The first thing that one notices when listening to a typical Kajkavian speech is that it sounds different. Kajkavian is spoken in the north of Croatia, around Zagreb and in a broad diamond-shaped area between borders with Slovenia and Hungary.
Sounds
The Kajkavian sounds different because it usually has a different vowel system than other dialects. It has two types of e and sometimes two types of o; other vowels can be also pronounced in strange ways.
The 'yat' (sequences ijë, jë, ë and ï) is almost always e (I spell it here as ë). The 'yer' (ä) is always also e, and it still disappears! The notation ä finally comes to use: all ä's from Štokavian and Čakavian are ë's in Kajkavian (Standard forms are in curly braces {...}):
dëska {däska} "plank"
mëgla {mägla} "fog"
lëp {lijëp} "nice"
nedëla {nedjëlja} "Sunday"
pës {päs} "dog"
petëk {petäk} "Friday"
sën {sän} "dream"
stëklo {stäklo} "glass"
vëtër {vjëtär} "wind"
Other e's (that don't have anything with 'yat' or 'yer') are pronounced differently, more open, like /æ/. The difference is similar to English "bad" (e) vs. "bed" (ë). The open e is a very characteristic sound of Kajkavian. Note that the ë is just an additional mark I have invented, there's no agreed way to spell two e's (scientific works use very awkward marks).
Other vowels are usually pronounced much more "closed", for instance a is pronounced somewhere between Čakavian and Štokavian a and o, similar to American pronunciation of "lot". In many variants, in some words, there's "closed" o instead of u: mož, roka, roža, pot instead of muž, ruka, ruža, put but that does not apply to all u's in all words!
Additionally, there are variants where long vowels are pronounced as "diphthongs": long ë is ië, long o ou; for instance, dën and lëp are actually pronounced as dien and liëp. Unfortunately, there are many local variants and I cannot go to such details here.
There is no sound lj in most variants, usually l is used instead: prijatel (Std. prijatelj). The sound ć is fused with č, there is only one sound, spelled as č.
The "Final L Rule" does not work at all, there are final l's all over the place: čital (Std. čitao), etc. Initial čr is in same words as in NW čakavian: črn, črv "black, worm" {crn, crv}. Most consonants are softened when word-final: krv, brëg are normally pronounced as /krf, brëk/. This is similar to German.
There are three pitch distinctions (stress types) on a stressed vowel similar to Čakavian, in most local speeches, and can fall on any syllable.
In most variants, words cannot begin on i/- and u-, j- and v get prefixed to such words, e.g. vuho "ear" {uho}
Nouns
There are no differences between ma and mi genders and noun types — there are only m nouns and m gender! However, still there are some masculine nouns of a-type. The declension patterns vary a bit, here's one "average" example:
case m-nouns n-nouns a-nouns i-nouns nom.sg. - -œ -a - acc.sg. -a -u dat./loc.sg. -u -e -i gen.sg. -a ins.sg. -œm -um nom.pl. -i -a -e -i acc.pl. -e dat.pl. -œm -am gen.pl. -ov -, -ih -ih ins.pl. -i, -mi -am(i) -mi loc.pl. -eh, -ih -ah, -eh, -ih -ah -ih, -ah
The case pattern is in many aspects similar to the Čakavian: there is no long plural, all nouns have only the short plural; there are no consonant changes before -i: korak "step", pl. koraki vs. Std. pl. koraci!
In some regions, there is always e instead of "variable" œ, even in the nom., so all neuter nouns end on -e, e.g. sele, mese instead of selo, meso "village, meat".
The following nouns are characteristic of Kajkavian:
cajt "time" {vrijëme}
cucëk "dog" (also pës) {päs}
cug "train" {vlak}
človek "man, human" {čovjëk}
dëkla "girl" {djëvojka}
fela "type, kind" {vrsta}
grunt "cultivated land"
hiža "house" {kuća}
kača "snake" {zmija}
klët "shack, small building in a vineyard"kmica "dark, darkness" {tama, mrak}
lasi f pl. "hair" {kosa}
luknja "hole" {rupa}
pajcek "small pig" {prase}
pajdaš "buddy"
penezi m pl. "money" {noväc}
pleča n pl. "back (of a person)" {leđa}
vës "village" (also selo) {selo}
vura "hour" {sat}
zelje "cabbage" {kupus}
Certain nouns that were previously only found in Kajkavian (e.g. dečko "boy, boyfriend") are now used more widely and belong to Colloquial Croatian; on the other hand, many old Kajkavian words are being replaced by ones from the Standard Croatian.
