Kajkavian

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.

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.

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 do exist few old isoglosses that separate almost all Slovene speeches from all other Western South Slavic dialects, and do exist 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 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. 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.