Slavic dialects are spoken in Italy: 1. in the Serbo-Croatian linguistic oasis of Molise: 2. along the eastern borders: on the island of Lagosta; in the small strip of land around Zadar; on the Kvarner islands: Lošinj, Sansego, Unie, Cres (except for cities); in the Istrian countryside; in the hinterland of Trieste to the border of Italy; in the upper and middle Isonzo Valley (except for the city centers); in a part of the Val di Resia and Val Canale. All these dialects belong to the South-Slavic group, and precisely to Serbo-Croatian and Slovenian, which meet in Istria on a line that, starting from the Gulf of Piran along the course of Dragogna, crosses a deep inlet of type mixed Croatian-Slovenian (near Buzet), fold near Gelovizza to the north, it reaches the Trieste-Fiume carriage road and follows it up to Passiacco, whence it continues directly east to the Italian border in the south of Monte Nevoso. The Slavic speakers in the south of this line are Serbo-Croatian, while those in the north are all Slovenian, including the dialects of the Val di Resia that Baudouin de Courtenay erroneously considered Serbo-Croatian.
The linguistic oasis of Molise is made up of three villages: Acquaviva Collecroce, San Felice Slavo and Montemitro. The alloglot (or rather bilingual) population of this colony amounted twenty years ago to about 3000 inhabitants; today due to continued absorption, it will certainly be much less. The dialect spoken there is of the štokavo – ikavo type (from što “quid” and from i for ( i ) je of the literary Serbo-Croatian corresponding to an paleoslavian ĕ ) with some archaisms (eg, the lack of the ending – a in the plural genitives) and some slight infiltration of čakavi elements (from ča to što ). For these reasons, as well as for less certain lexical and historical arguments, it is very likely that the population of these villages came to Italy from central Dalmatia (between Cetina and Narenta) in the second half of the century. XV. And it is the last nucleus of a much greater number of Croats (and perhaps Serbs too) who, fleeing the Turkish invasions, had taken refuge on the other side of the Adriatic.
On the other hand, čakavo is the dialect of Lagosta, with j for dj ( meja , Serbo-Croatian literary meßa “border”, cf. medius ), t ′ for tj ( sret ′ a , lit. sreća “luck”), n at the end of word for – m , etc. However, it is a question of a mixed type of speech, since there are many peculiarities of the štokavo – jekavi dialects of the mainland between the Peljesac peninsula and Ragusa.
The Croatian parlors in the villages of the island of Lošinj are in full dissolution: the population is usually bilingual and there are in the two dialects used not a few parallels, including phonetic ones: for example , j for ( kašaj for scr . lit. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Another characteristic, but insufficiently studied, is the diphthongization of long tonic vowels.
Greater vitality has the Croatian dialect of the island of Cres which for its ekavism ( and for je , ije ) distinguishes itself from the other čakavi dialects and for its conservative character, especially in the lexicon, is similar to the Croatian parlors of the island of Krk .
The great dialectal variety of the interior of the Istrian peninsula has its explanation in historical conditions; the Slavs begin to penetrate it, through the Montemaggiore pass, in the century. VII; and continue to flow there periodically in the following centuries. These are spontaneous immigrations at first, but then promoted by the owners of the peninsula themselves. As these settlers came from neighboring regions (speaking čakavi dialects) and because, either due to their small number, or because of the numerical superiority of the more indigenous Slavic population, they could be assimilated by it, their present-day successors still speak dialects of like čakavo. This applies to the eastern part of the peninsula (the delimitation to the west and north is provided by a line which, first following the course of the Arsa, turns west near Zminj, it returns north to Vermo near Pazin and from there it turns NE. until you reach the Trieste-Fiume carriage road near Obrovo Santa Maria). The rural population to the west of this line, having arrived in Istria more or less after the century. XV and coming mostly from the interior of Dalmatia (Morlacchi) or Bosnia, and even Montenegro, he speaks almost pure štokavi dialects, or, between Mirna and Dragogna, a mixed štokavo-čakavo language. Nothing in particular to observe for the čakavi dialects: they have XV and coming mostly from the interior of Dalmatia (Morlacchi) or Bosnia, and even from Montenegro, he speaks almost pure štokavi dialects, or, between Mirna and Dragogna, a mixed štokavo-čakavo language. Nothing in particular to observe for the čakavi dialects: they have XV and coming mostly from the interior of Dalmatia (Morlacchi) or Bosnia, and even Montenegro, he speaks almost pure štokavi dialects, or, between Mirna and Dragogna, a mixed štokavo-čakavo language. Nothing in particular to observe for the čakavi dialects: they have čr – for cr- of literary Serbo-Croatian ( črn “black”); the pronunciation t ′ for tj ( svit ′ a “candle”); for the – l final conservation or disappearance ( rekal or reka for the scr. lit. rekao ), the future value of the present tense of perfective verbs ( kupin “I will buy”), etc. The štokavi dialects of Istria agree with the čakavi ones in some archaisms; in ča for što (it also derives here, as in other cases, that the denomination of čakavo or štokavo is very improper) and in some other parts of little importance. Otherwise they get along well with the main characteristics of štokavo-ikavo. Among these dialects, that of Peroi deserves a separate mention, which is of the Montenegrin type (the inhabitants, about 300, of Peroi, represent a Montenegrin-Orthodox colony); and that of Ciceria (around Gelovizza and Vodizze di Castelnuovo) because it is surrounded by dialects of the čakavo or Slovenian type.
In the linguistically Slovenian territory the following dialects or dialectal groupings can be distinguished: 1. the Karst dialect that starting from Montemaggiore crosses the Isonzo and reached, in the north of Selva di Ternova, the state border, follows it (with some offshoots in the territory Yugoslavian) to Mount Nevoso. This dialect, which in the west borders on Italian and in the south with the Croatian of Istria, has as its main characteristics the vowel a for ancient semivowels in unstressed syllables, the passage of – m in – n at the end of a word and the frequent use of infinitives of the zapneti type (from the pres. zapnem); 2. the dialect of the Upper Soča and Idria which marks the transition between the dialect of the Karst and those of Slovenia (in which however it penetrates the area of Poljane, Škofja Loka, Logatec); 3. the last south-western offshoots of the Carinthian dialect (near Tarvisio); 4. the dialect of the Resia Valley, interesting above all for the systematic influence that the tonic vowels exert on the unstressed ones (vowel harmony).
All the Slavic parlors within the borders of Italy have undergone a strong influence of the Italian lexicon; and almost all retreat, albeit slowly, in contact with the Italian language, or rather with the dialects: Venetian and Friulian. This expansion of Italian is mainly due to the cultural function that the city centers had in these areas, which were able to preserve their Italian character even when, following historical events, they were more or less surrounded by linguistically heterogeneous areas.
