Croatia Languages

Description
The official language of Croatia is Croatian and one of 24 official languages of the European Union since 2013. According to the 2021 Census, 95.25% of citizens of Croatia proclaimed Croatian as their native language. Minority languages are in official use in local government areas where more than a third of the population includes national minorities or where local legislation mandates their use. They are:
 * Czech
 * Hungarian
 * Italian
 * Ruthenian
 * Serbian
 * Slovak

The following languages are also recognized:
 * Albanian
 * Bosnian
 * Bulgarian
 * German
 * Hebrew
 * Macedonian
 * Montenegrin
 * Polish
 * Romanian
 * Romani
 * Russian
 * Rusyn
 * Slovenian
 * Turkish
 * Ukrainian

Croatian replaced Latin as the official language of the Croatian government in 1847. The official language was formally designated from 1961 to 1991 as Serbo-Croatian or Croato-Serbian. During this time, Croats often referred to their language as Croato-Serbian (instead of Serbo-Croatian) or as Croatian.

The Serbo-Croatian language or Croato-Serbian language is a South Slavic diasystem. Serbo-Croatian was standardized as a single language during the era of Yugoslavia, from 1918 to 1991. During this period Serbo-Croatian was one of the three official languages, alongside Macedonian and Slovenian. Following the breakup of Yugoslavia, the Serbo-Croatian language broke into its constituent parts, with Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian becoming distinctly recognized languages. Currently in Montenegro there is a movement to have Montenegrin recognized as its own language, as well.

Because the Roman Catholic Church was the predominant religion in Croatia, many records are in Latin. Other languages in Croatian records include Hungarian and Italian.

Information about Language Records

Word List(s)
For word lists and help researching in Croatian records, see:
 * Serbo-Croatian Genealogical Word List
 * German Genealogical Word List
 * Hungarian Genealogical Word List
 * Italian Genealogical Word List
 * Latin Genealogical Word List

Croatian
 * Useful Croatian phrases (Omniglot)
 * Croatian phrasebook (Wikitravel)

Alphabet and Pronunciation
Croatian
 * Croatian Alphabet and Pronunciation (Omniglot)
 * Croatian Grammar and Language Basics (MyLanguages)
 * Croatian pronunciation dictionary (Forvo)

Grammar Help

Language Aids and Dictionaries
Croatian
 * English to Croatian Dictionary (Glosbe)
 * English to Serbo Croatian Dictionary (Glosbe)
 * Vidan, Aida and Robert Niebuhr. Beginner's Croatian : with online audio. New York,: Hippocrene Books, 2020. Available at: WorldCat.

Additional Resources

 * Croatia (Britannica)
 * Croatia (Wikitravel)
 * Langston, Keith and Anita Peti-Stantić. Language planning and national identity in Croatia. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014. Available at: WorldCat.

Languages of the Records

The language of the records is mostly Latin, Croatian, Hungarian, or Italian. Glagolitic and Cyrillic as well as Roman script occur in the records.


 * Latin: an Indo-European language, moderately inflected, and used extensively by the Roman Catholic Church.
 * Serbian: a Slavic language closely allied to Croatian. Considered the official language of Yugoslavia. Serbian differs from Croatian slightly in vocabulary and is written in the Cyrillic script.
 * German: official language of the Austrian Empire, and as such the language of record for the Austrian military.
 * Glagolitic: properly speaking, Glagolitsa is a script, not a language. The literature of Dalmatia, however, took on a unique character that can be considered at least a dialect. In most circumstances one can read the text of a Glagolitic manuscript if s/he is familiar with Croatian and the epigraphy.
 * Croatian: the language used for most post-Latin period Roman Catholic parish registers. Distinguished from Serbian primarily for reasons of nationalism.
 * Hungarian: all civil documents, from partition of Austria-Hungary to end of WWI.
 * Italian: language common to the 1600-1800. Roman Catholic parish registers for Dalmatia and Istria.
 * Slovene: language of Slovenia, closely allied with Serbo-Croatian.

Croatian grammar

Croatian grammar may affect the way names appear in genealogical records. For example, names of your ancestors will vary from record to record in Croatian. Alphabet

Croatian Alphabetical Order Aa Bb Cc Čč Ćć Dd

DŽdž Ðđ Ee Ff Gg

Hh Ii Jj Kk Ll LJlj

Mm Nn NJnj Oo Pp Rr

Ss Šš Tt Uu Vv Zz Žž

Glagolitic alphabet was used in Dalmatia until the early 19th century.

Language Characteristics

In Croatian, as in English, the forms of some words will vary according to how they are used in a sentence. Who-whose-whom or marry-marries- married are examples of words in English with variant forms. In Croatian any word may change, depending on usage. This word list gives the standard form of each Croatian word. As you read Croatian records, you will need to be aware that most words vary with usage. The endings of words in a document will often differ from what you find in this list.


 * Croatian Glagolitic Script

Key Words

To find and use specific types of Croatian records, you will need to know some keywords. This section gives key genealogical terms in English and the BCS words with the same or similar meanings.