Burgenland Croats between Vienna, Bratislava and Sopron: Historical, Cultural and Linguistic Aspects

The present paper discusses the written tradition of Burgenland Croats currently residing in the South of Slovakia. Before the Second World War this group of Burgenland Croats belonged to Hungary, so the preserved letters of rural residents of the border village Chunova retain a number of features characteristic of the Hungarian orthography of the beginning of last century, lexical borrowings from the languages of the environment (primarily German) and dialect features which have been lost by now. The correspondence from the beginning of the last century reflects the cultural, historical and linguistic situation typical of Burgenland Croats living in the enclave. A study of their letters published recently, in 2017, reveals the traits of their language, everyday life and some features of traditional folk culture