Shtokavian dialect

Shtokavian dialect
Shtokavian
tokavski dijalekt
Native to

Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Romania, Hungary

Native speakers

13 million (date missing)[citation needed]

Language family Indo-European

Balto-Slavic

Slavic

South Slavic

Western

Serbo-Croatian

Standard forms

Shtokavian

Serbian
Croatian
Bosnian
Montenegrin
Standard Serbo-Croatian (defunct)
Language codes

ISO 639-3

Linguist List

hrv-sht

Linguasphere

53-AAA-ga to -gf &

53-AAA-gi (-gia to -gii)

[1]

Shtokavian subdialects (Pavle Ivi 1988)

Shtokavian or tokavian (/tkvin/; Serbo-Croatian: tokavski / ) is the prestige dialect of the

pluricentric Serbo-Croatian language, and the basis of its Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian, and Montenegrin standards.[2]
It is a part of the South Slavic dialect continuum.[3][4] Its name comes from the form for the interrogatory pronoun
for "what" in Western Shtokavian, to (it is ta in Eastern Shtokavian). This is in contrast to the Kajkavian and
akavian dialects (kaj and a also meaning "what").
Shtokavian is spoken in Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the major part of Croatia, and the southern
part of Austrias Burgenland. The primary subdivisions of Shtokavian are based on two principles: one is whether the
subdialect is Old Shtokavian or Neo-Shtokavian, and different accents according to the way the old Slavic phoneme
jat has changed. Modern dialectology generally recognises seven Shtokavian subdialects.

Shtokavian dialect

Early history of tokavian

South Slavic languages and dialects

The Proto-tokavian idiom appeared in the

12th century. In the following century or
two, tokavian was divided into two zones:
western, which covered the major part of
Bosnia and Herzegovina and Slavonia in
Croatia, and eastern, dominant in
easternmost Bosnia and Herzegovina and
greater parts of Montenegro and Serbia.
Western
tokavian
was
principally
characterized by three-accentual system,
while eastern tokavian was marked by
two-accentual system. According to
research of historical linguistics, the
Old-tokavian was well established by the
Serbo-Croatian dialects prior to the 16th-century migrations, with demarcation line
mid-15th century. In this period it was still
between the Western and Eastern Shtokavian
being mixed with Church Slavonic to
varying
degrees,
as
geographically
transitory to akavian and Kajkavian dialects spoken on the territory of today's Croatia, with which it had
constituted a natural dialectal continuum.
As can be seen from the image on the right, originally the tokavian dialect covered a significantly smaller area than
it covers today, meaning that the tokavian speech had spread for the last five centuries, overwhelmingly at the
expense of akavian and Kajkavian idioms. Modern areal distribution of these three dialects as well as their internal
stratification (tokavian and akavian in particular) is primarily a result of the migrations resulting from the spread
of Ottoman Empire on the Balkans.[5] Migratory waves were particularly strong in the 16th18th century, bringing
about large-scale linguistic and ethnic changes on the Central South Slavic area. (See: Great Serb Migrations).
By far the most numerous, mobile and expansionist migrations were those of Ijekavian tokavian speakers of eastern
Herzegovina, who have flooded most of Western Serbia, many areas of eastern and western Bosnia, large swathes of
Croatia (Banovina, Kordun, Lika, parts of Gorski kotar, continental parts of northern Dalmatia, some places north of
Kupa, parts of Slavonia, southeastern Baranya etc.).[6] This is the reason why Eastern Herzegovinian dialect is the
most spoken Serbo-Croatian dialect today, and why it bears the name that is only descriptive of its area of origin.
These migrations also played the pivotal role in the spread of Neo-tokavian innovations.[7]

Relationship towards neighboring dialects

Shtokavian is characterized by a number of characteristic historical sound changes, accentual changes, changes in
inflection, morphology and syntax. Some of these isoglosses are not exclusive and have also been shared by
neighboring dialects, and some of them have only overwhelmingly but not completely been spread on the whole
tokavian area. The differences between tokavian and the neighboring Eastern South Slavic dialects of Bulgaria
and Macedonia are clear and largely shared with other Western South Slavic dialects, while the differences to the
neighboring Western South Slavic dialect of akavian and Kajkavian are much more fluid in character, and the
mutual influence of various subdialects and idioms play a more prominent role.
The main bundle of isoglosses separates Kajkavian and Slovenian dialects on the one hand from tokavian and
akavian on the other. These are:[8]

