Preserving Croatian dialects

[totalcroatia]

Is there a place online that has recordings of Croatian dialects? Have just received a very interesting submission to my site (and no, I shan't be posting any more links on VC you will be pleased to hear, but click on the Blog if you want to access it) of some poetry written in a village dialect on Hvar.

Would love to get a few more similar examples on the site to try and build up an online selection of dialects - anyone got any examples or hints where I can find them?

Cheers Paul

[Ribaric]

My father-in-law recently published a book of poems which he'd gathered together from his memories and from old neighbours. They are all written in original Kajkavski as was spoken in and around Ivanec up until the 1950s.

Not much use for a website but if you'd like a copy I can send you one. I don't have a translation of any kind so I guess it will soon be unreadable.

[totalcroatia]

Hi Ribaric,

yes, that would be great if you could. If you have an e-copy, you can email me through my site, if no, can PM you my address.

Is there a modern Cro translation in the book or just the dialect version?

Cheers Paul

[Ribaric]

I don't know the answer to any of those questions, give me a little while and I'll find out.

Paul

[peskafondo]

How about 'Spliski'? You could e.g. think of Miljenko Smoje and find some stuff on YouTube.

There even excists a Spliski>English dictionary:

[wikislav]

Actual Kaykavian: From 17th century up to 1848, Kaykavian was the official public language across the Croatian Pricipality of Austrian Empire (except Dalmatia), and then many Kaykavian books were published there. Yet now, Kaykavian is spoken by 1/3 Croats or 31% inhabitants of northwestern Croatia, from Buzet and Čabar to southernmost Petrinja and easternmost Čazma and Pitomača. Some major towns in northern and central Croatia now are almost Kaykavian; the purest and most archaic Kaykavian is spoken in Varaždin (50,000 or 90% inhabitants), and Čakovec.

Numerous Kaykavians now emigrate from villages to near towns, and so Zagreb, Koprivnica, and Petrinja are half-Kaykavian. E.g. the Croatian capital Zagreb is now the largest Kaykavian agglomeration including 1/2 or 420,000 Kaykavian speakers, and other major half-Kaykavian towns are Koprivnica, Sesvete and Velka Gorica - each one with 40,000 to 50,000 Kaykavians. Some minor Kaykavian towns are also Samobor, Krapina, Križevci, Čazma, Ozalj, Delnice, ...etc.

The main Kaykavian media are e.g. periodicals 'Kaj' published by Kajkavsko spravišče (Zagreb), and 'Hrvatski sjever' (Croatian North) by Matica Hrvatska, Čakovec. The frequent Kaykavian emissions are offered by Television Varaždin, and by Radio-Sljeme (Zagreb), Radio-Kaj (Zagreb-Krapina), Radio Varaždin, Čakovec, Velka Gorica, etc. There existed recently in 2007-2009 also a Kaykavian Wiki-encyclopedia (Wiki-Kay) with 560 articles (now inactive), see its Web-archive: web.archive.org/web/20071221070116/hr.volgota.com/index.php/Glavna_stranica

[wikislav]

In the medieval times from 11th - 16th century, Chakavian was the earliest and predominating public language of Croatia, used by 2/3 Croats from Adriatic coast up to rivers Kupa and Una. The medieval texts in Glagolitic script from Croatia are mostly Chakavian (90%). Then by Turkish invasions, the mainland Chakavians were mostly erased, and persisted only in islands and coastal towns. A century ago before WW2, Chakavian was spoken in most islands (except Mljet) and in many coastal towns from Umag to Omiš and Orebić.

Actual Chakavian: Chakavian is now a threatened dying dialect, disappearing from the major part of Dalmatia, and including only 11% or 430,000 Croats. It is predominating yet only in Istra peninsula and near Kvarner islands; in Dalmatia chiefly in Dugi, Vis and Hvar. In most coastal towns it recently disappeared (Pula, Senj, Biograd, Šibenik, Omiš), and also some Dalmatian islands now became half-Chakavian as Pag, Ugljan, Pašman, Šolta, Korčula, etc. E.g. Split was formerly the largest Chakavian town and now 10% only of its inhabitants speak a mixed half-Chakavian. The largest half-Chakavian city now is Rijeka with cca 100,000 Chakavians due to their immigration from near Istra, Kvarner and Gacka valley. The unique isolated half-Chakavian towns in backlands are Otočac, Ogulin, and Duga Resa persisting from medieval Chakavians, and in some villages of Burgenland (Gradišće) in Austria.

Chakavian media: The main periodicals in Chakavian are 'Čakavska rič' in Split, and 'Pannonischer Jahrbucher' in Burgenland. Some Chakavian emissions are offered by Television Split, and by coastal Radio stations Rijeka, Split, Krk, etc. There are also some private Web blogs partly in Chakavian, e.g. skroz.blog.hr/ ; galeb.blog.hr/ ; bralina.blog.hr/ etc. Recently from 2007-2009 existed a Chakavian wiki-encyclopedia (Wiki-Cha) with 520 articles, now inactive; see its web-archive web.archive.org/web/20080528060431rn_1/chak.volgota.com/index.php/Main_Page