Stambuk | The golden formula of the Croatian language

30 Mar The golden formula of the Croatian language – ‘ča-kaj-što’

Posted at 21:12h in Announcements, Articles, CROATIA REDIVIVA, News by stambukhr

TRANSLATED FROM AN ARTICLE FIRST RELEASED IN CROATIAN in 2019

After more than 35 years of authoring and promoting the ‘Golden Formula of the Croatian Language – ča, kaj, što’ the Croatian Ministry of Culture has designated the associated festival as a ‘non-material’ item of national heritage. That ministry has two classifications of cultural heritage. A ‘material’ classification, which relates to physical objects such as buildings and artefacts, and a ‘non-material’ one, which relates to such things as clubs, institutions and festivals.

‘Ča’, ‘kaj’ and ‘što’ are regional variants of the word ‘what’ in Croatian. From this, their respective dialects have been named as: ‘čakavski’,’ kajkavski’ and ‘štokavski’. In English they are referred to as the Chakavian, Kajkavian and Shtokavian dialects.

The three interrogative pronouns, ‘ča, kaj, što’, do not stand alone and put together they define the entire Croatian language.

The author of the project, writer and diplomat Drago Štambuk ^[1]See his profile on our site HERE, who has nurtured the ‘golden formula’ through the Croatia rediviva literary festival in Selca, of which he is a co-founder, commented on the designation. He is serving as the Republic of Croatia’s ambassador to Iran. From there, he said:

“From my early youth I felt the separation between the Chakavian, Kajkavian and Shtokavian dialects of Croatian. This led me to feel the need to unify these linguistic idioms and for me to attempt to integrate Croatia, not only in a literary sense but also in a cultural and even political sense. Croatia is too complex and divided a country and this is a calming and balancing measure, which will help to put everything in its place”.

A special 30th year jubilee Croatia rediviva festival has been announced for August next year.