Fundamental Kaikavian Accentuation

Kaikavian language has 4 accentuation groups. These 4 groups represent 4 stages of development of accent in Kaikavian language through the history. The Zagorye-group is the oldest while the Prigorye-group is younger.
Within these 4 groups there are 3 different accents, unlike in Croatian language which has 4 accents. Kaikavians use these 3 accents in everyday life, and the 3 accents are characteristic for Kaikavian language. So they exist in every Kaikavian dialect, and every Kaikavian dialect belongs to one of these 4 groups^₁. The placement of the accent in the word defines to which of the 4 groups a dialect belongs.
Kaikavian language is distinguished from Croatian and Slovenian language also by Fundamental Kaikavian Accentuation.

More about Kaikavian Accentuation

As we said above, in Kaikavian language there exist 3 accents – one short and two long, whereas neostokavian languages like current Croatian have 4 accents. Čakavian language has also 3 accents (but in different setting).

Stjepan Ivšič, the most important Croatian linguist, has defined in his article “Language of Croatian Kaikavians” (1936.)² the accentuation system of Kaikavian language. He called it Fundamental Kaikavian Accentuation.
He defined for Kaikavian language:

• 3 accents
• 4 dialect groups/areas

This distinction of dialects within Kaikavian language based on accentuation is also valid today. It presents fundaments upon which linguists continue to explore Kaikavian language.

3 ACCENTS

 

1. short
2. long falling – circumflex
3. long rising – acute

1. Short accent:

• intonation is not phonologically relevant
• phonological definition:   ̏

  or ′

• examples:
  on penultima: koprȉva, sekȉra, lopȁta
  on 1st syllable: lȍnẹc, dȅska, pȅkẹl

2. Long falling – circumflex:

• phonological definition   ̑
• examples: lȋst, mȇse, z jȯčmȋ

3. Long rising  – acute

• phonological definition   ̃
• examples: tẽtẹc, mlẽkẹ

Stjepan Ivšič has defined on the basis of the progress of the accent type 4 groups or dialects :

2 older groups

1. Zagorye-Medjimorye group
2. Dolnja Sutla & Žumberak group (ikavian Kaikavian) 

2 younger groups

1. Turopolje-Posavina group (metataxa)
2. Križevci-Podravina group (metatonia)

Specific changes of accent in Kaikavian language – how do Metataxa and Metatonia look:

Metataxa is when the place of stress in the word moves (change of place of stress).
Example: The accent moves from its original position on the 2nd syllable to the 1st syllable in the word.
The metatonic accent change of the older Kaikavian group took e.g. place in the Turopolje-Posavina group. The circumflex changed from the second place (which is the older accent) to the 1st palce:
posȇkel > pȍsekel.

Metatony is a change in the intonation of the accent on the same accented place in a word.
Pelda: In the Križevačko-Podravska group, the descending accent (circumflex) changed to the ascending (acute):
posȇkel > posẽkel.

The meaning of Ivšič’ classification and the relativity of other divisions of the Kaikavian language in a wider linguistic perspective

Ivšič was a pure Štokavian, but his father was a Kaikavian who pretended to be a Štokavian. Ivšič knew this very well when he was child and probably felt in his grown up years a need to give ssomething to Kaikavian language – yes he calls Kaikaivan a language, on the same level with Croatia language.
That’s why, when he became a world linguist, he put in a lot of effort and travelled all over the Kajkavian region, in order to record the Kaikaivan speech. It must be said that he was surprised by the many Kajkavian scholars who diligently worked for the spread of the Štokavian language (“the boys from Klanjec” – “Vukovci” Broz and Ivekovič) and none of them worked on their mother tongue!

The great merit of Stjepan Štef Ivšič is, that he was the 1st to create a synthesis of the Kajkavian language based on its accent system. He was the 1st to scientifically prove the unity of the Kajkavian language and its dialects.

These are the foundations of the Kajkavian language, and it should be taught as such in elementary school. UNESCO states that state institutions should take over the introduction of the languages of the linguistic groups into the public education system and into the public communication system, and this means the introduction of the Kajkavian language in schools and its presence are public TV and radio.
Unfortunately in reality many children complain that they get bad grades in middle school because they “wrongly” emphasize Štokavian words, instead of being rewarded for being speakers of the Kajkavian language, not to mention they are not taught about the accentuation of their mother language! Such is a assimilation of Kaikavian folks done by Stokavian Balkan elites.

We have a solution for such children – tell the teacher that you know that Štokavian accentuation is different from Kajkavian, but that your mother tongue is Kajkavian and that you also learn accentuation in the Kajkavian language – and that it is a fundamental human right to speak your mother tongue language.

Ivšič’s work of the synthesis of the Kajkavian language is unique – he is the epitome of what characterizes a great linguist – he can see the whole forest and not just a different tree, the later like many Croatian linguists in his time and afterwards.

The division of Kaikaivan language into 3 accent groups and 4 dialects is further assigned in a broader linguistic sense, through grammatical and lexical aptitudes.

Thus, in all groups of the Kajkavian language there are phenomena (e.g. in word formation), which Ivšič and other linguists do not take into account. For Ivšič, this is understandable because his focus was on the progression of accent.

However, there are always morphological phenomena, the phenomena in the formation of words which are the same in the Zagorje, Međimurje and Turopolje dialects, although those dialects, according to Ivšić’s division of Basic Kajkavian Accentuation, fall into two different groups – the first in the older group and the shorter in the younger group.

Examples: In Medjimorye dialect, instead of gdo, we say što, (gd- before a vowel became št-. A suitable change is also in peldi kteri > šteri). But “što” is not a only Medjimorye word, as it exists in another Kajkavian dialect with the same meaning! it exisits in the same meanin in Moslavina region (Posavski Bregi (3), which is relatively far from Mediimorye, and which is in a completely different accentuation group according to Ivšič.
The second pattern which goes across both older and younger group is the use of the suffix –e in the 1st person plural (budeme, ..), it can be found in Turopolje (younger), Zagorje and Prigorje (older).

There is more to be said about the relationship between Slovenian and Kajkavian accentuation, according to Ivšič, the essential difference is that the Kajkavian language did not develop like the Slovenian present nósi, tone (and neither did this develop in Prekmurski.

While Croatian Novoštokavian language has 4 accents and is learned in secondary school, Kajkavian Basic Accentuation is not taught in schools – obviously the Croatian Ministry of Education is not the Kajkavian Ministry  of Education and proceeds discriminatory.

Other classifications:

There is also Lončarič’s division of the Kajkavian language that takes into account vocal criteria in addition to accentuation, but that analysis defines 15 dialects.
Brozovič, on the other hand, presents 6 dialects, taking into account the accent type and the Proto-Slavic reflex. This shows us the relativity of linguistic analyses. All 3 are linguistically correct, and all 3 state something else.
Only Ivšič is consistent and theoretically correct and clearly describes the Kajkavian language.

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1)  Exception are Gorski Kotar dialects, but these are transitional/mixed dialects to Čakavian and Slovenian.
2) Stjepan Ivšič 1936: Jezik Hrvata kajkavaca, Ljetopis JAZU, sv. 48, Zagreb, str. 47–88.
2) Anita Celinič 2010: Govor mjesta Posavski Bregi kraj Ivanič-grada, KAJ – časopis za književnost, umjetnost, kulturu Vol.43 (214)