Vitality of the Krk Venetian (Veian) dialect

Abstract

Throughout history, the town of Krk was the only Romance enclave on the namesake island, first as a town where the Dalmatic (Vegliot) dialect was spoken, and then a town where the Krk Venetian dialect (Veian) was used. Today only a small number of (mostly elderly) people in the town of Krk still speak the Venetian dialect (Veian), while others use a kind of a Chakavian koiné that manifests general Chakavian features of the island of Krk. This paper aims to evaluate the vitality of this dialect according to nine UNESCO evaluative factors of language endangerment via a sociolinguistic questionnaire. The results show that once a prestigious dialect and symbol of urbanity of the town of Krk, this dialect is nowadays a communication code of mostly elderly, bilingual Krk residents. The dialect appears to still be part of their identity and tradition, although its status decreases from generation to generation. The participants in our study are aware that their dialect is disappearing but, with few exceptions, they generally do not insist on its preservation. This research aimed to show the vitality of the Krk Venetian dialect (Veian) in the 21st century.