Shtokavian

Shtokavian
štokavski/штокавски
Native to	Serbia,Croatia,Bosnia and Herzegovina,Montenegro,Kosovo
Language family	Indo-European Balto-Slavic Slavic South Slavic Western South Slavic Shtokavian
Standard forms	Serbian Croatian Bosnian Montenegrin Pluricentric Standard Serbo-Croatian
Dialects	Eastern Herzegovinian Younger Ikavian:Bunjevac Eastern Bosnian Šumadija–Vojvodina Slavonian Zeta–South Sandžak Smederevo–Vršac Kosovo–Resava Prizren–South Morava Svrljig–Zaplanje Timok–Lužnica
Language codes
ISO 639-1	sh
ISO 639-3	hbs
Glottolog	shto1241
Linguasphere	53-AAA-ga to -gf & 53-AAA-gi (-gia to -gii)

Area where Shtokavian standard languages are spoken by the majority or plurality of inhabitants (in 2005)

ShtokavianorŠtokavian(/ʃtɒˈkɑːviən,-ˈkæv-/;Serbo-Croatian Latin:štokavski/Serbo-Croatian Cyrillic:штокавски,pronounced[ʃtǒːkaʋskiː])is theprestigesupradialectof thepluricentricSerbo-Croatianlanguage and the basis of itsSerbian,Croatian,BosnianandMontenegrinstandards.It is a part of theSouth Slavic dialect continuum.Its name comes from the form for the interrogative pronoun for "what"što(Western Shtokavian; it isštain Eastern Shtokavian). This is in contrast toKajkavianandChakavian(kajandčaalso meaning "what" ).

Shtokavian is spoken inSerbia,Montenegro,Bosnia and Herzegovina,much ofCroatia,and the southern part ofAustria'sBurgenland.The primary subdivisions of Shtokavian are based on three principles: one is different accents whether the subdialect is Old-Shtokavian or Neo-Shtokavian, second is the way the old Slavic phonemejathas changed (Ikavian, Ijekavian or Ekavian), and third is presence of YoungProto-Slavicisogloss (Schakavian or Shtakavian). Modern dialectology generally recognises seven Shtokavian subdialects.

Distribution of Shtokavian subdialects before 20th century

Early history of Shtokavian

Serbo-Croatian dialects prior to the 16th-century migrations, distinguishing Western and Eastern Shtokavian

Theearly medieval Slavswho later spoke variousBulgarianand Serbo-Croatian dialects migrated acrossMoldaviaandPannonia.According toFrederik Kortlandt,the shared innovations originate from a "Trans-Carpathian" homeland, and by the 4th and 6th century, "the major dialect divisions of Slavic were already established".Dialectologists and Slavists maintain that when the separation of Western South Slavic speeches happened, they separated into five divergent groups, more specifically two, one Slovene and a second Serbo-Croatian with four divergent groups - Kajkavian, Chakavian, Western Shtokavian and Eastern Shtokavian.The latter group can be additionally divided into a first (Kajkavian, Chakavian, Western Shtokavian) and second (Eastern Shtokavian, Torlakian).As noted byRanko Matasović,"the Shtokavian dialect, on the other hand, was from the earliest times very non-unique, with the Western Shtokavian dialects leaning towards Kajkavian, and the Eastern Shtokavian toTorlakian".According to isoglosses, and presumed end of existence of the common Southwestern Slavic language around the 8th-9th century, the formation of the Proto-Western Shtokavian and Proto-Eastern Shtokavian linguistic and territorial unit would be around the 9th-10th century (Proto-Western Shtokavian closer to Proto-Chakavian, while Proto-Eastern Shtokavian shared an old isogloss with Bulgarian).According toIvo Banacin the area of today'sSlavonia,Bosnia and Herzegovina(west ofBrčko,VlasenicaandNeretvaline) and on the littoral between theBay of KotorandCetina,medieval Croats spoke an old West Shtokavian dialect, which, some believe, stemmed fromChakavian,while medieval Serbs spoke two dialects, old East Shtokavian and Torlakian.Many linguists noted a close connection between Chakavian and Western Shtokavian, for examplePavle Ivićsaw Chakavian as an arhaic peripheral zone of Shtokavian, whileDalibor Brozovićsaw the majority of Chakavian dialects as derived from the same accentological core as Western Shtokavian.Western Shtokavian was principally characterized by a three-accent system, whereas Eastern Shtokavian was mostly marked by a two-accent system.

Western Shtokavian covered the major part of present-day Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slavonia and part of SouthernDalmatiainCroatia.Eastern Shtokavian was dominant inSerbia,easternmost Bosnia and Herzegovina and greater parts ofMontenegro.From the 12th century, both dialects started separating further from Chakavian and Kajkavian idioms.According to research of historical linguistics, Old-Shtokavian was well established by the mid-15th century. In this period it was still mixed with Church Slavonic to varying degrees. However, the ultimate development of Western Shtokavian and Eastern Shtokavian was notdivergent(like in the case of Chakavian and Kajkavian), butconvergent.It was the result of migrations (particularly of Neoshtokavian-Eastern Shtokavian speakers), political-cultural border change and also caused by theOttoman invasion(since the 16th century).Initially two separate proto-idioms started to resemble each other so greatly that, according to Brozović (1975), "[today] we can no longer speak of an independent Western Shtokavian, but only about the better or weaker preservation of former West Shtokavian features in some dialects of the unique Shtokavian group of dialects".

