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Overview:

Croatian Language Characteristics
            Examples
The History of Croatian Language
            The Croatian people and their origin
            The arrival
            Cyrill and Methodius
            Different standard languages
            Croatian renaissance
            Attempts to gain control over the language
            Different pronunciation styles
            The end of communism and a new beginning
            Used literature

Croatian Language Characteristics

The following table should help you with the pronunciation of Croatian words. It gives you a general overview about the main differences between English and Croatian.

Of course, it is always better to consult a person that has experience in this language. (especially for the correct emphasis of words)

Here are the most important differences:
(All other letters are pronounced as usual.)

*croatian letter*	*correct pronunciation*
a	British English pronunciation, long "a", like Arnold, army
c	like "z" in pizza, pronunciation like "ts"
č	like "ch" in chips, chocolate, Charles
ć	softer "ch", examples: cherry, chicken
đ, dj	like "j" in job, Jack, jungle, jazz
dž	harder "j", similar to "đ" or "dj"
e	like "e" in expected, error, exit never say "e" like eagle, east, flee / letter "i" is used for these words (look for "i")
h	normal "h", like "h" in house, hear, horror
i	like "e" in she, we, key
j	like "y" in yes, York, yell
o	short, British English sounding, "o", like in Ford, pot, population
r	like the Spanish or Scottish "r", examples: Rodriguez, Ronaldo, riviera
sh	normal "sh", examples: shock, shelf, she
ž	like "s" in measure or leisure French sounding "j" or "g", like Jacques, genre, Gérard, jeune

Examples:

correct writing	correct pronunciation
tamburica	tambooreetsa (stress on "tam")
čelović	hard: chellovich
farkaš	hard: farcash
Tuđman	soft: Tu"j"man
Zagreb	soft: Zagreb
živjeli	soft, french: "j"ivjeli
vino	veeno (slow pronunciation)

Remember:
- In Croatian language almost every letter is pronounced as it is written. There are no silent letters.
- There are no diphthongs.

Recommended literature:
Croatian Through Conversation / Mladen Engelsfeld (Mladost Zagreb)

Links to "Croatian language" (letters, pronunciations, etc.)

The History of Croatian Language

Like most European languages the Croatian language belongs to the group of Indo-European languages. The term "Croats" is of Persian origin, as scientists presume. It appeared first during the transition of the 2. to the 3. century in Europe on two Greek inscriptions that were found at the mouth of the river Don (Horóathos or Horúathos).

The Slavic Languages

The Croatian people and their origin

The Croatian people have not always lived on today's territory. Thea area was once populated by the people of Illyrs and Celts, later by Greeks and Romans.

One theory says that the Croats originally came from old Persia (today: Iran). Because of frequent controversies and economic problems one part of the Croats left its old place and began to travel on old trade routes to the West. They stopped at the shores of the Sea of Azov and beneath the river Don. There they founded "Red Croatia" ("Donic" Croatia, "Donic" Croats). This was between the 1. and 3. century after Christ.

In times of invasions by barbarian Huns another part of the Croats moved further to the northwest. After Attila's death (the leader of the Huns) the Croats defeated these barbarian people and settled behind the Carpathian mountains, in the territory between the two rivers Oder and Dnjestr. Today this would be the territory of Czech Republic, Slovakia, southern Poland and Ukraine. These people were called the "White or Western Croats". They had a capital named "Hrvat" (Croat) that was situated at the place of today's Krakov in southern Poland. This country existed for several centuries, when it merged into a new Polish and Czech state.

The arrival

During the 7. century AD strong Avar tribes lived on the territory of today's Republic of Croatia. They even worked their way to Constantinople and were known for their frequent raids. In the year 626 on request of the Byzantine king Heraklion troops of the Western Croats entered this area with some ten thousand soldiers. Within few years they defeated the Avars and drew them back to the territory northwest of the Danube. As a recognition for this deed the Byzantine people treated the Croats as fellow citizens and friends.

By arriving on today's territory the Croats made another important decision which had an important effect on their history. They changed from the old belief in several gods (polytheism) to the Christian religion. They now accepted only one god (monotheism). Pope John IV., who was born in Dalmatia, sent many missionaries. Thanks to one of the missionaries, John of Ravenna, the Croats soon began to convert. (At this time Ravenna was one of the strongest centers of Christianity.) The Croats were the first Slavic people that accepted the Christian (later catholic) religion and always stayed loyal to the Holy See.

Cyrill and Methodius

In these times the other Slavic people also began to christianize. In 846 prince Rastislav reigned in Morava (Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary). First, German missionaries from the kingdom of Franks should convert his people, but Rastislav feared the German influence. He wanted to erect an independent empire. Therefore he consulted the Byzantine emperor Michael III. The emperor sent him two monks, the brothers Constantine and Methodius. They came from Thessalia (Greece) which was under Slavic rule at this time. Constantine was very talented in eastern languages.

