Kajkavian is a
South Slavic supradialect or
language
Language is a structured system of communication that consists of grammar and vocabulary. It is the primary means by which humans convey meaning, both in spoken and signed language, signed forms, and may also be conveyed through writing syste ...
spoken primarily by
Croats
The Croats (; , ) are a South Slavs, South Slavic ethnic group native to Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and other neighboring countries in Central Europe, Central and Southeastern Europe who share a common Croatian Cultural heritage, ancest ...
in much of
Central Croatia and
Gorski Kotar.
It is part of the South Slavic
dialect continuum
A dialect continuum or dialect chain is a series of Variety (linguistics), language varieties spoken across some geographical area such that neighboring varieties are Mutual intelligibility, mutually intelligible, but the differences accumulat ...
, being transitional to the supradialects of
Čakavian
Chakavian or Čakavian (, , , proper name: or own name: ''čokovski, čakavski, čekavski'') is a South Slavic languages, South Slavic supradialect or language spoken by Croats along the Adriatic coast, in the historical regions of Dalmati ...
,
Štokavian and the Slovene language.
There are differing opinions over whether Kajkavian is best considered a dialect of the
Serbo-Croatian
Serbo-Croatian ( / ), also known as Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian (BCMS), is a South Slavic language and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro. It is a pluricentric language with four mutually i ...
language or a fully-fledged language of its own, as it is only partially mutually intelligible with either Čakavian or Štokavian and bears more similarities to
Slovene; it is transitional to and fully
mutually intelligible
In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is a relationship between different but related language varieties in which speakers of the different varieties can readily understand each other without prior familiarity or special effort. Mutual intellig ...
with
Prekmurje Slovene
Prekmurje Slovene, also known as the Prekmurje dialect, Eastern Slovene, or Wendish (, , Prekmurje Slovene: ''prekmürski jezik, prekmürščina, prekmörščina, prekmörski jezik, panonska slovenščina''), is the language of Prekmurje in Easte ...
and the dialects in
Slovenian Lower Styria's region of Prlekija in terms of phonology and vocabulary.
Outside Croatia's northernmost regions, Kajkavian is also spoken in
Austria
Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...
n
Burgenland
Burgenland (; ; ; Bavarian language, Austro-Bavarian: ''Burgnland''; Slovene language, Slovene: ''Gradiščanska''; ) is the easternmost and least populous Bundesland (Austria), state of Austria. It consists of two statutory city (Austria), statut ...
and a number of enclaves in
Hungary
Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...
along the Austrian and Croatian border and in
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...
.
Name
The term "Kajkavian" and the broader classification of what defines this dialect are relatively modern constructs. The dialect's name originates from the interrogative pronoun "kaj" ("what"). The names of the other supradialects of Serbo-Croatian also originate from their respective variants of the interrogative pronoun.
The pronouns are just general indicators and not strict identifiers of the dialects. Some Kajkavian dialects use "ča" (common in
Čakavian
Chakavian or Čakavian (, , , proper name: or own name: ''čokovski, čakavski, čekavski'') is a South Slavic languages, South Slavic supradialect or language spoken by Croats along the Adriatic coast, in the historical regions of Dalmati ...
), while certain Čakavian dialects, like the
Buzet dialect in
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 ...
, use "kaj". The names of these dialects are based on the most common pronoun used, not an absolute rule.
Autonyms used throughout history by various Kajkavian writers have been manifold, ranging from ''Slavic'' (''slavonski'', ''slovenski'', ''slovinski'') to ''Croatian'' (''horvatski'') or ''
Illyrian'' (''illirski''). The naming went through several phases, with the Slavic-based name initially being dominant. Over time, the name ''Croatian'' started gaining ground mainly during the 17th century, and by the beginning of the 18th century, it had supplanted the older name ''Slavic''. The name also followed the same evolution in neighboring Slovene
Prekmurje
Prekmurje (; Prekmurje Slovene: ''Prèkmürsko'' or ''Prèkmüre''; ) is a geographically, linguistically, culturally, and ethnically defined region of Slovenia, settled by Slovenes and a Hungarians in Slovenia, Hungarian minority, lying betwee ...
and some other border areas in what is now Slovenia, although there the name ''Slovene-Croatian'' (''slovensko-horvatski'') existed as well. The actual term Kajkavian (''kajkavski''), including as an adjective, was invented in the 19th century and is credited to Serbian philologist
Đuro Daničić, while it was generally used and promoted in the 20th century works by Croatian writer
Miroslav Krleža. The term is today accepted by its speakers in Croatia.
Classification
Historically, the
classification
Classification is the activity of assigning objects to some pre-existing classes or categories. This is distinct from the task of establishing the classes themselves (for example through cluster analysis). Examples include diagnostic tests, identif ...
of Kajkavian has been a subject of much debate regarding both the question of whether it ought to be considered a dialect or a language, as well as the question of what its relation is to neighboring vernaculars.
