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Kajkavian dialect
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Croatian Kajkavian dialect (proper name: kajkavica or kajkavština) is one of the three main dialects of the Croatian language. The name of the dialect, like those of its correspondents, Štokavian and Cakavian, is named after the interrogative pronoun kaj ("what").
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Encyclopedia
Croatian Kajkavian dialect (proper name: kajkavica or kajkavština) is one of the three main dialects of the Croatian language. The name of the dialect, like those of its correspondents, Štokavian and Cakavian, is named after the interrogative pronoun kaj ("what"). The dialect is spoken in the northern and northwestern parts of Croatia, including the Croatian capital Zagreb, as well as in a few Croatian language enclaves in Austria, Hungary and Romania.
The Kajkavian dialect area is closely related to neighbouring Slovenian dialects, partly forming a dialect chain which encompasses all South Slavic dialects. This dialect may further fit into the wider group as the result of a fusion with Štokavian and Cakavian Croatian.
Characteristics
The Kajkavian of Croatia is bordered on the northwest by Slovenian language territory. It is bordered on the east and southeast by Štokavian dialects roughly along a line that was the former division between Civil Croatia and the Habsburg Military Frontier; in southwest along Kupa and Dobra rivers, it persisted in ancient (medieval) contact with Cakavian dialects.
Some Kajkavian words bear a closer resemblance to other Slavic languages (such as Russian) than they do to Štokavian or Cakavian. For instance gda seems (at first glance) to be unrelated to kada, however, when compared to the Russian ?????, the relationship becomes more apparent. Kajkavian kak (how) and tak (so) are exactly like their Russian cognates, as compared to Štokavian and Cakavian kako and tako. (This vowel loss occurred in most other Slavic languages; Štokavian is a notable exception, whereas the same feature of Macedonian is probably not a Serbian influence, as the word is preserved in the same form in Bulgarian, to which Macedonian is much closer related than to Serbian.)
Another distinctive feature of Kajkavian is the preference for the future tense. Instead of Štokavian and Cakavian "cu", "ceš", "ce", Kajkavian speakers say "bum", "buš" and "bu",. This is again very similar to Slovene forms "bom", "boš", "bo". The near-future tense is far more often used than in the standard Croatian language. For example, the phrase "I'll show you" is "Ti bum pokazal" in Kajkavian whereas in standard Croatian it is "Pokazat cu ti".
History
Dialectogical investigations of Kajkavian dialect have begun at the end of the 19th century: the first comprehensive monograph was written in Russian by Ukrainian philologist A.M.Lukjanenko in 1905 (Kajkavskoe narecie). Kajkavian dialects have been classified along various criteria: Serbian philologist Aleksandar Belic had divided (1927) Kajkavian dialect according the reflexes of Ur-Slavic phonemes /tj/ and /DJ/ into three subdialects: eastern, northwestern and southwestern.
However, later investigations have not corroborated Belic's division. Contemporary Kajkavian dialectology originates mainly from Croatian philologist Stjepan Ivšic's work "Jezik Hrvata kajkavaca"/The Language of Kajkavian Croats, 1936, which is based on accentuation characteristics. Due to great diversity of Kajkavian speech, primarily in phonetics, phonology and morphology the Kajkavian dialectological atlas is notable for its bewildering proliferation of subdialects: from four identified by Ivšic, via six proposed by Štokavian linguist Brozovic (formerly accepted division) to fifteen, according to a monograph authored by Kajkavian linguist Loncaric (1995).
Area of use
Kajkavians now include 1/3 or 31% i.e. 1.300.000 of Croatian inhabitants, chiefly in northern and NW Croatia. The towns along the eastern and southern edge of Kajkavian speaking area are Pitomaca, Cazma, Kutina, Sunja, Petrinja, Karlovac, Ogulin, Fužine, and Cabar, with included Štokavian enclaves of Bjelovar, Sisak, Dubrava and Novi Zagreb. All three Croatian dialects collide between Karlovac and Ogulin.
The major cities in northern Croatia with prevailing urban Kajkavians (purgeri) are chiefly Zagreb (old central city + Sesvete and V. Gorica), Koprivnica, Križevci, Varaždin, Cakovec etc. The typical and archaic Kajkavian is today spoken chiefly in Zagorje hills and Medjimurje plain, and in adjacent areas of NW Croatia where other immigrants and Štokavian standard yet had scarcer influence. The most peculiar Kajkavian archidiom (Baegnunski) is spoken at Bednja in northernmost Croatia.
Most other Croatian speakers know of Kajkavian as the metropolitan dialect of Zagreb city, where a half of citizens (nearly 300.000 ones) now widely use the "zagrebecki" speech (a half-Kajkavian koine) for their private communication at home and on street (using a Štokavian speech in official sites only). This relative stability of Zagreb Kajkavian is due to prevailing local immigration of many surroundung Kajkavians from NW Croatia and from Kajkavian satellite towns.
Moreover, in the central city of old Zagreb and in satellite towns Sesvete and V. Gorica, up today persist at least 7.000 indigenous Kajkavian elders speaking old "Agramer" archidiom; they understand official standard but hardly can speak them. Also the coastal Cakavian immigrants in Zagreb or elsewhere in NW Croatia quickly transform to Kajkavians in one generation: their non-standard accentuation is subequal to Kajkavian, with many connecting archaisms in vocabulary. The best adaptable are the transitional northern Cakavians from NE Istra, Cres, Vinodol and Pokupje accepting well Kajkavian in few years.
