Bunjevac dialect

The Bunjevac dialect (bunjevački dijalekt),[2] also known as Bunjevac speech (bunjevački govor),[3] is a Neo-Shtokavian Younger Ikavian dialect of the Serbo-Croatian pluricentric language,[4] preserved among members of the Bunjevac community. Their accent is purely Ikavian, with /i/ for the Common Slavic vowels yat.[5] There are three branches of the Neo-Shtokavian Younger Ikavian dialect: Dalmatian, Danubian, and Littoral-Lika.[6] Its speakers largely use the Latin alphabet and are living in parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina, different parts of Croatia, southern parts (inc. Budapest) of Hungary as well in northern parts of the autonomous province Vojvodina of Serbia. Bunjevac dialect has been included in the list of official public administrative languages of the Subotica Municipality in Serbia since 2021. And Croatia added in 2021 the Bunjevac dialect to the list of protected intangible cultural heritage. Within the Bunjevac community and between Serbia and Croatia is for several decades an ongoing language battle about the status of Bunjevac speech.

Bunjevac
bunjevački
Native toBosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Hungary, Serbia (Vojvodina)
Native speakers
6,800 (2011)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3–
Glottologbunj1247
South Slavic languages and dialects
Western South Slavic
Eastern South Slavic
Transitional dialects
Alphabets
a Includes Banat Bulgarian alphabet.
Map of Shtokavian dialects. Shtokavian or Štokavian (/ʃtɒˈkɑːviən, -ˈkæv-/; Serbo-Croatian Latin: štokavski / Serbo-Croatian Cyrillic: штокавски, pronounced [ʃtǒːkaʋskiː]) is the prestige dialect of the pluricentric Serbo-Croatian language and the basis of its Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian and Montenegrin standards, as well for sub-dialects. It is a part of the South Slavic dialect continuum.
Ethnic map of the Municipality of Subotica showing e.g. villages with Bunjevac majority, including both, Bunjevci who declared themselves as Croats and Bunjevci who declared themselves as Bunjevci.

Dictionary

There have been three meritorious people who preserved the Bunjevac dialect in two separate dictionaries: Grgo Bačlija[7] and Marko Peić[8] with "Rečnik bački Bunjevaca"[9] (editions 1990, 2018), and Ante Sekulić[10] with "Rječnik govora bačkih Hrvata" (2005).

Number of speakers

In the 2002 census results published by the Statistical Office of Serbia, Bunjevac speech was not listed among main languages spoken in Serbia, but those that declared that their language is Bunjevac were listed in category "other languages". For example, in the municipality of Subotica, the number of those listed as speaking "other languages" (presumably Bunjevac) was 8,914.[11]

According to the 2011 census in Serbia, 6,835 people declared Bunjevac dialect as their mother tongue (bunjevački maternji jezik) and it was listed independently.[1]

Status
Further information: Younger Ikavian dialect, Dialects of Serbo-Croatian, and language secessionism

Opinions on the status of the Bunjevac dialect remain divided.[12][13][14][15] Bunjevac speech is considered a dialect or vernacular of the Serbo-Croatian pluricentric language, by linguists. It is noted by Andrew Hodges that it is mutually intelligible with the standard Serbian and Croatian varieties.[16] Popularly, the Bunjevac dialect is often referred to as "Bunjevac language" (bunjevački jezik) or Bunjevac mother tongue (bunjevački materni jezik). At the political level, depending on goal and content of the political lobby, the general confusion concerning the definition of the terms language, dialect, speech, mother tongue, is cleverly exploited, resulting in an inconsistent use of the terms.[17][18]

In the old Austro-Hungarian censuses (for example one from 1910), Bunjevac was declared as a native language of numerous citizens (for example in the city of Subotica 33,247 people declared Bunjevac as their native language in 1910). During the existence of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, members of the Bunjevac ethnic community mostly declared themselves as speaking Serbo-Croatian.

According to the 2002 census in Serbia, some members of the Bunjevac community declared that their native language to be Serbian or Croatian. This does not mean that they do not use this specific dialect, but merely that they do not consider it sufficiently distinct from the aforementioned standard languages to register as speakers of a separate language. However, those Bunjevci who declared Bunjevac to be their native language consider it a separate language.[19]

