The Buzet dialect (; also known as ''buzetsko-gornjomiranski'' or ''gornjomiranski'') is a sub-dialect of the
Chakavian dialect
A dialect is a Variety (linguistics), variety of language spoken by a particular group of people. This may include dominant and standard language, standardized varieties as well as Vernacular language, vernacular, unwritten, or non-standardize ...
in
Croatia
Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...
. It is spoken in northern
Istria
Istria ( ; Croatian language, Croatian and Slovene language, Slovene: ; Italian language, Italian and Venetian language, Venetian: ; ; Istro-Romanian language, Istro-Romanian: ; ; ) is the largest peninsula within the Adriatic Sea. Located at th ...
around
Buzet
Buzet (; ; ) is a town in Istria, west Croatia, population 6,133 (2011). The historical core of Buzet dates back to the Middle Ages, and today Buzet is known as the town of truffles. Buzet is also known as the home of Croatian motorsport, and eve ...
.
The Buzet dialect is a natural transition between
Chakavian,
Kajkavian
Kajkavian is a South Slavic languages, South Slavic supradialect or language spoken primarily by Croats in much of Central Croatia and Gorski Kotar.
It is part of the South Slavic dialect continuum, being transitional to the supradialects of Č ...
and the
Slovenian language
Slovene ( or ) or Slovenian ( ; ) is a South Slavic language of the Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European language family. Most of its 2.5 million speakers are the inhabitants of Slovenia, the majority of them ethnic Slovenes. As Slo ...
. Initially some considered it part of the Kajkavian language area, in the past it was also classified (e.g. by
Fran Ramovš) as a Slovene dialect, but other linguists, including
Mieczysław Małecki and
Pavle Ivić among others, managed to rightly define it as Chakavian and part of the literary Serbo-Croatian language.
The primary features that separate Buzet dialect from the rest of the Chakavian dialects are in the development of the
Common Slavic vocalism:
* */
ě/ > /ẹ/ (closed ''e'')
* */e/, */ę/ > opened ''e'' (just like in most Kajkavian speeches)
* */u/ > /ü/
* syllabic */l/ > /u/
* */ǫ/ > /a/
Prosodical system diverges from that of other Chakavian speeches (having lost, for example, the difference between long a short accented vowels). Another unusual feature is the usage of Kajkavian interrogative pronoun "what", instead of the usual Chakavian .
As far as the division of Chakavian dialects in Southeastern and Northwestern is concerned, Buzet dialect belongs to Northwestern Chakavian. The Buzet dialect can be divided into two sub-dialects, Northern (majority) and Southern (minority).
Notes
References
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External links
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{{Chakavian dialects
Dialects of Serbo-Croatian
Croatian language
Istria
Croatian dialects