As can be seen from the image on the right, originally the Shtokavian dialect covered a significantly smaller area than it covers today, meaning that the Shtokavian speech has spread for the last five centuries, overwhelmingly at the expense of Chakavian and Kajkavian idioms. The modern areal distribution of these three dialects as well as their internal stratification (Shtokavian and Chakavian in particular) is primarily a result of themigrationsresulting from the spread of theOttoman Empirein theBalkans.Migratory waves were particularly strong in the 16th–18th century, bringing about large-scale linguistic and ethnic changes in the Central South Slavic area (see alsoGreat Serb Migrations).

By far the most numerous, mobile and expansionist migrations were those of Ijekavian-Shtokavian speakers of easternHerzegovina,who have spread into most of Western Serbia, many areas of eastern and westernBosnia,large swathes of Croatia (Banovina,Kordun,Lika,parts ofGorski kotar,continental parts of northernDalmatia,some places north ofKupa,parts ofSlavonia,southeasternBaranyaetc.).This is the reasonEastern Herzegovinianis the most spoken Serbo-Croatian dialect today, and why its name is only descriptive of its area of origin. These migrations also played a pivotal role in the spread of Neo-Shtokavian innovations.

Earliest texts of Shtokavian dialect

Proto-Shtokavian, or Church Slavic with elements of nascent Shtokavian, were recorded in legal documents like thecharter of Ban Kulin,regulating the commerce betweenBosniaand Dubrovnik in Croatia, dated 1189, and in liturgical texts likeGršković'sandMihanović's fragments,c. 1150,in southern Bosnia or Herzegovina. Experts' opinions are divided with regard to the extent these texts, especially the Kulin ban parchment, contain contemporary Shtokavian vernacular. Numerous legal and commercial documents from pre-OttomanBosnia,Hum,Serbia,Zeta,and southernDalmatia,especiallyDubrovnikare mainly Shtokavian, with elements of Church Slavic. The first major comprehensive vernacular Shtokavian text is theVatican Croatian Prayer Book,written inDubrovnika decade or two before 1400. In the next two centuries Shtokavian 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 Bosnian Muslim vernacularaljamiadoliterature – the first example being "Chirvat-türkisi"or" Croatian song ", dated 1589.

Relationship towards neighboring dialects

Shtokavian is characterized by a number of characteristic historicalsound changes,accentualchanges, changes ininflection,morphologyandsyntax.Some of these isoglosses are not exclusive and have also been shared by neighboring dialects, and some of them have mostly but not completely spread over the whole Shtokavian area. The differences between Shtokavian and the unrelated, neighboringBulgarian–Macedoniandialects are mostly clear-cut, whereas the differences with the related Serbo-Croatian dialects of Chakavian and Kajkavian are much more fluid, and the mutual influence of various subdialects plays a more prominent role.

The main bundle of isoglosses separates Slovenian and Kajkavian on the one hand from Shtokavian and Chakavian on the other. These are:

1. long falling accent of newer origin (neocircumflex)
2. development of the consonant grouprj(as opposed to consonant/r/) from former soft/r'/before a vowel (e.g.,morjem,zorja)
3. reflexes of/o/or/ọ/of the oldCommon Slavicnasal vowel/ǫ/,and not/u/
4. inflectional morpheme-o(as opposed to-ojo) in the instrumental singular of a-declension

Other characteristics distinguishing Kajkavian from Shtokavian, beside the demonstrative/interrogatory pronounkaj(as opposed tošto/štaused in Shtokavian), are:

1. a reflex of oldsemivowelsof/ẹ/(e.g.dẹn< Common Slavic *dьnь,pẹs< Common Slavic *pьsъ); closed/ẹ/appearing also as ajatreflex
2. retention of word-final-l(e.g.došel,as opposed to Shtokaviandošao)
3. word-initialu-becomingv-(e.g.vuho,vuzel,vozek)
4. dephonemicization ofaffricates/č/ and /ć/ to some form of middle value
5. genitive plural of masculine nouns has the morpheme-of/-ef
6. syncretizeddative, locative and instrumental plural has the ending-ami
7. the ending-mein the first-person plural present (e.g.vidime)
8. affixšin the formation of adjectivalcomparatives(e.g.debleši,slabeši)
9. supine
10. future tense formation in the form ofbom/bum došel, došla, došlo

Characteristics distinguishing Chakavian from Shtokavian, beside the demonstrative/interrogatory pronounča,are:

1. preservation of polytonic three-accent system
2. vocalization ofweak jersin word-initial syllables (e.g.malin/melin< Common Slavic *mъlinъ; cf. Shtokavianmlin)
3. vowel/a/as opposed to/e/afterpalatal consonants/j/,/č/,/ž/(e.g. Čk.jazik/zajik:Št.jezik,Čk.počati:Št.početi,Čk.žaja:Št.želja)
4. the appearance of extremely palatal/t'/or/ć'/(< earlier/t'/) and/j/(< earlier/d'/) either in free positions or in groupsšt',žd'
5. depalatalization of/n'/and/l'/
6. /ž/instead of/dʒ/(c.f. Čk.žep:Št.džep)
7. /č/>/š/before consonants (c.f. Čk.maška:Št.mačka)
8. word-initial consonant groupsčr-,čri-,čre-(c.f. Čk.črivo/črevo:Št.cr(ij)evo,Čk.črn:Št.crn)
9. conditional moodwithbišin the second-person singular
10. non-syncretizeddative, locative and instrumental plural