Shtokavian dialect
1. long falling accent of newer origin (neocircumflex)
2. development of the consonant group rj (as opposed to consonant /r/) from former soft /r'/ before a vowel (e.g.
morjem, zorja)
3. reflexes of /o/ or // of the old Common Slavic nasal vowel //, and not /u/
4. inflectional morpheme -o (as opposed to -ojo) in the instrumental singular of a-declension
Other characteristics distinguishing Kajkavian from tokavian, beside the demonstrative/interrogatory pronoun kaj
(as opposed to to/ta used in tokavian), are:[9]
1. a reflex of old semivowels of // (e.g. dn < Common Slavic *dn, ps < Common Slavic *ps); closed //
appearing also as a jat reflex
2. retention of word-final -l (e.g. doel, as opposed to tokavian doao)
3. word-initial u- becoming v- (e.g. vuho, vuzel, vozek)
4. dephonemicization of affricates // and // to some form of middle value
5. genitive plural of masculine nouns has the morpheme -of / -ef
6. syncretized dative, locative and instrumental plural has the ending -ami
7. the ending -me in the first-person plural present (e.g. vidime)
8. affix in the formation of adjectival comparatives (e.g. deblei, slabei)
9. supine
10. future tense formation in the form of bom/bum doel, dola, dolo
Characteristics distinguishing akavian from tokavian, beside the demonstrative/interrogatory pronoun a, are:[10]
1. preservation of polytonic three-accent system
2. vocalization of weak jers (e.g. malin/melin < Common Slavic *mlin; cf. tokavian mlin)
3. vowel /a/ as opposed to /e/ after palatal consonants /j/, //, // (e.g. k. jazik/zajik : t. jezik, k. poati : t.
poeti, k. aja : t. elja)
4. the appearance of extremely palatal /t'/ or /'/ (< earlier /t'/) and /j/ (< earlier /d'/) either in free positions or in
groups t', d'
5. depalatalization of /n'/ and /l'/
6. // instead of /d/ (c.f. k. ep : t. dep)
7. // > // (c.f. k. maka : t. maka)
8. word-initial consonant groups r-, ri-, re- (c.f. k. rivo/revo : t. cr(ij)evo, k. rn : t. crn)
9. conditional mood with bi in the 2nd-person singular
10. non-syncretized dative, locative and instrumental plural

General characteristics
General characteristics of tokavian are the following:[11]
1. to or ta as the demonstrative/interrogative pronoun
2. differentiation between two short (in addition to two or three long) accents, rising and falling, though not in all
tokavian speakers
3. preservation of unaccented length, but not consistently across all speeches
4. /u/ as the reflex of Common Slavic back nasal vowel // as well as the syllabic /l/ (with the exception of central
Bosnia where a diphthongal /uo/ is also recorded as a reflex)
5. initial group of v- + weak semivowel yields u- (e.g. unuk < Common Slavic *vnuk)
6. schwa resulting from the jer merger yields /a/, with the exception of Zeta-South Sandak dialect
7. metathesis of vse to sve
8. r- > cr-, with the exception of Slavonian, Molise and Vlachia (Gradie) dialect
9. word-final -l changes to /o/ or /a/; the exception is verbal adjective in the Slavonian southwest
10. d' > /d/ (<>) with numerous exceptions

Shtokavian dialect

11. cr > tr in the word trenja "cherry"; some exceptions in Slavonia, Hungary and Romania
12. // and // from jt, jd (e.g. poi, poem); exceptions in Slavonian and Eastern Bosnian dialect
13. so-called "new iotation" of dentals and labials, with many exceptions, especially in Slavonia and Bosnia
14. general loss of phoneme /x/, with many exceptions
15. ending - in genitive plural of masculine and feminine nouns, with many exceptions
16. ending -u in locative singular of masculine and neuter nouns (e.g. u gradu, u m(j)estu)
17. infix -ov- / -ev- in the plural of most monosyllabic masculine nouns, with many exceptions (e.g. in the area
between Neretva and Dubrovnik)
18. syncretism of dative, locative and instrumental plural of nouns, with many exceptions
19. preservation of ending -og(a) in genitive and accusative singular of masculine and neuter gender if
pronominal-adjectival declension (e.g. drugoga), with exceptions on the area of Dubrovnik and Livno
20. special form with the ending -a for the neuter gender in nominative plural of pronominal-adjectival declension
(e.g. ova m(j)esta and no ove m(j)esta)
21. preservation of aorist, which is however missing in some areas (e.g. around Dubrovnik)
22. special constructs reflecting old dual for numerals 24 (dva, tri, etiri stola)
23. lots of so-called "Turkisms" (turcizmi) or "Orientalisms", i.e. words borrowed from Ottoman Turkish
As can be seen from the list, many of this isoglosses are missing from particular tokavian idioms, just as many of
them are shared with neighboring non-tokavian dialects.

Accentuation
The Shtokavian dialect is divided into Old Shtokavian and Neo-Shtokavian subdialects. The primary distinction is
the accentuation system: while there are variations, "old" dialects preserve the older accent system, which consists of
two types of falling (dynamic) accents, one long and one short, and unstressed syllables, which can be long and
short. Both long and short unstressed syllables could precede the stressed syllables. Stress placement is free and
mobile in paradigms.
In the process known as "Neo-Shtokavian metatony" or "retraction", length of the old syllables was preserved, but
their quality changed. Stress (intensity) on the inner syllables moved to the preceding syllable, but they kept the high
pitch. That process produced the "rising" accents characteristic for Neo-Shtokavian, and yielded the modern
four-tone system. Stress on the initial syllables remained the same in quality and pitch.
The following notation is used for Shtokavian accents:
Description

IPA Traditional

Diacritic

unstressed short [e]

unstressed long e

Macron

short rising

Grave

long rising

Acute

short falling

Double grave

long falling

Inverted breve

The following table shows the examples of Neo-Shtokavian retraction:

