About

The Repository of National Minority Languages in Croatia (RENA) project is being implemented from 1 January 2024 to 31 December 2027 at the Institute for the Croatian Language. It is funded by the European Union through the NextGenerationEU programme within the framework of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan 2021–2026. The project leader is Dr. Kristian Lewis, with Dr. Filip Škiljan as the main collaborator. From 1 February 2022 to 31 December 2023, the project was conducted as an inter-institutional interdisciplinary project in cooperation with the Institute for Migration Research. The project objectives include the documentation and presentation of the languages spoken by twenty-two officially recognized national minorities in Croatia, with particular emphasis on their use and instruction within the educational system. In addition, the project aims to publish supplementary data concerning national minorities, including information on their immigration, historical developments and current demographic status. Project collaborators’ publications will be available on this website, alongside relevant documents and resources related to various aspects of national minority issues.

More about the project

The primary objective of the Repository of National Minority Languages in Croatia (RENA) project, which is being implemented as a project financed by the European Union – NextGenerationEU under the 2021 National Recovery and Resilience Plan. – 2026, to present all national minority languages in Croatia. As there are 22 national minorities living in Croatia, information on their history and linguistic distribution will be presented collectively and in one place. Information will be provided for the Albanian, Bulgarian, Bosnian, Montenegrin, Czech, Hungarian, Macedonian, German, Polish, Russian, Rusyn, Romanian, Romani, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Turkish, Ukrainian, Vlach, Italian and Hebrew languages. As part of the project, special attention will be paid to national minority education, namely the preservation of the linguistic characteristics of individual national minorities through Models A, B and C. Alongside the linguistic features for each national minority, maps will be created showing the areas where the language is spoken and written. The website will also list and provide access to literature on minority languages and on national minorities in Croatia in general. The page on which the aforementioned notices will be published will provide interested parties (the general public, students, professors, members of national minorities and scientists) information about the associations and societies of national minorities, and the historical context of settlement and life in a given area, based on archival research. Furthermore, demographic data for each minority from 1931 to 2021 will also be provided. Dissemination activities are planned throughout the project’s duration (round tables, discussions with members of national minorities on project topics, etc.) in the areas where national minority communities live, in order to bring the project closer to the public, as well as to members of national minorities and scientists.

Project synopsis

To date, it has not been possible to find up-to-date and scientifically verified data on the languages of national minorities in Croatia, their distribution, the number of their members and the history of the national minorities in one place online. Based on scientific research in archives, literature and the field, the aim of the Repository of National Minority Languages in Croatia (RENA) project is to provide verified information and make it available online in one place. All this information will be supplemented and updated throughout the project’s duration.

The Institute for the Croatian Language, as the central scientific institution for the study and preservation of the Croatian language, and the Institute for Migration Research, as a scientific research institution that systematically and continuously studies national (ethnic) minorities and various aspects of ethnic issues, can, within the framework of the Cooperation Agreement of 31. Within the framework of the Cooperation Agreement of 31 May 2019, the Institute for the Croatian Language, as the central scientific institution for the study and preservation of the Croatian language, and the Institute for Migration Research, as a scientific research institution that systematically and continuously studies national (ethnic) minorities and various aspects of ethnic issues, can contribute through joint efforts to the scientific elucidation of the project’s theme and, through interdisciplinary cooperation, ensure the systematic and comprehensive nature of the scientific approach to national minority languages in Croatia.

The primary objective is to conduct an extensive interdisciplinary research into the project’s theme. This research will encompass archival and fieldwork, as well as the study of relevant scholarly literature. This will be followed by the publication of verified data online, thereby making it available to the wider public and to all those working with national minorities in Croatia. As part of this objective, the writing and publication of scientific, professional and popular science papers is planned each year throughout the project’s duration. The second objective is to promote the research topic of national minorities in Croatia and national minority languages within the scientific community and in society at large. The benefit of this will be to raise public awareness and contribute to the visibility of national minority languages in a wider context. This objective will be achieved by holding round tables on the topic. As the project’s third objective in its final year, the publication of a scientific publication on national minority languages is planned, which will also contain other data on national minorities in Croatia.

The scientific research will encompass archival and field research, as well as the analytical approach and interpretation of available literature, with the aim of digitising and uploading the data to the network. To achieve dissemination, it is essential to organise round tables at which the scientists involved in the project, other interested researchers, and a wider circle of interested parties who may be interested in this scientific research can gather. Finally, the cumulative achievements and outcomes of the research conducted will result in the publication of a publication.

Given the interdisciplinary approach and current efforts to make scientific research as visible as possible to the public, we assess that the relevance of the project topic is considerable. Research into national minority languages in a multilingual environment, such as that of Croatia, can greatly contribute to a better understanding of and interest in the languages of national minorities. The topicality of such research is also confirmed by the 2020 publication of a work by the project leader and co-leaders with the prestigious international publisher Palgrave Macmillan (Lewis, Kristian; Skelin Horvat, Anita; Škiljan, Filip. 2020. For Whom the School Bell Tolls: Minority Language Politics in the Croatian Educational System. Ed. Strani, Katerina. Multilingualism and Politics: Revisiting Multilingual Citizenship. Palgrave Macmillan. Cham. 285–308.) The other project collaborators also have research experience in the field, and a selection of their works is listed below:

Babić, Dragutin. 2015. Nacionalne manjine u Hrvatskoj: sociološka perspektiva. Plejada. Zagreb.