General characteristics

General characteristics of Shtokavian are the following:

1. štoorštaas the demonstrative/interrogative pronoun
2. differentiation between two short (in addition to two or three long) accents, rising and falling, though not in all Shtokavian speakers
3. preservation of unaccented length, but not consistently across all speeches
4. /u/as the reflex of Common Slavic back nasal vowel/ǫ/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 ofv-+weak semivowelyieldsu-(e.g.unuk< Common Slavic *vъnukъ)
6. schwaresulting from thejermerger yields/a/,with the exception of the Zeta-Raška dialect
7. metathesisofvьsetosve
8. čr->cr-,with the exception of Slavonian,MoliseandVlah oasis-Burgenlanddialect
9. word-final-lchanges to/o/or/a/;the exception is the verbal adjective in the Slavonian southwest
10. ď> /dʑ/⟨đ⟩with numerous exceptions
11. cr>trin the wordtrešnja"cherry"; some exceptions in Slavonia, Hungary and Romania
12. ćandđfromjt,jd(e.g.poći,pođem); 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-āin genitive plural of masculine and feminine nouns, with many exceptions
16. ending-uin locative singular of masculine and neuter nouns (e.g.u gradu,u m(j)estu)
17. augment-ov-/-ev-in the plural of most monosyllabic masculine nouns, with many exceptions (e.g. in the area between Neretva and Dubrovnik)
18. syncretismof 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-afor the neuter gender in nominative plural of pronominal-adjectival declension (e.g.ova m(j)estaand noove m(j)esta)
21. preservation ofaorist,which is however missing in some areas (e.g., around Dubrovnik)
22. special constructs reflecting old dual for numerals 2–4 (dva, tri, četiri stola)
23. many so-called "Turkisms"(turcizmi) or "Orientalisms", i.e. words borrowed fromOttoman Turkish

As can be seen from the list, many of these isoglosses are missing from particular Shtokavian idioms, just as many of them are shared with neighboring non-Shtokavian dialects.

There exist three main criteria for the division of Shtokavian dialects:

1. Accentuation ( "Old-Shtokavian" and "Neo-Shtokavian"; see section below)
2. Yatreflex ( "Ikavian", "Ijekavian", "Ekavian"; see section below)
3. YoungProto-Slavic(600–750 AD)palatal consonantisogloss:*šć-*žƷ(Šćakavski- Schakavian; "Western Shtokavian" including Slavonian, Eastern Bosnian and transitory Western ikavian dialect) and*št&*žd(Štakaviski- Shtakavian; "Eastern Shtokavian" including Eastern Herzegovinian-Krajina, Šumadija-Vojvodina, Kosovo-Resava, Zeta-Raška dialect). The isogloss developed between 7th and 8/9th century, and the former relates those dialects with Chakavian and Kajkavian, while the latter relates those dialects with Bulgarian.

Accentuation

The Shtokavian dialect is divided into Old-Shtokavian and Neo-Shtokavian subdialects. The primary distinction is the accentuation system: although 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-Shtokavianmetatony"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.

Most speakers of Shtokavian, native or taught, from Serbia and Croatia do not distinguish between short rising and short falling tones.They also pronounce most unstressed long vowels as short, with some exceptions, such as genitive plural endings.

The following notation is used for Shtokavian accents:

Description	IPA	Traditional	Diacritic
unstressed short	[e]	e	–
unstressed long	eː	ē	macron
short rising	ě	è	Grave
long rising	ěː	é	Acute
short falling	ê	ȅ	Double grave
long falling	êː	ȇ	Inverted breve

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

Old stress		New stress		Note
IPA	Trad.	IPA	Trad.
kûtɕa	kȕća	kûtɕa	kȕća	No retraction from the first syllable
prâːvda	prȃvda	prâːvda	prȃvda	No retraction from the first syllable
livâda	livȁda	lǐvada	lìvada	Retraction from short to short syllable → short rising
junâːk	junȃk	jǔnaːk	jùnāk	Retraction from long to short syllable → short rising + unstressed length
priːlîka	prīlȉka	prǐːlika	prílika	Retraction from short to long syllable → long rising
ʒīːvîːm	žīvȋm	ʒǐːviːm	žívīm	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.paradȁjz,asistȅnt,poljoprȉvreda), but they are maintained in standard language and dictionaries.

Classification

Map of Shtokavian dialects

Old-Shtokavian dialects

Timok–Prizren (Torlakian)

Main articles:Prizren–Timok dialectandTorlakian dialect

The transitional dialects stretch southwest from theTimok Valleynear theBulgarianborder toPrizren.There is disagreement among linguists whether these dialects belong to the Shtokavian area, because there are many other morphological characteristics apart from rendering ofšto(also, some dialects usekakvoorkvo,typical for Bulgarian), which would place them into a "transitional" group between Shtokavian and Eastern South Slavic languages (BulgarianandMacedonian). The Timok-Prizren group falls to theBalkan language area:declension has all but disappeared, theinfinitivehas yielded tosubjunctivesda-constructions, and adjectives are compared exclusively with prefixes. The accent in the dialect group is a stress accent, and it falls on any syllable in the word. The old semi-vowelhas been retained throughout. The vocaliclhas been retained (vlk=vuk), and some dialects don't distinguishć/čandđ/džby preferring the latter, postalveolar variants. Some subdialects preservelat the end of words (where otherwise it has developed into a short o) –došl,znal,etc. (cf.KajkavianandBulgarian); in others, thislhas become the syllableja.