Shtokavian dialect

Old stress
IPA
kta

New stress

Trad.
ka

IPA
kta

Note

Trad.
ka

No retraction from the first syllable

prvda prvda prvda prvda No retraction from the first syllable

livda

livda

lvada

lvada

Retraction from long to short syllable short rising

junk

junk

jnak

jnk

Retraction from long to short syllable short rising + unstressed length

prilka prlka prlika prlika Retraction from short to long syllable long rising
vm vm

vim vm

Retraction from long to long syllable long rising + unstressed length

As result of this process, the following set of rules emerged, which are still in effect in all standard variants of
Serbo-Croatian:
Falling accents may only occur word-initially (otherwise it would have been retracted).
Rising accents may occur anywhere except word-finally.
thus, monosyllabic words may only have falling accent.
Unstressed length may only appear after a stressed syllable.
In practice, influx of foreign words and formation of compound words have loosened these rules, especially in
spoken idioms (e.g. paradjz, asistnt, poljoprvreda), but they are maintained in standard language and
dictionaries.[12]

Classification
Old Shtokavian dialects
Timok-Prizren (Torlakian)
The
most
conservative
dialectsWikipedia:Please
clarify
stretch southeast from Timok near the
Bulgarian border to Prizren. There is
disagreement among linguists whether
these dialects belong to the tokavian
area, as there are many other
morphological characteristics apart
from rendering of to (also, some
dialects use kakvo or kvo, typical for
Map of Shtokavian dialects
Bulgarian) which would place them
into a "transitional" group between tokavian and Eastern South Slavic languages (Bulgarian and Macedonian). The
Timok-Prizren group falls to the Balkan language area: 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 has been retained throughout.
The vocalic l has been retained (vlk = vuk), and some dialects don't distinguish / and /d by preferring the latter,
postalveolar variants. Some subdialects preserve l at the end of words (where otherwise it has developed into a short
o) dol, znal, etc. (cf. Kajkavian and Bulgarian); in others, this l has become the syllable ja.

Shtokavian dialect
This way of speaking is dominant in Metohija, around Prizren, Gnjilane and trpce especially, in Southern Serbia
around Bujanovac, Vranje, Leskovac, Ni, Aleksinac, in the part of Toplica Valley around Prokuplje, in Eastern
Serbia around Pirot, Svrljig, Soko Banja, Boljevac, Knjaevac ending up with the area around Zajear, where the
Kosovo-Resava dialect becomes more dominant.
Slavonian
Also called the Archaic akavian dialect, it is spoken by Croats who live in some parts of Slavonia, Baka, Baranja,
Syrmia, in Croatia and Vojvodina, as well as in northern Bosnia. The Slavonian dialect has mixed Ikavian and
Ekavian pronunciations. Ikavian accent is predominant in the Posavina, Baranja, Baka, and in the Slavonian
subdialect enclave of Derventa, while Ekavian accent is predominant in Podravina. There are enclaves of one accent
in the territory of the other, as well as mixed EkavianIkavian and JekavianIkavian areas. In some villages in
Hungary, the original yat is preserved. Local variants can widely differ in the degree of Neo-Shtokavian influences.
In two villages in Posavina, Sie and Magia Male, the l, as in the verb nosil, has been retained in place of the
modern nosio. In some villages in the Podravina, r is preserved instead of the usual cr, for example in rn instead of
crn. Both forms are usual in Kajkavian but very rare in Shtokavian.
East Bosnian
Also called Jekavian-akavian, it is a base for the Bosnian language. It has Jekavian pronunciations 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 (Vare,
Usora, etc.). Together with basic Jekavian pronunciation, mixed pronunciations exist in Teanj and Maglaj
detedjeteta (EkavianJekavian) and around epe and Jablanica djetediteta (Jekavianikavian). 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.
ZetaSouth Raka
Also known as ekavian-Ijekavian, it is a base for the Montenegrin language. It is spoken in eastern Montenegro, in
Podgorica and Cetinje, around the city of Novi Pazar in eastern Raka in Serbia, and in the one village of Peroj in
Istria. The majority of its speakers are Montenegrins, Serbs and Bosniaks. Together with the dominant Jekavian
pronunciation, mixed pronunciations like djetedeteta (JekavianEkavian) around Novi Pazar and Bijelo Polje,
diteeteta (IkavianJekavian) around Podgorica and deteeteta (EkavianJekavian) in the village of Mrkojevii in
southern Montenegro. Mrkojevii are also characterised by retention of r instead of cr as in the previously
mentioned villages in Podravina.
Some vernaculars have a special reflex of / in some cases (between a and e) which is very rare in tokavian
vernaculars (sn and dn instead of san and dan). Other special phonetic features include sounds like in iesti
instead of izjesti, as in ekira instead of sjekira. However these sounds are known also to many in East
Herzegovina like those in Konavle,[13] and are not necessarily "Montenegrin" specific. There is a loss of the /v/
sound apparent, seen in o'ek or a'ola. The loss of distinction between /lj/ and /l/ in some vernaculars is based on an
Albanian substratum. Word pesma is a hypercorrection (instead of pjesma) since many vernaculars know lj>j.
All verbs in infinitive finish with "t" (example: pjevat). These future have also most respective vernaculars of East
Herzegovinian, and actually almost all Serbian and Croatian vernaculars. The group a + o gave a ("ka" instead
"kao", reka for rekao), like in other Serbian and Croatian seaside vernaculars. Otherwise, more common is ao>o.
Currently the Montenegrin language is undergoing a standardization process which will be somewhat based on the
Zeta subdialect.