The dialect, of the in Serbia residating Danubian Bunjevci, was standardised in the Republic of Serbia in 2018 and officially approved as a standard dialect by the Ministry of Education for teaching in schools.[20][21][22][23] With the standardisation of the Bunjevac dialect, activists and members of the Bunjevac National Council are striving for language secession, with the political aim that the Bunjevac dialect will gain in Serbia the political-linguistic status of independent language. Theodora Vuković has provided, in 2009, the scientific methodology for the finalization of the standardisation process of the Bunjevac dialect corpus in Serbia,[24][25] classified as the Serbian Bunjevac dialect variety of the Danubian branch of the Neo-Shtokavian Younger Ikavian dialect. Speakers use in general the standardised dialect variety for writing and conversation in formal situations.[26]

There is an ongoing wish among the members of the Bunjevac community for affirmation of their dialect in Croatia, Hungary, and in Serbia. The Bunjevac National Council has the following projects in Bunjevac dialect in Serbia: Montley newspaper "Bunjevačke novine", TV programme "Spektar" (broadcaststed by Radio Television of Vojvodina), and a language school program for Bunjevac dialect and culture "bunjevački govor s elementima nacionalne kulture".[27] The Croat National Council in Subotica is organizing the yearly Bunjevac Song Contest "Festival bunjevački' pisama"[28]

On March 4, 2021, the municipal council in Subotica has voted in favor of amending the city statute adding Bunjevac dialect to the list of official public administrative languages in the municipality, in addition to Serbian, Hungarian, and Croatian.[29] This has created a special situation that contradicts the official position, of both the Serbian government and Matica Srpska, that classified Bunjevac speech as a dialect.[30] Also other scholars from Serbia and Croatia confirm the linguistic dialect status of the Bunjevac speech.[31][32]

The Institute of Croatian Language and Linguistics launched a proposal, in March 2021, to the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Croatia, to add Bunjevac dialect to the List of Protected Intangible Cultural Heritage of the Republic of Croatia[33] and was approved on 8 October 2021[34] — the three Bunjevac dialect branches are categorised by Croatia as New-Stockavian Ikavian dialects of the Stockavian dialect of the Croatian language.[35]

The status of the Bunjevac dialect and the identity and nationality dispute of people calling themselves Bunjevac or Bunjevac-Croat,[36] has been on the political agenda of stakeholders involved for decades, influencing bilateral cooperation between Croatia and Serbia,[37][38] domestic political developments in Serbia[39][40] and Croatia, and the implementation of political decisions of the EU.[41][42][43]

Organisations

Linguistic institutes & Universities

Newspaper (digital)

