Štokavian

Štokavian [ ʃtɔkaːʋiʃ ], sometimes Schtokawisch, referred to in the Linguistics a dialect group of South Slavic languages . Štokavian dialects are spoken throughout Bosnia-Herzegovina and Montenegro, as well as most of Serbia and parts of Croatia . The name comes from the interrogative što or šta for which (unlike kaj or Ca in Kajkavian and Chakavian ).

On the common basis of Štokavian, the mutually understandable standard varieties Bosnian , Croatian , Serbian and Montenegrin have developed, which for this reason are grouped together as Serbo-Croatian .

The štokavian dialects in Croatia are bordered by Kajkavian in the north and by Čakavian on the coast (see Croatian language for details). In Serbia they come across the Torlak dialect in the southeast , which represents a transition to Macedonian and Bulgarian .

Spread and dialects

Variants of the Serbs and Montenegrins , the Bosniaks and part of the Croats

Štokavian varieties

The štokavian dialect is the most widespread of the three main dialects of Serbian and Croatian . It is spoken in different variants by the Serbs and Montenegrins , the Bosniaks and some Croatians - apart from the fact that the standard languages ​​in Serbia and Montenegro , in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina are all based on the štokavian dialect anyway.

Ekavian dialects

Ekavian Štokavian is spoken by a large part of the Serbs in Serbia . Today we distinguish between three major Ekavian dialect areas: The Šumadija-Vojvodina dialect is, as the name suggests, in use in the Šumadija in western central Serbia and in Vojvodina . Urban centers are Belgrade , Valjevo , Kragujevac , Novi Sad and Zrenjanin . To the south-east joins the Kosovo-Resava dialect , which is spoken in the north of Kosovo in the Morava valley and in eastern Serbia. Important cities in this area are Peć , Kosovska Mitrovica , Kruševac , Jagodina and Požarevac . Again to the south-east of this is Torlak , which includes south-east Serbia. The Torlak language area includes Zaječar , Niš , Pirot , Leskovac , Vranje , Pristina and Prizren .

Ijekavian dialects

The Ijekavian East Herzegovinian dialect is spoken in the Lika , parts of Slavonia , the Kordun , in southern Dalmatia , eastern Herzegovina , in large parts of Bosnia, in northwestern Montenegro and in parts of western Serbia.
It forms the basis for the Bosnian, Croatian and Montenegrin written language. This dialect has the new accentuation . The dialect of Dubrovnik , which in the past had a greater degree of typological independence, is now also counted on a synchronous level with the East Herzegovina dialect.

The Eastern Bosnian dialect , which is also Ijekavian , is spoken in Central Eastern Bosnia ( Brčko , Tuzla , Sarajevo ). This dialect has the old accentuation .

The Zeta-Sandschak dialect is spoken in southern and eastern Montenegro and in Sandžak (Raška) (cities: Podgorica , Sjenica , Novi Pazar ). This dialect has the old accentuation .

Ikavian dialects

New Štokavian- Ikavian is spoken in northern and central Dalmatia , the western Lika and in the parts of Bosnia-Herzegovina west of the rivers Bosna and Neretva , especially in central Bosnia, in western Herzegovina and in the region around Bihać . This dialect also includes Bunjevatz, the language variety of the Bunjevci , which is spoken in two spatially widely separated areas, namely in Velebit on the one hand and in northern Batschka on the other . This dialect has the new accentuation .

Slavonian

Slavonian is spoken in north and south-east Slavonia . The Slavonian varieties of Podravina are largely ekavian, those of Posavina ikavian-ijekavian or ikavian. However, due to their phonetic and morphological similarities in other areas, they are usually grouped into one dialect. This dialect has the old accentuation .

grammar

Grammatical categories

The main focus here is on the differences to other Slavic languages . For example, there are no pure nominal sentences . The past tense has largely receded and appears de facto only as a stylistic device in literature and in some fixed idioms.

Grammatical gender

As in other Slavic languages, the noun has 3 grammatical genders , each in the singular and plural .

Basically, the gender is determined by the final letter: masculine ending in consonant , feminine ending in -a, neuter ending in -o or -e . However, there are a number of exceptions:

1. Feminine words on consonant: These are mainly abstracts. Unlike in Russian , for example , they cannot be recognized by the softness of the ending: smisao (m) (sense) - misao (f) (thought); most (m) (bridge) - kost (f) (bones)
2. Male words in -a: These are only names for people. This group includes many Turzisms on the one hand, but also a number of Slavic words on the other. In Serbian, unlike Croatian, words such as columnist, communist, nationalist also end in a (-ista). These are declined like feminine nouns, but the adjective as with other masculine nouns. Examples: vođa (leader), sudija ( judge, in kr. Also sudac), vojvoda (duke), Sarajlija (person from Sarajevo), kamendžija (also kamorezac, stonemason ), zanatlija (also obrtnik, craftsman ) ... stari vođa etc.
3. Condescending masculine nouns denoting a bad quality in -a: In contrast to the previous group, the adjectives are also declined here according to the feminine model: ubica / ubojica (murderer), budala (fool), kukavica (coward) ... stara budala etc.
4. Pet forms of male personal names ending in -a or -o: Are usually declined like feminine nouns on -a .

