Perception of Croatian language and culture – outside and inside view

Guest lecture by Ivančica Banković-Mandić, PhD, Croaticum – Centre for Croatian as a Second and Foreign Language (University of Zagreb).

Throughout history, the Croatian language has evolved under strong influences from various cultures and languages. Today, it is subject to globalization and the dominance of English while simultaneously displaying openness to dialects and non-standard variants.

The lecture will explore the forces that have shaped the Croatian language and society, as reflected in formal education systems and contemporary media discourses on belonging to the Balkan cultural context. The discussion will provide a brief overview of the different cultures and languages that have influenced Croatian over time, including German, Hungarian, Italian, Turkish, Slavic, and modern English influences.

German has had a strong impact since the 16th century, with many words (e.g., auspuh, beštek, rikverc) remaining in everyday use. Italianisms primarily entered Croatian during the period of the Venetian Republic, especially in music (soprano), gastronomy (pizza), art, and fashion. Hungarian influence is evident in agriculture, cuisine, and everyday life (kuhinja, stol, trešnja). Turkish loanwords entered Croatian during the Ottoman Empire, bringing expressions from Arabic and Persian, though the general public mostly associates them as the same origin (baklava, fes, and džamija). During the Croatian National Revival, the standardization of the Croatian language was influenced by Czech, Slovak, and Russian, leading to intensive translations and adaptations of texts from these languages. Modern influences primarily come from English, which dominates science, economics, and pop culture (outsourcing, monitoring, bend, frend). Dialects and non-standard expressions are increasingly present in the media and public speech.

A key topic of discussion will be the classification of Croatian within the Balkan linguistic area, what is the subject of numerous sociolinguistic and cultural debates. The Balkan Sprachbund includes languages that share grammatical and lexical similarities due to prolonged contact (e.g., Bulgarian, Macedonian, Albanian, Greek, Romanian, Serbian). However, Croatian exhibits minimal features of this linguistic union compared to other regional languages, leading many linguists to question its full membership. Analyzing historical and cultural aspects of Croatian regions, we observe that Dalmatia, Istria, and Hrvatsko Zagorje identify less with the Balkans, whereas Slavonia and Moslavina, where the Shtokavian dialect dominates, have stronger ties to the Balkan context.