| Younger Ikavian | |
| Also Known As: | Bosnian-Dalmatian |
| Imagescale: | 1.45 |
| Imagealt: | Younger Ikavian dialect located geographically |
| States: | Bosnia and HerzegovinaCroatiaHungarySerbia |
| Region: | BačkaCentral BosniaDalmatian HinterlandWestern Herzegovina |
| Ethnicity: | Croats |
| Familycolor: | Indo-European |
| Fam2: | Balto-Slavic |
| Fam3: | Slavic |
| Fam4: | South Slavic |
| Fam5: | Western |
| Fam6: | Serbo-Croatian |
| Fam7: | Shtokavian |
| Fam8: | Neo-Shtokavian |
| Isoexception: | dialect |
Younger Ikavian (sh|mlađi ikavski), also called Western Ikavian/Western Neoshtokavian Ikavian (zapadni ikavski/zapadni novoštokavski ikavski), or Bosnian–Dalmatian dialect (bosansko-dalmatinski dijalekt), is a subdialect of Shtokavian Serbo-Croatian spoken primarily by Croats in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, and Italy. It is spoken to a lesser extent by Bosniaks and rarely by Serbs in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Most speakers use the Latin alphabet.
In Croatia, it is spoken in pockets of Gorski kotar, south of Novi Vinodolski in the Lika hinterland, Kordun, central Slavonia, Dalmatia, and in small pockets on the Dalmatian islands of Šolta, Brač, Hvar, and Korčula.
In Bosnia and Herzegovina, it is spoken west of the rivers of Bosna and Neretva, in the Bačka region of Hungary (inc. Budapest), and in the autonomous province of Vojvodina in Serbia. In Italy, it is spoken in Molise.
This dialect is a sub-dialect of the Shtokavian dialect group, specifically the western sub-group. It is a descendant of Western Shtokavian, which was spoken in parts of Dalmatia, Western Bosnia and Western Herzegovina. Western Shtokavian had several typically western features like Schakavism, Ikavism, a reflex "j", an acute accent, which makes it closely related to the Chakavian dialect.
Although one of the dialect's characteristics is its Ikavian yat reflex (*/ě/ > /i/), there do exist some local differences with rare examples of the Ekavian or Ijekavian reflex. It has some similarities to Southern Chakavian and Slavonian dialect. The same applies to its morphology, which has some Italian influence, too.
With regard to its accentology, the Younger Ikavian dialect has four accents. Sometimes, there is also an old acute accent, while in the case of Slavomolisano often only two accents occur due the surrounding Italian influences.
Aside from Slavomolisano and the language spoken in coastal regions, which have adopted a greater number of Italian loanwords, its lexicon is found to have many Turkish loanwords. In Lika and the Bačka region, German influences are present, with the latter also having Hungarian influences. Younger Ikavian has a number of similar words with the Chakavian dialect such as "grem", "tovar", "muka", "iskat", "hiža", "lačan", "povidat", "zabiti", "dažd/daždit", "pot", or "vlasi."
In some cases, such as in the area of Slunj, today's Younger Ikavian Shtokavian speakers could be described as Chakavian Ikavian speakers who have been Shtokavised.
This dialect can be further divided into Ikavian Schakavian (Šćakavian; from šćakavski) and Ikavian Shtakavian (Štakavian; from štakavski) sub-dialects:
There are other sub-dialects such as the ones in Makarska-Primorje and Livno-Vrbas, which are both Schakavian, and the Western Hum and Biokovo-Cetina sub-dialects, which are both Shtakavian. These can be further divided into Schakavian and Shtakavian, which feature the change of "-l" into "-o" or "-a":
These subdivisions suggest that several different dialects and local vernaculars existed before the 16th century.
The Slavomolisano dialect (with some Chakavian influences) and Bunjevac dialect are recognised local vernaculars.
In 2018, Serbia finalised the standardisation of the Bunjevac dialect in Serbia.[1] [2]
In 2021, Croatia has categorised the Bunjevac dialect with its three historical-ethnological sub-branches called Dalmatian, Danubian, and Littoral-Lika.[3]