Shtokavian dialect
KosovoResava
Also called Older Ekavian, is spoken by Serbs, mostly in western and northeastern Kosovo (Kosovo Valley with
Kosovska Mitrovica and also around Pe), in Ibar Valley with Kraljevo, around Kruevac, Trstenik and in upa, in
the part of Toplica Valley (Kurumlija) in Morava Valley (Jagodina, uprija, Parain, Lapovo), in Resava Valley
(Svilajnac, Despotovac) and northeastern Serbia (Smederevo, Poarevac, Bor, Majdanpek, Negotin, Velika Plana)
with one part of Banat (around Kovin, Bela Crkva and Vrac). This dialect can be also found in parts of Banatska
Klisura (Clisura Dunrii) in Romania, in places where Romanian Serbs live (left bank of the Danube).
Substitution of jat is predominantly Ekavian accent even on the end of datives (ene instead of eni), in pronouns
(teh instead of tih), in comparatives (dobrej instead of dobriji) in the negative of biti (nesam instead of nisam); in
SmederevoVrac dialects, Ikavian forms can be found (di si instead of gde si?). Smederevo-Vrac dialect (spoken
in northeastern umadija, Lower Great Morava Valley and Banat) is sometimes classified as a subdialect of the
Kosovo-Resava dialect but is also considered to be a separate dialect as it the represents mixed speech of
umadija-Vojvodina and Kosovo-Resava dialects.

Neo-Shtokavian
BosnianDalmatian
Also called Western Ikavian or Younger Ikavian. The majority of its speakers are Croats who live in Lika, Kvarner,
Dalmatia, Herzegovina and Bunjevci and Croats of north Baka around Subotica. The minority speakers of it include
Bosniaks in western Bosnia, mostly around the city of Biha, and also in central Bosnia where Croats and Bosniaks
(Travnik, Jajce, Bugojno, Vitez, ..) used to speak this dialect. Exclusively Ikavian accent, Bosnian and
Herzegovinian forms use o in verb participle, while those in Dalmatia and Lika use -ija or ia like in vidija/vidia.
Local form of Baka was proposed as the base for the Bunjevac dialect of Bunjevci in Vojvodina.
Dubrovnik
Also known as Western (I)jekavian, in earlier centuries, this subdialect was the independent subdialect of Western
Shtokavian dialect. It is spoken by Croats who live in some parts of Dubrovnik area. The Dubrovnik dialect has
mixed Jekavian and Ikavian pronunciations or mixed Shtokavian and akavian word. It is a base for the Croatian
language. The dialect today is considered to be a part of East Herzegovina subdialect because it is similar to it. It
retained certain unique features that distinguishing it from the original East Herzegovina subdialect.
umadijaVojvodina
Also known as Younger Ekavian, is one of the bases for the standard Serbian language. It is spoken by Serbs across
most of Vojvodina (excluding easternmost parts around Vrac), northern part of western Serbia, around Kragujevac
and Valjevo in umadija, in Mava around abac and Bogati, in Belgrade and in Serb villages in eastern Croatia
around the town of Vukovar. It is predominately Ekavian (Ikavian forms are of morphophonological origin). In some
parts of Vojvodina the old declination is preserved. Most Vojvodina dialects and some dialects in umadija have an
open e and o. However the vernaculars of western Serbia, and in past to them connected vernaculars of (old)
Belgrade and southwestern Banat (Bora, Panevo, Bavanite) are close to standard as a vernacular can be. The
dialect presents a base for the Ekavian variant of the Serbian standard language.

Shtokavian dialect
Eastern Herzegovinian
Also called Eastern Herzegovininan or Neo-Ijekavian. It encompasses by far the largest area and the number of
speakers of all tokavian dialects. It is the dialectal basis of the standard literary Croatian, Bosnian, Serbian, and
Montenegrin languages.
Micro groups:
western Montenegro spoken south Ijekavian variant.
Croats western Ijekavian variant micro groups in region Slavonia, Banovina, Kordun, umberak, Neretva, East
Herzegovina (Ravno, Stolac, Buna, Neum), around of region Dubrovnik, and is the basis of the Croatian standard.
City: (Osijek, Bjelovar, Daruvar, Sisak, Pakrac, Petrinja Dubrovnik, Metkovi).
Serbs east Ijekavian variant groups; East Bosnia, East Herzegovina (Trebinje, Nevesinje, Bilea), Bosnian
Krajina, western Serbia and Podrinje (Uice, aak, Ivanjica, Loznica, Priboj, Prijepolje ) and minority Croatian
Serbs. City: Trebinje, Bijeljina, Banja Luka, Nevesinje, Pale.
Its south-eastern form is characterised by the total lack of /x/ 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 // (bijak, bijaku imperfect of verb biti).
Local forms in the umberak enclave and around Dubrovnik or Slunj have some special Croatian features,
influenced from Chakavian and the western subdialect, while forms in Bjelovar or Pakrac are influenced from
Kajkavian.