The Byzantine king was very proud of their achievements in the empire of Khan Hazarius where they convinced the people to convert to the Christian religion. So he immediately sent them to the empire of prince Rastislav.

The Slavic missionairies Cyrill and Methodius.
(picture from the subterranean basilica of St. Clement in Rome)

They did a good job in teaching Christian faith in Slavic languages. But many believers from the Frank empire had the opinion that only 3 languages, Hebrew, Greek and Latin, were appropriate for the service in God. The conflict escalated so far that Pope Nicolas I. had to call for them. He welcomed them very kindly (868). The monks showed him their bible translations. Since then their work was officially approved. But shortly afterwards Constantine, who has been named Cyrill since he had become a monk, died in Rome. The Pope appointed Methodius as new head of the archbishopric of Pannonia and Srijem.

The appearance of Cyrill and Methodius in the empire of Rastislav and in the principality of the Slavonian-Pannonian prince Kocelj was also very interesting to the Croatian people. Especially Slavonia benefitted by their work. Their priests and students later moved further to the south and spread their knowledge all over the whole Balkan peninsula. A new writing has been created, the glagolitic writing. The shape of the characters had been used from the model of the Greek fast writing. In northwestern Croatia many discoveries with this old writing were found. For several centuries the Croats used the round (obla) version of the "glagoljica". Later they used the angular (uglata) form . In some schools you can still study glagolitic writing. (The name "glagoljica" is derived from the verb "glagoljati", which means "talking much".)

Baščanska ploča (Baska Stone Tablet), 1100, oldest discovery of the Glagolitic writing
Presents of the Three Holy Kings, Hrvojev Misal

The Glagolitic alphabet (angular - uglata)
Table of the Glagolitic writing and their numeric values

In eastern regions, in Serbia or in Bulgaria, a second Slavic writing is in use – the Cyrillic writing (ćirilica). But this writing was created long after Cyrill's death. The Russians also use the cyrillic writing, only that they have some more letters.

cyrillic writing
cyrillic alphabet (azbuka)

In the eastern and southern Croatian countries people used a special version of the Cyrillic writing. This Croatian or Western ćirilica is also called bosančica (bosanica). The bosančica is a special form of the Cyrillic writing, which was created by simplification of the old Cyrillic writing and by addition of several new characters.

During the tenure of the first Croatian king a conflict developed between followers of the Latin language in churches on the one hand and between followers of the Croatian language on the other hand. ("Latins": archbishop of Split, Dalmatia / "Vernacularists" bishop George/Grgur of Nin, central Adriatic coast) Serious conflicts evolved. Finally the church decided to enlarge the archbishopric of Split over the whole Croatian territory and to dissolve the bishopric of Nin. Also the use of the Croatian language for holy masses was forbidden (928). This decision caused big dissatisfaction among the people, because the majority did not understand the Latin language. Even king Tomislav had difficulties in accepting this decision.

Ivan Meštrović: Grgur Ninski (George of Nin)

Different standard languages

Apart from many different regional dialects, in Croatian secular literature 3 new standard languages evolved. (15. century) Every standard language has its own characteristics.

KAJ-KAVIC (northern Croatia)

ČA-KAVIC ("chacavic", Dalmatia)

ŠTO-KAVIC ("shtocavic", Slavonia, rest of Croatia)
old-štokavic: the word emphasis was rather at the end
new-štokavic: today's form of štokavic language (different emphasis)

(KAJ? ČA? ŠTO? = WHAT?)

Croatian Renaissance

Croatia has been one important part of the Austrian-Hungarian Monarchy for centuries. Dalmatia and certain other parts were under the direct rule of Vienna, but the major part was under Hungarian rule. The Hungarian leaders were known for their radical policy towards the Croatians (magyarization) – especially the name Khuen Héderváry has to be mentioned. The Croatian language was ignored. The leaders insisted that the people should only use the Hungarian language, wherever they were. But the Croats rejected this kind of leadership and refused to speak Hungarian. After the absolutistic times of prince Metternich people developed a bigger national awareness.

In the past the Croatians used different writings, the Latin writing, the glagolitic writing and the western cyrillic writing (bosančica). But latin writing did not mean that people from different regions could understand everything, due to many regional dialects. People also used different characters. In the south they preferred the Italian writing style, in the north the Hungarian writing style was used – and people also found individual solutions.