The problem with classifying Kajkavian within South Slavic stems in part from its both structural differences and closesness with neighboring Čakavian and Štokavian speeches as well as its historical closeness to Slovene speeches. Some
Slavist
Slavic (American English) or Slavonic (British English) studies, also known as Slavistics, is the academic field of area studies concerned with Slavic peoples, languages, literature, history, and culture. Originally, a Slavist or Slavicist was ...
s maintain that when the separation of
Western South Slavic speeches happened, they separated into five divergent groups — Slovene, Kajkavian, Čakavian, Western Štokavian and Eastern Štokavian, as a result of this, throughout history Kajkavian has often been categorized differently, either a node categorized together with Serbo-Croatian or Slovene.
Furthermore, there do exist few old isoglosses that separate almost all Slovene speeches from all other Western South Slavic dialects, and do exist innovations exist common to Kajkavian, Čakavian, and Western Štokavian that would separate them from Slovene.
Croatian linguist Stjepan Ivšić has used Kajkavian vocabulary and accentuation, which significantly differs from that of Štokavian, as evidence to be a language in its own right. Josip Silić, one of the main initiators behind the standardisation of Croatian, also regards Kajkavian as a distinct language by dint of its having significantly different morphology, syntax and phonology from the official Štokavian-based standard. However, Silić's theorization about three languages and systems of Croatian, based on
Ferdinand de Saussure
Ferdinand Mongin de Saussure (; ; 26 November 185722 February 1913) was a Swiss linguist, semiotician and philosopher. His ideas laid a foundation for many significant developments in both linguistics and semiotics in the 20th century. He is wi ...
and
Eugenio Coșeriu concepts, is criticized for being exaggerated, incomprehensible and logically non-existent. According to
Ranko Matasović, Kajkavian is equally Croatian as Čakavian and Štokavian dialects.
Mate Kapović notes that the dialects are practical and provisory linguistic inventions which should not be misunderstood and extrapolated outside the context of the
dialect continuum
A dialect continuum or dialect chain is a series of Variety (linguistics), language varieties spoken across some geographical area such that neighboring varieties are Mutual intelligibility, mutually intelligible, but the differences accumulat ...
.
According to
Mijo Lončarić (1988), the formation of the Proto-Kajkavian linguistic and territorial unit would be around the 10th century (when it separated from Southwestern Slavic), until the 12th century it is a separate node of Croatian-Serbian language family (excluding Slovene), between the 13th and 15th century when formed as a dialect with main features known today, until the end of the 17th century when lost a part of spoken territory (to the South, Southeast and especially to East in Slavonia), and from the 17th-18th century till present time when regained part of lost territory by forming new transitional dialects.
Characteristics

The Kajkavian speech area borders in the northwest on the
Slovene language
Slovene ( or ) or Slovenian ( ; ) is a South Slavic languages, South Slavic language of the Balto-Slavic languages, Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family. Most of its 2.5 million speakers are the ...
and in the northeast on the
Hungarian language
Hungarian, or Magyar (, ), is an Ugric language of the Uralic language family spoken in Hungary and parts of several neighboring countries. It is the official language of Hungary and one of the 24 official languages of the European Union. Out ...
. In the east and southeast it is bordered by Štokavian dialects roughly along a line that used to serve as the border between
Civil Croatia and the
Habsburg
The House of Habsburg (; ), also known as the House of Austria, was one of the most powerful dynasties in the history of Europe and Western civilization. They were best known for their inbreeding and for ruling vast realms throughout Europe d ...
Military Frontier
The Military Frontier (; sh-Cyrl-Latn, Војна крајина, Vojna krajina, sh-Cyrl-Latn, Војна граница, Vojna granica, label=none; ; ) was a borderland of the Habsburg monarchy and later the Austrian and Austro-Hungari ...
. Finally, in the southwest, it borders Čakavian along the Kupa and Dobra rivers.
It is thought by M. Lončarić that historically these borders extended further to the south and east, for example, the eastern border is thought to have extended at least well into modern-day
Slavonia
Slavonia (; ) is, with Dalmatia, Croatia proper, and Istria County, Istria, one of the four Regions of Croatia, historical regions of Croatia. Located in the Pannonian Plain and taking up the east of the country, it roughly corresponds with f ...
to the area around the town of
Pakrac and
Slatina, while East of it transitional Kajkavian-
Štokavian dialects.
The transitional dialects during Ottoman invasion and migrations almost completely vanished.
The Croatian capital,
Zagreb
Zagreb ( ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, north of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the ...