Torlakian is spoken inMetohija,aroundPrizren,GnjilaneandŠtrpceespecially, inSouthern SerbiaaroundBujanovac,Vranje,Leskovac,Niš,Aleksinac,in the part ofToplica ValleyaroundProkuplje,inEastern SerbiaaroundPirot,Svrljig,Soko Banja,Boljevac,Knjaževacending up with the area aroundZaječar,where the Kosovo-Resava dialect becomes more dominant. It has been recorded several exclaves with Torlakian speeches inside Kosovo-Resava dialect area. One is the most prominent and preserved, like village Dublje near Svilajnac, where the majority of settlers came from Torlakian speaking village Veliki Izvor near Zajecar. Few centuries ago, before settlers from Kosovo and Metohija brought Kosovo-Resava speeches to Eastern Serbia (to Bor and Negotin area), Torlakian speech had been overwhelmingly represented in this region.

Slavonian

Also called theArchaic Šćakavian,it is spoken byCroatswho live in some parts ofSlavonia,Bačka,Baranja,Syrmia,in Croatia and Vojvodina, as well as in northern Bosnia. It is divided into twosubdialects:southern (Posavian /posavski) and northern (Podravian /podravski). The Slavonian dialect has mixed Ikavian and Ekavian pronunciations. Ikavian accent is predominant in the Posavina, Baranja, Bačka, and in the Slavonian subdialect enclave ofDerventa,whereas Ekavian accent is predominant inPodravina.There are enclaves of one accent in the territory of the other, as well as mixed Ekavian–Ikavian and Jekavian–Ikavian areas. In some villages in Hungary, the originalyatis preserved. Local variants can widely differ in the degree of Neo-Shtokavian influences. In two villages inPosavina,Siče and Magića Male, thel,as in the verbnosil,has been retained in place of the modernnosio.In some villages in the Podravina,čris preserved instead of the usualcr,for example inčrninstead ofcrn.Both forms are usual in Kajkavian but very rare in Shtokavian.

Eastern Bosnian

Also calledJekavian-Šćakavian,Eastern Bosnian dialect has Jekavian pronunciations in the vast majority of local forms and it is spoken by the majority of Bosniaks living in that area, which includes the bigger Bosnian citiesSarajevo,Tuzla,andZenica,and by most of Croats and Serbs that live in that area (Vareš,Usora,etc.). Together with basic Jekavian pronunciation, mixed pronunciations exist inTešanjandMaglajdete–djeteta(Ekavian–Jekavian) and aroundŽepčeandJablanicadjete–diteta(Jekavian–ikavian). In the central area of the subdialect, thediphthonguoexists in some words instead of the archaicland more commonulikevuokorstuop,instead of the standard modernvukandstup.

Zeta–Raška

Main article:Zeta–Raška dialect

Also known asĐekavian-Ijekavian,it is spoken in eastern Montenegro, inPodgoricaandCetinje,around the city ofNovi Pazarin easternRaškain Serbia, and by descendants of Montenegrin settlers in the single village ofPerojinIstria.The majority of its speakers are Serbs and Montenegrins andMuslimsfrom Serbia and Montenegro. Together with the dominant Jekavian pronunciation, mixed pronunciations likedjete–deteta(Jekavian–Ekavian) around Novi Pazar andBijelo Polje,dite–đeteta(Ikavian–Jekavian) around Podgorica anddete–đeteta(Ekavian–Jekavian) in the village ofMrkojevićiin southern Montenegro. Mrkojevići are also characterised by retention ofčrinstead ofcras in the previously mentioned villages in Podravina.

Some vernaculars have a very open /ɛ/ or /æ/ as their reflex of ь/ъ, very rare in other Shtokavian vernaculars (sænanddæninstead ofsananddan).Other phonetic features include sounds likeʑiniʑestiinstead ofizjesti,ɕas inɕekirainstead ofsjekira.However these sounds are known also to many in East Herzegovina like those inKonavle,and are not Zeta–Raška specific. There is a loss of the /v/ sound apparent, seen inčo'ekorđa'ola.The loss of distinction between /ʎ/ and /l/ in some vernaculars is based on asubstratum.The wordpljesmais a hypercorrection (instead ofpjesma) because many vernaculars have changed lj to j.

All verbs in infinitive finish with "t" (example:pjevat'sing'). This feature is also present in most vernaculars of East Herzegovinian, and actually almost all Serbian and Croatian vernaculars.

The groupa + ogaveā/aː/ (kāinstead ofkao,rekāforrekao), like in other seaside vernaculars. Elsewhere, more common isao>ō.

Kosovo–Resava

See also:Smederevo–Vršac dialect

Also calledOlder Ekavian,is spoken by Serbs, mostly in western and northeastern Kosovo (Kosovo ValleywithKosovska Mitrovicaand also aroundPeć), inIbarValley withKraljevo,aroundKruševac,Trstenikand in Župa, in the part ofToplicaValley (Kuršumlija) in theMorava Valley(Jagodina,Ćuprija,Paraćin,Lapovo), inResavaValley (Svilajnac,Despotovac) and northeastern Serbia (Smederevo,Požarevac,Bor,Majdanpek,Negotin,Velika Plana) with one part ofBanat(aroundKovin,Bela CrkvaandVršac). This dialect can be also found in parts ofBanatska Klisura(Clisura Dunării) in Romania, in places where Romanian Serbs live (left bank of the Danube).