Vlaho Bukovac: Croatian Renaissance
(Scene curtain in the Croatian National Theater in Zagreb)

Influenced by other European nations and the movement of national awakening in the first half of the 19. century, Croatian followers of renaissance longed for a standardized language and writing style. Croatian renaissance was also influenced by another fact: the Hungarian leaders attempted to occupy all croatian territories and wanted to destroy the bonding of these territories.

The leader of the so-called Illyrism (renaissance) was Ljudevit Gaj. (At this time it was supposed that the Croatians descended from the Illyrs, but this theory has been proven wrong today.) From 1835 on the kajkavic-speaking Ljudevit Gaj began to recommend the štokavic language as standard language for all Croats. The štokavic language with its jekavic pronunciation was especially adequate, because the majority of Croatian-speaking people used the štokavic standard and during many centuries in Croatian štokavic language an extraordinary rich literature developed.

Important results of Illyrism were, among others, the introduction of the štokavic language as standard writing, the printing of Croatian newspapers, the foundation of several cultural institutions, the foundation of linguistic schools, the introduction of Croatian language into parliament (Sabor) – instead of Latin – and later into offices, schools, theaters, etc.

But the most important change was the introduction of a phonetic writing style using the Czech language as a model (letters ščćđž). This writing was also called "gajica" [say: guyeetsa]. In the phonetic writing only one character exists for every phoneme (every sound). (e.g. in English 2 characters are used for "š" - "sh")

This phonetic writing is different to the etymologic (historic) writing style, as is used in English or in German language. The words in these languages still written in the same way as they were written in ancient times, even if pronunciation changed. Linguists are taking great care about the morphemes (the smallest linguistic unity that has a meaning), by which words are composed. They should always remain unchanged.

Even today there are a lot of problems in distinguishing phonetic and etymologic (morphonologic) writing. Because the Croatians inherited the spelling tradition from old Slavic times, they mostly wrote similar to the old Slavic writing style. This means that partly the morphonologic writing style was used. Since there have not been any spelling handbooks, people also made use of the phonologic writing style. Today in general the phonologic writing style is common.

Other important followers of the Croatian renaissance were Antun Mihanović, Šime Starčević, Petar Preradović, Ivan Mažuranić, etc.

Attempts to gain control over the language

One of the most important events in the history of South-Slavic languages was the Treaty of Vienna in 1850. At this time there was a great willingness to create a commom language of the Southern Slavs, a standard language for all. Some highly respected language professionals tried to accomplish their work by making compromises. The Serbian leaders – amongst them the very famous linguist Vuk Karadžić – obliged to give up their church-slavic language with many Russian words and to accept the jekavic pronunciation of the štokavic standard language. The Croatians on the other hand sacrificed part of their identity and of their variety of old dialects. They accepted a very simplified language that also Serbs could understand. Karadžić, who had strong support among influential Western personalities, did not succeed in convincing the Serbs of his efforts and never held his promise. The cyrillic writing, which should have been abandoned, is still in use. Thus during all the many years the Croatian language became an instrument for the Serbs to impose their expressions on the Croats.

From 1850 on for the newly created common language of the Croats and Serbs the term "Croatian or Serbian" was used (later "Serbian or Croatian"). At the end of the 19. century the Serbian linguist Đure Daničić worked in Zagreb. His not very laudable school and his followers that wanted to unite the Croatian and Serbian language had great influence on the whole Croatian language. They adapted a great part of Croatian literature to the new writing style. Croatian luinguists alwas resisted vehemently to such unnatural attempts. Although the 19. century was very rich of new linguistic publications some artificial guidelines have been transfered to the 20. century.

At the beginning of the 20. century especially those linguists had great influence who did not care about the natural development of the Croatian language. They only followed their Serbian colleagues. This situation had no good effect on the well-being of the language. In cooperation with the Serbian colleagues Croatian linguists published grammar books, dictionaries and spelling guidelines. People who really loved their language strongly criticized such practices, but they could not succeed on the long run.

When Croatia was part of the communist Yugoslavia, the settlement of Novi Sad (1954) prescribed that only one common language should exist. The term "serbo-croatian" was invented.

The creators of the idea of a greater Serbia intended to gain total control over the Croatian language. During the whole 20. century until 1990 – except for four years under the Hitler regime when the Nazis favoured Croatian nationalism – Croatian people had to struggle for the recognition of their language. Really patriotic linguists not only strived to get rid of the wrong name that had been given to the language, but to stop further influx of Serbian words. Many protectors of the Croatian language had to make big sacrifices. They were put into jail where they were tormented; some of them even lost their lives defending the Croatian language from Serbian attacks.

Protecting the mother language the whole Croatian nation had to suffer a lot. An independent language is always a fundamental guarantee for the sovereignty of a nation. So the Croats, by defending their language, also defended their sovereignty as a nation.