, has historically been a Kajkavian-speaking area, and Kajkavian is still in use by its older and (to a lesser extent) by its younger population. Modern Zagreb speech has come under considerable influence from Štokavian. The vast intermingling of Kajkavian and standard Štokavian in Zagreb and its surroundings has led to problems in defining the underlying structure of those speech-groups. As a result, many of the urban speeches (but not rural ones) have been labelled either ''Kajkavian
koine
Koine Greek (, ), also variously known as Hellenistic Greek, common Attic, the Alexandrian dialect, Biblical Greek, Septuagint Greek or New Testament Greek, was the common supra-regional form of Greek spoken and written during the Hellenistic ...
'' or ''Kajkavian–Štokavian'' rather than Kajkavian or Štokavian.
Additionally, the forms of speech in use exhibit significant sociolinguistic variation. Research suggests that younger Zagreb-born speakers of the Kajkavian koine tend to consciously use more Kajkavian features when speaking to older people, showing that such features are still in their linguistic inventory even if not used at all times.
However, the Kajkavian koine is distinct from Kajkavian as spoken in non-urban areas, and the mixing of Štokavian and Kajkavian outside of urban settings is much rarer and less developed. The Kajkavian koine has also been named ''Zagreb Štokavian'' by some.
As a result of the previously mentioned mixing of dialects, various Kajkavian features and characteristics have found their way into the standard Štokavian (''standard Croatian'') spoken in those areas. For example, some of the prominent features are the fixed stress-based accentual system without distinctive lengths, the merger of /č/ and /ć/ and of /dž/ and /đ/, vocabulary differences as well as a different place of stress in words. The Zagreb variety of Štokavian is considered by some to enjoy parallel prestige with the prescribed Štokavian variety. Because of that, speakers whose native speech is closer to the standard variety often end up adopting the Zagreb speech for various reasons.
Kajkavian is closely related to Slovene – and to
Prekmurje Slovene
Prekmurje Slovene, also known as the Prekmurje dialect, Eastern Slovene, or Wendish (, , Prekmurje Slovene: ''prekmürski jezik, prekmürščina, prekmörščina, prekmörski jezik, panonska slovenščina''), is the language of Prekmurje in Easte ...
in particular. Higher amounts of correspondences between the two exist in inflection and vocabulary. The speakers of the Prekmurje dialect are
Slovenes
The Slovenes, also known as Slovenians ( ), are a South Slavs, South Slavic ethnic group native to Slovenia and adjacent regions in Italy, Austria and Hungary. Slovenes share a common ancestry, Slovenian culture, culture, and History of Slove ...
and
Hungarian Slovenes
Hungarian Slovenes ( Slovene: ''Madžarski Slovenci'', ) are an autochthonous ethnic and linguistic Slovene minority living in Hungary. The largest groups are the Rába Slovenes (, dialectically: ''vogrski Slovenci, bákerski Slovenci, porábsk ...
who belonged to the
Archdiocese of Zagreb during the Habsburg era (until 1918). They used Kajkavian as their liturgical language, and by the 18th century, Kajkavian had become the standard language of Prekmurje.
Moreover, literary Kajkavian was also used in neighboring
Slovene Styria during the 17th and 18th centuries, and in parts of it, education was conducted in Kajkavian.
As a result of various factors, Kajkavian has numerous differences compared to Štokavian:
* Kajkavian has a prothetic ''v-'' generalized in front of ''u'' (compare Kajkavian ''vuho'', Štokavian ''uho''; Kajkavian ''vugel'', Štokavian ''ugao''; Kajkavian ''vučil'', Štokavian ''učio''). This feature has been attested in Glagolitic texts very early on, already around the 15th century (Petrisov zbornik, 1468). A similar feature exists in
colloquial Czech, as well as in many
Slovene dialects
In a purely dialectological sense, Slovene dialects ( , ) are the regionally diverse varieties that evolved from old Slovene, a South Slavic language of which the standardized modern version is Standard Slovene. This also includes several di ...
, especially from the
Pannonian,
Styrian and
Littoral dialect groups.
* Proto-Slavic *dj resulted in Kajkavian ''j'' as opposed to Štokavian ''đ'' (cf. Kajkavian ''meja'', Štokavian ''međa'', Slovene ''meja'').
* The nasal *ǫ has evolved into a closed /o/ in Kajkavian (cf. Kajkavian ''roka'', Štokavian ''ruka'', Slovene ''roka'').
* Common Slavic *v and *v- survived as ''v'' in Kajkavian, whereas in Štokavian they resulted in ''u'' and ''u-'', and in Čakavian they gave way to ''va''. The same feature is maintained in most Slovene dialects.
* Kajkavian has retained /č/ in front of /r/ (cf. Kajkavian ''črn'', ''črv'', Štokavian ''crn'', ''crv'', Slovene ''črn'', ''črv'').
