Original scientific paper
The Diatopic Varieties of the Old Croatian Čakavian Language
Amir Kapetanović
orcid.org/0000-0002-8013-9330
; The Institute of Croatian language and linguistics, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
The paper is based on the study of the medieval Old Croatian Čakavian texts, which reflect the features of the territorial stratification of the former Čakavian dialect. Data from the Old Croatian literary texts need to be approached with caution, because it is known that they have never been a faithful copy of a particular idiom: not only did the old Croatian writers avoid common local features in written language, but they also deliberately mixed diatopically divergent linguistic features of the Croatian dialects; this is indeed stylistically relevant. The paper refers to the texts in the Old Croatian Čakavian language that originate from the borderline area of the former Čakavian dialect territory in the Middle Ages, and traces how the diatopic varieties were distributed, which helps in reconstructing the territorial propagation of the former Čakavian dialect. Some regional features became equally valid, while others remained peripheral and played no major role in the shaping of the Čakavian literary language. Avoiding peripheral linguistic features indicates implicit desire for creating the Croatian Čakavian literary language, whose expressiveness was at its peak in the 16th century.
Keywords
Old Croatian Čakavian language; the Middle Ages; diatopic varieties
Hrčak ID:
144216
URI
Publication date:
19.8.2013.
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