Kajkavian is a South Slavic supradialect or language spoken primarily by Croats in much of Central Croatia and Gorski Kotar.
It is part of the South Slavic dialect continuum, being transitional to the supradialects of Čakavian, Štokavian and the Slovene language. There are differing opinions over whether Kajkavian is best considered a dialect of the Serbo-Croatian language or a fully-fledged language of its own, as it is only partially mutually intelligible with either Čakavian or Štokavian and bears more similarities to Slovene; it is transitional to and fully mutually intelligible with Prekmurje Slovene and the dialects in Slovenian Lower Styria's region of Prlekija in terms of phonology and vocabulary.
Outside Croatia's northernmost regions, Kajkavian is also spoken in Austrian Burgenland and a number of enclaves in Hungary along the Austrian and Croatian border and in Romania.
Name The term "Kajkavian" and the broader classification of what defines this dialect are relatively modern constructs. The dialect's name originates from the interrogative pronoun "kaj" ("what"). The names of the other supradialects of Serbo-Croatian also originate from their respective variants of the interrogative pronoun. The pronouns are just general indicators and not strict identifiers of the dialects. Some Kajkavian dialects use "ča" (common in Čakavian), while certain Čakavian dialects, like the Buzet dialect in Istria, use "kaj". The names of these dialects are based on the most common pronoun used, not an absolute rule.
Autonyms used throughout history by various Kajkavian writers have been manifold, ranging from Slavic (slavonski, slovenski, slovinski) to Croatian (horvatski) or Illyrian (illirski). The naming went through several phases, with the Slavic-based name initially being dominant. Over time, the name Croatian started gaining ground mainly during the 17th century, and by the beginning of the 18th century, it had supplanted the older name Slavic. The name also followed the same evolution in neighboring Slovene Prekmurje and some other border areas in what is now Slovenia, although there the name Slovene-Croatian (slovensko-horvatski) existed as well. The actual term Kajkavian (kajkavski), including as an adjective, was invented in the 19th century and is credited to Serbian philologist Đuro Daničić, while it was generally used and promoted in the 20th century works by Croatian writer Miroslav Krleža. The term is today accepted by its speakers in Croatia.
In English, Kajkavian is sometimes spelled as Kaykavian, Kaikavian or Caicavian.
Classification Historically, the classification of Kajkavian has been a subject of much debate regarding both the question of whether it ought to be considered a dialect or a language, as well as the question of what its relation is to neighboring vernaculars.
The problem with classifying Kajkavian within South Slavic stems in part from its both structural differences and closesness with neighboring Čakavian and Štokavian speeches as well as its historical closeness to Slovene speeches. Some Slavists maintain that when the separation of Western South Slavic speeches happened, they separated into five divergent groups — Slovene, Kajkavian, Čakavian, Western Štokavian and Eastern Štokavian, as a result of this, throughout history Kajkavian has often been categorized differently, either a node categorized together with Serbo-Croatian or Slovene. Furthermore, there exist few old isoglosses that separate almost all Slovene speeches from all other Western South Slavic dialects, and innovations exist common to Kajkavian, Čakavian, and Western Štokavian that would separate them from Slovene. Croatian linguist Stjepan Ivšić has used Kajkavian vocabulary and accentuation, which significantly differs from that of Štokavian, as evidence for it to be a language in its own right. Josip Silić, one of the main initiators behind the standardisation of Croatian, also regards Kajkavian as a distinct language by dint of its having significantly different morphology, syntax and phonology from the official Štokavian-based standard.Silić, Josip (1998), Hrvatski standardni jezik i hrvatska narječja, Kolo. 8, 4, p. 425-430. However, Silić's theorization about three languages and systems of Croatian, based on Ferdinand de Saussure and Eugenio Coșeriu concepts, is criticized for being exaggerated, incomprehensible and logically non-existent. According to Ranko Matasović, Kajkavian is equally Croatian as Čakavian and Štokavian dialects. Mate Kapović notes that the dialects are practical and provisory linguistic inventions which should not be misunderstood and extrapolated outside the context of the dialect continuum.
According to Mijo Lončarić (1988), the formation of the Proto-Kajkavian linguistic and territorial unit would be around the 10th century (when it separated from Southwestern Slavic), until the 12th century it is a separate node of Croatian-Serbian language family (excluding Slovene), between the 13th and 15th century when formed as a dialect with main features known today, until the end of the 17th century when lost a part of spoken territory (to the South, Southeast and especially to East in Slavonia), and from the 17th-18th century till present time when it regained part of its lost territory by forming new transitional dialects.
Characteristics
The Kajkavian speech area borders in the northwest on the Slovene language and in the northeast on the Hungarian language. In the east and southeast it is bordered by Štokavian dialects roughly along a line that used to serve as the border between Civil Croatia and the Habsburg Military Frontier. Finally, in the southwest, it borders Čakavian along the Kupa and Dobra rivers. It is thought by M. Lončarić that historically these borders extended further to the south and east, for example, the eastern border is thought to have extended at least well into modern-day Slavonia to the area around the town of Pakrac and Slatina, while East of it transitional Kajkavian-Štokavian dialects. The transitional dialects during Ottoman invasion and migrations almost completely vanished.