Adjectives
The case patterns of adjectives again vary a bit, here's an "average" pattern (recall, there are only three genders in Kajkavian!):
case m n f nom.sg. - -œ -a acc.sg. -œga -u dat./loc.sg. -œmu -oj gen.sg. -œga -e ins.sg. -œm -um nom.pl. -i -a -e acc.pl. -e dat.pl. -em gen./loc.pl. -eh ins.pl. -emi
Again, in some regions, but not everywhere, there is always e instead of "variable" œ, therefore, it's not lëpo selo but lëpe sele!
Another important thing is that most adjectives form comparative by adding -ši (in Standard only three use that ending). Keep in mind that in Kajkavian there's "disappearing e" (I mark it as ë) instead of "disappearing a" of Štokavian, Čakavian and of course Standard:
dobër → bolši {dobär → bolji} "good → better"
slab → slabši {slab → slabiji} "weak → weaker"
Again, in some Kajkavian regions, -eji is used as well to form comparatives. The following adjectives are characteristic of Kajkavian:
črn "black" {crn}
glibok "deep" {dubok}
grd "ugly" {ružän}
hud "evil" {zao}
nor "crazy" {lud}
Verbs
The present tense has slightly modified and simplified endings; I have also listed "be", and its negation:
1st sg. -e-m -a-m -i-m sëm nis 2nd sg. -e-š -a-š -i-š si nisi 2nd sg. -e -a -i je ni 1st pl. -e-me -a-me -i-me sme nisme 2nd pl. -e-te -a-te -i-te ste niste 3rd pl. -e-ju -a-ju -i-ju su nisu
As in Čakavian, "can" is just regular morem, but there's also a special verb "can not": nemrem. The comparative verb is just bi in all persons and numbers.
The future is formed either with verb bum + past part., or just present of perf. verbs is used. The verb bum is shortened budem and of course has present forms only:
bum čekal {čekat ću} "I will wait"
buju pili {pit će} "They will drink"
kupim to {kupit ću to} "I'll buy that"
Past participles of course have -l in sg. m, and ë is inserted instead of ä. In i/je-verbs pattern is modified:
rekël, rekla {rekäo, rekla} past part. "say" (perf.)
vidël, vidla {vidio, vidjëla} past part. "see" (perf.)
Infinitive is used only in constructs with other verbs, it's not used to form any tenses. There are two types of infinitives: with and without final -i. One with -i is used with non-motion verbs:
Nemrem spati. {Ne mogu spavati.} "I can't sleep."
Idem spat. {Idem spavati.} "I'm going to sleep."
Verb endings vary, chiefly the 1st pers. pl. -me where also -mo is often heard. For example of verb forms, here's a popular song in Kajkavian Kaj nam pak moreju:
Igramo polku, glazba nam svira
Kaj nam pak moreju
Vužgi po bajsu, dosti je mira
Kaj nam pak moreju
...
Dignimo čaše u zdravlje naše
Kaj nam pak moreju
Kakav je da je, život nam paše
Kaj nam pak moreju
Igrame, pevame
I pajdaše dobre sebi zoveme
Igrame, pevame
I do zore mi se doma ne dame
...
The following verbs are characteristic of Kajkavian:
denem, del perf. "put" {stavim}
hičem, hital ~ hitim, hitil "throw" {bacam ~ bacim}
hočem, štel (!) "want" {hoću, htio, htjëla}
naredim perf. "make" {napravim}
pem perf. "go" {idem}
razmem "understand" {razumijem}
rivam ~ rinem "push" {guram ~ gurnem}
spominam "talk" {razgovaram}
vlečem, vlekël, vlekla "pull" {vučem, vukäo, vukla}
zimam ~ zemem, zel "take" {uzimam ~ uzmem, uzeo}
Many Kajkavian verbs are also used in NW Čakavian; among them, all verbs derived from idem have -jdem (Std. -đem):
dëlam "work" {radim}
dišim, dišal "smell" {mirišem, mirisao}
dojdem, došël, došla, dojti "come" {dođem, došäo, došla, doći}
iščem, iskal "search" {tražim}
kurim "burn" {palim}
najdem, našël, našla, najti "find" {nađem, našäo, našla, naći}
otpirem, otpiral ~ otprem, otprl "open" {otvaram ~ otvorim}
peljam ~ do- "carry, bring" {vozim ~ dovezem, dovezao, dovezla, dovesti}
povedam ~ velim "tell, say" {govorim, kažem}
prosim "please, kindly ask" {molim}
spim, spal "sleep" {spavam}
tancam "dance" {plešem}
zapirem, zapiral ~ zaprem, zaprl "close" {zatvaram ~ zatvorim}
0 comment(s):
Post a Comment