Croatian language
Croatian language belongs to western-south Slavic group (source Institut za hrvatski jezik i jezikoslovlje) of languages. As all Slavic languages its root is in old Slavic language.5,5 milion people speak Croatian language in Croatia, part of Bosnia and Hercegovina,Austria, Hungary, Serbia, Montenegro, Italy, Slovenia, Rumania, Slovakia and other countries.
Croatian language is divided in official Croatian language and dialects. Croatian dialects are cakavski, kajkavski spoken only in Croatia and stokavski is spoken in Croatia and other countries. Croats in Gradisce Austria speak a cakavski dialect although forms of kajkavski and stokavski dialects are used too. Croats in Italy Molise speak stokavski, Krašovani in Rumania speak torlacki dialect specific only for that Croatian enclave.
First written text in Croatian (it was a mixture of church Slavic and cakavski dialect) date from the end of 11 century. These texts were written in Croatian Glagolitic script. In 12 century Croats begin to form their own form of Cyrillic script Bosancica., from 14 century Latin scripts are in use. Croatian medieval texts were written in three scripts: Latin, Glagolitic, and Croatian Cyrillic (arvatica, poljičica, bosančica), and also in three languages: Croatian, Latin and Old Slavic. The most important early monument of Croatian literacy is the Baška tablet from the late 11th century. It is a large stone tablet found in the small church of St. Lucy on the Croatian island of Krk, containing text written mostly in cakavski.