Sources for further reading

Notes
  1. Republički zavod za statistiku / Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia (2013). Veroispovest, maternji jezik i nacionalna pripadnost: Podaci po opštinama i gradovima / Religion, Mother Tongue and Ethnicity: Data by Municipalities and Cities Вероисповест, матерњи језик и национална припадност: Подаци по општинама и градовима (PDF) (in Serbian and English). Beograd. ISBN 978-86-6161-038-7. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-07-15.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  2. Aleksandar Raič and Suzana Kujundžić Ostojić (2014). Bunjevci izmed asimilacije i nacionalne zajednice. p. 144. Bunjevački jezik u javnoj upotribi. Dakle, za onaj jezik za koji mi kažemo jezik, a zvanično je priznat ko dijalekat.
  3. "Grgo Bačlija: Bunjevački je govor, a ne jezik". Hrvatska Riječ (in Croatian). 2021-03-08. Archived from the original on 2021-07-31. Povodom odluke Skupštine grada Subotice izglasane 4. ožujka da se tzv. bunjevački jezik uvrsti kao službeni u Statut Grada Subotice, dopis našem Uredništvu poslao je umirovljeni odvjetnik Grgo Bačlija, koji je s skupa Markom Peićem, autor Rečnika bačkih Bunjevaca iz 1990. godine. Drugo, dopunjeno izdanje toga rječnika objavljeno je 2018. u nakladi Bunjevačkog nacionalnog savita i Matice srpske i smatra se jednim od temelja standardizacije tzv. bunjevačkog jezika u Srbiji. Bačlija ističe kako su se Peić i on, prilikom istraživanja u Bajskom trokutu za potrebe rječnika, vodili činjenicom da se radi o govoru, odnosno dijalektu Bunjevaca a ne o jeziku. Podsjeća i da je rječnik izišao kao prva knjiga u ediciji Dijalekatski rečnici Matice srpske.
  4. Tošović, Branko. "Bosnisch/Bosniakisch, Kroatisch und Serbisch (B/K/S)". Archived from the original on 2022-12-01. Retrieved 2022-05-21. Bis in die 1990er-Jahre wurde diese Sprache einheitlich offiziell als Serbokroatisch/Kroatoserbisch, inoffiziell als Serbisch und Kroatisch bezeichnet. Den Namen Serbokroatisch verwendete erstmals Jacob Grimm im Vorwort zu seiner Übersetzung der Kleinen Serbischen Grammatik (1824) von Vuk Stefanović Karadžić. Im Jahre 1836 benutzt Jernej Kopitar den Ausdruck "serbochorvatica sive chorvatocoserbica". P. Budmani veröffentlichte 1867 die Grammatica della lingua serbo-croata (illirica), und im Jahre 1877 erschien die Grammaire de la language serbo-croate des Kroaten Dragutin Pančić. Die Sprache, beziehungsweise die Sprachen, die aus dem ehemaligen Serbokroatischen entstanden sind, stellen ein kompliziertes soziolinguistisches Phänomen dar. Diese Komplexität ist gegeben, weil eine genetisch identische Sprache von (1) mehreren Nationen (Serben, Montenegrinen, Kroaten, Muslime/Bosniaken), (2) mehreren Religionen (Orthodoxen, Katholiken, Muslimen) gesprochen wird und weil diese Sprache (3) eine breite dialektologische Gliederung (das Štokavische, das Čakavische, das Kajkavische), (4) verschiedene Aussprachen (das Ekavische, das Ijekavische, das Ikavische) und (5) zwei Schriften (Lateinschrift, Kyrillica) aufweist.
  5. "Masumi Kameda. Language Ideologies of the Bunjevac Minority in Vojvodina: Historical Backgrounds and the Post-1991 Situation" (PDF). 2014. pp. 95–119.
  6. "Bunjevački govori". Razlikuju se tri ogranka Bunjevačkih govora – podunavski, primorsko-lički i dalmatinski, a svi su kulturno bliski prema povijesnim, etnološkim i lingvističkim istraživanjima.
  7. "In memoriam: Grgo Bačlija (1939. – 2021.)". www.dshv.rs.
  8. "Masumi Kameda. Language Ideologies of the Bunjevac Minority in Vojvodina: Historical Backgrounds and the Post-1991 Situation" (PDF). 2014. p. 113 (95–119).
  9. "REČNIK BAČKIH BUNJEVACA".
  10. "Sombor: Predstavljen "Rječnik govora bačkih Hrvata" akademika dr. Ante Sekulića/". February 2008.
  11. Republički zavod za statistiku Srbije (2003). Stanovništvo: popis stanovništva, domaćinstava i stanova u 2002 Становништво: попис становништва, домаћинстава и станова у 2002 (PDF) (in Serbian). Beograd. ISBN 86-84433-00-9. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-11-13. Retrieved 2009-02-20.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  12. Monique Kostadinović Randwijk. Bunjevac European Center. "EDUCATION. Bunjevac Cultural Heritage - Speech & Tradition". www.bunjevac.org. Archived from the original on 2022-01-15. Retrieved 2022-01-15. A few Bunjevac leaders and political activists, who are influential in the Bunjevac National Council, are strongly involved in developing a "national" identity of Bunjevci: stimulating folklore activities, and searching for political and linguistic support to transform Bunjevac dialect in to a distinct language.
  13. Bojan Belić (2014). "Bunyev(s): linguistic frontier to be?". изворни научни чланак УДК 81'27(497.113). 12 (2): 613. It appears that the concept of standardization, whatever it may mean to the various parties involved, occupies a central position, or – actually – the central position in the Bunyev language debate, for it looks as though it is only thanks to standardization that a speech variety may gain the label of language.
