croatian

Croatian refers to the people and the language associated with Croatia, a country in Southeast Europe along the Adriatic Sea. The Croatian language is the official language of Croatia and is spoken by Croats in Croatia and by communities in neighboring countries and the diaspora. It is part of the South Slavic language family and is mutually intelligible with Bosnian, Serbian, and Montenegrin to a high degree, though it is standardized as a separate language.

The standard Croatian language is largely based on the Shtokavian dialect, with regional forms in Kajkavian and Chakavian. The modern orthography uses the Latin alphabet with diacritics, and letters such as Lj, Nj, and Dž are treated as single phonemes. Historically, the Glagolitic script was used in liturgical and some regional contexts, but it is no longer used in daily writing.

Croats constitute the principal ethnic group of Croatia, with minorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina and in diaspora communities worldwide. Croatia became independent from Yugoslavia in 1991 and joined the European Union in 2013; it adopted the euro as its currency in 2023. The Croatian language is also one of the official languages of the European Union.