Talk:Vallegrande Speak

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Trying to re-tell the history of this part of the world (Croatia-Dalmatia) is fraught with problems. The Yugoslav Communist party was the main driving force in all social matters within the former Yugoslavia. It created historic falsehoods to promote its own aggressive political authoritarian agenda.

We can definitely confirm that from the 9th century onwards that there were two ethnic communities living on the island in the middle ages, one being of Roman Empire descendant and the other of Slavic descendant. Two languages Romance Latin language - Dalmatian and Slavic Chakavian (which at times overlapped) became the norm on the island. The written language is Latin. Due to the fact that Slavs from the then neighbouring Kingdom of Croatia also spoke Slavic Chakavian this could indicate that they came from the same tribal group.

With the Serbian forces being annihilated in the Battle of Kosovo by the Ottoman Empire in 1389 a migration of peoples stated to migrant west ward. Venetian Dalmatia started to acquire new peoples in its region (i.e., Croatians, Serbs, Albanians & others). This combined with the Black Plague depleting the island population the Venetian authorities brought new families to the island of Korcula. Amongst these where Shokavian Slavic speakers. With these added migrations the Slavic speakers became a majority.

If the translation of the Defence of Korcula 
 from Ottoman attack in 1571, originally written by Antun (Antonio) Rozanovic is untainted we can see that the majority of the defenders of the island were by 1571 of Slavic decent. If we use this as a reference then from the mid 16th century onwards the majority of Korcula's population was indeed of Slavic decent.

The dialect evolved in the first half of the 19 century. Vela Luka's early begins (late 18 century) started with the population of the neighbouring Blatta (modern Blato) setting up a town in the large bay of Vallegrande. In Romance Dalmatian bluta means wafer (or host). Etymology is from the Latin word oblāta. In Croatian blato means mud. Vallegrande Speak is an off shot of the language spoken in 18th century Blato.

It is believed that there were two hamlets in the bay, Vallegrande and Bobovisca.

One could easily say that the old Vallegrande Speak is becoming extinct. The Yugoslavian governments be it the Communist Yugoslavian regime (1945-92) or the earlier Kingdom of Yugoslavia pushed a Pan-Slavic and Croatian Nationalistic authoritarian political rule. One the policies were Slavicisation. It takes only one generation to change a language. To-days dialect in Vela Luka (Luski) is different and has incorporated modern Croatian.

Standardisation and politics ....

Blato

Interesting: Blato was called Blatta.

• In Romance Dalmatian bluta means wafer or host. Etymology from Latin oblāta.
• In Croatian blato means mud.