Substitution ofjatis predominantly Ekavian accent even on the end of datives (ženeinstead ofženi), in pronouns (tehinstead oftih), in comparatives (dobrejinstead ofdobriji) in the negative of biti (nesaminstead ofnisam); inSmederevo–Vršacdialects, Ikavian forms can be found (di siinstead ofgde si?).Smederevo–Vršac dialect(spoken in northeastern Šumadija, 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 Šumadija–Vojvodina and Kosovo–Resava dialects.

Neo-Shtokavian dialects

Bosnian–Dalmatian

Main article:Younger Ikavian dialect

See also:Bunjevac dialectandSlavomolisano dialect

Also calledWestern Ikavian.The majority of its speakers areCroatswho live inLika,Kvarner,Dalmatia,Herzegovina,and of northBačkaaround Subotica in Serbia and southBács-Kiskunof Hungary, and inMolisein Italy. The minority speakers of it includeBosniaksin western Bosnia, mostly around the city ofBihać,and also in central Bosnia where Croats and Bosniaks (e.g.Travnik,Jajce,Bugojno,Vitez) used to speak this dialect. Exclusively Ikavian accent, Bosnian and Herzegovinian forms useoin verb participle, whereas those in Dalmatia and Lika use-ijaorialike invidija/vidia.Local form ofBačkawas proposed as the base for the Danubian branch of theBunjevac dialectof Bunjevac Croats (Bunjevci) inVojvodina,Serbia.

Dubrovnik

Main article:Dubrovnik subdialect

Also known asWestern Ijekavian,in earlier centuries, this subdialect was the independent subdialect of Western Shtokavian dialect. The Dubrovnik dialect has mixed Jekavian and Ikavian pronunciations or mixed Shtokavian and Chakavian vocabulary. Some vocabulary fromDalmatian,olderVenetianand modernItalianare also present.

Šumadija–Vojvodina

Main article:Šumadija–Vojvodina dialect

Also known asYounger Ekavian,is one of the bases for the standardSerbian language.It is spoken by Serbs across most of Vojvodina (excluding easternmost parts around Vršac), northern part ofwestern Serbia,aroundKragujevacandValjevoinŠumadija,inMačvaaroundŠabacandBogatić,inBelgradeand in predominantly ethnically Serbian villages in eastern Croatia around the town ofVukovar.It is predominately Ekavian (Ikavian forms are of morphophonological origin). In some parts of Vojvodina the old declension is preserved. Most Vojvodina dialects and some dialects in Šumadija have an openeando.However the vernaculars of western Serbia, and in past to them connected vernaculars of (old) Belgrade and southwestern Banat (Borča,Pančevo,Bavanište) are as close to the standard as a vernacular can be. The dialect presents a base for the Ekavian variant of the Serbian standard language.

Eastern Herzegovinian

Main article:Eastern Herzegovinian dialect

Also calledEastern HerzegovinianorNeo-Ijekavian.It encompasses by far the largest area and the number of speakers of all Shtokavian dialects. It is the dialectal basis of the standard literaryCroatian,Bosnian,Serbian,andMontenegrinlanguages.

Micro groups:

• westernMontenegro– spoken south Ijekavian variant.
• Croatswestern Ijekavian variant micro groups in regionSlavonia,Banovina,Kordun,Žumberak,Neretva,East Herzegovina(Ravno,Stolac,Buna,Neum), around of regionDubrovnik,and is the basis of the Croatian standard. City: (Osijek,Bjelovar,Daruvar,Sisak,Pakrac,Petrinja,Dubrovnik,Metković).
• Serbseast Ijekavian variant groups; East Bosnia, East Herzegovina (Trebinje,Nevesinje,Bileća), Bosnian Krajina, western Serbia and Podrinje (Užice,Čačak,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/ɡ/(bijak,bijakuimperfect of verbbiti). Local forms in theŽumberakenclave and aroundDubrovnikorSlunjhave some special Croatian features, influenced fromChakavianand thewestern subdialect,whereas forms inBjelovarorPakracare influenced fromKajkavian.

Yat reflexes

Present-day spread of the threeyatpronunciations in Serbo-Croatian:

Ijekavian

Ekavian

Ikavian

The Proto-Slavic voweljat(ѣ inCyrillicor ě inLatin) has changed over time, coming to be pronounced differently in different areas. These different reflexes define three "pronunciations" (izgovori) of Shtokavian:

• In Ekavian pronunciation (ekavski[ěːkaʋskiː]),jathas conflated into the vowele
• in Ikavian pronunciation (ikavski[ǐːkaʋskiː]),it has conflated into the voweli
• in Ijekavian or Jekavian pronunciation (ijekavski[ijěːkaʋskiː]orjekavski[jěːkaʋskiː]),it has come to be pronouncedijeorje,depending on whether the vowel was long or short. In standardCroatian,pronunciation is always Jekavian: when yat is short then it is[je](written asje), and when yat is long then it is[je:](written asije).

