We arrive at two dialects that are mixing quite often, and most of the times it's hard to tell if a speech is more Čakavian or Štokavian. And we find some nice songs!
Characteristics
Both dialects have just i for the 'yat' and are therefore called ikavski ("ikavian"). Therefore, dite, mliko, lipo, svit, cvit, vrime, mriža, srića... {dijëte, mlijëko, lijëpo, svijët, cvijët, vrijëme, mrëža, srëća...}.
The two dialects are spoken in two areas: SE-čakavian is spoken in western and southern Istria (refugees from the Turkish wars moved there some 500 years ago) and in Dalmatia, on all islands except the most southern ones (Mljet and further down south) and on the mainland west from the Neretva river (this means that Dubrovnik uses another dialect), and inland up to Central and Western Bosnia. Also, there are some long-time-ago settlers in Slavonia and Northern Vojvodina (in Serbia) around Subotica, and some others near Zagreb.
In Dalmatia, there is a opposition between the islands and the mainland. There are names for people "inland" or "further inland" (Vlaj) and "coastal" or "islanders" (Bodul). This means that people inland call everyone on the coast and islands Boduli, and people on the mainland coast call only the islanders Boduli; the opposite holds for the name Vlaj. The names are often used as mild insults. Everything can be shown schematically (and simplified) like this:
islands, some coastal towns most coastal towns Split, coastal area hills, inland → Vlaji SE-čakavian + some i-štokavian i-štokavian + some SE-čakavian i-štokavian i-štokavian ča, bil/bi, san ča, bija, san šta, bija, san šta, bio, sam ← Boduli
I have shown variation in the "Final L Rule", and the 1st pers. sg. säm. More or less on islands and along the coast, there is final -n vs. the final -m in the Standard.
The most widespread version of the "Final L Rule" is that any final l is changed to a or ja. This is most visible in past participles:
bija, gledā, mislija, učija, pisā vs. Std. bio, gledao, mislio, učio, pisao
The grammar is a mix of čakavian and štokavian, but nowadays štokavian features prevail on the mainland (but maybe still use ča "what"), while čakavian is still used on the islands. There are some exceptions, for example some songs from the mainland use čakavian to sound more archaic or poetic. An example is Projdi vilo written and sung by Zlatan Stipišić (known as Gibonni):
Projdi vilo mojin verson
Niz kadene od sarca mog
Jubav išće tilo jako
Nosin brime od žeje moje
Ti zanesi dite moje
Moje ime od karvi moje
(Zlatan Stipišić)Obviously čakavian forms — projdi (imperative of projdem), verson (ins. of vers "verse"), jubav etc. with some interesting forms: sarce, karv instead of srce "heart", krv "blood" etc. Stress patterns are also čakavian (moje is stressed on the last syllable, etc.)
Vila is an interesting concept: it's something like a "fairy", a powerful being looking like a beautiful girl. The term is much revered in the traditional Croatian culture, some old organizations have it in their name, many songs use it: this is a powerful mythical being, not just a creature from tales for children.
Usage
A major part of Croatian songs make use of some mix of these two dialects. For instance, an example of contemporary Dalmatian pop, Ditelina s četiri lista "Four-leaf clover", is fully štokavian; and Dalmatino povišću pritrujena is written in an intentionally archaic čakavian (more about the song later):
You can hear how the singer in Dalmatino (left) pronounces moja with the stress on the first syllable. Otherwise a lot of words, especially Venetian loans, are similar. The past participles are posidija, zalija, etc. And you can hear only čakavian in the other song (on the right, but I cannot understand it all without a dictionary!)
One more example is Nostalgična by TBF, an example of Split dialect:
Local dialects in Dalmatia are often called by locals simply "Dalmatian". As we see it's not so simple. Most Dalmatians are really proud of their dialect, one can hear it quite often on TV, there is a big music production and songs using these dialects are popular through the whole former Yugoslavia. There is a lot of local patriotism as well, as indicated by popular songs named:
- Samo ti, Dalmacijo "Only you, Dalmatia",
- Dalmacijo, sve ti cvitalo "Dalmatia, may everything blossom for you",
- Dalmacija u mom oku "Dalmatia in my eye",
- Dalmatinac sam "I am Dalmatian"
Probably the most revered one is the quite archaic-sounding Dalmatino povišću pritrujena "Dalmatia, burdened by history" -- I have already shown it, compared with Ditelina s četiri lista. It was written by the father of already mentioned Zlatan Stipišić. All those songs are often sung on football matches, in celebrations, etc. Look for them on the YouTube™
A tradition of Dalmatia is klapa (a capella) singing. A lot of klapa performances can be found on YouTube™. They sing mostly traditional songs, and easily fill football stadiums.
