Chakavian Dialect

Chakavian Dialect

Chakavian or Čakavian ( /tʃɑːˈkɑːviən/; Serbo-Croatian: čakavski, proper name: čakavica or čakavština, own name: čokovski, čakavski, čekavski) is a dialect of the Serbo-Croatian language spoken by a minority of Croats. It has low mutual intelligibility with the other two dialects, Štokavian and Kajkavian. All three are named after their word for "what?", which in Čakavian is ča or ca. Čakavian is spoken mainly in the northeastern Adriatic: in Istria, Kvarner Gulf, in most Adriatic islands, and in the interior valley of Gacka, more sporadically in the Dalmatian littoral and central Croatia.

Chakavian was the basis for the first literary standard of the Croats. Today, it is spoken almost entirely within Croatia's borders, apart from the Burgenland Croats in Austria and in Hungary.