Multilingualism in the Croatian lands under the sceptre of the Habsburgs in the eighteenth century

Abstract

The paper examines the role of multilingualism in Croatian lands under the Habsburg rule during the 18th century. The focus of the research is set on Croatian-Slavonian nobility and other local elites (clergy, officers, physicians, engineers, etc.) as part of the society susceptible to the influence of the educational norms and linguistic policies set by the Habsburg authorities. It provides an insight into the language skills of the 18th-century Croatian society, the impact of educational policy on the language learning and the importance of language choices for social or political representation. It is argued that the culture of the educated, mostly politically active part of the Croatian society remained intensely multilingual until deep into the 19th century due to the specificity of language practices, and that the educational policy of the Court in Vienna contributed more to the affirmation of the national language than did the activity of the Croatian elites. The research is based on archival sources kept in Croatian, Hungarian and Austrian state archives and selected contemporary records (correspondence, memoirs, and publications).