* Kajkavian /ž/ in front of a vowel turns into /r/. A similar evolution happened in Slovene, Čakavian as well as Western Štokavian, however the latter does not use it in its standard form (cf. Kajkavian ''moči > morem/moreš/more'', Štokavian ''moći > mogu/možeš/može'', Slovene ''moči > morem/moreš/more'').
* Kajkavian retains ''-jt'' and ''-jd'' clusters (cf. Kajkavian ''pojti'', ''pojdem'', Štokavian ''poći'', ''pođem'').
This feature is shared by standard Slovene.
* Like most Slavic varieties (including Slovenian, but not Štokavian), Kajkavian exhibits
final-obstruent devoicing
Final-obstruent devoicing or terminal devoicing is a systematic phonological process occurring in languages such as Catalan, German, Dutch, Quebec French, Breton, Russian, Polish, Lithuanian, Turkish, and Wolof. In such languages, voic ...
, however it is not consistently spelled out (cf. Kajkavian ''vrak'', Štokavian ''vrag'')
* Diminutive suffixes in Kajkavian are ''-ek'', ''-ec'', ''-eko'', ''-eco'' (cf. Kajkavian ''pes > pesek'', Štokavian ''pas > psić'').
The same diminutive suffixes are found in Slovene.
* Negative past-tense construction in Kajkavian deviates syntactically from neighboring speeches in its placing of the negative particle. Some argued that this might indicate a remnant of the Pannonian Slavic system. Similar behavior occurs in Slovak (compare Kajkavian ''ja sem nę čul'', Slovene ''jaz nisem čul'', Štokavian ''ja nisam čuo'').
* Some variants of Kajkavian have a different first-person plural present-tense suffix, ''-mę'' (cf. Kajkavian ''-mę'', ''rečemę'', Slovene ''-mo'', ''rečemo'', Štokavian ''-mo'', ''kažemo'', Slovak ''-me'', ''povieme'') such as the Bednja dialect, although most Kajkavian sub-dialects retain the suffix ''-mo.''
* Relative pronouns differ from neighboring dialects and languages (although they are similar to Slovene). Kajkavian uses ''kateri'', ''tęri'' and ''šteri'' depending on sub-dialect (cf. Czech ''který'', Slovak ''ktorý'', Štokavian ''koji'', standard Slovene ''kateri'',
Carniola
Carniola ( ; ; ; ) is a historical region that comprised parts of present-day Slovenia. Although as a whole it does not exist anymore, Slovenes living within the former borders of the region still tend to identify with its traditional parts Upp ...
n dialects ''k'teri'', ''kęri'').
* The genitive plural in Štokavian adds an -a to the end, whereas Kajkavian retains the old form (cf. Kajkavian ''vuk'', ''vukov/vukof'', Štokavian ''vuk'', ''vukova'', Slovene ''volk'', ''volkov'', Kajkavian ''žene'', ''žen'', Štokavian ''žene'', ''žena'', Slovene ''žene'', ''žen''/''žena'').
* Kajkavian retains the older locative plural (compare Kajkavian ''prsti'', ''prsteh'', Štokavian ''prsti'', ''prstima'', Slovene ''prsti'', ''prstih'').
* The loss of the
dual is considered to be significantly more recent than in Štokavian.
* Kajkavian has no vocative case.
This feature is shared with standard Slovene and most Slovene dialects.
* So-called ''s-type nouns'' have been retained as a separate declension class in Kajkavian contrasted from the neuter due to the formant ''-es-'' in oblique cases. The same is true for Slovene (compare Kajkavian ''čudo'', ''čudesa'', Štokavian ''čudo'', ''čuda'', Slovene ''čudo'', ''čudesa'').
* Kajkavian has no
aorist
Aorist ( ; abbreviated ) verb forms usually express perfective aspect and refer to past events, similar to a preterite. Ancient Greek grammar had the aorist form, and the grammars of other Indo-European languages and languages influenced by the ...
. The same is true for Slovene.
* The
supine
In grammar, a supine is a form of verbal noun used in some languages. The term is most often used for Latin, where it is one of the four principal parts of a verb. The word refers to a position of lying on one's back (as opposed to ' prone', l ...
has been retained as distinctive from infinitive, as in Slovene. The infinitive suffixes are ''-ti'', ''-či'' whereas their supine counterparts are ''-t'', ''-č''. The supine and the infinitive are often stressed differently. The supine is used with verbs of motion.
* The future tense is formed with the auxiliary ''biti'' and the ''-l'' participle as in standard Slovene and similar to Czech and Slovak (compare Kajkavian ''išel bom'', Štokavian ''ići ću'', standard Slovene ''šel bom'', eastern Slovene dialects ''išel bom'').
