Sociolinguistic classification

South Slavic languages

• Eastern
  • Bulgarian language
  • Macedonian language
• Western
  • Serbian standard language (based on Štokavian)
    • Ekavian standard
    • Ijekavian standard
  • Bosnian standard language (based on Štokavian-ijekavian)
  • Croatian standard language (based on Štokavian-ijekavian)
    • Chakavian dialect (non-standard)
    • Kajkavian dialect (non-standard)
    • Molise Croatian dialect
    • Burgenland Croatian
  • Montenegrin language (Based on Štokavian-Ijekavian)
  • Serbo-Croatian standard language (deprecated)
    • Eastern (Serbian) Ekavian standard
    • Eastern (Serbian) Ijekavian standard
    • Western (Croatian) Ijekavian standard
  • Slovenian language

Eastern group of South Slavic languages

Bulgarian dialects

Macedonian dialects

Transitional South Slavic languages

Torlakian dialect

There also exists another dialect, called torlački or torlak, which is spoken in southern and eastern Serbia, northern Republic of Macedonia and western Bulgaria, and often considered transitional between Central and Eastern group of South Slavic languages.

It is even thought to fit into the so-called Balkansprachbund, an area of linguistic convergence among languages due to long-term contact rather than being related.

Central or Eastern Western group of South Slavic languages

History

With the breakup of Yugoslavia, nationalism has also caused many, especially in Bosnia and Hercegovina, to modify their speech, or even attempt to change dialects entirely. The various wars have also caused mass migrations, and changed the ethnic makeup of some areas, especially in Bosnia, but also in Croatia and Serbia, especially in Vojvodina. In some areas it is unclear whether location or ethnicity is now the dominant factor in the dialect of the speaker.

Because of these forces, the speech patterns of some communities and regions are in a state of flux, and it is difficult to determine which dialects will die out entirely. Further research over the next few decades will be necessary to determine the changes made in the dialectical distribution of the language.

Rendering of yat

• 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 ie (written/pronounced as ije or je), depending on whether the vowel was long or short or what the dialect is: in Eastern Herzegovina, Northern Montenegro and Dubrovnik area long diphthong is pronounced as ije, but in Sarajevo or Zagreb, long diphthong is pronounced as je 'e' is long). All standard languages follow pronounce from Eastern Herzegovina, Northern Montenegro and Dubrovnik.

The following are some examples:

The first two examples involve long vowels. For instance, the first e in vreme and the i in vrime are long, so the long diphthong ije is found in the Ijekavian form. In the third and fourth examples, the corresponding ekavian and ikavian vowels are short, so the short diphthong je is found in the Ijekavian form.

However, there are some cases where that pattern of correspondence is altered. The fifth example, selo, is there as an example of a word in which the e did not derive from jat, and hence the word is the same in all three dialects. In other cases, especially when the jat follows an r, Ijekavian also formed out an e, as we see in the sixth example, or an i as in the seventh example.

The example sentence in the following sections means approximately "What is, is; it's how it always was, what will be, will be, and it'll be somehow!"

Štokavian dialects and languages

Štokavian dialects

The Štokavian dialect is spoken in Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Hercegovina, and the greater part of Croatia. The Bosnian, Serbian and Croatian standard languages are all based on the štokavian dialect.

The primary subdivisions of Štokavian are based on the different ways the jat vowel has been changed. There are other differences between the standard dialects, including vocabulary, some syntax, and orthography. See Differences in official languages in Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia.

Example:

• Serbian
  • Ekavian
    • Cyrillic: Што јест, јест; тако је увек било, што ће бити, биће, а некако већ ће бити!
    • Latin: Što jest, jest; tako je uvek bilo, što će biti, biće, a nekako već će biti!
  • Iyekavian
    • Latin: Što jest, jest; tako je uvijek bilo, što će biti, biće, a nekako već će biti!
    • Cyrillic: Што јест, јест; тако је увијек било, што ће бити, биће, а некако већ ће бити!
• Croatian (Iyekavian, Latin): Što jest, jest; tako je uvijek bilo, što će biti, bit će, a nekako već će biti!
• Bosnian (Iyekavian):
  • Latin: Što jest, jest; tako je uvijek bilo, što će biti, bit će, a nekako već će biti!
  • Cyrillic: Што јест, јест; тако је увијек било, што ће бити, бит ће, а некако већ ће бити!

Note that all variants were correct in Serbo-Croatian standard language.

Molise Croatian

The so-called Molise Slavic language is a dialect spoken in three villages of the Italian region of Molise by the descendants of South Slavs who migrated there from the eastern Adriatic coast in the 15th century. Because these people have migrated away from the rest of their kinsmen so long ago, their diaspora language is rather distinct from the standard language, and rather influenced by Italian.

In addition, they have not been influenced by romantic nationalism of the 19th century (unlike the people in Burgenland, who were separated but still within the same empire) so they have come to refer to their language merely as "Slavic". There has been some controversy as to whether they are Molise Croats or Molise Serbs. Currently they are generally considered to be Croatian rather than Serbian.

Dialects and official languages

• Serbian language is a system of two dialects: Štokavian and Torlakian.
• Croatian language is a system of three dialects: Čakavian, Štokavian and Kajkavian.
• Bosnian language is based solely on Štokavian dialect.
• Serbo-Croatian language was a system of four dialects: Kajkavian, Čakavian, Štokavian and Torlakian.

Čakavian dialects and languages

Čakavian dialects

Čakavian is spoken in the western and southern parts of Croatia, mainly in Istria and Dalmatia. The Čakavian renders jat as i as well as e, or even mixed Ekavian-Ikavian. Many dialects of Čakavian have a lot of loan words from Venetian and Italian.

Example: Ča je, je, tako je navik bilo, ča će bit, će bit, a nekako već će bit!

Burgenland Croatian

At most 100,000 people speak Burgenland Croatian and almost all are bilingual in German. Its future is uncertain, but there is some movement to preserve it. It has official status in six districts of Burgenland, and is used in some schools in Burgenland and neighboring western parts of Hungary.

Western group of South Slavic languages

Kajkavian dialects

Kajkavian is mostly spoken in northern Croatia, in and around Zagreb and near the Hungarian and Slovenian borders. It renders jat mostly as e, but note that this rendering cannot be equated to that of the ekavian štokavian dialects, as many kajkavian dialects distinguish a closed e (from jat) and an open e (from original e).

It also lacks several phonemes found in other dialects and has loanwords from the nearby Slovenian dialects as well as Russian.

Example: Kak je, tak je; tak je navek bilo, kak bu tak bu, a bu vre nekak kak bu!

Slovenian language

Main article: Slovenian language

See also

• Differences in official languages in Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia

External links

• Burgenland Croat Center (in English, German and Croatian)

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