In Istria
I-Čakavian is spoken in Western and Southern Istria as well, again with a lot of Štokavian mix. Songs by Gustafi illustrate them:
Kadi su ta vrata kroz ka san pasa
Ja bin se torna
Kadi san prije bija kad san bija ja
Kad te nis pozna
Kadi su ti žuti lasi
Ke čeka san i gleda hi z daleka
I sve se ruši, sve se ruši
Sve z vragon gre bez nje
Ma ja san tu
(Edi Maružin)One can hear many characteristic words: kadì "where", lasi "hair", nis {nisäm}, and -a in past part m.: bija, čeka, gleda {bio, čekao, gledao}. Characteristic čakavian words like bin (cond.) and gre are found. Interestingly, the sound is quite different: Istria is quite far away from Dalmatia.
Čud je lit pasalo
Ja i Ana smo bili skupa
To se znalo
Ja san volija Anu, a Ana mene
Ja san volija piti i naokolo hoditi
Ana je bila prava i doma stala
Ana mi je sebe dala
. . . .
Forši i sad moja mala
Prid vratima stoji
Gleda u daljinu
A nideri ninega ni
(Edi Maružin)Some words: forši "maybe", pensan "think, suppose", pasan "pass", čud "a lot", etc. Observe more southern features: prid "in front" {prëd}, lit gen. pl. "year" {ljëto "summer"} and so on.
Simply put, this dialect in Istria has a lot of words and accents similar to NW Čakavian, but grammar and endings are quite similar to ones in south, in Dalmatia.
It's interesting that there's a lot of similarity between Istria and Dalmatia: there's a song Ja sän Istrijan "I am Istrian", and despite being much smaller than Dalmatia — 200 000 and some inhabitants, vs. 800 000 in Dalmatia — Istria has own flag and an official anthem...
Observe how both regions are actually small in absolute terms.
[incomplete. grammar details still missing.]Warning. Although the Dubrovnik area is considered to be within Dalmatia, a quite different dialect is spoken there.
Updated 2013-03-08
74 Čakavian Variations, Central Čakavian
There is much variation in some details of the grammar of NW Čakavian I have described. First, in some dialects long e is pronounced (and written) as ie, and long o as uo.
In most čakavian dialects there's a slightly modified table of case endings. The most common is:
[under construction!]
case ma-nouns mi-nouns n-nouns a-nouns i-nouns nom.sg. - - -œ -a - acc.sg. -a -u dat.sg. -u -i -i gen.sg. -a -ē -i ins.sg. -œn -ūn -i loc.sg. -ë -i nom. pl. -i -a -e, -i -i acc. pl. -e -i, -e dat. pl. -on -an -in, -an gen.pl. -, -ov, -i -, -i -ih ins.pl. -i -ami -ami loc.pl. -īh -ah -ah, -ih In all čakavian dialects east of Rijeka, on the island of Krk, and all islands south of it, inland in Lika, Gorski kotar, in parts of Istria, and in Austrian Burgenland (refugees went there some 500 years ago or so), there's i in some words for 'yat', and e in others (the rule that governs it is called Meyer-Jakubinskij law). For instance:
[under constuction]Such dialects with the e/i mix are called Central Čakavian. An excellent example is a song called Vilo moja, performed by many:
[under construction, please be patient...]
Skoro saki put
Kad se mi pogjedamo
Ti i ne odzdraviš
Ko da se ne poznamo
A da mi te j sebi zvat
Kad ćeš zaspat
Prvo sna da ti rečen
Da volin te još
Vilo moja
Ti si moj san, ti si moj san
A lagje bilo bi
Da si tuja mi
Da te ne poznan, da te ne znanAlmost every time
When we look at each other
You even don't return greetings
As if we don't know each other
...
When will you fall asleep
To tell you before the dream
That I love you still
...
You are my dream
And it would be easier
if you were unknown to me
...(Vlasta Juretić) Updated 2013-01-21
73 NW Čakavian, Part 2
[under construction]After nouns, adjectives and pronouns, verb patterns of Northwestern Čakavian are much more similar to the Standard.
pers. "be" neg. "be" cond. "go" 1st sg. sân nīsân, nîs bîn (g)rên 2nd sg. sì nīsì bìš (g)rêš 3rd sg. jê, j nî (!) bì (g)rê 1st pl. smò nīsmò bìmo (g)rēmò 2nd pl. stè nīstè bìte (g)rētè 3rd pl. sû nīsû bì (g)rēdû The special conditional verb (actually, similar to other verbs) is another characteristic of Čakavian dialects.
The verb gren is normally used in present only, it means "go"; for the past participle, you should use šal, šla (perf.); for the past part. impf. you should use hodil, hodila (Standard versions are in curly brackets).
Gren va grad. {Idem u grad.} "I'm going to the city."
Šal san va grad. {Otišäo säm u grad.} "I went to the city."
Hodil san va grad. {Išäo säm u grad.} "I was going to the city."
There are no full version of auxiliaries (san, bin, ću); the same words can be used in the first place of a sentence, but then the words are pronounced longer. Normally li is not used. The same words can be used for answers:
Sî šal va grad? {Jesi li otišao u grad?} "Did you go to the city?"
Sân. {Jesam} "I did."
Bîš ga prevarila? {Bi li ga prevarila?} "Would you cheat on him?"
Even when people, who normally speak Čakavian at home, try to speak Standard in public, they frequently use bin, biš....