  14. Hrvatska katolička mreža (20 March 2021). "Ne postoji bunjevački jezik, nego bunjevački govor". From the scientific and linguistic point of view, we can say that it is a traditional Croatian language. Numerous records speak of this, all Croatian linguists, all world Slavic linguists, and even leading Serbian linguists have never questioned the Croatian origin of the Bunjevac dialect. Željko Jozić
  15. Bugarski, Ranko (30 March 2017). ""The Declaration on the Common Language": A View from the Inside. Aegean Working Papers in Ethnographic Linguistics 2(2):23": 25. doi:10.12681/awpel.22595. S2CID 216297674. Retrieved 26 March 2023. Each state, nation, ethnonational or regional community may freely and independently codify its own variant of the common language... The fact that what is involved is a common polycentric standard language enables its users to name it as they wish. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  16. Hodges, Andrew (January 2019). "Producing and Maintaining Minority "Groupness" through State Effects: Teaching in Croatian in Serbia". Nationalities Papers. 47 (1): 55–71. doi:10.1017/nps.2018.12. Most of the people living in the village identified as Bunjevci, an ethnic category closely associated with Catholic belonging and the use of a Bunjevac language variety that was completely mutually intelligible with standard Serbian and Croatian language varieties.
  17. "предлагач: градско веће - SUBOTICA.com. 21 April 2021" (PDF). p. 26. Retrieved 2022-03-13. Od 2007. godine u škole se uvodi izborni predmet Bunjevački govor sa elementima nacionalne kulture, a predmet nakon standardizacije jezika menja svoj naziv u Bunjevački jezik sa elementima nacionalne kulture.
  18. "Osnovne škole u AP Vojvodini". Provincial Secretariat for Education, Regulations, Administration and National Minorities – National Communities. Retrieved 2022-03-13. U osnovnim školama na teritoriji AP Vojvodine, pored nastave na srpskom jeziku, nastava se ostvaruje i na još pet jezika (mađarski, slovački, rumunski, rusinski i hrvatski). Pored redovne nastave na navedenim jezicima, učenicima je omogućeno i izučavanje mađarskog, slovačkog, rumunskog, rusinskog i hrvatskog jezika, kao i još šest jezika (ukrajinski, bunjevački, romski, bugarski, makedonski i češki), što je ukupno jedanaest jezika u okviru izborne nastave – Maternji jezik / govor sa elementima nacionalne kulture. 11.05.2021
  19. Vuković, Petar (2020). "The Bunjevci of Bačka: Identities and Language Practices". Linguistic Minorities in Europe Online. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. doi:10.1515/lme.11420227.
  20. "Odluka o utvrđivanju standarda bunjevačkog jezika: 18/2018-192" Одлука о утврђивању стандарда буњевачког језика: 18/2018-192 [Decision of the National Council of Bunjevci no. 18/2018-192] (in Serbian). Archived from the original on 2021-09-02. Retrieved 2020-07-30 – via Pravno-informacioni sistem RS.
  21. "PDF.js viewer" (in Serbian). Archived from the original on 2020-06-09. Retrieved 2020-07-30 – via Pravno-informacioni sistem RS.
  22. "Одлука о утврђивању стандарда буњевачког језика: 18/2018-192". 2018. DECISION."Official Gazette of RS", No. 18 of March 9, 2018. The standard of the Bunjevac language is determined:- the established standard must be applied in textbooks and teaching of the Bunjevac language / speech;- the established standard must be applied in the media registered in order to achieve the public interest of information in the Bunjevac language;- The National Council of the Bunjevac National Minority may support in co-financing only those publications in the Bunjevac language that are in accordance with the established standard of the Bunjevac language;
  23. Šolaja, Dragan (2007-10-25). "Bunjevački jezik u školskom programu". Blic (in Serbian). Archived from the original on 2012-10-08. Retrieved 2011-05-25.
  24. Vuković, Teodora (January 2015). "Vuković,Theodora. Izrada modela dijalekatskog korpusa bunjevačkog govora".