Historically, the yat reflexes had been inscribed in Church Slavic texts before the significant development of Shtokavian dialect, reflecting the beginnings of the formative period of the vernacular. In early documents it is predominantly Church Slavic of the Serbian or Croatianrecension(variant). The first undoubted Ekavian reflex (beše'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 (želijemo'we wish', a "hyper-Ijekavism" ) in Croatia in 1399. Partial attestation can be found in earlier texts (for instance, Ikavian pronunciation 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 the 20th century, many vernaculars with unsubstituted yatare found.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 andBosniaksindependently 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 theQuran,where this phoneme is the carrier of specific semantic value.

The Ekavian pronunciation, sometimes called Eastern, is spoken primarily in Serbia, and in small parts of Croatia. The Ikavian pronunciation, sometimes called Western, is spoken in western and central Bosnia, western Herzegovina, some of Slavonia and the major part of Dalmatia in Croatia. The Ijekavian pronunciation, sometimes called Southern, is spoken in central Croatia, most of Slavonia, southern Dalmatia, most of Bosnia, Herzegovina, Montenegro, as well as some parts of western Serbia. 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	sědĕti	sedeti (sèdeti)	siditi (sìditi)	sjediti
to grow gray hairs	sěděti	sedeti (sédeti)	siditi (síditi)	sijediti
to heat	grějati	grejati	grijati	grijati

Longijeis pronounced as a single syllable,[jeː],by many Ijekavian speakers, especially in Croatia. However, in Zeta dialect and most of East Herzegovina dialect, it is pronounced as twosyllables,[ije],which is the Croatian official standard too, but seldom actually practiced. This distinction can be clearly heard in first verses ofnational anthems of CroatiaandMontenegro—they're sung as "L'je-pa[two syllables] na-ša do-mo-vi-no"and"Ojsvi-je-tla[three syllables] maj-ska zo-ro"respectively.

The Ikavian pronunciation is the only one that is not part of any standard variety of Serbo-Croatian today, though it was a variant used for a significant literary output between the 15th and 18th centuries. This has led to a reduction in its use and an increase in the use of Ijekavian in traditionally Ikavian areas since the standardization. For example, most people in formerly fully IkavianSplit, Croatiatoday use both Ikavian and Ijekavian words in everyday speech, without a clearly predictable pattern (usually more emotionally charged or intimate words are Ikavian and more academic, political, generally standardised words Ijekavian, but it is not a straight out rule).

TheIETF language tagshave assigned the variantssr-ekavskandsr-ijekavskto Ekavian and Ijekavian pronunciations, respectively.

Ethnic affiliation of native speakers of Shtokavian 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 philologistJosef Dobrovský,the SlovakPavel Šafárik,the SlovenesJernej KopitarandFranz Miklosich,the SerbVuk Karadžić,the Croat of Slovak originBogoslav Šulek,and the CroatiansVatroslav JagićandAnte Starčević.

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 Shtokavian 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 Shtokavian subdialects. Because 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-Shtokavian speakers along ethnic lines in present times is as follows:

• Timok-Prizren (Ekavian accent) dialect: Serbian
• Kosovo-Resava (Ekavian accent) dialect: Serbian
• Zeta-Raška 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-Shtokavian dialect is divided as follows with regard to the ethnicity of its native speakers:

• Šumadija-Vojvodina dialect (Ekavian accent): Serbian
• Dalmatian-Bosnian dialect (Ikavian accent): Croatian and Bosniak
• Eastern Herzegovinian (Ijekavian accent): Serbian, Montenegrin, Croatian and Bosniak

Group	Sub-Dialect	Serbian	Croatian	Bosnian	Montenegrin
Old-Shtokavian	Timok-Prizren	x
	Kosovo-Resava	x
	Zeta-Raška	x		x	x
	Slavonian		x
	Eastern Bosnian		x	x
Neo-Shtokavian	Šumadija-Vojvodina	x
	Dalmatian-Bosnian		x	x
	Eastern Herzgovinian	x	x	x	x

Standard language

The standardBosnian,Croatian,Montenegrin,andSerbianvariants of thepluricentric Serbo-Croatianstandard languageare all based on the Neo-Shtokavian dialectas it was formalized inSFR Yugoslavia.

However, it must be stressed that standard variants, irrespectively of their mutual differences, have been stylised in such manners that parts of the Neo-Shtokavian dialect have been retained—for instance, declension—but other features were purposely omitted or altered—for instance, the phoneme "h" was reinstated in the standard language.

Croatian has had a long tradition of Shtokavian vernacular literacy and literature. It took almost four and half centuries for Shtokavian to prevail as the dialectal basis for the Croatian standard. In other periods, Chakavian and Kajkavian dialects, as well as hybrid Chakavian–Kajkavian–Shtokavian interdialects "contended" for the Croatian nationalkoine– but eventually lost, mainly due to historical and political reasons. By the 1650s it was fairly obvious that Shtokavian would become the dialectal basis for the Croatian standard, but this process was finally completed in the 1850s, when Neo-Shtokavian Ijekavian, based mainly on Ragusan (Dubrovnik), Dalmatian, Bosnian, and Slavonian literary heritage became the national standard language.

Serbian was much faster in standardisation. Althoughvernacular literaturewas present in the 18th century, it was Vuk Karadžić who, between 1818 and 1851, made a radical break with the past and established Serbian Neo-Shtokavian 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 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.

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 stylize their own standard language, based on the Neo-Shtokavian dialect, but reflecting their characteristics—from phonetics to semantics.

Also, the contemporary situation is unstable with regard to the accentuation, because 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 forCroatian,where, contrary to all expectations, the influence ofChakavianandKajkavian dialectson the standard language has been waxing, not waning, in the past 50–70 years.