NW Čakavian uses as a generic verb "do" delan ~ storin instead of the Std. radim ~ napravim:
Ča si storila? {Što si napravila?} "What have you done?" (speaking to a female person)
Ča delaš? {Što radiš?} "What are you doing?"
Of course, delan means "work in a factory", etc. Delo means "work", but posäl "job" is also used.
Some Characteristic Words
Instead of prepositions s and iz, there is only one: z. This applies to prefixes as well: zmëšat vs. Std. izmijëšati. There is a lot of Venetian and Italian loans. Some characteristic nouns and adjectives are (Standard words are in curly brackets):
beči f pl. "money" {noväc, novci}
besèda "word, speech" {rijëč, govor}
kulìk adj. "how big" {kolik}
kūntênt adj. "satisfied, happy" {zadovoljan}
kûs "piece" {komad}
lačän adj. "hungry" {gladän}
lahki adj. "lightweight" {lagan}
leto "summer, year" {ljëto, godina}
libär (or libra) "book" {knjiga}
mići adj. "small" {mali}nona "grandmother" {baka}
pāntigân "rat" {štakor}
petèh "cock" {pijëtäo}
šetimana "week" {tjedan}
šugamân "towel" {ručnik}
tepäl "warm" {topäo, topla}
trd "hard" {tvrd}
užãnca "custom" {običaj}
veli adj. "big" {velik}
zajìk "tongue, language" {jezik}
I list here some characteristic verbs; I'll give only presents, and other forms only if they cannot be deduced from the present using the standard rules; don't forget that in this dialect infinitives end on just -t or -ć, and past part. m have final -l instead of the Standard -o:
arivan perf. "arrive, make on time" {stignem, stigao, stigla, stići}
delan ~ storin "work, make, do" {radim ~ napravim}
išćen, iskal "look for, search" {tražim}
iman, imel "have" {imam, imao}
kantan "sing" {pjëvam}
parićujen, parićeval ~ parićan, parićal "prepare" {pripremam ~ pripremim}
pasan perf. "pass" {prođem, prošao, prošla, proći}
priden, prišal, prišla, priti (!) perf. "come" {dođem, došao, došla, doći}
pen or pejan "drive" {vozim}
sopen, sopal, sopla, sost (!) "play (music)" ~ {sviram}
štiman "respect" {poštujem}
tancan "dance" {plešem}
tečen, tekal, tekla, teć "run" {trčim}
vadin ~ na- "learn, get used to" {učim ~ na-}
(po)zabin perf. "forget" {zaboravim}
zamen, zel "take" {uzmem, uzeo}Prepositions, conjunctions and adverbs:
aš "because" {jer}
brez "without" {bez}
ća "away"
danaska "today" {danas}
čera "yesterday" {jučer}
čez prep. (+ acc.) "through" {kroz}
čuda "many, a lot" {mnogo, puno}
jur "already, really" {već, baš}
leh "only, just" {samo, nego}
lišo "easily, without consequences"
kadè "where" {gdjë}
kot "as, like" {kao}morda "maybe" {možda}
med prep. (+ins.) "among"; (+acc.) "into" {među}
nutri, nutra "inside" {unutra}
pul, pu prep. (+gen.) "by, at, near" {kod}
sopet "again" {opet}
tr "and, well" {pa}
va prep. (+loc.) "in"; (+acc.) "to" {u}
vavek "always" {uvijëk}
vaje "at once" {odmah}
z prep. (+gen.) "from, off"; (+ins.) "with" {iz, s}
zmed prep. (+gen.) "among" {između}
zač "why" {zašto}
We see that there are many differences between NW/C Čakavian and the Standard. In the modern age, fewer and fewer people are using it in everyday life, except in smaller towns and villages. However, there are music festivals, some supplements in newspapers, some very local newspapers with articles written in Čakavian, etc. Some manifestations, companies, bars have čakavian names (see right, the name of Rijeka half-marathon). Sometimes articles otherwise written in the Standard quote what somebody said in čakavian, e.g.:
Niki nas neće zet va teh letah. lit. "Noone will take us in those years" (meaning, having such age) {Nitko nas neće uzeti u tim godinama.} (Novi List, 2010-04-02)To find texts written in this dialect, search for a characteristic phrase, e.g. "va keh" site:.hr using Google™.
The dialect is quite unknown outside its home area and sounds strange to many Croatians. But it's so conservative in some features that it's worth knowing a bit.
Samples
A short text by Ivanka Glogović Klarić (source) with my translation.
NW Čakavian Standard Negdere san već jedanput napisala
kako se lahko dogodi da se judi krivo
razumeju. Ne zaradi tega aš oni ki
govore lažu, a oni ki ih poslušaju
misle da govore istinu (al pak nopak!),
leh zato aš njin beseda ku čuju znači
neš drugo. »Bilo j' tamo čuda i jako
interesantneh judi« bi mogal neki ki
ne zna baš dobro domaći razumet da j'
tamo bilo mirakuli i jako interesantneh
judi. Čudo j' nan mirakul, a kako se i
va književnen zajike more reć da j'
negdere bilo »čudo toga«, va smisle
čuda tega, te besedi su sigurno va rode.
