Kajkavian

Kajkavian
kajkavica, kajkavština
Native to	Croatia
Language family	Indo-European Balto-Slavic Slavic South Slavic Western Kajkavian
Standard forms	Literary Kajkavian
Language codes
ISO 639-3
Glottolog	kajk1237
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Kajkavian /kaɪˈkɑːviən, -ˈkæ-/ (Kajkavian noun: kajkavščina; Shtokavian adjective: kajkavski [kǎjkaʋskiː], noun: kajkavica or kajkavština [kajkǎːʋʃtina]) is a Croatian dialect spoken primarily by Croats in much of Central Croatia,Gorski Kotar and northern Istria.

There is an ongoing dispute whether Kajkavian is a dialect of Serbo-Croatian or a fully-fledged language of its own, as it is only partially mutually intelligible with other dialects and bears more similarities to Slovene (especially Prekmurje dialect) than Standard Croatian in terms of phonology and vocabulary. Notable Croatian linguists consider Kajkavian to be a language in its own right, with its own established dialects and documented literature. Croatian linguist Stjepan Ivšić has used Kajkavian vocabulary and accentuation, which significantly differs from that of Serbo-Croatian, as evidence. Moreover, there is a common agreement among linguists that Kajkavian does not belong to the Shtokavian group of dialects as Serbo-Croatian does, but that it is more closely related to neighboring Slovene language with which it shares considerable amount of vocabulary. Furthermore, there is no clear demarcation between Slovene dialects and Kajkavian. Thus, it has low mutual intelligibility with Shtokavian, on which Croatia's standard language is based. Linguist Josip Silić, one of the main creators of standardisation of Croatian language, also regards Kajkavian as a language of its own, having different morphology, syntax and phonology from official Croatian language. As of 2015, historic Literary Kajkavian has a separate language ISO 639-3 code – kjv. Kajkavian literary language does not belong to Serbo-Croatian since it does not belong to the . Active attempts are being made by some organizations to widen its recognition and status, which has thus far included introduction of elective school subjects in Kajkavian in some parts of Croatia as well as the creation of the aforementioned ISO code.