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 second future, but they never adapt well because of alien eastern accents and ignoring Kajkavian-Cakavian archaisms and syntax. In older Serbo-Croatian times, as explained by the Serbian linguist Pavle Ivic (from Srpski narod i njegov jezik): "Not to be able to work Kajkavština means to be considered inferior, to show utterly that you don't come from the capital".
It still holds true that Štokavian speakers in Zagreb clearly show that they aren't from the capital, but given how Zagreb had been inundated with Yugoslav immigrants, this had partly lost in importance over past years; but now in independent Croatia to speak metropolitan became a new prestige of true citizens, and others unadapted ones there are considered as Balkanites.
Kajkavian literary language
Kajkavian is not only a folk dialect, but in the course of history of Croatian language, has been the written public language (along with the corpus written in Cakavian and Štokavian). Kajkavian was the last to appear on the scene, mainly due to economic and political reasons. While first Croatian truly vernacular Cakavian texts (ie. not mixed with Church Slavonic) go back to the 13th century, Štokavian to 14th century, the first Kajkavian published work was Pergošics "Decretum", 1574.
After that, numerous works appeared in Croatian Kajkavian literary language: chronicles by Vramec, liturgical works by Ratkaj, Habdelic, Mulih; poetry of Ana Katarina Zrinska, dramatic opus of Tituš Brezovacki. Kajkavian-based are important lexicographic works like Jambrešic's "Dictionar", 1670, and monumental (2,000 pages and 50,000 words) inter-dialectal (Cakavian-Štokavian-Kajkavian, but based on Kajkavian idiom) dictionary "Gazophylacium" by Ivan Belostenec (posthumously, 1740). Interestingly enough, Miroslav Krleža's visionary poetic masterpiece, "Balade Petrice Kerempuha", 1936, drew heavily on Belostenec's dictionary. Croatian Kajkavian grammars include Kornig's, 1795, Matijevic's, 1810 and Đurkovecki's, 1837.
Kajkavian literary language gradually fell into disuse since Croatian National Revival, ca. 1830-1850, when leaders of Croatian National Unification Movement (the majority of them being Kajkavian native speakers themselves) adopted the most widespread and developed Croatian Štokavian literary language as the idiom for Croatian standard language.
However, after a period of lethargy, the 20th century has witnessed new flourishing of Kajkavian literature - this time as Croatian dialectal poetry, main authors being Antun Gustav Matoš, Miroslav Krleža, Ivan Goran Kovacic, Dragutin Domjanic, Nikola Pavic etc.
Kajkavian lexical treasure is being published by the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts in "Rjecnik hrvatskoga kajkavskoga književnoga jezika"/Dictionary of the Croatian Kajkavian Literary Language, 8 volumes (1999).
Kajkavian media
During Yugoslavia in 20th century, the exotic Kajkavian was mostly restricted in private communication, poetry and folklore. By the recent regional democratizing and cultural revival from 1990ies, Kajkavians partly regained their former half-public positions chiefly in Zagorje County and Varaždin County and local towns, being now presented there in some modern public media e.g.:
"Kaj", with 35 annual volumes in nearly hundred fascicles, published from 1967 by the Kajkavian Association ('Kajkavsko Spravišce') in Zagreb city. Autumnal Weeks of Kajkavian culture in Krapina since 1997, with iterative professional symposia on Kajkavians resulting by five published proceedings. New special project Encyclopaedia Kajkaviana or WikiKay started on internet in spring 2008 - its Kajkavian articles and Main page are accessible by sites: hr.volgota.com, and wikislavia.volgota.com. Annual periodical Hrvatski sjever ('Croatian North'), with dozen volumes partly in Kajkavian, published by Matica Hrvatska in Cakovec. A permanent program in Kajkavian of the Kajkavian radio in Krapina township. Other minor half-Kajkavian media with temporary Kajkavian contents include also the local television of Varaždin city, local radio program Sljeme in Zagreb, and some local newspapers in northwestern Croatia, e.g. in Varaždin, Cakovec, Samobor, etc.
Examples
- Kajkavian: What should I do?
Kak je, tak je; tak je navek bilo, kak bu tak bu, a bu vre nekak kak bu! "Nigdar ni tak bilo da ni nekak bilo, pak ni vezda ne bu da nam nekak ne bu." - Miroslav Krleža (quotation from poem "Khevenhiller") Kaj buš ti, bum pa ja! (Whatever you do, I'll do it too!) Ne bu išlo! (standard Croatian: Ne može tako, Nece ici "It won't work!") "Bumo vidli!" (štokavski: "Vidjet cemo!", English: "We will see!") "Dej muci!" or "Muci daj!" (štokavski: "Daj šuti!", English: "Shut up!") "Buš pukel?" - "Bum!" (jokingly: "Will you explode?" - "I will!") Numerous supplementary examples see also by A. Negro:
- Another major example - traditional Kajkavian "Paternoster" (bold = site of stress): Japa naš kteri si f 'nebesih nek sesvete ime Tvoje, nek prihaja cesarstvo Tvoje, nek bu volya Tvoja kakti na nebe tak pa na zemle. Kruhek naš sakdajni nam daj denes ter odpušcaj nam dugi naše, kakti mi odpušcamo dužnikom našim ter naj nas fpelati vu skušnje, nek nas zbavi od sekih hudobah. F'se veke vekof, Amen.
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