Chakavian

Chakavian (Čakavian, čakavski) is a peripheral dialect of the central South Slavic languages, used only in Croatian.

Čakavian is spoken in the western and southern parts of Croatia, mainly in Istria and Dalmatia.

The Čakavian in Dalmatia and southwestern Istria is Ikavian as it renders jat as i, while the dialects of the remainder of the Northern Seacoast in Croatia are either pure Ekavian or of a mixed Ekavian-Ikavian type, the reflex of jat depending on the adjacent sounds.

Many dialects of Čakavian have a lot of loan words from Venetian and Italian, because they are spoken in areas of Croatia that were previously under Venice and/or Italy. Such loan words particularly abound in Istrian dialects, since to this day an Italian minority lives in Istria.

The first documents written in čakavian date from 1275 ("Istarski razvod") and 1288 ("Vinodolski zakonik"). There are elements of čakavian in older writings such as the Baška tablet of 1100s.

Example: Ča je, je, tako je navik bilo, ča će bit, će bit, a nekako već će bit!