Title page Calindaru lu rumeri din Istrie 1905

The Istro-Romanian alphabet is a variant of the

Latin alphabet The Latin alphabet, also known as the Roman alphabet, is the collection of letters originally used by the Ancient Rome, ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered except several letters splitting—i.e. from , and from � ...

used by the

Istro-Romanian language The Istro-Romanian language () is an Eastern Romance languages, Eastern Romance language, spoken in a few villages and hamlets in the peninsula of Istria in Croatia, as well as in the diaspora of this people. It is sometimes abbreviated to IR. ...

. The language is not

standardized Standardization (American English) or standardisation (British English) is the process of implementing and developing technical standards based on the consensus of different parties that include firms, users, interest groups, standards organiza ...

and therefore there are several writing systems for it. Up to three can be distinguished; one based on the

Romanian language Romanian (obsolete spelling: Roumanian; , or , ) is the official and main language of Romania and Moldova. Romanian is part of the Eastern Romance languages, Eastern Romance sub-branch of Romance languages, a linguistic group that evolved fr ...

, one based on the

Croatian language Croatian (; ) is the standard language, standardised Variety (linguistics)#Standard varieties, variety of the Serbo-Croatian pluricentric language mainly used by Croats. It is the national official language and literary standard of Croatia, o ...

and one with characteristics of both.

History

The

was first attested in 1698 in a document written by the Italian

monk A monk (; from , ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a man who is a member of a religious order and lives in a monastery. A monk usually lives his life in prayer and contemplation. The concept is ancient and can be seen in many reli ...

Ireneo della Croce Ireneo della Croce (1625–1713) was a Carmelite preacher and chronicler. della Croce was born in Trieste. He lived in the monasteries of Venice and Padova, but visited his hometown frequently. His magnum opus (''Historia antica e moderna, sacra e p ...

. He gives 13 single

noun In grammar, a noun is a word that represents a concrete or abstract thing, like living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, and ideas. A noun may serve as an Object (grammar), object or Subject (grammar), subject within a p ...

s, 8 nouns with

determiner Determiner, also called determinative ( abbreviated ), is a term used in some models of grammatical description to describe a word or affix belonging to a class of noun modifiers. A determiner combines with a noun to express its reference. Examp ...

s and 2

sentences The ''Sentences'' (. ) is a compendium of Christian theology written by Peter Lombard around 1150. It was the most important religious textbook of the Middle Ages. Background The sentence genre emerged from works like Prosper of Aquitaine's ...

with their Italian translation. The monk used typical Italian

letter Letter, letters, or literature may refer to: Characters typeface * Letter (alphabet), a character representing one or more of the sounds used in speech or none in the case of a silent letter; any of the symbols of an alphabet * Letterform, the g ...

s, belonging to the

Italian alphabet Italian orthography (the conventions used in writing Italian) uses the Latin alphabet to write the Italian language. This article focuses on the writing of Standard Italian, based historically on the Florentine variety of Tuscan. Written It ...

. Before this,

toponym Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of ''wikt:toponym, toponyms'' (proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage, and types. ''Toponym'' is the general term for ...

s and

person name A given name (also known as a forename or first name) is the part of a personal name quoted in that identifies a person, potentially with a middle name as well, and differentiates that person from the other members of a group (typically a f ...

s of probable Istro-Romanian origin had already been registered in previous documents. The first book entirely in Istro-Romanian, ''Calindaru lu rumeri din Istrie'' (Calendar of the Romanians of Istria), would be published centuries later in 1905 by the Istro-Romanian writer and politician

Andrei Glavina Andrei Glavina (30 November 1881 – 9 February 1925; ; ) was an Austro-Hungarian-born Istro-Romanian writer, professor and politician born in Šušnjevica. Known as the "Apostle of the Istro-Romanians", he is recognized for his struggle for ...

and the Romanian historian Constantin Diculescu. The first attempt to standardize the language was made by the Romanian

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

and

philologist Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also defined as the study of ...

Sextil Pușcariu Sextil Iosif Pușcariu (4 January 1877 – 5 May 1948) was an Austria-Hungary, Austro-Hungarian-born Romanian linguist and philologist, also known for his involvement in administrative and party politics. A native of Brașov educated in France ...

in his work ''Studii Istroromâne'' (Istro-Romanian studies). He mixed elements of the

Romanian orthography The Romanian alphabet is a variant of the Latin alphabet used for writing the Romanian language. It consists of 31 letters, five of which (Ă, Â, Î, Ș, and Ț) have been modified from their Latin originals for the phonetic requirements of t ...

with others of the Croatian one, giving rise to a mixed alphabet. In 1998, the Croatian linguist

August Kovačec August Kovačec (born 6 August 1938) is a Croatian linguist and Romanicist. Biography He was born in Donje Jesenje. He received a degree in Romance and Russian philology at the Faculty of Philosophy in Zagreb in 1960, and a PhD in 1965. Fr ...

would publish an Istro-Romanian- Croatian

dictionary A dictionary is a listing of lexemes from the lexicon of one or more specific languages, often arranged Alphabetical order, alphabetically (or by Semitic root, consonantal root for Semitic languages or radical-and-stroke sorting, radical an ...

in which he would update Pușcariu's hybrid version. There is also a version based on standard

Romanian Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania **Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language ***Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language **Romanian cuisine, traditional ...

, created in 1928 by the Romanian journalist and professor Alexandru Leca Morariu. He introduced this system in ''Lu frati noștri: libru lu rumeri din Istrie'' (To our brothers: book of the Romanians of Istria), the second book written in Istro-Romanian. This system was accepted by several other Romanian researchers, such as Traian Cantemir. In 2009, the Croatian linguist and professor Zvjezdana Vrzić created a new alphabet, this time entirely based on the Croatian

orthography An orthography is a set of convention (norm), conventions for writing a language, including norms of spelling, punctuation, Word#Word boundaries, word boundaries, capitalization, hyphenation, and Emphasis (typography), emphasis. Most national ...

. According to her, this alphabet represents all the

phoneme A phoneme () is any set of similar Phone (phonetics), speech sounds that are perceptually regarded by the speakers of a language as a single basic sound—a smallest possible Phonetics, phonetic unit—that helps distinguish one word fr ...

s found in the Istro-Romanian language and is easy to learn for them since they are already literate in Croatian. Vrzić has already implemented this system on her website "Preservation of the Vlaški and Žejanski Language". Therefore, it is generally agreed that there are three spelling systems for the language, all of them with slight changes depending on the author. None of them has been officially adopted, making the Istro-Romanian still pending standardization.

Alphabet

Romanian orthography

Based on Morariu's 1928 version. It also includes the digraphs gh and ch.

Mixed orthography

Based on Kovačec's 1998 version.

Croatian orthography

Based on Vrzić's 2009 version. It also includes the digraphs dz, lj and nj.

References

External links

Alphabet and basic grammar of the Istro-Romanian language
''istro-romanian.com''
Pronunciation
''Preservation of the Vlaški and Žejanski Language''. {{Language orthographies Latin alphabets A