Abstract

Croatian lands in the eighteenth century belonged to several separate political entities. The north-western territory, officially autonomous as the Kingdoms of Croatia and Slavonia, was a part of the Kingdom of Hungary and with it also of the Habsburg Monarchy; a portion on the east was still occupied by the Ottoman Empire, with the borderlands between those two forming the so-called Military Frontier, governed directly by the Imperial Court of Vienna. Dubrovnik was an autonomous republic and the rest of the coastal region, Dalmatia and Istria, was under the rule of the Republic of Venice. Divided not only in territory, but also in the language itself, composed of three rather distinct dialects, Croatians managed to preserve their national identity, and created a standard language in the time of national revival in the nineteenth century. This chapter examines, through examples of writers and public figures of both sexes, as well as official legislature, the various languages that were used by the Croats in various aspects of their life and works, such as Latin (language of education, literature, and communication that helped to unify the divided nation), German, Italian, and French. It analyses how this multilingualism reflected the political and social views of an individual and the reasons for particular choices. Special attention is paid to the role the Latin language, in comparison to Croatian, played in literature and in socio-political life, and to the spheres in which it was used.

Keywords: eighteenth century, Croatian history, multilingualism, Enlightenment, national identity, language choice, literature, history of education, political life, Latin

We still keep our language confined only to our families and our serfs. Long ago, in those barbaric times, we introduced Latin into our communal life and business, when the whole world considered it the language of the educated and the sophisticated. In time, German slipped into our social life and into our families, altering our innate nature and the mentality of our fathers. […] We are part Latins, part Germans, part Italians, part Hungarians, and part Slavs, while overall, frankly speaking, we are next to nothing! The dead language of Rome and the living Hungarian, German and Italian – those are our tutors.