The yat reflexes

The Proto-Slavic vowel jat has changed over time, coming to be pronounced differently in different areas. These
different reflexes define three accents of Shtokavian:
In Ekavian accent (ekavski), jat has conflated into the vowel e
in Ikavian accent (ikavski), it has conflated into the vowel i
in Ijekavian or Jekavian accent (ijekavski or jekavski), it has come to be pronounced 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
tokavian dialect, reflecting the beginnings of the formative period of the vernacular. In early documents it is
predominantly Church Slavic of the Serbian or Croatian recension (variant). The first undoubted Ekavian reflex
(bee 'it was') is found in a document from Serbia dated 1289; the first Ikavian reflex (svidoci 'witnesses') in Bosnia
in 1331; and first Ijekavian reflex (elijemo 'we wish', a "hyper-Ijekavism") in Croatia in 1399. Partial attestation can
be found in earlier texts (for instance, Ikavian accent is found in a few Bosnian documents from the latter half of the
13th century), but philologists generally accept the aforementioned dates. In the second half of 20th century, many
vernaculars with unsubstituted yatWikipedia:Please clarify are found.[14] The intrusion of the vernacular into Church
Slavic grew in time, to be finally replaced by the vernacular idiom. This process took 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.
The Ekavian accent, sometimes called Eastern, is spoken primarily in Serbia, and in some very limited parts of
eastern Croatia. The Ikavian accent, sometimes called Western, is spoken in western and central Bosnia, western
Herzegovina, in Slavonia and the major part of Dalmatia in Croatia. Ijekavian accent, sometimes called southern, is
spoken in many parts of Croatia including southern Dalmatia, most of Bosnia, Herzegovina, Montenegro, as well as
some parts of western Serbia. The following are some generic examples:

Shtokavian dialect

English

Predecessor

Ekavian

Ikavian

Ijekavian

time

vrme

vreme

vrime

vrijeme

beautiful

lp

lep

lip

lijep

girl

dvojka

devojka

divojka

djevojka

true

vran

veran

viran

vjeran

to sit

sdti

sedeti (sdeti) siditi (sditi) sjediti

to grow gray hairs sdeti

sedeti (sdeti) siditi (sditi) sijediti

to heat

grejati

grjati

grijati

grijati

Long ije is pronounced as a single syllable, [je], by many Ijekavian speakers. In Zeta dialect and most of East
Herzegovina dialect, however, it is pronounced as two syllables, [ije]. The distinction can be clearly heard in first
verses of national anthems of Croatia and Montenegrothey're sung as "Lije-pa na-a do-mo-vi-no" and "Oj
svi-je-tla maj-ska zo-ro" respectively.

Ethnic affiliation of native speakers of tokavian dialect

During the first 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 the Czech philologist Josef Dobrovsk, the
Slovak Pavel afrik, the Slovenes Jernej Kopitar and Franc Mikloi, the Serb Vuk Karadi, the Croat of Slovak
origin Bogoslav ulek, and the Croatians Vatroslav Jagi and Ante Starevi.
The dispute was primarily concerned with who can, philologically, be labelled as "Slovene", "Croat" and "Serb" with
the aim of expanding one's national territory and influence. Born in the climate of romanticism and national
awakening, these polemical "battles" led to increased tensions between the aforementioned nations, especially
because the tokavian dialect cannot be split along ethnic lines in an unequivocal manner.
However, contemporary native speakers, after process of national crystallization and identification had been
completed, can be roughly identified as predominant speakers of various tokavian 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-tokavian speakers along ethnic lines in present times is as follows:

Kosovo-Resava (Ekavian accent) dialect: Serbian

Zeta-South Sanjak dialect (Ijekavian accent): Montenegrin, Bosniak and Serbian.
Slavonian dialect (fluctuating "yat": mainly Ikavian accent, also Ijekavian and Ekavian): vastly Croatian
Eastern-Bosnian dialect (Ijekavian accent): Bosniak and Croatian

Generally, the neo-tokavian dialect is divided as follows with regard to the ethnicity of its native speakers:
umadija-Vojvodina dialect (Ekavian accent): Serbian
Dalmatian-Bosnian dialect (Ikavian accent): Croatian and Bosniak
Eastern Herzegovinian (Ijekavian accent): Serbian, Montenegrin, Croatian and Bosniak

Shtokavian dialect

10

Group
old-tokavian

Sub-Dialect

Serbian Croatian Bosnian Montenegrin

Kosovo-Resava

Zeta-South Sanjak

Slavonian

Eastern Bosnian

Dalmatian-Bosnian

Eastern Herzgovinian x

Neo-tokavian umadija-Vojvodina

Earliest texts of tokavian dialect

Proto-tokavian, or Church Slavic with ingredients of nascent tokavian, 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 Grkovis and Mihanovis fragments, ca. 1150, in southern Bosnia or Herzegovina. Experts'
opinions are divided with regard to the extent these texts, especially the Kulin ban parchment, contain contemporary
tokavian vernacular. Mainly tokavian, with ingredients of Church Slavic, are numerous legal and commercial
documents from pre-Ottoman Bosnia, Hum, Serbia, Zeta, and southern Dalmatia, especially Dubrovnik. The first
comprehensive vernacular tokavian text is the Vatican Croatian Prayer Book, written in Dubrovnik a decade or two
before 1400. In the next two centuries tokavian vernacular texts had been written mainly in Dubrovnik, other
Adriatic cities and islands influenced by Dubrovnik, as well as in Bosnia, by Bosnian Franciscans and Bosniak
Muslim vernacular alhamiado literature the first example being "Chirwat turkisi" or "Croatian song", dated 1589.

