Croatian Varieties

Croatian was spoken by over 6,300,000 people. Its speakers are concentrated in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Italy, Romania, etc. The language belongs to the South-Slavonic languages and has been close, both synchronically and diachronically, to the Serbian language. Croatian is today one of the official languages in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina. It’s also official in several municipalities and regions in Romania, Italy, Serbia and Austria.

Today’s varieties of Croatian can be defined as follows: Chakavian, Kajkavian, Molise Croatian, Shtokavian, Torlak, Užice. Most of them are historically based – they existed as language varieties before the unification of the Yugoslavian Republics and the overwhelming impact of Serbian, and managed to follow a separate course of development over the last century.