Younger Ikavian dialect

Younger Ikavian
Bosnian-Dalmatian
Younger Ikavian dialect located geographically
Native to	Bosnia and Herzegovina Croatia Hungary Serbia
Region	Bačka Central Bosnia Dalmatian Hinterland Western Herzegovina
Ethnicity	Croats
Language family	Indo-European Balto-Slavic Slavic South Slavic Western Serbo-Croatian Shtokavian Neo-Shtokavian Younger Ikavian
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–

Younger Ikavian (Serbo-Croatian: mlađi ikavski), also called Western Ikavian/Western Neoshtokavian Ikavian (zapadni ikavski/zapadni novoštokavski ikavski), or Bosnian–Dalmatian dialect (bosansko-dalmatinski dijalekt), is a subdialect of Shtokavian Serbo-Croatian spoken primarily by Croats in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, and Italy. It is spoken to a lesser extent by Bosniaks and rarely by Serbs in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Most speakers use the Latin alphabet.^[1]

In Croatia, it is spoken in pockets of Gorski kotar, south of Novi Vinodolski in the Lika hinterland, Kordun, central Slavonia, Dalmatia, and in small pockets on the Dalmatian islands of Šolta, Brač, Hvar, and Korčula.^[1][2]

In Bosnia and Herzegovina, it is spoken west of the rivers of Bosna and Neretva, in the Bačka region of Hungary (inc. Budapest), and in the autonomous province of Vojvodina in Serbia. In Italy, it is spoken in Molise.^[1][2][3]

This dialect is a sub-dialect of the Shtokavian dialect group, specifically the western sub-group.^[4] It is a descendant of Western Shtokavian, which was spoken in parts of Dalmatia, Western Bosnia and Western Herzegovina. Western Shtokavian had several typically western features like Schakavism, Ikavism, a reflex "j", an acute accent, which makes it closely related to the Chakavian dialect.^[5]

Although one of the dialect's characteristics is its Ikavian yat reflex (*/ě/ > /i/), there do exist some local differences with rare examples of the Ekavian or Ijekavian reflex.^[6] It has some similarities to Southern Chakavian and Slavonian dialect.^[1] The same applies to its morphology, which has some Italian influence, too.^[7]

With regard to its accentology, the Younger Ikavian dialect has four accents. Sometimes, there is also an old acute accent, while in the case of Slavomolisano often only two accents occur due the surrounding Italian influences.^[8] Younger Ikavian accent characteristics can be considered as the basis of the Croatian standard variety.^[8]

Aside from Slavomolisano and the language spoken in coastal regions, which have adopted a greater number of Italian loanwords, its lexicon is found to have many Turkish loanwords. In Lika and the Bačka region, German influences are present, with the latter also having Hungarian influences.^[9] Younger Ikavian has a number of similar words with the Chakavian dialect such as "grem", "tovar", "muka", "iskat", "hiža", "lačan", "povidat", "zabiti", "dažd/daždit", "pot", or "vlasi." ^[9]

In some cases, such as in the area of Slunj, today's Younger Ikavian Shtokavian speakers could be described as Chakavian Ikavian speakers who have been Shtokavised.^[10]

This dialect can be further divided into Ikavian Schakavian (Šćakavian; from šćakavski) and Ikavian Shtakavian (Štakavian; from štakavski) sub-dialects:^[3][11]

• Schakavian can be found in Dalmatia on its islands and between the rivers of Cetina and Neretva, in the whole of Slavonia, Bosnia and in smaller parts of Western Herzegovina, Lika, and Gorski kotar.^[8]
• Shtakavian can be found in Dalmatia west of the Cetina river, in Lika, most of Western Herzegovina, Bačka, Molise, and sporadically in Gorski kotar. In some areas, however, both Schakavian and Shtakavian are spoken.^[8]

There are other sub-dialects such as the ones in Makarska-Primorje and Livno-Vrbas, which are both Schakavian, and the Western Hum and Biokovo-Cetina sub-dialects, which are both Shtakavian.^[5] These can be further divided into Schakavian and Shtakavian, which feature the change of "-l" into "-o" or "-a":^[4]

• Schakavian with an "-a" in the Makarska Riviera (Beforehand, the Makarska-Primorje dialect was spoken there.)
• Shtakavian with an "-a" around Ljubuški (Beforehand, there were southern varieties of the Western Hum dialect, from which Slavomolisano originated and which served as the basis for the change of the Southwestern Istrian-Chakavian Ikavian dialect into a Shtokavian one.)
• Schakavian with an "-o" around Derventa (Beforehand, the Livno-Vrbas dialect was spoken there.)
• Shtakavian with an "-o" around Mostar (Beforehand, there were northern varieties of the Western Hum dialect, from which the Bunjevac dialect in Bačka originated.)

These subdivisions suggest that several different dialects and local vernaculars existed before the 16th century.^[5]

The Slavomolisano dialect (with some Chakavian influences) and Bunjevac dialect are recognised local vernaculars.

In 2018, Serbia finalised the standardisation of the Bunjevac dialect in Serbia.^[12][13]

In 2021, Croatia has categorised the Bunjevac dialect with its three historical-ethnological sub-branches called Dalmatian, Danubian, and Littoral-Lika.^[14]