Note: although the last three categories occur in all three of today's written languages, they are much rarer in Croatian.

Enclitic forms

A number of groups of words have what is known as an enclitic form. These are shortened forms that do not have their own accent and therefore cling to the preceding word, and which can be formed from modal verbs and personal pronouns of the derived cases. They can only appear in certain places in the sentence. Usually this is in second place, whereby one does not follow the meaning units, but the first stressed word, so that the enclitic form is often inserted between the adjective and the associated noun , sometimes even between the first and last name. The position directly after the infinitive or participle is also common . When several such words come together, there is a fixed order.

1. Question particle left
2. Auxiliary verb: from biti, sein: sam, si, je , smo, ste, su; (bih, bi, bi, bismo, biste, bi *); from htjeti, want: ću, ćeš, će, ćemo, ćete, će;
3. Personal pronouns of the dative: mi, ti, mu / joj, nam, vam, im; si (reflexive)
4. Personal pronouns of the genitive: me, te, ga / je, nas, vas, ih; se
5. Personal pronouns of the accusative: me, te, ga / ju / je, nas, vas, ih; se
6. Third person singular of the auxiliary verb biti: je *

* These shapes can also be used non-critical without changing their appearance.

Example sentences:

Trećeg mu je dana došla i recla ...

The third day came to him and said ...

On the third day she came to him and told (him) ...

Išao sam mu se žaliti.

went to complain to him

I went to complain to him

Da li si ga se bojala?

If ? were afraid of him

Were you afraid of him?

Da li si nam ih rezervirao

If ? reserved us (D) her (A)

Have you reserved them for us (e.g. the seats)

Morphonological processes

Joting (jotacija)

Consonant + j gives:

b → blj uporaba, rabljen

c → č

č → č / čj riječ, riječju

d → đ uraditi, urađen

g → ž

h → š suh, suši;

k → č plakati, plačem

l → lj mil, omiljen

m → mlj lomiti, lomljiv

n → nj kazniti, kažnjen

p → plj zastupiti, zastupljen

r → r zanemariti, zanemariv;

s → s / š visok, više

t → ć pratiti, praćenje

t → št / šć obavijestiti, obavješćen / obavješten

v → vlj krov, potkrovlje

z → ž paziti, neopažen

ž → ž

Volatile a

The short a in the last syllable is dropped in the derived forms, but reappears in the genitive plural, where it is long. For some words which do not have such a in the nomitative singular , it also appears here:

NS pas - GS: psa - GPl pasa (dog)

predak - pretka - predaka (See also #assimilation ) (ancestor)

momak - momka - momaka (lad)

mislilac - mislioca - mislilaca (See Paragraph # End-l ) (Thinker)

There is no fleeting a in the nominative singular.

NS: točka (f) - G-Pl točaka (point)

primjedba (f) - G-Pl primjedbi / primjedaba (see also #assimilation ) (note, objection)

assimilation

In Štokavian, groups of consonants are assimilated from the end of the word, both in terms of voicing and palatality. If several of the same consonants meet, the consonant is simply written and pronounced. There are the following pairs: Voicing: bp; dt; dž-č; sz; š-ž; gk.

od + trčati → otrčati

šest + deset → šezdeset

pet + deset → pedeset

iz + ključiti → isključiti

iz + čekati → iščekati

nad + tjecati → natjecati

misl (iti) + -jen → mišljen

raz- + praviti → raspraviti

list + -je → lišće

The apparent exception is the word mozak, which is assimilated from front to back :

mozak - mozga (genitive)

In fact, this is based on g , which becomes k in the nominative through final hardening .

End-l

l at the end of a word or a syllable has become an unstressed o in most štokavian dialects . This process is most strongly developed of the three modern written languages ​​in Serbian: Here it even occurs after o, i.e. sto instead of stol (table).

If the original l comes to lie between vowels again through derivatives, it is converted back into an l . Examples:

dao (m), dala (f), dalo (n) - Participle II of dati, to give: given

N palac, G paoca - thumb (note: here the l comes into the final position through the disappearance of the volatile a )

N mislilac, G mislioca

N misao (f), G misli, I mišlju (A wonderful example of the coincidence of several irregularities: a feminine on a consonant, a fleeting a, final l, palatization of a consonant group)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Danko Šipka: Lexical layers of identity: words, meaning, and culture in the Slavic languages . Cambridge University Press, New York 2019, ISBN 978-953-313-086-6 , pp. 206 , doi : 10.1017 / 9781108685795 : "Serbo-Croatian, which features four ethnic variants: Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian, and Montenegrin."
2. ↑ Hrvatski jezik: Dubrovnik i hrvatska tradicija. Matica.hr ( Memento from April 11, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) (Croatian)