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Croatia (/ k r oʊ ˈ eɪ ʃ ə / ⓘ, kroh-AY-shə; Croatian: Hrvatska, pronounced [xř̩ʋaːtskaː]), officially the Republic of Croatia (Croatian: Republika Hrvatska listen ⓘ), [d] is a country in Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea.
Names of the Croats and Croatia. The non-native name of Croatia (Croatian: Hrvatska) derives from Medieval Latin Croātia, itself a derivation of the native ethnonym of Croats, earlier *Xъrvate and modern-day Croatian: Hrvati. The earliest preserved mentions of the ethnonym in stone inscriptions and written documents in the territory of ...
The Croats (/ ˈkroʊæts /; [ 49 ] Croatian: Hrvati [xr̩ʋǎːti]) or Horvati (in a more archaic version) are a South Slavic ethnic group native to Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and other neighboring countries in Central and Southeastern Europe who share a common Croatian ancestry, culture, history and language.
- Overview
- Ethnic groups and religions
- Languages
- Settlement patterns
- Demographic trends
A variety of ethnic groups coexist within the republic. Croats constitute about nine-tenths of the population. Serbs make up the largest minority group; however, their proportion fell dramatically as a result of the 1990s war of independence—from more than one-tenth of the population before the war to less than half that figure in 2001. In addition to the Croats and the Serbs, there are small groups of Bosnian Muslims (Bosniaks), Hungarians, Italians, and Slovenes as well as a few thousand Albanians, Austrians, Bulgarians, Czechs, Germans, and other nationalities.
It has been estimated that the number of Croats living outside the borders of Croatia is comparable to the number living inside the country. Many ethnic Croats reside in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where Croats have lived since the Slavs first migrated to the western Balkan Peninsula in the 6th and 7th centuries ce. Although there has traditionally been a yearning for unification with Croatia among the Croats of Herzegovina (a region contiguous to Dalmatia), this sentiment has not generally been shared by Croats within Croatia or even by Croats in Bosnia. Many of the Serbs in Croatia are descendants of people who migrated to the border areas of the Holy Roman Empire between the 16th and 18th centuries, following the Ottoman conquest of Serbia and Bosnia.
A variety of ethnic groups coexist within the republic. Croats constitute about nine-tenths of the population. Serbs make up the largest minority group; however, their proportion fell dramatically as a result of the 1990s war of independence—from more than one-tenth of the population before the war to less than half that figure in 2001. In addition to the Croats and the Serbs, there are small groups of Bosnian Muslims (Bosniaks), Hungarians, Italians, and Slovenes as well as a few thousand Albanians, Austrians, Bulgarians, Czechs, Germans, and other nationalities.
It has been estimated that the number of Croats living outside the borders of Croatia is comparable to the number living inside the country. Many ethnic Croats reside in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where Croats have lived since the Slavs first migrated to the western Balkan Peninsula in the 6th and 7th centuries ce. Although there has traditionally been a yearning for unification with Croatia among the Croats of Herzegovina (a region contiguous to Dalmatia), this sentiment has not generally been shared by Croats within Croatia or even by Croats in Bosnia. Many of the Serbs in Croatia are descendants of people who migrated to the border areas of the Holy Roman Empire between the 16th and 18th centuries, following the Ottoman conquest of Serbia and Bosnia.
Croats speak Croatian, a South Slavic language of the Indo-European family. Croatian is quite similar to Serbian and Bosnian, but political developments since the collapse of Yugoslavia have encouraged the three ethnic groups to emphasize the differences between their languages. The clearest distinction between the Croatian and Serbian variants of what was previously called the Serbo-Croatian language is the script, with Croatian written in the Latin alphabet and Serbian in the Cyrillic. Distinctions of grammar and pronunciation also occur, as do more striking differences in vocabulary, which result partly from differential historical patterns of foreign domination. For Croats, this has resulted in a sprinkling of German, Hungarian, and (in Dalmatia and Istria) Italian vocabulary, while the Serbs’ speech shows Turkish and Russian influences. In addition, there have been various movements to “purify” the Croatian language, which have led to further differences.
Another linguistic distinction, reflecting the legacies of history as well as the effects of geography, can be heard in the colourful medley of regional dialects and subdialects that survive to this day. The standard Croatian literary language, based on the Shtokavian dialect, emerged in the second half of the 19th century as a result of an effort to unite all South Slavs. Although all three major branches of Serbo-Croatian (Shtokavian, Chakavian, and Kajkavian) were spoken by Croats (as they still are today), the Shtokavian dialect was the most widely heard in Croatian regions of eastern Slavonia, the Adriatic littoral from Makarska to Dubrovnik, and Herzegovina, as well as Montenegro and Serbia. It was therefore adopted by leading Croatian national intellectuals of the 19th century.
More than half of the population resides in urban areas, particularly in the upper arm of the country and along the Adriatic coast. Settlement is relatively sparse in the central mountainous area. While most of Croatia’s Serbs live in urban centres, a significant number are scattered in villages and towns, mostly in lightly populated parts of the c...
The major demographic trend of the post-World War II period was rapid urbanization and a consequent migration from rural areas—especially from the less-prosperous karstic regions of Lika and Gorski Kotar in the central mountain belt, from Dalmatia, and from islands in the Adriatic but also from the Pannonian regions of Banija and Baranja. As a resu...
The Croatian people is a South Slavic ethnic group with a long history, whose roots can be dated back to the 7th Century. They were originally from Central Europe, Southeast Europe, and the Mediterranean.
4 days ago · Croatia, country located in the northwestern part of the Balkan Peninsula. It is a small yet highly geographically diverse crescent-shaped country. Its capital is Zagreb, located in the north. Learn more about the history, people, economy, and government of Croatia in this article.
Croats (Croatian: Hrvati) are a South Slavic ethnic group mostly living in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and nearby countries. There are around 5 million Croats living in the southern Central Europe region, along the east bank of the Adriatic Sea and an estimated 9 million throughout the world.