* Modern urban Kajkavian speeches tend to have stress as the only significant prosodic feature as opposed to the Štokavian four-tone system.
* Kajkavian exhibits various syntactic influences from German.
* The Slavic prefix u- has a ''vi-'' reflex in some dialects, similar to Czech ''vý-'' (compare Kajkavian ''vigled'', Czech ''výhled'', Štokavian ''izgled''). This feature sets Kajkavian apart from Slovene, which shares the prefix -iz with Štokavian.
In addition to the above list of characteristics that set Kajkavian apart from Štokavian, research suggests possible a closer relation with Kajkavian and the
Slovak language
Slovak ( ; endonym: or ), is a West Slavic language of the Czech-Slovak languages, Czech–Slovak group, written in Latin script and formerly in Cyrillic script. It is part of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family, and is ...
, especially with the Central Slovak dialects upon which standard Slovak is based. As modern-day Hungary used to be populated by Slavic-speaking peoples prior to the arrival of Hungarians, there have been hypotheses on possible common innovations of future West and South Slavic speakers of that area. Kajkavian is the most prominent of the South Slavic speeches in sharing the most features that could potentially be common
Pannonian innovations.
Some Kajkavian words bear a closer resemblance to other Slavic languages such as
Russian than they do to Štokavian or Čakavian. For instance ''gda'' (also seen as shorter "da") seems to be at first glance unrelated to ''kada'', however when compared to Russian ''когда'', Slovene ''kdaj'', or Prekmurje Slovene ''gda'', ''kda'', the relationship becomes apparent. Kajkavian ''kak'' (''how'') and ''tak'' (''so'') are exactly like their Russian cognates and Prekmurje Slovene compared to Štokavian, Čakavian, and standard Slovene ''kako'' and ''tako''. (This vowel loss occurred in most other Slavic languages; Štokavian is a notable exception, whereas the same feature in
Macedonian is probably not due to Serbo-Croatian influence because the word is preserved in the same form in
Bulgarian, to which Macedonian is much more closely related than to Serbo-Croatian).
Phonology
The number of vowels and consonants can vary by region, but the typical Kajkavian phoneme set includes 7 vowels and 23 consonants.
Vowels
Consonants
In most cases, voiced consonants are devoiced at the end of words, unless followed by a word beginning with a vowel or voiced consonant. For example, the words ''grob'' (grave), ''poleg'' (next to, alongside) and ''njegov'' (his) become ''grop'', ''polek'' and ''njegof'' respectively.
History of research
Linguistic investigation began during the 19th century, although the research itself often ended in non-linguistic or outdated conclusions. Since that was the age of national revivals across Europe as well as the South Slavic lands, the research was steered by national narratives. Within that framework, Slovene philologists such as
Franz Miklosich
Franz Miklosich (, also known in Slovene as ; 20 November 1813 – 7 March 1891) was a Slovenian philologist and rector of the University of Vienna.
Early life
Miklosich was born in the small village of Radomerščak near the Lower Styrian town ...
and
Jernej Kopitar
Jernej Kopitar, also known as Bartholomeus Kopitar (21 August 1780 – 11 August 1844), was a Slovene linguist and philologist working in Vienna. He also worked as the Imperial censor for Slovene literature in Vienna. He is perhaps best known ...
attempted to reinforce the idea of Slovene and Kajkavian unity and asserted that Kajkavian speakers are Slovenes.
On the other hand,
Josef Dobrovský also claimed linguistic and national unity between the two groups but under the Croatian ethnonym.
The first modern dialectal investigations of Kajkavian started at the end of the 19th century. The Ukrainian philologist A. M. Lukjanenko wrote the first comprehensive monograph on Kajkavian (titled ''Кайкавское нарѣчiе'' (''Kajkavskoe narečie'') meaning ''The Kajkavian dialect'') in Russian in 1905. Kajkavian dialects have been classified along various criteria: for instance Serbian philologist
Aleksandar Belić divided (1927) the Kajkavian dialect according to the reflexes of Proto-Slavic phonemes /tj/ and /dj/ into three subdialects: eastern, northwestern and southwestern.
However, later investigations did not corroborate Belić's division. Contemporary Kajkavian dialectology begins with Croatian philologist
Stjepan Ivšić
Stjepan Ivšić (; 13 August 1884 – 14 January 1962) was a Croatian linguist, Slavicist, and accentologist.
Biography
Ivšić was born on 13 August 1884 in Orahovica. After finishing primary school in Orahovica, he attended secondary schoo ...
