Chakavian Čakavski

What is chakavian?
It's one of the three majorly distinctive dialects of Croatian. It is found on the islands

Where did it come from?
It is found on the Dalmatian and Istrian coasts of Croatia and the islands. It has more Slovene (Old Church Slavonic) hold overs, and more foreign cognates that an English speaker might recognize, if they could read the alphabet.

Why does it matter?
Sometimes you will meet people during family research that only speak that language. And you really have to know Croatian to know what it means. There are Croats in Zagreb who speak kajkavian or stokavian, and cannot at all understand chakavian speakers.



What are some key phrases?


Cha--What? Ča   Što

brez--like bez, without. This is a Slovene holdover

Di--Where--like Gde or đe

Volin vas  I love you all: Normal stokavian is  Volim Vas

To znan    I know that  Normal stokavian is To znam

See the ending difference? When you listen to Flynn Rider from Tangled, or Moana (Vaiana in Croatian), both use chakavian dialects because they are from island cultures, and they rhyme better with the use of the an or in verb conjugation, instead of the traditional am or im.

A use of i instead of e or ij in certain vowels. Rić instead of reć or rijeć (word for word)
This is known as ikavian, a dialect spoken on the Coast, in Lika (where Nikola Tesla was born), and Croatian dominated parts of Bosnia (called Herzegovina).


Add more differences if you can think of them.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chakavian

Comments

Popular Posts