The Croatian, Serbian, and Bosnian standard variants, although all based on the East Herzegovinian subdialect of Neo-Shtokavian and mutually intelligible, do differ slightly, as is the case with other pluricentric languages (English, Spanish,Germanand Portuguese, among others), but not to a degree which would justify considering them asdifferent languages.Their structures are grammatically and phonologically almost identical, but have differences in vocabulary and semantics: "Lexical differences between the ethnic variants are extremely limited, even when compared with those between closely related Slavic languages (such as standard Czech and Slovak, Bulgarian and Macedonian), and grammatical differences are even less pronounced. More importantly, complete understanding between the ethnic variants of the standard language makes translation and second language teaching impossible."SeeDifferences between standard Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian.

In 2017, numerous prominent writers, scientists, journalists, activists and other public figures from Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia signed theDeclaration on the Common Language,which states that in Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro a commonpolycentric standard languageis used, consisting of several standard varieties, similar to the situation inGerman,English, or Spanish.

See also

• Abstand and ausbau languages
• Language secessionism in Serbo-Croatian
• Pluricentric language
• Mutual intelligibility

Sources

• 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.OCLC47186443.
• —— (2006).Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian - A Grammar with Sociolinguistic Commentary.The University of Wisconsin Press.ISBN978-0-299-21194-3.
• Blum, Daniel (2002).Sprache und Politik: Sprachpolitik und Sprachnationalismus in der Republik Indien und dem sozialistischen Jugoslawien (1945–1991)[Language and Policy: Language Policy and Linguistic Nationalism in the Republic of India and the Socialist Yugoslavia (1945–1991)]. Beiträge zur Südasienforschung; vol. 192 (in German). Würzburg: Ergon. p. 200.ISBN3-89913-253-X.OCLC51961066.
• Brozović, Dalibor(1992). Michael Clyne (ed.).Serbo-Croatian as Pluricentric Language, u:Pluricentric Languages.Differing Norms in Different Nations.Berlin-New York: Mouton de Gruyter. pp. 347–380.
• Bunčić, Daniel (2008), "Die (Re-)Nationalisierung der serbokroatischen Standards" [The (Re-)Nationalisation of Serbo-Croatian Standards], in Kempgen, Sebastian (ed.),Deutsche Beiträge zum 14. Internationalen Slavistenkongress, Ohrid, 2008,Welt der Slaven (in German), Munich: Otto Sagner, pp. 89–102,OCLC238795822
• Crystal, David(1998) [1st pub. 1987],The Cambridge encyclopedia of language,Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press,OCLC300458429
• Gröschel, 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.LCCN2009473660.OCLC428012015.OL15295665W.Inhaltsverzeichnis.
• Kapović, Mate(2015).Povijest hrvatske akcentuacije. Fonetika[History of Croatian Accentuation. Phonetics] (in Croatian). Zagreb:Matica hrvatska.ISBN978-953-150-971-8.
• Kordić, Snježana(2010),Jezik i nacionalizam[Language and Nationalism](PDF),Rotulus Universitas (in Serbo-Croatian), Zagreb: Durieux, p. 430,ISBN978-953-188-311-5,LCCN2011520778,OCLC729837512,OL15270636W,CROSBI 475567,archived(PDF)from the original on 1 June 2012,retrieved3 April2014
• Kortlandt, Frederik(1982)."Early dialectal diversity in South Slavic I".South Slavic and Balkan Linguistics.Studies in Slavic and General Linguistics. Vol. 2. Editions Rodopi B.V., Brill. pp. 177–192.JSTOR40996889.
• Kortlandt, Frederik(2003)."Early dialectal diversity in South Slavic II".Dutch Contributions to the Thirteenth International Congress of Slavists. Linguistics.Studies in Slavic and General Linguistics. Vol. 30. Editions Rodopi B.V., Brill. pp. 215–235.JSTOR40997749.
• Lisac, Josip(2003),Hrvatska dijalektologija 1 – Hrvatski dijalekti i govori štokavskog narječja i hrvatski govori torlačkog narječja,Zagreb: Golden marketing – Tehnička knjiga,ISBN953-212-168-4
• Lukežić, Iva (1996)."Prilog raspravi o genezi hrvatskih narječja"[A contribution to the treatise of the beginnings of Croatian dialects].Fluminensia(in Croatian).8(1–2): 223–236.
• Matasović, Ranko(2008).Poredbenopovijesna gramatika hrvatskoga jezika[Comparative and historical grammar of Croatian] (in Croatian). Zagreb:Matica hrvatska.ISBN978-953-150-840-7.
• Okuka, Miloš(2008),Srpski dijalekti,SDK Prosvjeta,ISBN978-953-7611-06-4
• Pohl, Hans-Dieter (1996), "Serbokroatisch – Rückblick und Ausblick" [Serbo-Croatian – Looking backward and forward], in Ohnheiser, Ingeborg (ed.),Wechselbeziehungen zwischen slawischen Sprachen, Literaturen und Kulturen in Vergangenheit und Gegenwart: Akten der Tagung aus Anlaß des 25jährigen Bestehens des Instituts für Slawistik an der Universität Innsbruck, Innsbruck, 25. – 27. Mai 1995,Innsbrucker Beiträge zur Kulturwissenschaft, Slavica aenipontana; vol. 4 (in German), Innsbruck: Non Lieu, pp. 205–219,OCLC243829127
• Sussex, Roland;Cubberly, Paul (2006),The Slavic Languages,Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo: Cambridge University Press,ISBN978-0-521-22315-7
• Pešikan, Mitar (2007), "III. Akcenat i druga pitanja pravilnog govora",Srpski jezički priručnik(IV ed.), Beogradska knjiga, p. 65,ISBN978-86-7590-169-3
• Zubčić, Sanja (2017).Neocirkumfleks u čakavskom narječju[Neocircumflex in the Čakavian](PDF)(in Croatian). Rijeka: Filozofski fakultet u Rijeci.ISBN978-953-7975-50-0.

