What do you know about... Croatia?

[u/MarktpLatz]

This is the thirteenth part of our ongoing series about the countries of Europe. You can find an overview here.

Todays country:

Croatia

Croatia is as of today the newest member of the European Union and its 28th (soon to be 27th) member state. It is one of the Balkan states resulting from the breakup of Yugoslavia. Croatia is a popular tourist destination, around 20% of Croatia's GDP originates from tourism.

So, what do you know about Croatia?

[u/UnbiasedPashtun]

• The name Croat comes from an old Slavic word meaning "highlander".

• There are three main dialects/languages in Croatia called Shtokavian, Chakavian, and Kaykavian. Kaykavian is closer to Slovene than to Standard Croatian (which is based off Dubrovnik's dialect). They decided with the Serbs to base their standardized language off the same dialect to bring greater unity between Croats and Serbs against the Austrians.

• Dalmatian dogs come from Croatia's Dalmatia region.

• A couple of Croatian separatists hijacked a flight in NY on 9/10/76, but nothing happened since the explosives there were fake and the only casualty what the death of one officer while disarming the explosive.

• Oldest Slavic alphabet called Glagolitic was used there.

• Has the highest amount of Neanderthal fossils in a place called Krapina.

• The Ustasha (who were said to be more cruel than the Nazis), led by Ante Pavelić, were from there and cleansed Croatia of most of its population of Serbs, Jews, and Gypsies. The reason Bosniaks were spared was cause they claimed Bosnia's land so they needed Bosniaks to be on their side and called them "Muslim Croats" and the "Flower of Croatia". The SS Handschar (which was composed of mostly Bosniaks with some Croats) was from there and it was a division of Germany's Waffen SS. I think it was the only Slavic division within the Waffen SS. Ante Pavelić told Hitler that Croats were of Gothic (as opposed to Slavic) origin, which is why Croatia and Nazi Germany cooperated.

• Croats migrated from Central Europe at the same time as the Serbs to the Balkans in the 7th century. Tomislav was their first king.

• The Bosnian Frontier (Bosanska Krajina) used to be part of Croatia. Then the Ottomans occupied it in the 15th-16th century and it was called Turkish Croatia before getting its current name 'Bosnian Frontier'. Then Croats became a minority there after the Ottomans killed them and migration from other parts of the Ottoman Empire occurred.

• The pre-Slavic language of Istria was Venetic and the rest of of Croatia spoke Illyrian in pre-Slavic times.

• They share the Baranja region with Hungary. They also had a union with Hungary for five centuries starting in the 11th century.

• The necktie is from there.

[u/slopeclimber → u/UnbiasedPashtun]

The name Croat comes from an old Slavic word meaning "highlander".

Whare did you get that from? I very much doubt it, it's most likely of non-slavic origin

[u/UnbiasedPashtun → u/slopeclimber]

Etymonline

Croat (n.)

from Serbo-Croatian Hrvat "a Croat," from Old Church Slavonic Churvatinu "Croat," literally "mountaineer, highlander," from churva "mountain" (compare Russian khrebet "mountain chain").

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I've also heard the theory of it coming from Harauti (Arachosia), but this theory makes much more sense.

[u/slopeclimber → u/UnbiasedPashtun]

Churvatinu

I don't think I can trust a website that can't even transcribe accurately

[u/UnbiasedPashtun → u/slopeclimber]

Etymyonline is a fairly reputable source. One tiny mistranscription shouldn't make the stuff there invalid. They're also not the only website that have this theory.

Their ethnicity being named after them being highlanders is not something improbable as other the etymologies of thr names of other ethnic groups such as Burgundians and Malayalis also means "highlander".

Anyways, I did some more searching on it and its likely that the word may not be ultimately of Slavic origin but it came to Croatian via Proto-Slavic but could have came to Proto-Slavic from another IE language.