true for Croatian, where the influence of čakavian and kajkavian dialects on standard language is, contrary to all expectations, waxing, not waning in the past 50–70 years.

Croatian, Serbian and Bosnian standard languages, although all based on neo-štokavian dialect (or, more precisely, various subdialects) and mutually intelligible, are recognizably different in their prescribed forms as standard or literary languages. Their structures are almost identical in basic grammar, but different in all fields that define a language- from phonetics, phonology and morphology to syntax, semantics and pragmatics. For other traits, see Differences in official languages in Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia.

Example:
(The first option in the middle of the sentence is a difference between Ekavian and Ijekavian. The second option in the middle is difference between Serbian and Croatian norms, respectively.)

Another "classic" example is:

External links

لهجة شتوكافية | Štokavisch | 몬테네그로어 | Štokavsko narječje | Štokavščina

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