Kako ja vavek iman neku teoriju na ki
način judi zmišjaju i rabe besedi,
računan da kad je nečesa bilo puno –
čuda, posebe hrani, da j' to nekada
bilo pravo čudo, pravi mirakul!Negdjë sam već jedanput napisala
kako se lako dogodi da se ljudi krivo
razumiju. Ne radi toga jer oni koji
govore lažu, a oni koji ih slušaju
misle da govore istinu (ili pak obrnuto!),
nego zato jer njima rijëč koju čuju znači
nešto drugo. »Bilo j' tamo čuda i jako
interesantneh judi« bi mogao netko tko
ne zna baš dobro domaći razumjëti da je
tamo bilo čuda i jako interesantnih
ljudi. Čudo je nama mirakul, a kako se i
u književnom jeziku može reći da je
negdjë bilo »čudo toga«, u smislu
mnogo toga, te rijëči su sigurno u rodu.
Kako ja uvijëk imam neku teoriju na koji
način ljudi izmišljaju i koriste rijëči,
računam da kad je nečeg bilo puno –
mnogo, posebno hrane, da je to nekada
bilo pravo čudo, pravi mirakul!I will also quote part of a poem by Drago Gervais (1904-1957) without translation, just with some words explained:
Pod Učkun kućice bele,
miće, kot suzice vele.
Beli zidići, črjeni krovići,
na keh vrapčići kantaju.
Mići dolčići, još manje lešice
na keh ženice kopaju.
Cestice bele, tanki putići,
po keh se vozići pejaju,
i jedna mića, uska rečica,
pul ke se dečica igraju.
Na sunce se kućice griju,
na turne urice biju.Učka a mountain
suzica diminutive of suza "teardrop"
dolčić "small field"; lešica "small seed bed"
vozić "small cart, driven by animals"
turän "(church) tower"72 NW Čakavian, Part 1
[under construction. the following is incomplete and the tables are likely wrong.]"It is well-known that in north-western Croatia spectacular dialect differences are found..."
This dialect might be a surprise to you; it is quite unlike the Croatian you have seen, but it's really Croatian without any doubt — as someone said, nobody even tried to say that Čakavian is not Croatian (some other dialects were disputed, as you will learn).
What to say about this dialect? Well, archaic is the best word. I will try to demonstrate some features and give examples, but you should know that learning them is not a simple task at all (I cannot really speak it, just understand it). A poster shown on the right is one example of this dialect: word pondejak is used instead of the {ponedjëljäk} "Monday" (I'll write Standard forms in curly brackets).
The dialect is nowadays spoken in western and central Istria, north and west from Rijeka, and on the northern Adriatic island of Cres.
Sounds and Stress
The 'yat' (sequences ijë, jë, ë and ï) is almost always e. The 'yer' (ä) is always just a (except in the town of Cres and around it, where it's mostly e).
There is no sound lj in most variants, j or sometimes l is used instead: prijatel {prijatelj}, judi {ljudi}.
There are no đ and dž: j and ž are pronounced (and written) respectively.
In sequences tvr- and stv-, v is often dropped. Instead of Standard -gle-, there is -gje- (pogjedam).
The sound ć is pronounced quite differently, very "softly", like a soft t; it's a tell-tale feature of Čakavian dialects.
Instead of -m in endings, -n is always used: čitan {čitam}.
The "Final L Rule" does not work at all, there are final l's all over the place: čital {čitao}, bël "white", posäl {posäo}, etc.
There are three pitch distinctions (stress types) on a stressed vowel:
- short accent (I mark it here as à)
- long flat or rising tone (marked as ã, a "tilde" over the vowel)
- long falling tone (marked as â, a "circumflex")
The stress (one of the above three types) can be on any syllable; other, unstressed vowels can be short or long. The hard part is how to pronounce the accent marked as ã. Some local variants have lost the tone distinctions, but I will mark the "classic" stress and lengths when I am able to. Often the stress falls on the last syllable (that's impossible in the Standard Croatian: if you hear ženà, you can be almost certain you heard Čakavian). Normally the stress is not marked in writing.
Cases
The case pattern is quite different from the Standard. Locative is a special case; no case endings coincide in the plural, etc.:
case ma-nouns mi-nouns n-nouns a-nouns i-nouns nom.sg. - - -œ -a - acc.sg. -a -u dat.sg. -u -e (i) -i gen.sg. -a -i (e) -i ins.sg. -ōn -ūn -i loc.sg. -ë -i nom. pl. -i -a -e, -i -i acc. pl. -i, -e dat. pl. -on -an -in, -an gen.pl. -, -i -, -i -ih ins.pl. -i -ami -ami loc.pl. -ëh -ah -ih 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!
Many a-nouns have plural on -i. Some m-nouns have gen. pl. without any ending, some on -i, and some others on -ov.
