The first two examples involve long vowels. For instance, the first ''e'' in ''vreme'' and the ''i'' in ''vrime'' are long, so the long diphthong ''ije'' is found in the Ijekavian form. In the third and fourth examples, the corresponding ekavian and ikavian vowels are short, so the short diphthong ''je'' is found in the Ijekavian form.
However, there are some cases where that pattern of correspondence is altered. The fifth example, ''selo'', is there as an example of a word in which the ''e'' did not derive from ''jat'', and hence the word is the same in all three dialects. In other cases, especially when the ''jat'' follows an ''r'', Ijekavian also formed out an ''e'', as we see in the sixth example, or an ''i'' as in the seventh example.
The example sentence in the following sections means approximately "What is, is; it's how it always was, what will be, will be, and it'll be somehow!"
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The Štokavian dialect is spoken in Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Hercegovina, and the greater part of Croatia. The Bosnian, Serbian and Croatian
Standard Language s are all based on the štokavian dialect.
The primary subdivisions of Štokavian are based on the different ways the ''jat'' vowel has been changed. There are other differences between the standard dialects, including vocabulary, some syntax, and orthography. See
Differences In Official Languages In Serbia, Croatia And Bosnia .
Example:
- Serbian
- ---Ekavian
-- Cyrillic : Што јест, јест; тако је увек било, што ће бити, биће, а некако већ ће бити!
-- Latin : ''Što jest, jest; tako je uvek bilo, što će biti, biće, a nekako već će biti!''
- ---Iyekavian
-- Latin : ''Što jest, jest; tako je uvijek bilo, što će biti, biće, a nekako već će biti!''
-- Cyrillic : Што јест, јест; тако је увијек било, што ће бити, биће, а некако већ ће бити!
- Croatian (Iyekavian, Latin ): ''Što jest, jest; tako je uvijek bilo, što će biti, bit će, a nekako već će biti!''
- Bosnian (Iyekavian):
- --- Latin : ''Što jest, jest; tako je uvijek bilo, što će biti, bit će, a nekako već će biti!''
- --- Cyrillic : Што јест, јест; тако је увијек било, што ће бити, бит ће, а некако већ ће бити!
Note that all variants were correct in
Serbo-Croatian Standard Language .
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The so-called
Molise Slavic Language is a dialect spoken in three villages of the Italian region of
Molise by the descendants of South Slavs who migrated there from the eastern Adriatic coast in the 15th century. Because these people have migrated away from the rest of their kinsmen so long ago, their
Diaspora Language is rather distinct from the standard language, and rather influenced by
Italian .
In addition, they have not been influenced by
Romantic Nationalism of the 19th century (unlike the people in Burgenland, who were separated but still within the same empire) so they have come to refer to their language merely as "Slavic". There has been some controversy as to whether they are
Molise Croats or
Molise Serbs . Currently they are generally considered to be Croatian rather than Serbian.
The Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian
Standard Language s (as well as former
Serbo-Croatian Standard Language ) are all mainly based on the Štokavian dialect, although if they are considered as systems of dialects, one might observe that:
Note that people in census also declare
Montenegrin and
Bunjevac language, although these two are not in official use. In the old censuses performed in
Austria-Hungary , the
Šokac Language was also listed.
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Čakavian is spoken in the western and southern parts of Croatia, mainly in
Istria and
Dalmatia . The Čakavian renders ''jat'' as ''i'' as well as ''e'', or even mixed Ekavian-Ikavian. Many dialects of Čakavian have a lot of loan words from
Venetian and
Italian .
Example: ''Ča je, je, tako je navik bilo, ča će bit, će bit, a nekako već će bit!''
This dialect is spoken primarily in the federal state of
Burgenland in Austria, but also in nearby areas in Vienna,
Slovakia , and Hungary by descendants of Croats who migrated there in the 16th century. This dialect or possibly family of dialects is quite different from standard Croatian. It has been heavily influenced by German and also Hungarian. In addition, it has some properties from all three of the major dialectical groups in Croatia, as the migrants did not all come from the same areas of Croatia. The "micro-literary" standard is based on a Čakavian dialect, and, like all Čakavian dialects, is characterized by very conservative grammatical structures: it preserves, prominently, case endings lost in the Štokavian base of standard Serbo-Croatian.
At most 100,000 people speak Burgenland Croatian and almost all are bilingual in German. Its future is uncertain, but there is some movement to preserve it. It has official status in six districts of Burgenland, and is used in some schools in Burgenland and neighboring western parts of Hungary.
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Kajkavian is mostly spoken in northern Croatia, in and around
Zagreb and near the Hungarian and Slovenian borders. It renders ''jat'' mostly as ''e'', but note that this rendering cannot be equated to that of the ekavian štokavian dialects, as many kajkavian dialects distinguish a closed ''e'' (from ''jat'') and an open ''e'' (from original ''e'').
It also lacks several phonemes found in other dialects and has loanwords from the nearby
Slovenian dialects as well as
Russian .
Example: ''Kak je, tak je; tak je navek bilo, kak bu tak bu, a bu vre nekak kak bu!''
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