Standard language
The standard Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin, and Serbian variants of the pluricentric Serbo-Croatian standard
language are all based on Neo-tokavian dialect.[15][16][17]
However, it must be stressed that standard variants, irrespectively of their mutual differences, have been stylised in
such manners that parts of the Neo-tokavian dialect have been retainedfor instance, declensionbut other
features were purposely omitted or alteredfor instance, the phoneme "h" was reinstated in the standard language.
The Croatian has had a long tradition of tokavian vernacular literacy and literature. It took almost four and half
centuries for tokavian to prevail as the dialectal basis for Croatian standard. In other periods, akavian and
Kajkavian dialects, as well as hybrid akavianKajkaviantokavian interdialects "contended" for the Croatian
national koine but eventually lost, mainly due to historical and political reasons. By 1650s it was fairly obvious
that tokavian would become the dialectal basis for the Croatian standard, but this process was finally completed in
1850s, when Neo-tokavian Ijekavian, based mainly on Ragusan (Dubrovnik), Dalmatian, Bosnian, and Slavonian
literary heritage became the national standard language.[citation needed]
Serbian was much faster in standardisation. Although vernacular literature was present in the 18th century, it was
Vuk Karadi who, between 1818 and 1851, made a radical break with the past and established Serbian
Neo-tokavian folklore idiom as the basis of standard Serbian (until then, educated Serbs had been using Serbian
Slavic, Russian Slavic and hybrid RussianSerbian language). Although he wrote in Serbian Ijekavian accent, the
majority of Serbs have adopted Ekavian accent, which is dominant in Serbia. Serbs in Croatia and Bosnia, as well as
Montenegrins, use the Ijekavian accent.
The Bosnian is only currently beginning to take shape. The Bosniak idiom can be seen as a transition between
Serbian Ijekavian and Croatian varieties, with some specific traits. After the collapse of Yugoslavia, Bosniaks
affirmed their wish to stylise their own standard language, based on the Neo-tokavian dialect, but reflecting their

Shtokavian dialect
characteristicsfrom phonetics to semantics.
Also, the contemporary situation is unstable with regard to the accentuation, since phoneticians have observed that
the 4-accents speech has, in all likelihood, shown to be increasingly unstable, which resulted in proposals that a
3-accents norm be prescribed. This is particularly true for Croatian, where, contrary to all expectations, the influence
of akavian and Kajkavian dialects on the standard language has been waxing, not waning, in the past 5070
years.[citation needed]
The Croatian, Serbian, and Bosnian standard variants, although all based on the East Herzegovinian subdialect of
Neo-tokavian and mutually intelligible, do differ slightly, as is the case with other pluricentric languages (English,
Spanish, German and Portuguese, among others), but not to a degree which would justify considering them as
different languages.[18][19][20] Their structures are grammatically and phonologically almost identical, but have
differences in vocabulary and semantics. See Differences between standard Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian.
Example: to jest, jest; tako je uv(ij)ek bilo, to e biti, (bie / bit e), a nekako ve e biti!
(The first option (in brackets) in the middle of the sentence represents the difference between Ekavian and Ijekavian
accents, whereas the second option in the middle represents the difference between Serbian and Croatian norms,
respectively.)
Another example is:
English: Cooking salt is a compound of sodium and chlorine.
Croatian: Kuhinjska sol je spoj natrija i klora.
Serbian: Kuhinjska so je jedinjenje natrijuma i hlora.
Bosnian: Kuhinjska so je spoj natrija i hlora.

Notes
[1] http:/ / multitree. linguistlist. org/ codes/ hrv-sht
[2] "The core of the modern literary languages, and the major dialect area, is Shtokavian (to what), which covers the rest of the area where
B/C/S is spoken."
[8] Cited after
[9] Cited after
[10] Cited after
[11] Cited after
[13] Govor Konavla, SDZb XLI (1995), 241396
[14] P. Ivi, Putevi razvoja srpskohrvatskog vokalizma, Voprosy jazykoznanija VII/1 (1958), revised in Iz istorije srpskohrvatske dijalektologije,
Ni 1991