Adjectives don't have optional endings in certain cases:, there is only one possible ending; in most variants, in all cases but the nominative, there can be only -e- in endings, regardless of the preceding sound (there is no o/e rule)! The above chart varies locally a bit, some variants are given in parentheses.
case ma mi n f nom.sg. -, -i -, -i -œ -a acc.sg. -ega -u dat.sg. -emu -oj gen.sg. -ega -e ins.sg. -in -un loc.sg. -en -oj dual (2-4) -a -e nom.pl. -i -a -e acc.pl. -e dat.pl. -in gen./loc.pl. -ëh ins.pl. -ëmi Genitive and locative coincide in he plural, quite unlike the Standard. Sometimes endings -œmu and -œga are used in dat. and gen. sg.
0 comment(s)Oznake: čakavski, cres, croatia, croatian language, hrvatska gramatika, hrvatski jezik, istra, kastav, kroatisch, opatija
71 Locative Case and Common Dialect Variations
• • • Review: Introducing DialectsThere are some characteristics shared by many WSS dialects, especially by the western ones. Here I'm going to list the most important ones. Standard forms are also given for comparison; the are marked by curly braces {...}.
Vowel Variations
This is actually a variation that's very visible, and affects many words. Now my special notation (ë and ï) comes to use. Standard sequences ï,ijë, jë and ë are called 'yat'.
In many dialects different sounds stand in their place. For instance, in co-called Ikavian dialects it's almost invariably i (they are actually named after that characteristic):
Standard Ikavian dialects lijëp līp pjësma pisma mrëža mriža You will find a lot of Croatian pop songs with līp, cvīt, vrīme, srića, dīte {lijëp, cvijët, vrijëme, srëća, dijëte}. They are all in Ikavian.
There are some other variations, for example (in a completely unrelated dialect) there's pẹs "dog" (compared to Std päs) where the ẹ is a vowel between Standard e and i. Such variations are called 'yer'. It affects all 'disappearing a's', and some others, e.g. mẹgla instead of mägla (I have marked most of them with ä).
Please don't ask now why the names yat and yer. It's a very long story. I'll just say that really a long ago there were two additional letters, and these were their names (a bit similar to Middle English yogh).
The Final L Rule
In many dialects the "final l rule" is not functional of is modified.
Standard: gledao, mislio, posäo
some dialects: gledal, mislil, posäl
some other dialects: gleda, mislija, posä
Various Consonant Variations
In many dialects, there are variations in how some consonants are pronounced (and consequently written!). Usually there's a smaller number of consonants than in the Standard; some possibilities are (in various dialects):
- lj is pronounced as j
- ć is pronounced as č
- đ is pronounced as j
- h is pronounced as v, or not pronounced at all
- some difficult combinations are simplified, for instance kći, pčela, hvala, and tko are pronounced as hći (or ći), čela, fala, and ko
- gdjë is pronounced as di, gđe, đe, gdo...
- htio (past part. of hoću) is pronounced as tio, stija, štel, otel, ćeo...
Verbs and Nouns
In many dialects, there are verbs or verb forms that differ from the Standard. The most widespread is a different (regular) form of present for mogu.
Standard many dialects 1 sg. mogu morem 2 sg. možeš moreš 3 sg. može more 1 pl. možemo moremo 2 pl. možete morete 3 pl. mogu moru In some dialects, instead of dođem, došäo, došla, doći, prođem, prošäo, prošla, proći, nađem, našäo, našla, naći, forms dojdem, došäo, došla, dojti and similar are used — that is, jd instead of đ, and jt instead of ć — again making these verbs more regular.
In many dialects, the conditional verb is modified, often to just bi in all persons.
In many dialects, the aorist and imperfect tenses are not used. But they are seldom used in the Standard Croatian as well.
In dialects along the coast, and a bit in the interior, there's -n instead of -m in verb, noun and preposition endings, e.g. znan {znam}, gledan {gledam}, ins. ženon {ženom} etc.
There are Standard nouns and verbs that don't exist in many dialects, and others are used instead. For instance:
Standard many dialects meaning sat ura "watch", "clock", "hour" godina ljëto "year" vatra ogänj "fire" tražim išćem, iskao "search", "look for" (verb) vratim vrnem "return" (verb) In some dialects, verbs that normally have infinitives on -eti (e.g. uzmem, uzeo perf. "take") have -est(i) instead (e.g. uzest).
There are some other variations, for instance topao, topla vs. tepao, tepla, then variations in prepositions, etc.
Short Accusative of Personal Pronouns
In many dialects and even sometimes in the Standard, one uses short forms of personal pronouns mene and tebe in acc. after prepositions:
Standard: za mene, za tebe
many dialects: za me, za teThe Locative Case
In the Standard Croatian and in some dialects, there's very little difference between the dative and the locative, but in many dialects there are some differences. So, I must re-introduce the locative case. It is used only with prepositions, chiefly u, na when meaning static location, and with po when meaning "all over, through", and o "about". The dative is used on it own, and with prepositions k and prema, meaning "toward"; with usprkos or unatoč "despite". Furthermore, the instrumental, dative and locative have the same form in plural in the Standard and some dialects; but differ in others.
To put it in another way: when in the Standard one would use the dative after certain prepositions (mentioned above), in certain dialects there's a special form that's used then, called the locative (abbreviation: loc. or L). Such a 'special form' is really another case.
