EasyCroatian_r47.an

Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 27 Body 161 / 600
specially in smaller towns and villages – lasi f pl. used colloquially instead of kosa.
• Something Possibly Interesting
A reader has pointed out that Croatian has specific words for hand and foot: šaka
and stopalo. However, these words are limited to very narrow contexts, e.g. when
you describe where a muscle or a tendon is, or you speak about an injury or surgery.
The word šaka is also used (mainly in sport, but also when talking about physical
fights) where English uses fist.
When we talk about washing, holding, raising, busy, dirty, clean hands, only ruka can
be used.
Many languages consistently distinguish arm vs hand, but many other languages, like
Croatian, don’t. This map in The World Atlas of Language Structures nicely illustrates
the diversity of languages regarding this feature: Hand and Arm.
• Examples
Krunoslav Slabinac, usually known under the nickname Kićo, performs – with a
traditional band Slavonske lole – a traditional song Crne oči Black eyes. The song is
from Šokadija, a part of Slavonia, a historical region of Croatia, where Šokci live.
They speak a specific, a bit archaic dialect, which is only partially featured in this
song. It’s mostly “Ikavian”, i.e. there’s i in many places where standard Croatian has
ije or je:
Crne oči N dobro vide Black eyes see well
f
Di u mraku DL dvoje N side Where two people are sitting in the dark
Jedno N drugom DL progovara One starts speaking to another
Di je naša ljubav stara N Where is our old love
f
(traditional; author unknown)
The song starts with an easy to understand line. The next line has di for where,
which is not just “Ikavian”, but used colloquially in many parts of Croatia. Another
“Ikavian” form in that line is side instead of sjede they sit.
Each pair of lines is sung twice. The last line has the adjective stara after the noun,
which is common in traditional songs (but note the adjective naša, before the same
noun).
You can listen to it on YouTube. Note that the stress is not standard in this song
(the present tense is progovara) – it’s more similar to the ‘western’ stress.