page_title: Burgenland Croats
section_title: Language
hierarchical_section_title: Burgenland Croats / Language
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Kroatische Wochenblatt "Hrvatske Novine" aus Burgenland Magyar: Horvát hetilap "Hrvatske Novine" Burgenlandból
context_page_description: Burgenland Croats is the name for ethnic Croats in the Austrian state of Burgenland, along with Croats in neighboring Hungary and Slovakia.
  There are around 320,000 Croats that live in Austria. 87,000 to 130,000 of them are Burgenland Croats. Another 56,785 have Croatian citizenship.
  Since 1993, Croatian organizations are appointing their representatives to the Council for National Minorities of the Austrian government.
context_section_description: Despite the presence of many languages in the surrounding region, the Burgenland Croats preserved their Croatian language and its dialects of the Croatian regions from which they originated. The Burgenland Croatian language, as well as the general Croatian standard language, combines the Chakavian, Shtokavian and Kajkavian dialect. But unlike the Croatian standard language, which is mostly based on the most widespread Shtokavian dialect, the Burgenland variant of the Croatian language is based on the Chakavian dialect. Burgenland Croatian includes phrases no longer used in standard Croatian, as well as certain phrases and words taken from German and Hungarian. Names are often written according to Hungarian orthography, due to the Magyarisation policies during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Almost all Burgenland Croats are fluent in German.
  After the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy in 1918, the area in which the Burgenland Croats lived was divided between Austria, Czechoslovakia and Hungary. After 1921, most of these areas became part of Austria, which established a new province of Burgenland, which later gave the Burgenland identifier to these Croats. In 1922, Austria founded the Apostolic administration of Burgenland, and began to abolish bilingual schools, by introducing the German language to all primary schools. This process was temporarily stopped after The National Education Act, that allowed the work of the Croatian elementary schools, was adopted. After Hitler annexed Austria in 1938, this law was abolished. In 1955, the Austrian State Treaty was signed. It gave permission to the Burgenland Croats to use the Croatian language in education, judiciary, and public administration. With the adoption of the Law on National Minorities in 1976, use of the Croatian language in public life became limited. After a constitutional complaint was heeded in 1987, parts of the law were changed and the Croatian language was introduced as an official in 6 out of 7 districts of Burgenland.
  Newspapers of the Burgenland Croats are: Crikveni glasnik (Church Gazett), 1946; Naše selo (Our village), 1947; Naš tjednik (Our weekly), 1947; Naša domovina (Our homeland), 1952; Glas (Voice), 1957; Novi glas (New Voice), 1969; Put (Way), 1981).
  The beginnings of literacy are linked to: Klimpuški misal (Klimpuški Missal) (1501), S. Consul Histrianus and Anton Dalmatin's Postila (Fasting) (1568), Duševne pesne (Spiritual songs) (1609), and Grgur Mekinić Pythiraeus's Druge knjige duševnih pesan (Other books of the Spiritual songs) (1611). By the mid-19th century, Burgenland Croatian literature had a predominantly religious character and was intended mostly for peasants. The main writers were priests and nuns. In the second half of the 19th century, teachers begin to write, thanks to that many school textbooks and calendars were written.
  The most popular Burgeland Croat writers are: J. Mulih (1694–1754), Godefrid Palković (1714–78), L. Bogović (1719–89), E. M. Kragel (1725–88), M. Laáb (cca. 1746–1823), J. Ficko (1772–1843), M. Drobilić (1808–91), T. Jordan (1815–93), G. Glavanić (1833–72), M. Naković (1840–1900), I. Mušković (1848–1930), M. Borenić (1850–1939), Ivan Čuković (1865–1944), P. Jandrišević (1879–1938), I. Blažević (1888–1946), Mate Meršić Miloradić (1850–1928), Ignac Horvat (1895–1973), Martin Meršić, A. Blazović (1921–2004), Franz Probst (1919–93), N. Benčić (b. 1938), Ivan (Lav) Sučić (b. 1938), Mathilda Bölcs (b. 1949), J. Čenar (b. 1956), P. Tyran (b. 1955) and H. Gassner (b. 1955).
  The first book about the history of Burgenland literature, Naši pisci i književnost (Our writers and literature), was written by F. Sedenik in 1912.
caption: Weekly newspapers Hrvatske novine published in Burgenland
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