| Also Known As: Vegliote,Ragusan
Description:
Dalmatian is an extinct Romance language formerly spoken in the Dalmatia region of Croatia, and as far south as Kotor in Montenegro.
The name refers to a pre-Roman tribe of the Illyrian linguistic group, Dalmatae.
The Dalmatian speakers lived in the coastal towns: Zadar, Trogir, Split, Dubrovnik and Kotor (Jadera, Tragur, Spalatro, Raugia and Cattaro), each of these cities having a local dialect, and also on the islands of Krk, Cres and Rab (Vikla, Crepsa and Arba).
Almost every city developed its own dialect; however, most disappeared before they were recorded, so the only trace of these ancient dialects is some words borrowed into local dialects of today's Croatia.
Ragusan is the Southern dialect. Its name is derived from the Romance name of Dubrovnik, Ragusa. It was discovered in two letters, from 1325 and 1397, and other medieval texts, which show a language influenced heavily by Venetian. The available sources include hardly 260 Ragusan words. Surviving words include pen (bread), teta (father), chesa (house) and fachir (to do), which were quoted by the Dalmatian, Filippo Diversi, the rector of Ragusa in the 1430s.
The Republic of Ragusa had at one time an important fleet, but..... full article at Wikipedia |
