Talk:Istria

Pronunciation of the name

I came to this page to convert the SAMPA for the English pronunciation to IPA, but on further investigation decided the SAMPA was wrong anyway - it said /Ist'4i@/ which means that the t is supposed to be palatalised. Alternatively, and more likely, the ' has been used in error to indicate the stress (strictly and confusingly " in SAMPA, although many people get this wrong) in which case it means that the stress falls on the second syllable, which seems unlikely, especially given that it's stressed on the first syllable in the local languages. In the end I decided to ditch any representation of the English pronunciation, and let the Italian and Croation/Slovenian pronunciations speak for themselves. rossb 06:56, 3 Mar 2005 (UTC)

What links here?

Use this feature if you're at a loss how to improve this very brief article, too heavily stressing ethnic issues. --Wetman 08:55, 11 Jun 2005 (UTC)

50,000 Italians???

That number is very low, there were far more than that who came from Italy to dilute the Slavic population, particularly if 300,000 left after World War II. It is my understanding that ethnic Venetians never to have lived inside an Italian state have never used the word 'Italian' to describe themselves even if some may have switched nationality as it were from Venetian to Italian. Either way, the number of Venetians is and always was small... the base of a Italian ideology stems from people originating from the Italian peninsula, a long way from Istria, and no closer to many of the northern regions today to actually be in Italy. Celt 08-01-06

Ethnicity

I have a problem with this paragraph:

"Similarly, national powers claim Istrian Slavs according to local language, so that speakers of Cakavian dialects are considered by the Croatian government to be Croatians and speakers of Kajkavian dialects are considered by the Slovenian government to be Slovenians. Many Istrian Slavs consider themselves simply to be Istrians, with no additional national affiliation. Others consider themselves to be patriotic members of the larger nations."

I see what the author was trying to say. However, the process of establishing ethnic identity, at least as described here, is largely a thing of the past in Istria. In other words, there is now a clear division between people who consider themselves Slovenians and those who consider themselves Croats (this division largely coincides with the international border). Even in the past, the ca/kaj divide wasn't an absolute determiner of ethnic identity, as is evidenced by some traditional "kaj" speakers in Istria who consider themselves Croats.

I also have a problem with the use of the term Kajkavian in this context: "...speakers of Kajkavian dialects are considered by the Slovenian government to be Slovenians." After all, Kajkavian is a term used to describe a dialect of the Croatian language, so it can never be used to describe Slovenians without indirectly impying that these people were actually Croats (or Croat-speakers) who became Slovenians later, which is clearly not the case. WorldWide Update 08:53, 9 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Beyond ethnicity, let's add more about culture

While of course the past cannot be ignored, I fell that we should speak more about the culture of the region as well. What do you think? --Paolopk2 10:32, 23 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

migration of Slavs

Being one of the lands claimed by Italy (irredentism), the Austro-Hungarian government stimulated the migration of additional Slavs into the region in order to reduce Istria's Italianism.

Well, Italian nationalists claimed that Austria favored the migration of Slavs, but AFAIK that argument regarded Trieste and not Istria. AFAIK under Austro-Hungary there was no major influx of Slavic population in Istria, maybe except for rapidly growing Pula, but still the majority of civil inhabitants of this city were Italians, so it is rather hard to argue that the Austrian authorities favored the migration of Slavs into the city and personally I think I have never heard this argument be raised. Boraczek 09:16, 8 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Fasistic terror

If Italians are speaking about Fojbe masacar, then its justly fair to speak about Fasistic crimes in Istria.The first use of Fojbes was done by the Fasist. To blaming Nazi for worsened the traditionally tolerant ethnic relations is not completly true.

Approximatly 70 000-130 000 Croatian-Slovenians emigrated because of the fasistic regime, for the ones that stayed the Croatian-Slovenian names were changed with Italian ones. The subsequent Italian occupatio, followed by Nazi occupation from 1943-1945. further worsened the traditionally tolerant ethnic relations. After the Italian surender in the 2WW the Partisan of Istria menage to free almost all of the Istria and in the city of Pazin declared that they are going to be reunited with theirs mother land Croatia.

Fasistic intolerance brought worsened ethnic relations, the Croatian language was forbiden, names were changed, and Approximatly 70 000-130 000 Croatian-Slovenians emigrated. Because of this Exodus or shell we say etnic clensing today in the city of Zagreb you have some Istrian strets.

Serbian croatian language

The croatian language is not the same as/with serbian language it was so during the yugoslavia. So mixing those 2 is a mistake...

Peroj

There are no Serbs in Istria (except the many colonists that are no more). There's only one things: Peroj; a Serb village of immigrants from Montenegro that have been there for centuries (I think 17th century or so). --PaxEquilibrium 00:28, 27 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Major Vandalism

An anonymous user with the IP 83.131.157.167 removed all references to the Slovenian part of Istria and all Slovenians. I reverted the changes, but I would urge all users to keep an eye out for such vandalism.WorldWide Update 19:51, 21 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for repairing that. And I added a link to the site "Natural parks od Slovenian Istria". Jonson22 14:14, 2 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Italian names

This is English not Italian Wikipedia, and therefore usage of Italian names for every single town is Istria is completelly irrelevant in this article. Practice of alternate names that are used in Wikipedia show that such names are used FOR THE SUBJECT OF THE ARTICLE, not for every single name in it, i.e. since this is article about Istria, then Wikipedia should use Italian name for Istria, but Italian names of Istrian towns belong in the separate articles about those towns (and they are already there), not in the article about Istria. There is simply no reason to use Italian names for Istrian towns here, because: 1. This is not article about those towns, 2. There are separate articles about those towns where Italian names for them are already mentioned, 3. This is article about region in Croatia and Italian language is not official in Croatia, 4. This is English Wikipedia and English language usually use geographical names from the official language of the country, which in this case is Croatian language. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 212.200.111.206 (talk) 16:02, 13 March 2007 (UTC).[reply]

Since Istria is officially a bilingual county it's perfectly proper to use both Italian and Croatian names for cities. If you take a walk in any Istrian town or village, you will see that all names of the streets are in both Croatian and Italian language.

If you take a walk in Istrian towns or villages you will not se all the names in italian. That is a false statement. The names in Italian are only written in a small part of Istra (see Osimo treaty)

Italian it is an official language in the municipality of UMAG, BUJE, NOVIGRAD, GROZNJAN, BRTONIGLA, OPRTALJ, MOTOVUN, LABIN, RASA, MEDULIN, PULA, FAZANA, LIZNJAN, VODNJAN, FAZANA, ROVINJ, POREC, FUNTANA, VRSAR, VISISNJAN, VIZINADA, KASTELIR, TAR. IN THIS TOWN YOU CAN SEE (EXPECIALY IN BUJE, GRAOZNJAN, BRTONIGLA, UMAG, ROVINJ) SPEAK ITALIAN... BUT IN THE NOT BILINGUAL AREA PEOPLE DON'T SPEAK ITALIAN IN THE STREET... YES... MORE PEOPLE (80%) IF DON'T LIVE IN THE BILINGUAL AREA KNOW ITALIAN BUT THEY DON'T SPEAK ITALIAN.

THE AREA NOT-BILINGUAL IS SMALL BUT 75% OF ISTRIAN LIVE HERE

Istra

This is a simple request... Can someone create some kind of redirection, so that when one search for "Istra", is directed to this page? -- Martin 15:51, 23 March 2007 (UTC)