References
Alexander, Ronelle (2000). In honor of diversity: the linguistic resources of the Balkans. Kenneth E. Naylor
memorial lecture series in South Slavic linguistics ; vol. 2. Columbus, Ohio: Ohio State University, Dept. of
Slavic and East European Languages and Literatures. OCLC 47186443 (http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/
47186443).
Blum, Daniel (2002). Sprache und Politik : Sprachpolitik und Sprachnationalismus in der Republik Indien und
dem sozialistischen Jugoslawien (19451991) [Language and Policy: Language Policy and Linguistic
Nationalism in the Republic of India and the Socialist Yugoslavia (19451991)]. Beitrge zur Sdasienforschung
; vol. 192 (in German). Wrzburg: Ergon. p.200. ISBN3-89913-253-X. OCLC 51961066 (http://www.
worldcat.org/oclc/51961066).
Buni, Daniel (2008), "Die (Re-)Nationalisierung der serbokroatischen Standards" [The (Re-)Nationalisation of
Serbo-Croatian Standards], in Kempgen, Sebastian, Deutsche Beitrge zum 14. Internationalen
Slavistenkongress, Ohrid, 2008, Welt der Slaven (in German), Munich: Otto Sagner, pp.89102, OCLC

11

Shtokavian dialect

238795822 (http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/238795822)
Crystal, David (1998) [1st pub. 1987], The Cambridge encyclopedia of language, Cambridge, New York:
Cambridge University Press, OCLC 300458429 (http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/300458429)
Grschel, Bernhard (2009). Das Serbokroatische zwischen Linguistik und Politik: mit einer Bibliographie zum
postjugoslavischen Sprachenstreit [Serbo-Croatian Between Linguistics and Politics: With a Bibliography of the
Post-Yugoslav Language Dispute]. Lincom Studies in Slavic Linguistics ; vol 34 (in German). Munich: Lincom
Europa. p.451. ISBN978-3-929075-79-3. LCCN 2009473660 (http://lccn.loc.gov/2009473660). OCLC
428012015 (http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/428012015). OL 15295665W (http://openlibrary.org/works/
OL15295665W).
Kordi, Snjeana (2010), Jezik i nacionalizam [Language and Nationalism] (http://www.webcitation.org/
690BiBe4T), Rotulus Universitas (in Serbo-Croatian), Zagreb: Durieux, p.430, ISBN978-953-188-311-5,
LCCN 2011520778 (http://lccn.loc.gov/2011520778), OCLC 729837512 (http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/
729837512), OL 15270636W (http://openlibrary.org/works/OL15270636W), archived from the original
(http://bib.irb.hr/datoteka/475567.Jezik_i_nacionalizam.pdf) on 8 July 2012, retrieved 10 August 2012
Lisac, Josip (2003), Hrvatska dijalektologija 1 Hrvatski dijalekti i govori tokavskog narjeja i hrvatski govori
torlakog narjeja, Zagreb: Golden marketing Tehnika knjiga, ISBN953-212-168-4
Okuka, Milo (2008), Srpski dijalekti, SDK Prosvjeta, ISBN978-953-7611-06-4

Pohl, Hans-Dieter (1996), "Serbokroatisch Rckblick und Ausblick" [Serbo-Croatian Looking backward and
forward], in Ohnheiser, Ingeborg, Wechselbeziehungen zwischen slawischen Sprachen, Literaturen und Kulturen
in Vergangenheit und Gegenwart : Akten der Tagung aus Anla des 25jhrigen Bestehens des Instituts fr
Slawistik an der Universitt Innsbruck, Innsbruck, 25. 27. Mai 1995, Innsbrucker Beitrge zur
Kulturwissenschaft, Slavica aenipontana ; vol. 4 (in German), Innsbruck: Non Lieu, pp.205219, OCLC
243829127 (http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/243829127)
Sussex, Roland; Cubberly, Paul (2006), The Slavic Languages, Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape
Town, Singapore, So Paulo: Cambridge University Press, ISBN978-0-521-22315-7
Peikan, Mitar (2007), "III. Akcenat i druga pitanja pravilnog govora", Srpski jeziki prirunik (IV ed.),
Beogradska knjiga, p.65, ISBN978-86-7590-169-3

Further reading
Friedman, Victor (1999). Linguistic emblems and emblematic languages: on language as flag in the Balkans.
Kenneth E. Naylor memorial lecture series in South Slavic linguistics ; vol. 1. Columbus, Ohio: Ohio State
University, Dept. of Slavic and East European Languages and Literatures. OCLC 46734277 (http://www.
worldcat.org/oclc/46734277).
Kordi, Snjeana (2004). "Pro und kontra: "Serbokroatisch" heute" [Pro and con: "Serbo-Croatian" nowadays]
(http://www.webcitation.org/69f5n0ek4). In Krause, Marion; Sappok, Christian. Slavistische Linguistik 2002:
Referate des XXVIII. Konstanzer Slavistischen Arbeitstreffens, Bochum 10.-12. September 2002. Slavistishe
Beitrge ; vol. 434 (in German). Munich: Otto Sagner. pp.97148. ISBN3-87690-885-X4 Check |isbn= value
(help). OCLC 56198470 (http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/56198470). Archived from the original (http://bib.
irb.hr/datoteka/430499.PRO_UND_KONTRA_SERBOKROATISCH.PDF) on 4 August 2012. Retrieved 10
August 2012.
Kordi, Snjeana (2009). "Policentrini standardni jezik" [Polycentric Standard Language] (http://www.
webcitation.org/69f5Mtzox). In Badurina, Lada; Pranjkovi, Ivo; Sili, Josip. Jezini varijeteti i nacionalni
identiteti (in Serbo-Croatian). Zagreb: Disput. pp.83108. ISBN978-953-260-054-4. OCLC 437306433 (http://
www.worldcat.org/oclc/437306433). Archived from the original (http://bib.irb.hr/datoteka/426269.
POLICENTRICNI_STANDARDNI.PDF) on 4 August 2012. Retrieved 8 August 2012.
Kordi, Snjeana (2009). "Plurizentrische Sprachen, Ausbausprachen, Abstandsprachen und die Serbokroatistik"
[Pluricentric languages, Ausbau languages, Abstand languages and the Serbo-Croatians] (http://www.