Examples
An example of a song using more or less all above variations (except special locative forms) is Lipa si, lipa sung by Goran Karan (please, disregard the lame video):
Dođi u ponoć, prođi niz skaline
ako se nisi drugom obećala
za tobom noćas plaču mandoline
najlipša ružo ikad procvitala
Dođi u ponoć, prođi kraj đardina
tu di je mladost uvik jubovala
ubrat ću tebi cvitak ruzmarina
tu di je mater ocu viru dala
Lipa si, lipa, anđeli ti sliče
lipa si, lipa, usne, tvoje lice
jubi me, jubi i kad zora sviće
sa neba pada po nama cviće
Dođi u ponoć, prođi kraj fontane
da misec vidi tvoje lipe oči
a ti mu reci da ih čuvaš za me
i da ćeš noćas meni, vilo, doći
(Nenad Ninčević)The words mean: di "where" {gdjë}, lipa "beautiful" {lijëpa}, jubi imper. "kiss" {ljubi}, misec "moon" {mjësec}, cviće coll. "flowers" {cvijëće}, đardin "garden", vira "promise"...
This song uses a superficially similar Ikavian dialect but also illustrates verbs like dojdem, and tepli "warms"; instead of h there's always v or j:
Su zrnon soli, su mrvu kruva
i puno duše
Ova nas jubav tepli i čuva
a vitär puše!
Su pjatom juve kad projdu dani
i stvari luše
Ova nas jubav jača i rani
a vitär puše!
I neka projdu sve obilance,
Svi lipi gušti i sve užance!
I neka nima ni sna ni smija
Uz tebe uvik znan ča bi tija –
A vitär puše, a vitär puše
(Jakša Fiamengo)This is how it would look in Standard (to show differences) and roughly translated to English:
Sa zrnom soli, s mrvom kruha
i puno duše
Ova nas ljubav grije i čuva
a vjëtär puše!
S tanjurom juhe kad prođu dani
i stvari loše
Ova nas ljubav jača i hrani
a vjëtär puše!
I neka prođu sva obilja,
Svi lijepi užici i sve proslave!
I neka nëma ni sna ni smijëha
Uz tebe uvijëk znam što bih htio –
A vjëtär puše, a vjëtär puše"With a grain of salt, with a crumb of bread
and a lot of soul
This love warms and keeps us
and the wind blows!
With a plate of soup when days pass
and bad things
This love strenghens and feeds us
and the wind blows!
And may all plenties pass,
All nice pleasures and all celebrations!
And may there be no dreams, no laughter
Beside you I always know what I want –
And the wind blows, and the wind blows"You see, translating it to Standard destroys rhyme and rhythm. Dialect songs are rarely translated, therefore it's not uncommon that many Croatians don't actually know what all words of some popular song mean, if they are not familiar with that dialect. This might sound strange to you, but there's a lot of French, Italian and other songs popular in Croatia and majority in Croatia doesn't not speak those languages, so it's not uncommon that you like some song that you actually don't understand. In fact, I had to look into a dictionary to find meaning of word obilanca in this song!
Despite sounding traditional, it's actually a modern pop song from 1980's. This is just a different rendition.
Updated 2014-06-18 (v. 0.4)
70 Introducing Dialects
Warning: you might want to skip this chapter and the following ones in the first reading. It introduces some advanced topics.
What are dialects? There's no simple answer, but everyone seems to understand the concept. They are different varieties that are hidden under one "umbrella" language.
So, in a perfect world, there would be discrete languages, and they would be internally divided into dialects. Surely, in a border area between two languages, a dialect could have some characteristics of the neighbor language. Well it is so maybe if we discuss Hungarian, a language that's surrounded with completely unrelated and unintelligible languages, but in the case of Croatian it's very far from the actual situation.
Is it necessary to have any knowledge of Croatian dialects? Well, yes. Not really to be able to speak them (but it would be immensely appreciated if you, e.g. try to move to a particular region of Croatia) but to have some idea and understanding of them, because they are actually used much. People actually use them. Actually, everyone mostly uses a mix of the Standard and dialect. This table summarizes what I mean:
dialect mostly dialect + some Standard some dialect + mostly Standard Standard people at home, local pubs, shops; poetry, traditional and pop songs ordinary people in public, at office; pop songs; forums "educated" people in public, politicians, government; local radio stations; songs, novels professional speakers on TV and radio For instance, most movies feature some mix of dialect and standard, and a few of them were mostly in dialect: no subtitles were supplied, you were on your own and had to learn unknown words the hard way, by guessing their meaning.
How many distinct dialects are there? Well, there's no clear answer. To explain the complicated situation we need to look at a wider picture of "Western South Slavic dialects" (WSS) — that is, all dialects/speeches from Austrian and Italian border with Slovenia, all the way east to Southern Serbia.
Some dialects are spoken by only one ethnic group, others by up to four! For example, Croats speak at least 9 different dialects. The dialects spoken are usually grouped into Slovenian, Kajkavian, Čakavian, and Štokavian, but that grouping actually hides the real diversity, it's actually a bit more complex than that.
