Croatian Štokavian dialects – historical development and present status

Štokavsko je narječje važno za Hrvate prvenstveno zato što je, nakon izgubljene šanse da se hrvatski standardni jezik formira u XV./XVI. stoljeću na čakavskoj osnovici, suvremeni hrvatski standardni jezik formiran na novoštokavskoj osnovici kao većinski sredinom XVIII. st. i kao općehrvatski u 30-im godinama XIX. st. No štokavsko narječje predstavlja i jednu od najoriginalnijih jezičnih zajednica u Europi i u svijetu.The Štokavian dialect is important for Croats primarily because after the Turkish invasion it was impossible to establish the standard Croatian language based on Čakavian in the 15th or 16th century. The contemporary Croatian standard language was established on the Neo-Štokavian base as the main Croatian language in the mid-18th century, and as the general Croatian language in the 1830s. After Croats, Serbs, Montenegrins and Bosniacs also established their standard languages on somewhat different Neo-Štokavian bases during the 19th and the 20th centuries. However, dialects of the Štokavian dialect group, together with Kajkavian, Čakavian and Torlak dialects (i.e. the corresponding dialect groups) simultaneously make one of the most original linguistic communities not only the Slavic world- and Europe-wide, but world-wide, as well. The Štokavian dialect is unique according to many criteria: it came into being by the fusion of the original Western and Eastern Štokavian dialect groups, and amidst the dialect group the specific so-called Neo-Štokavian innovations established a community of three Neo-Štokavian disproportionately comprehensive, territorially somewhat scattered and interwoven, and unusually mutually related dialects in terms of the dialectal average. They stand out in the Slavic world owing to many original, exceptional and even unique features