's work "Jezik Hrvata kajkavaca" (''The Language of Kajkavian Croats'', 1936), which highlighted accentual characteristics. Due to the great diversity within Kajkavian primarily in phonetics, phonology, and morphology, the Kajkavian dialect atlas features a large number of subdialects: from four identified by Ivšić to six proposed by Croatian linguist
Brozović (formerly the accepted division) all the way up to fifteen according to a monograph by Croatian linguist
Mijo Lončarić (1995). The traditional division in six sub-dialects includes: ''zagorsko-međimurski'', ''križevačko-podravski'', ''turopoljsko-posavski'', ''prigorski'' (transitional to
Central Čakavian), ''donjosutlanski'' (migratory transitional Čakavian-ikavian which became Kajkavian), and ''goranski'' (also transitional which is more Kajkavian in lesser Eastern part, while more Slovene in main Western part).
Kajkavian categorization of transitional dialects, like for example of ''prigorski'', is provisory.
Area of use

Kajkavian is mainly spoken in northern and northwestern Croatia. The mixed half-Kajkavian towns along the eastern and southern edge of the Kajkavian-speaking area are
Pitomača,
Čazma
Čazma is a town in Bjelovar-Bilogora County, Croatia. It is part of Moslavina.
Geography
Čazma is situated 60 kilometers east of Zagreb and only 30 kilometres from the center of the region - Bjelovar.
Čazma is situated on the slopes of ...
,
Kutina,
Popovača
Popovača is a town in Croatia in the Moslavina geographical region. Administratively it is part of the Sisak-Moslavina County.
History
In the late 19th and early 20th century, Popovača was part of the Bjelovar-Križevci County of the Kingdom of ...
,
Sunja,
Petrinja
Petrinja () is a town in central Croatia near Sisak in the historic region of Banija, Banovina. It is administratively located in Sisak-Moslavina County.
On December 29, 2020, the town was 2020 Petrinja earthquake, hit by a strong earthquake wit ...
,
Martinska Ves,
Ozalj,
Ogulin
Ogulin () is a town in central Croatia, in Karlovac County. It has a population of 7,389 (2021) (it was 8,216 in 2011), and a total municipal population of 12,251 (2021). Ogulin is known for its historic stone castle, known as Kula, and the nearby ...
,
Fužine, and
Čabar, including newer Štokavian enclaves of
Bjelovar
Bjelovar (, , Czech language, Czech: ''Bělovar'' or ''Bělovár,'' Kajkavian dialect, Kajkavian: ''Belovar,'' Latin: ''Bellovarium'') is a city in central Croatia. In the Demographics of Croatia, 2021 census, its population was 36,316 .
It is ...
,
Sisak,
Glina,
Donja Dubrava and
Novi Zagreb
Novi Zagreb () is the part of the city of Zagreb located south of the Sava, Sava river. Novi Zagreb forms a distinct whole because it is separated from the northern part of the city both by the river and by the levees around Sava. At the same time ...
. The southernmost Kajkavian villages are
Krapje at
Jasenovac; and
Pavušek,
Dvorišče and
Hrvatsko selo
Hrvatsko Selo is a village 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 northea ...
in Zrinska Gora (R. Fureš & A. Jembrih: ''Kajkavski u povijesnom i sadašnjem obzorju'' p. 548, Zabok 2006).
The major cities in northern Croatia are located in what was historically a Kajkavian-speaking area, mainly Zagreb, Koprivnica, Krapina, Križevci, Varaždin, Čakovec. The typical archaic Kajkavian is today spoken mainly in
Hrvatsko Zagorje
Hrvatsko Zagorje (; Croatian Zagorje; ''zagorje'' is Croatian language, Croatian for 'backland' or 'behind the hills') is a cultural region in northern Croatia, traditionally separated from the country's capital Zagreb by the Medvednica mount ...
hills and
Međimurje plain, and in adjacent areas of northwestern Croatia where immigrants and the Štokavian standard had much less influence. The most peculiar Kajkavian dialect ''(Bednjounski)'' is spoken in
Bednja in northernmost Croatia. Many of northern Croatian urban areas today are partly Štokavianized due to the influence of the
standard language
A standard language (or standard variety, standard dialect, standardized dialect or simply standard) is any language variety that has undergone substantial codification in its grammar, lexicon, writing system, or other features and that stands ...
and immigration of Štokavian speakers.
Other southeastern people who immigrate to Zagreb from Štokavian territories often pick up rare elements of Kajkavian in order to assimilate, notably the pronoun "kaj" instead of "što" and the extended use of future anterior (''futur drugi''), but they never adapt well because of alien eastern accents and ignoring Kajkavian-Čakavian archaisms and syntax.
Literary Kajkavian
Writings that are judged by some as being distinctly Kajkavian can be dated to around the 12th century. The first comprehensive works in Kajkavian started to appear during the 16th century at a time when Central Croatia gained prominence due to the geopolitical environment since it was free from Ottoman occupation. The most notable work of that era was Ivanuš Pergošić's , released in 1574. was a translation of
István Werbőczy
István Werbőczy or Stephen Werbőcz (also spelled ''Verbőczy'' and Latinized to ''Verbeucius'' 1458? – 1541) was a Hungarian legal theorist and statesman, author of the Hungarian Customary Law, who first became known as a legal scholar ...