The Croatian capital, Zagreb, has historically been a Kajkavian-speaking area, and Kajkavian is still in use by its older and (to a lesser extent) by its younger population. Modern Zagreb speech has come under considerable influence from Štokavian. The vast intermingling of Kajkavian and standard Štokavian in Zagreb and its surroundings has led to problems in defining the underlying structure of those speech-groups. As a result, many of the urban speeches (but not rural ones) have been labelled either Kajkavian koine or Kajkavian–Štokavian rather than Kajkavian or Štokavian. Additionally, the forms of speech in use exhibit significant sociolinguistic variation. Research suggests that younger Zagreb-born speakers of the Kajkavian koine tend to consciously use more Kajkavian features when speaking to older people, showing that such features are still in their linguistic inventory even if not used at all times. However, the Kajkavian koine is distinct from Kajkavian as spoken in non-urban areas, and the mixing of Štokavian and Kajkavian outside of urban settings is much rarer and less developed. The Kajkavian koine has also been named Zagreb Štokavian by some.
As a result of the previously mentioned mixing of dialects, various Kajkavian features and characteristics have found their way into the standard Štokavian (standard Croatian) spoken in those areas. For example, some of the prominent features are the fixed stress-based accentual system without distinctive lengths, the merger of /č/ and /ć/ and of /dž/ and /đ/, vocabulary differences as well as a different place of stress in words. The Zagreb variety of Štokavian is considered by some to enjoy parallel prestige with the prescribed Štokavian variety. Because of that, speakers whose native speech is closer to the standard variety often end up adopting the Zagreb speech for various reasons.
Kajkavian is closely related to Slovene – and to Prekmurje Slovene in particular. Higher amounts of correspondences between the two exist in inflection and vocabulary. The speakers of the Prekmurje dialect are Slovenes and Hungarian Slovenes who belonged to the Archdiocese of Zagreb during the Habsburg era (until 1918). They used Kajkavian as their liturgical language, and by the 18th century, Kajkavian had become the standard language of Prekmurje. Moreover, literary Kajkavian was also used in neighboring Slovene Styria during the 17th and 18th centuries, and in parts of it, education was conducted in Kajkavian.
As a result of various factors, Kajkavian has numerous differences compared to Štokavian:
Kajkavian has a prothetic v- generalized in front of u (compare Kajkavian vuho, Štokavian uho; Kajkavian vugel, Štokavian ugao; Kajkavian vučil, Štokavian učio). This feature has been attested in Glagolitic texts very early on, already around the 15th century (Petrisov zbornik, 1468). A similar feature exists in colloquial Czech, as well as in many Slovene dialects, especially from the Pannonian, Styrian and Littoral dialect groups. Proto-Slavic *dj resulted in Kajkavian j as opposed to Štokavian đ (cf. Kajkavian meja, Štokavian međa, Slovene meja). The nasal *ǫ has evolved into a closed /o/ in Kajkavian (cf. Kajkavian roka, Štokavian ruka, Slovene roka). Common Slavic *v and *v- survived as v in Kajkavian, whereas in Štokavian they resulted in u and u-, and in Čakavian they gave way to va. The same feature is maintained in most Slovene dialects. Kajkavian has retained /č/ in front of /r/ (cf. Kajkavian črn, črv, Štokavian crn, crv, Slovene črn, črv). Kajkavian /ž/ in front of a vowel turns into /r/. A similar evolution happened in Slovene, Čakavian as well as Western Štokavian, however the latter does not use it in its standard form (cf. Kajkavian moči > morem/moreš/more, Štokavian moći > mogu/možeš/može, Slovene moči > morem/moreš/more). Kajkavian retains -jt and -jd clusters (cf. Kajkavian pojti, pojdem, Štokavian poći, pođem). This feature is shared by standard Slovene. Like most Slavic varieties (including Slovenian, but not Štokavian), Kajkavian exhibits final-obstruent devoicing, however it is not consistently spelled out (cf. Kajkavian vrak, Štokavian vrag) Diminutive suffixes in Kajkavian are -ek, -ec, -eko, -eco (cf. Kajkavian pes > pesek, Štokavian pas > psić). The same diminutive suffixes are found in Slovene. Negative past-tense construction in Kajkavian deviates syntactically from neighboring speeches in its placing of the negative particle. Some argued that this might indicate a remnant of the Pannonian Slavic system. Similar behavior occurs in Slovak (compare Kajkavian ja sem nę čul, Slovene jaz nisem čul, Štokavian ja nisam čuo). Some variants of Kajkavian have a different first-person plural present-tense suffix, -mę (cf. Kajkavian -mę, rečemę, Slovene -mo, rečemo, Štokavian -mo, kažemo, Slovak -me, povieme) such as the Bednja dialect, although most Kajkavian sub-dialects retain the suffix -mo. Relative pronouns differ from neighboring dialects and languages (although they are similar to Slovene). Kajkavian uses kateri, tęri and šteri depending on sub-dialect (cf. Czech který, Slovak ktorý, Štokavian koji, standard Slovene kateri, Carniolan dialects k'teri, kęri). The genitive plural in Štokavian adds an -a to the end, whereas Kajkavian retains the old form (cf. Kajkavian vuk, vukov/vukof, Štokavian vuk, vukova, Slovene volk, volkov, Kajkavian žene, žen, Štokavian žene, žena, Slovene žene, žen/žena). Kajkavian retains the older locative plural (compare Kajkavian prsti, prsteh, Štokavian prsti, prstima, Slovene prsti, prstih). The loss of the dual is considered to be significantly more recent than in Štokavian. Kajkavian has no vocative case. This feature is shared with standard Slovene and most Slovene dialects.