So what are Slovenian, Croatian, Serbian etc. languages? They are standards roughly based on a dialect, with some arbitrary and artificial additions.
Since all standards (except Slovenian) are based on fairly similar dialects, usually there's no need to translate between the Standard languages — I can read any book written in Bosnian or Serbian (but there are some differences in legal, scientific etc. terms). It's a bit harder with Slovenian for me (and speaking with the proper accent is out of question). But it's much easier for speakers of Kajkavian dialects. It's a matter of dispute where the Kajkavian dialects end and the Slovene begin...
Should one disregard dialects as uneducated, rural speech, and concentrate on the Standard? Not completely. First, because they appeal to emotions, songs frequently include some dialect. In fact, the bulk of Croatian pop is in dialect, mainly Southeastern Čakavian and Ikavian Neoštokavian. For instance, a quite popular tune, Galeb i ja "Seagull and me" is completely in dialect; here I quote a part of it:
Ča sve vaja, u svom bisu
Da i more vrije, pini
Bit gospodar, usrid svega
Živo klicat, u visini!
U visini kada Sunce
Bez pristanka nama sije
I da ništa na tvom nebu
I na moru bisno nije.
A... moj galebe
(Tomislav Zuppa)The very first word, ča, does not exist in the Standard, and in fact the Čakavian dialects are named after it (it means "what"). Again, translation is not provided, you have to know that in this song pristanak does not mean "approval" as in Standard, but "end, cessation" (Standard: prëstanak); likewise for bis, usrid vs. Standard bijës, usrëd, and so on. It's not uncommon to find people asking on the internet what some word means; Croatian pop is quite popular in neighboring countries as well, where some fine points of dialects are not really known.
But there's another, more subtle reason. Here are front pages of some old books:
These are (from the left) the first printed novel in Croatian (Zoranić: Planine), published in year 1569; a five-language dictionary (Latin, Italian, Croatian, Hungarian, German) published in 1595, and a huge Latin-Croatian dictionary published in 1740, but actually written a century earlier. And all these works are in various dialects, not in the today Standard or some early version of it. Even in the 20th century a major work of Croatian literature was written in the Kajkavian dialect (Balade Petrice Kerempuha). Croatian dialects actually invoke "past glory" and late medieval culture; they were (and still are) speeches of advanced towns in Croatia, particularly on the coast. The story how the today Standard was selected is too complicated to explain here — a mix of history and politics, as one can expect.
So, the dialects in Croatia are not commonly associated with illiterate and ignorant peasants; the only way of escaping them is limiting oneself to TV news on the public TV. If you want to read older Croatian literature, you cannot escape it either. Therefore, I'll explain features of major dialects.
Beware, dialects differ in sounds, stress, details of grammar such as number of cases; in various case and verb endings, number of tenses; in some basic vocabulary including pronouns, etc. The differences are larger than e.g. between the Ukrainian and the Russian language! Yeah, you could have chosen some other language, but now it's too late.
Updated 2013-06-20 (v. 0.4)
69 Intentionally Omitted Features
This blog is titled 'Basic Croatian'. Having read all this, you may ask yourself: is this really the basic Croatian, or the complete Croatian?
Well, I have left out intentionally some stuff. You may call it advanced stuff — you will find them in newspapers, books, in TV news. Nobody uses them actually in casual conversation or in normal writing. I hate when people describe features of the Croatian grammar and "forget" to mention that many of things described are actually seldom (actually: never) used nowadays. So, what did I leave out?
Past Conditional
The past conditional is similar to the present conditional, but with an additional word — the past tense of "to be" (i.e. bio). Sentences referring to possible, but unrealized events in the past can use the past conditional, but the present conditional is used more often:
English: "If I had had money, I would have bought the car."
Da säm imao novca, kupio bih bio auto. (past cond., rare)
Da säm imao novca, kupio bih auto. (present cond., mostly used)
Indefinite Adjectives
One of the first things I said about Croatian was 'there are no articles'. Well, I have kind of lied. There are no articles, but there are so-called indefinite adjectives. That is, some adjectives (not all!) have special forms when describing indefinite nouns. What I wanted to say, the forms I have described actually mean "the big X", where "the big" is one word. Now I'm going to describe how to say "a big X", where "a big" is again just one word.
Almost nobody uses these forms. But you can hear them occasionally, so it's good to understand them: people in TV news use it, some newspapers use it. I have never ever heard it in a conversation. I have never used it. I have never written it.
The forms for the plural and f gender are the same as for the 'normal' adjectives, so I'll list only singular for m and n genders:
case ma mi n nom.sg. - - -œ acc.sg. -a dat.sg. -u gen.sg. -a ins.sg. -im You see, the endings are similar to nouns! According to the Standard, possessive adjectives like Ivanov, Anin and even njegov "his" should have only indefinite forms:
Vidio säm Ivanova brata. "I saw Ivan's brother." (Standard, but seldom used)
Vidio säm Ivanovog brata. "I saw Ivan's brother." (not Standard, but everyone uses it!)The only thing that is really used from indefinite adjectives in everyday life is -i vs. no ending in nom. (and acc.).
