The genesis kajkavian speech as conceived by Rudolf Strohal

Abstract

According to Strolial, up to the sixteenth century, all Croats were »čakavian« speakers, but depening on from what part of Slovenia the influences came from and to what extent the older »čakavian« features were still preserved, dialectical traits exist within the »kajkavian« vernacular. Such views rest on the unfounded assumption that written remnants faithfully render the speech of the locale in which they arose. The author concludes that Strohal’s inspection of the written heritage was incomplete, that his approach to the problem was unsystematic, paying no heed to uniform criteria, which prevented him from perceiving that the main part of the »kajkavian« vernacular did not result as an amalgamation of different vernacular.