I'm very interested in the dialect of Split. If someone could tell me more about it or direct me to some useful resources I'd be most grateful. I, in turn, will be happy to provide this information on the Split dialect.

a. The dialect is ikavian-cakavian though there is a strong stokavian influence because of the standard language. Ikavian means that some many words which have "ije" or "je" in the standard language have "i" in Split. - covik (covjek "man"), misto (mjesto, "place"), lipa divojka ("lijepa djevoka "a beautiful girl")

b. The "lj" sound in the standard language is just "j" in Split. - judi (ljudi, "people"), jubav (ljubav "love"), boje (bolje "better"), prijateji (prijatelji "friends")

c. There is no "h". The "h" of the standard language is dropped, or replaced by "v" after "u" or by "j" after "ih". - kruv (kruh, "bread"), ij (ih, "them")

d. When last in a word, "m" is changed to "n" - nosin (nosim, "I carry"), sedan (sedam, "seven"), rukon (rukom, "with the hand")

e. The masculine form of words in the past tense ends in "a" (and not in "o".) - zna san (znao sam, "I knew"), razumia san (razumio sam, "I understood)

f. The third plural (=them) ends in "du". - govoridu (govore, "they speak"), gredu (idu "they go")

g. Many words are different

Any more information on this beautiful dialect would be very welcome!! If you want to hear the Split dialect (and cannot go to Split) listen to Croatia's greatest singer Gibonni. Thanks to him every Croat is fairly familiar with the Split dialect.

-- James (james_brachin@hotmail.com), July 21, 2004

Answers

you see I wouldn't agree,... Gibonni just touches on some words that Dalmatians in general know,.. but believe you me,.. there are words out there like "kserosi"(strangers), "katriga"(stolica), "zmul"(casa),.. etc etc..... That are so different then what Dalmatians have been thought,.. that such words are only knowen by the older generation. As for the Split accent,.. I hope there are more people like you who are interested in learning something so sacred as this,... because I really don't want to see this disapear into the oblivium!!

-- Quaker (kvaaaaaaaaa@yahoo.com), October 21, 2004.