Burgenland Croatian

Regional variety of the Chakavian dialect of Croatian

Smaller Croatian minorities in western Hungary, southwestern Slovakia, and southern Czech Republic are often also called Burgenland Croats. They use the Burgenland Croatian written language and are historically and culturally closely connected to the Austrian Croats. The representatives of the Burgenland Croats estimate their total number in all three countries and emigration at around 70,000.

Burgenland Croatian was the language of Croatian refugees who fled Croatia during the Croatian–Ottoman wars and settled in the western part of what was then Hungary, the area where they still live. Burgenland Croats included speakers of all three dialects of the Croatian language (Shtokavian, Chakavian and Kajkavian), with the majority being the Chakavians. A part of them originally probably came from Dalmatia, and all of them mostly emigrated from the river Una valley.

Burgenland Croatian written language is based mainly on the local Chakavian dialect with some influences from the other Croatian dialects spoken in Burgenland. It uses the Latin alphabet with the same diacritical modifiers as the Croatian alphabet. In the course of language development it acquired some of its own specialised vocabulary, sometimes different from that used in standard Croatian. The popular The Little Prince has also been translated into Burgenland Croatian (1998), specifically the Standard version by Ivan Rotter.

The beginnings of literacy are linked to: Klimpuški misal (Klimpuški Missal) (1501), S. Consul Histrianus and Antun Dalmatin's Postila (Fasting) (1568), Dusevne pesne (Duševne pesne, Spiritual songs) (1609) and Grgur Mekinić Pythiraeus's Druge kniige dussevnih peszszan (Druge knjige duševnih pesan, Other books of the Spiritual songs) (1611). Until the mid 19th century, the literature in Burgenland Croatian had religious character and was intended mostly for peasants. Main writers were priests and nuns. In the second half of the 19th century teachers began to write. Thanks to that, many school textbooks and calendars were written.

Newspapers of the Burgenland Croats are: Crikveni glasnik (Church Gazette), 1946; Naše selo (Our village), 1947; Naš tjednik (Our weekly), 1947; Naša domovina (Our homeland), 1952; Glas (Voice), 1957; Novi glas (New Voice), 1969; Put (Way), 1981).