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.OCLC46734277.
• Gröschel, Bernhard(2003)."Postjugoslavische Amtssprachenregelungen - Soziolinguistische Argumente gegen die Einheitlichkeit des Serbokroatischen?"[Post-Yugoslav Official Languages Regulations – Sociolinguistic Arguments Against Consistency of Serbo-Croatian?].Srpski Jezik(in German).8(1–2): 135–196.ISSN0354-9259.Retrieved14 April2015.(COBISS-Sr).
• Hrnjica, Samra (2018)."Zapadna štokavština u djelu Aleksandra Belića".Croatica et Slavica Iadertina(in Serbo-Croatian).14/1(14): 77–85.
• Kapović, Mate(2008)."O naglasku u staroštokavskom slavonskom dijalektu".Croatica et Slavica Iadertina(in Serbo-Croatian).4(4): 115–147.doi:10.15291/csi.414.
• Kordić, Snježana(2004)."Pro und kontra:" Serbokroatisch "heute"[Pro and con: "Serbo-Croatian" nowadays](PDF).In Krause, Marion; Sappok, Christian (eds.).Slavistische Linguistik 2002: Referate des XXVIII. Konstanzer Slavistischen Arbeitstreffens, Bochum 10.-12. September 2002.Slavistishe Beiträge; vol. 434 (in German). Munich: Otto Sagner. pp. 97–148.ISBN3-87690-885-X.OCLC56198470.SSRN3434516.CROSBI 430499.Archived(PDF)from the original on 4 August 2012.Retrieved2 October2013.(ÖNB).
• —— (2009)."Policentrični standardni jezik"[Polycentric Standard Language](PDF).In Badurina, Lada;Pranjković, Ivo;Silić, Josip (eds.).Jezični varijeteti i nacionalni identiteti(in Serbo-Croatian). Zagreb: Disput. pp. 83–108.ISBN978-953-260-054-4.OCLC437306433.SSRN3438216.CROSBI 426269.Archived(PDF)from the original on 4 August 2012.Retrieved31 January2015.(ÖNB).
• —— (2009)."Plurizentrische Sprachen, Ausbausprachen, Abstandsprachen und die Serbokroatistik"[Pluricentric languages, Ausbau languages, Abstand languages and the Serbo-Croatians].Zeitschrift für Balkanologie(in German).45(2): 210–215.ISSN0044-2356.OCLC680567046.SSRN3439240.CROSBI 436361.ZDB-ID201058-6.Archived(PDF)from the original on 4 August 2012.Retrieved6 May2014.
• Kristophson, Jürgen (2000). "Vom Widersinn der Dialektologie: Gedanken zum Štokavischen" [Dialectological Nonsense: Thoughts on Shtokavian].Zeitschrift für Balkanologie(in German).36(2): 178–186.ISSN0044-2356.
• Peco, Asim(1967). "Uticaj turskog jezika na fonetiku štokavskih govora".Naš jezik,16, 3.(in Serbo-Croatian)
• Peco, Asim(1981)."Čakavsko-šćakavski odnosi u zapadnobosanskoj govornoj zoni".Hrvatski dijalektološki zbornik(in Serbo-Croatian) (5): 137–144.
• Škiljan, Dubravko(2002).Govor nacije: jezik, nacija, Hrvati[Voice of the Nation: Language, Nation, Croats]. Biblioteka Obrisi moderne (in Serbo-Croatian). Zagreb: Golden marketing.OCLC55754615.
• Thomas, Paul-Louis (2003)."Le serbo-croate (bosniaque, croate, monténégrin, serbe): de l'étude d'une langue à l'identité des langues"[Serbo-Croatian (Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin, Serbian): from the study of a language to the identity of languages].Revue des études slaves(in French).74(2–3): 311–325.doi:10.3406/slave.2002.6801.ISSN0080-2557.OCLC754204160.ZDB-ID208723-6.Retrieved23 September2015.
• Vidović, Domagoj (2009)."Ikavski i ijekavski govori na širemu neretvanskom području"[Ikavian and Ijekavian speeches in the wider Neretva area].Ivo Lendić: književnik, novinar, proganik; Četvrti neretvanski književni, znanstveni i kulturni susret(in Serbo-Croatian). pp. 191–205.ISBN978-953-6223-18-3.
• Vidović, Domagoj (2009)."Utjecaj migracija na novoštokavske ijekavske govore u Neretvanskoj krajini i Donjoj Hercegovini"[The influence of migrations on the Neoštokavian Ijekavian subdialects in the Neretva region and in lower Herzegovina].Hrvatski dijalektološki zbornik(in Serbo-Croatian) (15): 283–304.

External links

• Map of Serbo-Croatian dialects according to Brabec, Kraste, and Živković