These forms are used in poetry, however: one instance is the poem Odlazäk "Departure" by Tin Ujević (here performed by Arsen Dedić).
This poem contains other not really often used words, such as spomenäk, kaloper — I had to look into a dictionary to find their meanings! Šestopir or "shestopyor" is a type of ancient weapon. The word mjësto means also "town", not only "place", and spomenäk is a plant "forget-me-not" (Myosotis palustris):
U slutnji, u čežnji
daljine, daljine;
u srcu, u dahu
planine, planine.
Malena mjësta srca moga,
spomenäk Brača, Imotskoga.
I blijësäk slavna šestopera,
i miris, miris kalopera
Tamo, tamo da putujem,
tamo, tamo da tugujem...
(Tin Ujević)"In suspicion, in yearning
distances, distances;
In heart, in breath
mountains, mountains.
Small towns of my heart,
forget-me-not of Brač, of Imotski
And a flash of famous shestopyor,
And the scent, scent of costmary
There, there I would travel,
There, there I would mourn..."
My rough translation is literal and does not rhyme. I have underscored an indefinite adjective. Observe the poetic inversion of adjectives as well: srca moga, found in many songs, Croatian anthem, and in vocative forms!
The Plusquamperfect Tense
This is another past tense. It's used for things that happened before something else in the past. It's made in the same way as the past tense, but you don't use present of "be" (säm, si...) but the past (bio säm, bio si...), e.g.:
Jeo säm. "I was eating." (past)
Bio säm jeo. "I had been eating." (plusquamperfect)I use it sometimes. I think I used it a year ago or so, once. Or was it the year before?
The Aorist Tense
This is another past tense. This tense has nothing in common with the common past tense, it's made of one word, something we have seen only for the present tense! It's made from the past base, with restoring d or t that were lost. And, yeah, it's mostly made from perf. verbs!
It has very special, although regular endings that are attached to the past stem; a variation in endings is used if the past stem ends on a consonant (it's possible only in 0-verbs):
vowel- cons.- 1st sg. -h -o-h 2nd/3rd sg. - -e 1st pl. -smo -o-smo 2nd pl. -ste -o-ste 3rd pl. -še -o-še I didn't bother to list all classes: if you know the past part., you'll know the aorist. There's only a couple of exciting things happening to 0-verbs: first, verbs like pečem (peku), pekäo, pekla, peći: in the 2nd and 3rd pers. sg the ending -e changes the -k to -č; next, all 'lost' -d-, -t- etc. are restored:
class present past part. (m, f) 1st sg. aorist a obeć-a-m obeć-a-o, obeć-a-la obeć-a-h i pomisl-i-m pomisl-i-o, pomisl-i-la pomisl-i-h n zabri-n-em zabri-nu-o, zabri-nu-la zabri-nu-h 0 tres--em tres--äo, tres--la tres--oh jed--em je--o, je--la jed--oh plet--em ple--o, ple--la plet--oh zarast--em zarast-äo, zaras--la zarast--oh ispeč-em ispek--äo, ispek--la ispek--oh (2nd ispeč--e) popi--jem popi--o, popi--la popi--h pozov--em pozva--o, pozva--la pozva--h ’j/a piš--em pis-a-o, pis-a-la pis-a-h i/jë vid-i-m vid-i-o, vid-jë-la vid-jë-h In reality, the aorist tense can be formed out of impf. verbs as well. The aorist of säm, bio... is bih, bi, bi, bismo, etc. — exactly the 'conditional verb'!
I use it sometimes, when I want to say something monumental or archaic, or just different. The aorist tense is frequently used in Serbian, even colloquially; it has no archaic overtone there.
It's interesting that in Serbia and Bosnia — and sometimes in Croatia — you will often hear 2nd/3rd pers. sg. forms used for the first person as well, for instance:
Ja ode. "I left." (aorist, 2nd/3rd pers. form = colloq.)
Ja odoh. "I left." (aorist, Standard)
The aorist is also used for things that are just about to happen; sentences above could be said by someone who is leaving as he or she speaks.
The Imperfect Tense
And this is yet another past tense, again just a single word. As its name tells, it's made from imperfective verbs only.
I have never used it. I don't know the endings. I should look into the book. You could look into Wikipedia or elsewhere. Well, no one uses it. Ever.
Past Adverbs
This form is an adverb (therefore, indeclinable) meaning "after x-ed,...". For instance:
Napisavši pismo, otišäo säm u poštu. "Having written the letter, I went to the post office."
It exists only for perfective verbs, and it's made from the past base, by adding -vši or -avši (if the base ends on a consonant), after restoring d or t if one was lost.
napis-a-la → napis-a-vši
pogod-i-la → pogod-i-vši
ispek--la → ispek--avši
pozva--la → pozva--vši
The past adverb of säm, bio is used as an adjective and has a special meaning:
bivši adj. "ex", "former", "once in existence"
Beside bivši, I can't recall that I ever used a past adverb.
Updated 2014-09-17 (v. 0.4)