Babić, Dragutin; Škiljan, Filip; Župarić Iljić, Drago. 2011. Nacionalne manjine u Zagrebu. Položaj i perspektive. Plejada. Zagreb.

Crnić Novosel, Mirjana; Spicijarić Paškvan, Nina. 2015. Il dialetto fiumano – parte integrante dell’identità fiumana. La Battana 51/198. 62–83.

Crnić Novosel, Mirjana; Spicijarić Paškvan, Nina. 2014. Fijumani i stavovi o fijumanskom idiomu u 21. stoljeću. Riječki filološki dani 9. 409–419.

Čilaš Šimpraga, Ankica; Ivšić Majić, Dubravka; Vidović, Domagoj. 2018. Rječnik suvremenih hrvatskih osobnih imena. Institut za hrvatski jezik i jezikoslovlje. Zagreb.

Dugački, Vlatka. 2011. Svoj svome: češka i slovačka nacionalna manjina u međuratnoj Jugoslaviji. Srednja Europa. Zagreb.

Jozić, Željko. 2011. O digitalnoj dijalektološkoj kartografiji. Zbornik radova Međimurskih filoloških dana 1. 75–90.

Jozić, Željko. 2012. Linguistic (Un)reality in Contemporary Bosnia and Herzegovina. Slavica Helsingiensia 41. 33–46.

Lewis, Kristian; Skelin Horvat, Anita. 2020. Antiimigrantski diskurs u europskoj politici. Gl. ur. Perić Kaselj, Marina. Migracije i identitet: kultura, ekonomija, država. Institut za migracije i narodnosti. Zagreb. 274–282.

Lewis, Kristian; Skelin Horvat, Anita; Škiljan, Filip. 2020. For Whom the School Bell Tolls: Minority Language Politics in the Croatian Educational System. Ur. Strani, K. Multilingualism and Politics: Revisiting Multilingual Citizenship. Palgrave Macmillan. Cham. 285–308.

Mesarić Žabčić, Rebeka; Škiljan, Filip; Perić Kaselj, Marina. 2012. Etnički identitet Rusina u Vukovarsko-srijemskoj županiji. Ur. Živić, D.; Cvikić, S. Identitet Srijema u prošlosti i sadašnjosti. Općina Nijemci – Institut društvenih znanosti Ivo Pilar, Područni centar Vukovar. Nijemci. 113–128.

Moric, Anja; Perinić Lewis, Ana. 2018. Petar Klepac / Peter Klepec / Pitr Kljepc: A Borderland Hero and the Manifestations of Strenght. Narodna umjetnost 55/1. 135–158.

Moric, Anja; Perinić Lewis, Ana. 2019. Peter Klepec – silni slovensko-hrvaški junak. Ur. Jezernik, Božidar; Slavec Gradišnik, Ingrid. Močni, modri in dobri: junaki v slovenski folklori. Znanstvena založba Filozofske fakultete. Ljubljana. 109–140.

Perić Kaselj, Marina; Škiljan, Filip. 2017. The Ethnic Identity of Slovaks in Osijek-Baranja County: An Example of the Slovak Ethnic Group Community in Našice and its Surroundings. Ur. Holjevac, Ž.; Homza, M.; Vašš, M. Croatia and Slovakia Historical Parallels and Connections (from 1780 to the Present Day). FF Press. Zagreb – Bratislava. 282–289.

Perić Kaselj, Marina; Škiljan, Filip; Vukić, Aleksandar. 2015. Događaj i etnička situacija – promjena identiteta nacionalnih manjinskih zajednica u Republici Hrvatskoj. Studia ethnologica Croatica 27/1. 7–36.

Perinić, Ana. 2006. Moliški Hrvati. Rekonstrukcija kreiranja i reprezentacije jednog etničkog identiteta. Etnološka tribina 36/29. 91–106.

Spicijarić Paškvan, Nina; Crnić Novosel, Mirjana. 2014. Il dialetto fiumano all’inizio del XXI secolo. Rivista italiana di dialettologia. Lingue dialetti società 38. 57–73.

Škiljan, Filip. 2018. Nacionalne manjine u Zagrebu. Koordinacija Vijeća i predstavnika nacionalnih manjina Grada Zagreba. Zagreb.

Škiljan, Filip; Babić, Dragutin. 2014. Romi u Podravini i Međimurju i uključenost u hrvatsko društvo: od predrasuda i stigmatizacije do socijalne distance i diskriminacije. Podravina 13/25. 141–159.

Škiljan, Filip; Dugački, Vlatka; Crnkić, Alem. 2019. Islamska zajednica u Sisku. Medžlis Islamske zajednice Sisak. Sisak.

Vidović, Domagoj. 2019. Od Verona do Uzunvukovića – pogled u prezimenski fond Hrvata u Crnoj Gori. Hrvatski jezik 6/1. 14–21.

Vidović, Domagoj. 2014. Metkovski prezimenski mozaik. Gradsko kulturno središte Metković. Metković.