Molise Slavs

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Molise Croats
Total population
5,000 approx.
Regions with significant populations
Italy (Molise Region)
Languages

Slavomolisano
Religion

Catholic
Related ethnic groups

Croats


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Croats
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Molise Croats (Italian: Slavomolisani, Croatian: Moliški Hrvati) live in the Molise region of Italy in the villages Acquaviva Collecroce (Croatian: Kruč), San Felice del Molise (Croatian: Štifilić), Montemitro (Croatian: Mundimitar) and elsewhere. In these three villages they are a majority. There are about 1,000 active speakers of the Molise Croatian language. Additionally, there are about 1,000 people in other parts of Italy and emigrants in other countries originating from these villages.

These three villages are the descendants of colonies of Croat refugees (due to the Ottoman advance), that appeared in the Italian southern Adriatic hinterland (from Marche to Puglia) in the 15th century.[1]

Contents

Identity and language [edit]

The Molise Croat community is split on ethnic identity: they may declare themselves Croat or Italian;[citation needed] they speak Molise Croatian as a communal tongue, alongside Italian which is their national language. Milena Lalli, a poet born to local parents in Rome, studied Slavic languages in the 1970s and acquired a sizeable literary Croatian vocabulary to replace the numerous Italian borrowings in her dialect.[citation needed] These Croatian words and even whole expressions are translated in parentheses or off to the side into proper Italian; so also in translations from Croatian.[citation needed]

Religion and traditions [edit]

The Molise Croats, in majority are Catholic. Tradition holds that the community settled "zone bane mora" (from the other side of the sea) in the 15th century, and was once much more widespread. A legend says that they came to the new country on one Friday in May carrying only the statue of Saint Lucy. Because the exact year and date of their arrival is unknown they hold processions dedicated to Saint Lucy (Sveta Luca) on every Friday in May.

Origins [edit]

Scientists offer the following hypotheses about the geographical origins of Molise Croats:

  • About the 16th century, their ancestors migrated to Molise from the valley of the river Neretva, which is partly in southern Croatia, partly in Herzegovina;
  • At the beginning of the 16th century the Croat refugees arrived in Molise from Dalmatia, precisely from the area around the mouth of river Neretva (Reissmüller);
  • Molise Croats came from areas around the city of Zadar (Aranza);
  • Molise Croats originated from štokavian-morlakian part of southern Istria (Badurina);
  • Molise Croats originated from Zadar and Šibenik hinterland (Hraste);
  • Molise Croats originated from area of Zabiokovlje (hinterland area of mountain Biokovo) in southern Croatia, between cities of Imotski, Zagvozd and Makarska (theory based on čakavian and štokavian-čakavian features in Molise Croatian speech, found also in Zabiokovlje area) (Muljačić).

See also [edit]

Literature [edit]

  • Aranza, Josip (1892), Woher die südslavischen Colonien in Süditalien (Archiv für slavische Philologie, XIV, pagg. 78-82, Berlin 1892)
  • Heršak, Emil (1982), Hrvati u talijanskoj pokrajini Molise", Teme o iseljeništvu. br. 11, Zagreb: Centar za istraživanje migracija, 1982, 49 str. lit 16.
  • Vesna Kukvica (2005), Iseljenički horizonti, Prikazi i feljtoni (ur.: Željka Lovrenčić), Hrvatska matica iseljenika, Zagreb, ISBN 953-6525-37-2, article "Migracije Moliških Hrvata u Zapadnu Australiju" (Migrations of Molise Croats in Western Australia)

References [edit]

  1. ^ http://www.italica.rai.it/principali/lingua/bruni/lezioni/f_lv2.htm

External links [edit]

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