's .
At the same time, many Protestant writers of the Slovene lands also released their works in Kajkavian in order to reach a wider audience, while also using some Kajkavian features in their native writings. During that time, the autonym used by the writers was usually (Slavic), (Croatian) or (Illyrian).
After that, numerous works appeared in the Kajkavian literary language: chronicles by
Vramec, liturgical works by
Ratkaj,
Habdelić,
Mulih; poetry by
Ana Katarina Zrinska and
Fran Krsto Frankopan, and a dramatic opus by
Tituš Brezovački. Kajkavian-based are important lexicographic works like
Jambrešić's "", 1670, and the monumental (2,000 pages and 50,000 words) Latin-Kajkavian-Latin dictionary "" (including also some Čakavian and Štokavian words marked as such) by
Ivan Belostenec (posthumously, 1740).
Miroslav Krleža's poetic work "" drew heavily on Belostenec's dictionary. Kajkavian grammars include
Kornig's, 1795,
Matijević's, 1810 and
Đurkovečki's, 1837.
During that time, the Kajkavian literary language was the dominant written form in its spoken area along with Latin and German. Until
Ljudevit Gaj
Ljudevit Gaj (; born Ludwig Gay; ; 8 August 1809 – 20 April 1872) was a Croatian linguist, politician, journalist and writer. He was one of the central figures of the pan-Slavist Illyrian movement.
Biography
Origin
He was born in Krapina ( ...
's attempts to modernize the spelling, Kajkavian was written using
Hungarian spelling conventions.
Kajkavian began to lose its status during the
Croatian National Revival in mid-19th Century when the leaders of the
Illyrian movement opted to use the Štokavian dialect as the basis for the future South Slavic standard language, the reason being that it had the highest number of speakers. Initially, the choice of Štokavian was accepted even among Slovene intellectuals, but later it fell out of favor.
The Zagreb linguistic school was opposed to the course that the standardization process took. Namely, it had almost completely ignored Kajkavian (and Čakavian) dialects which was contrary to the original vision of Zagreb school. With the notable exception of vocabulary influence of Kajkavian on the standard Croatian register (but not the Serbian one), there was very little to no input from other non-Štokavian dialects.
Instead, the opposite was done, with some modern-day linguists calling the process of 19th-century standardization an event of "neo-Štokavian purism" and a "purge of non-Štokavian elements".
Early 20th century witnessed a drastic increase in released Kajkavian literature, although by then it had become part of what was considered Croatian dialectal poetry with no pretense of serving as a standard written form. The most notable writers of this period were among others,
Antun Gustav Matoš,
Miroslav Krleža,
Ivan Goran Kovačić
Ivan Goran Kovačić (; 21 March 1913 – 12 July 1943) was a Croatian poet and writer.
Early life and background
He was born in the town of Lukovdol, Vrbovsko municipality, in Gorski Kotar, to a Croat father, Ivan Kovačić, and Transylvani ...
,
Dragutin Domjanić and
Nikola Pavić.
Kajkavian lexical treasure is being published by the
Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts
The Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts (; , HAZU) is the national academy of Croatia.
HAZU was founded under the patronage of the Croatian bishop Josip Juraj Strossmayer under the name Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts (, JAZU) since its ...
in ("Dictionary of the Croatian Kajkavian Literary Language", 8 volumes, 1999).
Later,
Dario Vid Balog, actor, linguist and writer translated the New Testament in Kajkavian.
In 2018 is published the Kajkavian translation of
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Antoine Marie Jean-Baptiste Roger, vicomte de Saint-Exupéry (29 June 1900 – 31 July 1944), known simply as Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (, , ), was a French writer, poet, journalist and aviator.
Born in Lyon to an French nobility, aristocratic ...
's ''
The Little Prince'' () by
Kajkavsko spravišče aka .
Mali Princ je pregovoril kajkavski! – Umjesto kave 15. prosinca 2018. (bozicabrkan.com)
/ref>
Below are examples of the Lord's Prayer
The Lord's Prayer, also known by its incipit Our Father (, ), is a central Christian prayer attributed to Jesus. It contains petitions to God focused on God’s holiness, will, and kingdom, as well as human needs, with variations across manusc ...
in the Croatian variant of Štokavian, literary Kajkavian and a Međimurje variant of the Kajkavian dialect.
