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Molise Croats (moliški Hrvati in scientific literature) live in the Molise region of Italy in the villages Acquaviva Collecroce (in Croatian: Kruč), San Felice del Molise (in Croatian: Štifilić) and Montemitro (in Croatian: Mundimitar) and elsewhere. In these three villages they are a majority. There are about 1,700 speakers of the Molise Croatian dialect. Additionally, there are about 1,000 people in other parts of Italy and emigrants in other countries originating from these villages.

These three villages are the residual of Croat refugees' colonies (because of Ottoman advance), that appeared in Italian souther Adriatic hinterland (from Marche to Puglia) in 15th century. [1].

Identity and language

Molise Croats identify themselves as Croats as well as Italians. They speak both the Molise Croatian dialect and the Italian language. Milena Lalli, a poet born to local parents in Rome, studied Slavic languages in the 1970s and evaded the curse of the midget language by acquiring a sizeable literary Croatian vocabulary to replace the numerous Italian borrowings in her dialect. Sometimes, in publications, these Croatian words and even whole expressions are translated in parenthesis or off to the side into proper Italian; so also in translations from Croatian.

Religion and traditions

The Molise Croats are all Catholic. Tradition holds that the community settled "z one bane mora" (from the other side of the sea) in the fifteenth century, and was once much more widespread. A legend says that they came to the new country on one Friday in May carrying only the statue of Saint Lucy. Because the exact year and date of their arrival is unknown they hold processions dedicated to Saint Lucy (Sveta Luca) on every Friday in May.

Origins

Scientists offer the following hypotheses about the geographical origins of Molise Croats:

• About 500 years ago, their ancestors migrated to Molise from the valley of the river Neretva, which is partly in southern Croatia, partly in Herzegovina;
• At the beginning of the XVI century the Croat refugees arrived in Molise from Dalmatia, precisely from the area around the mouth of river Neretva (Reissmüller);
• Molise Croats came from areas around the city of Zadar (Aranza);
• Molise Croats originated from štokavian-morlakian part of southern Istria (Badurina);
• Molise Croats originated from Zadar and Šibenik hinterland (Hraste);
• Molise Croats originated from area of Zabiokovlje (hinterland area of mountain Biokovo) in southern Croatia, between cities of Imotski, Zagvozd and Makarska (theory based on čakavian and štokavian-čakavian features in Molise Croatian speech, found also in Zabiokovlje area) (Muljačić).

See also

• Molise Croatian dialect
• Croats
• Krasovani
• Janjevci

Literature

• Aranza, Josip (1892), Woher die südslavischen Colonien in Süditalien (Archiv für slavische Philologie, XIV, pagg. 78-82, Berlin 1892)
• Heršak, Emil (1982), Hrvati u talijanskoj pokrajini Molise", Teme o iseljeništvu. br. 11, Zagreb: Centar za istraživanje migracija, 1982, 49 str. lit 16.
• Vesna Kukvica (2005), Iseljenički horizonti, Prikazi i feljtoni (ur.: Željka Lovrenčić), Hrvatska matica iseljenika, Zagreb, ISBN 953-6525-37-2, article "Migracije Moliških Hrvata u Zapadnu Australiju" (Migrations of Molise Croats in Western Australia)

External links

• Nogometna momcad Mundimitra Mundimitar football team
• (Croatian)Mundimitar, stari hrvatski grad u Italiji Mundimitar, old Croat town in Italy
• (French) Euromosaic - Le croate en Italie The Croatian minority in Italy, from Universitat Oberta in Catalunya
• (Italian)/(Croatian) Mundimitar/Montemitro municipality
• (Croatian) Porijeklo prezimena o Moliski hrvati u Mundimitru Origins of surnames of Croats in Mundimitar
• UNESCO Red Book on endangered languages and dialects: Europe
• (Italian) Schede sulle minoranze tutelate dalla legge 482/1999 Minority languages in Italy, regulation by law (site of University in Udine, in Italian)
• Personal Home Page on "L'enclava slava di San Felice"
• www.kruc.it - Acquaviva Collecroce Meta description: Acquaviva Collecroce e' un paese di origine e lingua croata molto caratteristico e si trova in Molise....
• (Italian) Alla scoperta degli ultimi 'schiavuni' Article in Balcani Cooperazione
• (French) Les Croates en exil au cours de l'histoire
• (Italian) . Le "isole" linguistiche Linguistic islands
• (German) Autonome Region Trentino-Südtirol Sprachminderheiten in Ital
• Croati del Molise (link dead, but the page from Università della Calabria - Sportello Linguistico Provinciale, shows it under section "Minoranza croata", as well as the site of Observatory of ethnic minorities - Croats in Italy)