  25. "ONLINE REČNIK BUNJEVAČKOG GOVORA". Bunjevački rečnik je audio-rečnik koji za cilj ima da predstavi realnu, svakodnevnu i spontanu upotrebu bunjevačkog govora. Zamišljen je kao baza koja će moći da se dopunjuje i proširuje. Kao osnova rečnika korišćeni su audio snimci prikupljani tokom istraživanja bunjevačkih običaja i govora od strane Balkanoločkog instituta Srpske akademije nauka i umetnosti tokom 2009. godine. Rezultati tog istraživanja objavljeni su monografiji ,,Bunjevci - Etnodijalektološka istraživanja 2009"1. Iz tog korpusa uzete su reči i primeri njihove upotrebe, a značenja reči su preuzete iz ,,Rečnika bačkih Bunjevaca"2. Za svaku reč, kao i za primere postoji zvučni zapis, kako bi bilo moguće čuti njihov autentičan izgovor. Bunjevački govor pripada mlađim štokavskim dijalektima ikavskog narečja. Bunjevci naseljavaju oblast Bačke, i to pretežno mesta u okolini Subotice i Sombora. Pomenuta istraživanja Balkanološkog instituta, obuhvataju govore iz okoline Subotice, tačnije ruralne zajednice Bikovo, Klisa, Đurđin, Mala Bosna, Stari Žednik i Tavankut. Izostavljene su zajednice iz Sombora i Bunjevci iz Mađarske. Bunjevački rečnik je 2013. godine započela Teodora Vuković, studentkinja master studija na Filološkom fakultetu u Beogradu, uz podršku prof. dr Biljane Sikimić sa Balkanološkog instituta Srpske akademije nauka i umetnosti. Projekat podržavaju Balkanološki institut i Nacionalni savet bunjevačke nacionalne manjine. SANU, 2012
  26. Mark E. Karan and Kerry M. Corbett (2014). Dialogue on Dialect Standardization. Dialogue on Dialect Standardization (PDF). Cambridge Scholars Publishing. pp. 55–61. ISBN 978-1-4438-6661-3. Retrieved 2022-01-16. In every region there is a linguistic variation. This linguistic variation has to be respected, because it is the identity of people. That is where differentiation between the culture is. Dialect standardisation only happens when the people involved have enough or modify their identity to that or affiliation associated with a larger group, standardization is possible and often occurs. Before a standardization process, speaker use their dialects for all of their speech functions. After a standardisation process, speaker use the standardised variety for at least some of their speech functions. For example, reading and writing and conversation in formality situations often call for use of standardised dialect variety. Thus, the standardisation process is fundamentally a shift in language use patterns.
  27. "Predstavljeni udžbenici za bunjevački govor. RTV City". subotica.com (in Serbian). 11 September 2014. Retrieved 2022-01-19.
  28. Hrvatska riječ (D. B. P.) (7 March 2018). "Razgovor s Vojislavom Temunovićem, dopredsjednikom HGU "Festival bunjevački pisama"".
  29. Tumbas, Nikola (2021-03-04). "Podržan predlog gradonačelnika Bakića da i bunjevački postane službeni jezik u Subotici". Subotica.info (in Serbian). Archived from the original on 2021-03-09. Retrieved 2021-03-04.
  30. Bošnjaković, Žarko; Sikimić, Biljana (2013). Bunjevci: Etnodijalektološka istraživanja 2009 (in Serbian). Subotica and Novi Sad: Nacionalni savet bunjevačke nacionalne manjine and Matica srpska. Archived from the original on 2021-09-02. Retrieved 2021-07-26.
  31. "Bački Hrvati Bunjevci i monopolizacija novoštokavskoga ikavskoga dijalekta – činjenice i posljedice". Hrvatska matica iseljenika. Retrieved 2022-01-30 – via YouTube.
  32. Vidović, Domagoj (2021). "Pivaju li se pisme bunjevačke ili бyњeвaчкe. Rasprave i studije". Stolačko Kulturno Proljeće.
  33. Institut za hrvatski jezik i jezikoslovlje. "Prijedlog za proglašenje bunjevačkoga govora nematerijalnom kulturnom baštinom". Retrieved 3 March 2022. Institut za hrvatski jezik i jezikoslovlje uputio je Ministarstvu kulture RH prijedlog da se bunjevački govor proglasi hrvatskom nematerijalnom kulturnom baštinom, kao važan čin pomoći bunjevačkomu govoru i svim Bunjevcima u Hrvatskoj i inozemstvu.
  34. Fajin Deran, Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia (8 October 2021). "Bunjevački govori upisani u Registar kulturnih dobara Republike Hrvatske kao nematerijalno kulturno dobro". Retrieved 26 July 2022.
  35. "Bunjevački govori". Retrieved 7 August 2022. Bunjevački govori pripadaju novoštokavskom ikavskom dijalektu štokavskoga narječja hrvatskoga jezika.
  36. Petar Vuković. "BAČKI BUNJEVCI – JEZIK, KULTURA, IDENTITET". Retrieved 13 August 2022. Zbog dugotrajne odvojenosti od ostalih hrvatskih skupina i izloženosti utjecajima drugih nacionalnih kultura, bački su Bunjevci razvili specifičnu etničku svijest te se dio njih danas smatra Hrvatima, dok drugi vjeruju kako predstavljaju samostalnu etničku zajednicu.
  37. "Ne postoji bunjevački jezik, nego bunjevački govor. Hrvatska katolička mreža". 20 March 2021. Retrieved 18 January 2022.
  38. Dragan Banjac (9 May 2021). "Bunjevački jezik – burna reagovanja vojvođanskih Hrvata i Zagreba. ALJAZEERA". Retrieved 18 January 2022.
  39. Mirko Bajić (21 June 2016). "Mirko Bajić vs Tomislav Žigmanov". Retrieved 2022-01-18.
  40. Slavica Štefić (HRT) (1 April 2021). "Subotička vlast i dalje pokušava proglasiti bunjevačku ikavicu službenim jezikom". Retrieved 2022-11-18.
  41. Ina Vukić (18 May 2016). "Continued Mistreatment of Croats in Serbia Stalls Serbia's EU Membership Negotiations". Retrieved 2022-01-30.
  42. "Undermining of minority rights in Serbia". www.europarl.europa.eu. 12 March 2021.
  43. The Committee of Experts of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (17 March 2023). "Fifth evaluation report on Serbia". p. 17; 32–33.
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