Vocabulary comparison table
Kajkavian shares similarities in both vocabulary and pronunciation with Slovene and Croatian Štokavian. The following is a comparison of some words in Kajkavian, Prekmurje Slovene
Prekmurje Slovene, also known as the Prekmurje dialect, Eastern Slovene, or Wendish (, , Prekmurje Slovene: ''prekmürski jezik, prekmürščina, prekmörščina, prekmörski jezik, panonska slovenščina''), is the language of Prekmurje in Easte ...
, Standard Slovene and Standard Croatian ( Štokavian), along with their English translations. The Kajkavian and Prekmurje Slovene vocabulary is drawn from various regions.
Kajkavian media
During Yugoslavia
, common_name = Yugoslavia
, life_span = 1918–19921941–1945: World War II in Yugoslavia#Axis invasion and dismemberment of Yugoslavia, Axis occupation
, p1 = Kingdom of SerbiaSerbia
, flag_p ...
in the 20th century, Kajkavian was mostly restricted to private communication, poetry and folklore. With the recent regional democratizing and cultural revival beginning in the 1990s, Kajkavian partly regained its former half-public position chiefly in Zagorje and Varaždin Counties and local towns, where there is now some public media e.g.:
* A quarterly periodical ''"Kaj"'', with 35 annual volumes in nearly a hundred fascicles published since 1967 by the Kajkavian Association ('Kajkavsko Spravišče') in Zagreb.
* An autumnal week of ''Kajkavian culture'' in Krapina since 1997, with professional symposia on Kajkavian resulting in five published proceedings.
* An annual periodical, ''Hrvatski sjever'' ('Croatian North'), with a dozen volumes partly in Kajkavian published by Matica Hrvatska in Čakovec.
* A permanent radio program in Kajkavian, ''Kajkavian Radio'' in Krapina. Other minor half-Kajkavian media with temporary Kajkavian contents include local television in Varaždin, the local radio program ''Sljeme'' in Zagreb, and some local newspapers in northwestern Croatia in Varaždin, Čakovec, Samobor, etc.
See also
*Dialects of Serbo-Croatian
The dialects of Serbo-Croatian include the nonstandard dialect, vernacular forms and Standard language, standardized sub-dialect forms of Serbo-Croatian as a whole or as part of its standard language, standard varieties: Bosnian language, Bo ...
* Slovene dialects
In a purely dialectological sense, Slovene dialects ( , ) are the regionally diverse varieties that evolved from old Slovene, a South Slavic language of which the standardized modern version is Standard Slovene. This also includes several di ...
* South Slavic languages
The South Slavic languages are one of three branches of the Slavic languages. There are approximately 30 million speakers, mainly in the Balkans. These are separated geographically from speakers of the other two Slavic branches (West Slavic la ...
Notes
References
Bibliography
* Feletar D., Ledić G., Šir A.: ''Kajkaviana Croatica'' (Hrvatska kajkavska riječ). Muzej Međimurja, 37 pp., Čakovec 1997.
* Fureš R., Jembrih A. (ured.): ''Kajkavski u povijesnom i sadašnjem obzorju'' (zbornik skupova Krapina 2002–2006). Hrvatska udruga Muži zagorskog srca, 587 pp. Zabok 2006.
* JAZU / HAZU: ''Rječnik hrvatskoga kajkavskog književnog jezika'' (A – P), I – X. Zavod za hrvatski jezik i jezikoslovlje 2500 pp., Zagreb 1984–2005.
* Lipljin, T. 2002: ''Rječnik varaždinskoga kajkavskog govora''. Garestin, Varaždin, 1284 pp. (2. prošireno izdanje u tisku 2008.)
* Lončarić M. 1996: ''Kajkavsko narječje''. Školska knjiga, Zagreb, 198 pp.
* Lončarić M., Željko J., Horvat J., Hanzir Š., Jakolić B. 2015: ''Rječnik kajkavske donjosutlanske ikavice''. Institute of Croatian Language and Linguistics, 578 pp.
* Magner, F. 1971: ''Kajkavian Koiné''. Symbolae in Honorem Georgii Y. Shevelov, Munich.
* Moguš, M.: ''A History of the Croatian Language'', NZ Globus, Zagreb 1995
* Šojat, A. 1969–1971: ''Kratki navuk jezičnice horvatske'' (Jezik stare kajkavske književnosti). Kaj 1969: 3–4, 5, 7–8, 10, 12; Kaj 1970: 2, 3–4, 10; Kaj 1971: 10, 11. Kajkavsko spravišče, Zagreb.
* Okuka, M. 2008: ''Srpski dijalekti''. SKD Prosvjeta, Zagreb, 7 pp.
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Further reading
* Jedvaj, Josip 1956:
Bednjanski govor
'', Hrvatski dijalektološki zbornik, Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts
External links
*
{{Slavic languages
Croatian dialects
Dialects of Serbo-Croatian
South Slavic languages
Croatian language