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Burgenland Croatian language or dialect (gradišćanskohrvatski jezik) belongs to the South Slavic branch of the Slavic languages. It is a regional language variant of the Croatian language spoken in Austria, Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovakia. Burgenland Croatian is recognized as a minority language in the Austrian state of Burgenland where it is spoken by 19,412 people according to official reports (2001). Many of the Burgenland Croatian speakers in Austria also live in Vienna and Graz, due to the process of urbanization, which is mostly driven by the poor economic situation of large parts of Burgenland.

Smaller Croatian minorities in western Hungary, southwestern Slovakia and southern Czech Republic are often also called Burgenland Croats. They use the Burgenland Croatian written language and are historically and culturally closely connected to the Austrian Croats. The representatives of the Burgenland Croats estimate their total number in all three countries and emigration at around 70,000.

History

Grgur Mekinić: Dusevne Peszne (Ghostly Hymns), one the first burgenlad Croatian artwork (1609).

Burgenland Croatian was the language of Croatian refugees who fled Croatia during the Turkish Wars and settled in the western part of what was then Hungary, the area where they still live. Burgenland Croats included speakers of all three dialects of the Croatian language (Shtokavian, Chakavian and Kajkavian), with the majority being the Chakavians who originally stem from the northern Adriatic coast.

Burgenland Croats didn't take part in the shaping of the present Croatian standard language in the 19th century. Instead, they constructed their own written standard based mainly on the local Chakavian speech and adopted Croatian alphabet, a modified Latin alphabet, as their script.

It is still a matter of debate whether Burgenland Croatian should be classified as a Slavic micro-language of its own. Burgenland Croatian dialects are mostly viewed as isolated dialects of the Croatian language.

Written language

Burgenland Croatian written language is based mainly on the local Chakavian speeches with some influences from the other Croatian dialects spoken in Burgenland. It uses the Latin alphabet with the same diacritical modifiers as the Croatian alphabet. In the course of language development it acquired some of its own specialised vocabulary, sometimes different from that used in standard Croatian.

Spoken language

Croats living in the south of Burgenland speak mainly Shtokavian dialect, those in the central part Kajkavian dialect, and in the north (close to Vienna) Chakavian dialect.

Differences between Standard and Burgenland Croatian language

External links

• Burgenland Croatian Center in Vienna (English, Croatian and German)
• Scientific Institute of the Burgenland Croats (Croatian and German)
• Croatian Cultural and Documentation Center in Eisenstadt/Željezno (German)