But even today all these historic facts are not quite clear to a great number of people on this world. Many of them still use to the old communist expression "serbocroatian" which has been used wrongly for decades and they do not want to accept that this it is not correct.

In the following you will have the possibility to learn about the main differences between the two languages Croatian and Serbian.

Different pronunciation styles

What is the difference between the Croatian and the Serbian language? Why are they two different languages?

Today there do not only exist different standard languages, but in these standard languages even different styles of pronunciation are used. Still, many different regional dialects are used. The languages are changing by the time, so they differ from each other more and more – above all of stylistic nature.

The main difference between Croatian and Serbian language lies in its history. There are 3 different types of pronunciations, all dating back to ancient times when only the old Slavic "jat (E)" existed. You can see this in the following example. The word "flower (cvijet)" is shown in all three pronunciations. (Once on the specific location only the old Slavic "jat" existed - cvEt):

EKAVIC [say: eka:vic, "e" like "a"nd]
Mainly spoken by Serbs, but is also used in parts of Slavonia, Baranja and Srijem. Frequent use of "e".
flower = cvet; flowers = cvetovi
IKAVIC [say: eeka:vic]
Mainly spoken in Dalmatia (Croatia) and the rest of the Adriatic coast. Frequent "i".
flower = cvit; flowers = cvitovi
(I)JEKAVIC [say: yeca:vic]
Spoken in whole Croatia (Slavonia, etc.) and in parts of Bosnia and Montenegro.
flower = cvijet; flowers = cvjetovi
(Long and short "jat" have to be distinguished!)

What is the Bosnian language?
The Bosnian language is very problematic. The name has been invented quite a short time ago. Bosnians (muslims) claim that it is their original language, although it is only a similar adaptation of Croatian and Serbian language. It is full of Turkish words and highly mixed with Croatian and Serbian expressions. Even experts can hardly tell the difference. Today Bosnians use more and more international (above all English and French) expressions that are adapted to their language. The Bosnian language is written in latin phonologic writing style (jekavic).

The end of communism and a new beginning

The Croatian and Serbian language are very similar concerning grammar; but by the use of words and expressions these languages are drifting more and more apart. (see previous examples)

link: Croatian and Serbian language are different

The Croatian people have always been very proud of their history and culture. But when they were thrown in a pot together with other nations, they lost every right of expressing their identity. Nations became mixed-up and everything had to be uniform. People were dissatisfied more and more. Nothing had to be called "Croatian", not even the language (everything was either "yugoslavian" or "serbo-croatian").

The end of the 20. century finally showed that all these tendencies failed. It was realized that it is not possible to fuse two or more languages by force. At the time of Yugoslavia the Croats still spoke Croatian and the Serbs used their Serbian language, just that everything was handled under one common name.

Fortunately today Croatia is an independent country. People more and more remember the old, forgotten, times before the two world wars and try to revive old expressions that have been typical of the Croatian language.

If you take a look back you will notice that the Croatian language, like hardly any other, stood under the influence of other nations and languages (more than other Slavic languages). Looking at the language you can see what the Croatian people had experienced in their eventful history. For example: Latin in church language, Italian at the time of the Venice empire, French under Napoleon, German and Hungarian during the monarchy, Turkish influences, influences of the Serbian and other Slavic languages, and of course today English is the international language.

The wealth and variety of the Croatian language and literature has always been something extraordinary. This is shown by many famous works of Croatian writers. They have always cared much about the language and still will. Here are some of the most important names: Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić, Petar Preradović, Ivan Gundulić, Dragutin Tadijanović, Mile Budak, Grigor Vitez, Zvonimir Balog, A. G. Matoš, Dubravko Horvatić, Dobriša Cesarić, Ivan Kušan, Vladimir Nazor, Mato Lovrak, Miroslav Krleža, August Šenoa, and many more.

Today Croatian is the official language in the Republic of Croatia. But it is also one of the official languages in Bosnia and Herzegovina. At the beginning of the 21. century Croatian is not only taught on schools in Croatia, but also on many universities and schools on the whole world.

more about Croatian history
More information about the Croatian language (history, ...)
(another History of the Croatian Language)

Used literature

Vladislav Musa / Kratka Hrvatska povijest (Short Croatian History), 1978
Vjekoslav Klaić / Povijest Hrvata (History of the Croats), 1981
Stjepan Vasari / Ključna zbivanja u Hrvatskoj povijesti (Key Events in Croatian History),1986
Trpimir Macan / Hrvatska povijest (Croatian History), 1995
Vlado Pandžić, Vlasta Sabljak / Hrvatska darovnica, 1999
Babić, Finka, Moguš / Hrvatski pravopis (Croatian Spelling), 2000