12

Shtokavian dialect
webcitation.org/69f5bCgpH). Zeitschrift fr Balkanologie (http://www.zeitschrift-fuer-balkanologie.de/index.
php/zfb/index) (in German) 45 (2): 210215. ISSN 0044-2356 (http://www.worldcat.org/issn/0044-2356).
Archived from the original (http://www.zeitschrift-fuer-balkanologie.de/index.php/zfb/article/view/203/
203) on 4 August 2012. Retrieved 6 August 2012.
Kristophson, Jrgen (2000). "Vom Widersinn der Dialektologie: Gedanken zum tokavischen" [Dialectological
Nonsense: Thoughts on Shtokavian]. Zeitschrift fr Balkanologie (http://www.zeitschrift-fuer-balkanologie.de/
index.php/zfb/index) (in German) 36 (2): 178186. ISSN 0044-2356 (http://www.worldcat.org/issn/
0044-2356).
Peco, Asim (1967). "Uticaj turskog jezika na fonetiku tokavskih govora". Na jezik, 16, 3. (Serbo-Croatian)
kiljan, Dubravko (2002). Govor nacije: jezik, nacija, Hrvati [Voice of the Nation: Language, Nation, Croats].
Biblioteka Obrisi moderne (in Serbo-Croatian). Zagreb: Golden marketing. OCLC 55754615 (http://www.
worldcat.org/oclc/55754615).
Thomas, Paul-Louis (2003). "Le serbo-croate (bosniaque, croate, montngrin, serbe): de ltude dune langue
lidentit des langues" [Serbo-Croatian (Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin, Serbian): from the study of a language
to the identity of languages] (http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/
slave_0080-2557_2002_num_74_2_6801). Revue des tudes slaves (http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/
prescript/revue/slave) (in French) 74 (23): 311325. ISSN 0080-2557 (http://www.worldcat.org/issn/
0080-2557). Retrieved 3 August 2012.

External links
Map of Serbo-Croatian dialects according to Brabec, Kraste, and ivkovi (http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/
~haroldfs/540/langdial/serbcrot.html)
Map of tokavian dialects according to Dalibor Brozovi (http://ostava.012webpages.com/Slika dijalekata po
D.Brozovicu.htm)

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Article Sources and Contributors

Article Sources and Contributors

Shtokavian dialect Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=565795193 Contributors: Abtinb, Adavidb, Ajdebre, Al-Andalus, Alex earlier account, Alice Mudgarden, Alokin, Angel
ivanov angelov, Angr, Antidiskriminator, Argo Navis, Avicennasis, Azalea pomp, BD2412, Bertrand Bellet, Biblbroks, Biruitorul, Bogdangiusca, BokicaK, Bolonium, CALR, Cakloss,
Cantabo07, Ceha, ChrisGualtieri, Coldipa, CrnaGora, Darigon Jr., Deflective, Dijan, Duja, DukljaninCg, Elephantus, EmirA, Evlekis, Faizan, Fram, Francis Tyers, Goldom,
GreatWhiteNortherner, GregorB, Guy Peters, Hadija, Hmains, Hvn0413, IVAN3MAN, Igor, Ivan tambuk, J. 'mach' wust, J. Finkelstein, Jeff3000, Jesuislafete, Jfaro, JimVC3, JorisvS, Joy,
Klako, Korean alpha for knowledge, Kostja, Kovac09, Kubura, Kwamikagami, Leasnam, Leewonbum, Lfdder, Litany, Luka Jaov, Lukaivezic, Luzzifer, Man vyi, Millosh, Mir Harven,
Momisan, Nado158, No such user, Oswald Kronstadt, OwenBlacker, PANONIAN, Peter Isotalo, Plantago, Pokrajac, R'n'B, Ragusan, Random user 8384993, Rich Farmbrough, RickK, Rjwilmsi,
Robofish, Rokonja, Romanm, Rosiestep, Sardanaphalus, Sassisch, SchreiberBike, Sideshow Bob, SilverFox183, Sinjanin, Sir Floyd, Slomox, Smooth O, SofieElisBexter, Stane, Summerbell,
Tabletop, Telephood, Tty29a, VKokielov, WereSpielChequers, Wikipeditor, Woohookitty, Yossarian, Zenanarh, Zoranq, Zyztem2000, . , 164 anonymous edits

Image Sources, Licenses and Contributors

File:Shtokavian subdialects1988.png Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Shtokavian_subdialects1988.png License: Public Domain Contributors: PANONIAN
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
File:Dijalekti-tokavskog-nareja.svg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Dijalekti-tokavskog-nareja.svg License: Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 3.0
Contributors: Ivan25

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