engleski

In Search of a New Linguistic Identity: A Sociolinguistic Analysis of the Private Correspondence of Supporters of the Illyrian Movement

In the 1830s and 1840s, northwest Croatia was a multilingual area in which, along with Latin, German and Hungarian as socially prestigious languages, two organic idioms of Croatian ethnic communities, Kajkavian and Shtokavian, were used. When the “Croatian national revival”, under the name of the Illyrian movement, became very intensive (Stančić 1985 and 2008), nationally aware Croatian intellectuals decided to revive the Croatian nation by means of national literature and language (Vince 2002: 220). The Shtokavian dialect was selected to form the basis for the new Croatian standard. The aim of this research is to reconstruct the language practice of Ivan Krizmanić, a widely appreciated intellectual, writer, and priest, and his family members, all strong supporters of the Illyrian movement, in their private communication with family and friends, in order to discover how the new social and linguistic olinguistic interaction influenced the multilingualism and language identities of a broader circle of supporters of the Illyrian movement. The research also provides additional understanding of the macro-level sociolinguistic changes in Croatia in the first half of the 19th century, especially the acquisition of Shtokavian. The starting point is the research hypothesis – the socio- political and linguistic circumstances as well as the enthusiasm for “national revival” changed the linguistic identity of supporters of the Illyrian movement and their family members. Based on quantitative and qualitative analysis of private correspondence of the Krizmanić family, it is established which idioms they used in their private communication, which factors affected their language choices, and whether their language behaviour in the private domain was in line with their political beliefs.

language identity, the Krizmanić family, language practice, sociolinguistic changes, multilingualism.

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