Lingualia LingualiaEurope’s regional and minority languages

Languages · Slavic languages

Croatian

Spoken in : Austria, Italy

01. Data about the language

At a glance

Speakers
19,374 declared speakers (2001 Austrian census, the last to record the language used)1
Education
1,812 Burgenland primary pupils are taught in Croatian (2023–24)1
Identifiers
ISO 639-3 hrv · Glottolog burg1244

Language group

Indo-European / Slavic

Area

The Croats do not make up the majority population in any of these districts. Compact Croatian regions that are now increasingly becoming bilingual exist only in the Oberpullendorf and Eisenstadt districts.

A substantial segment of the Croatian ethnic group has moved to Vienna, mainly because of economic reasons, like job shortages in Burgenland. Part of this group continues to commute on a weekly basis, the remainder have definitively settled in Vienna. The Burgenland Croats in Vienna are culturally and ethnically well organised.

The Croatian ethnic group lives in Burgenland and Vienna. In Burgenland the Croatian ethnic group lives in six of the state's seven districts :
- Neusied/Neusiedl/Niuzalj, - Eisenstadt/Zeljezno, - Mattersburg/Matrstof, - Oberpullendorf/Gornja Pulja, - Oberwart/Borta, - Güssing/Novi Grad.

Updated, sourced data, checked on 14 October 2026 · scope : Autriche (Burgenland) · Get updates for this language

Numerical strength

The last census to record the language of everyday use ("Umgangssprache") was in 2001: 19,374 Austrian citizens then declared Burgenland Croatian1. Register-based censuses, since 2011, no longer collect this information1.

Status

In Austria, the language is protected by Parts II and III (Articles 8 to 14) of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages within its language area defined by the Ethnic Groups Act (Volksgruppengesetz)1. Federal support for the ethnic groups was doubled from 2021 and reached €7.6 million in 2023 for the Federal Chancellery alone1.

Public services

The area where Burgenland Croatian is an official language comprises 48 localities in 28 municipalities, listed in the annexes to the Ethnic Groups Act1. Only five of these municipalities provide bilingual information on their websites1.

Education

The Burgenland Minority Schools Act allows every pupil to be taught in Croatian1. In 2023–24, 16% of Burgenland primary pupils (1,812 pupils) were taught in Croatian, against 11% (1,327) in 1995–961. 26 crèches and kindergartens in 24 municipalities care for children in Croatian (1,688 children in 2023–24)1.

Media

Since September 2022 the ORF has produced the fortnightly TV magazine "WIR | Češi, Hrvati, Magyarok, Roma, Slováci, Slovenci", broadcast on ORF 2 and ORF III in the ethnic-group languages with German subtitles; in 2024, ORF Burgenland and ORF Carinthia produced about 100 hours of television and over 4,000 hours of radio in these languages1. Since 2021 one "lead medium" per ethnic group has received specific federal funding1. For the Burgenland Croats, this lead medium is the weekly Hrvatske Novine (€566,000 for 2024–25); ORF Burgenland produces over seven hours of Croatian radio each week1.

02. Poem

Original Translation
Jutarnja molitva
Morning Prayer
Kad se stanem, k tebi zdahnem, Bog Otac, stvoritelj moj! Čuval si me noćno vrime, I danom uza me stoj!
When I rise, I sigh to you, God the Father, my creator! You kept me through the night, Stay by me through the day as well!
Tebe slavi va ljubavi Dite tvoje, cijeli svit; Daj mi znati spunjavati Tvoju svetu zapovid.
In love you are glorified By your child, the whole world; Let me know how to fulfil Your holy commandment.
Jezuš mili, pomoć dili, Da se ugnem zloćom svim; Ter ti cijeli danak bijeli Čisto srce posvetim.
Dear Jesus, grant your help, That I may shun all evil; And all this bright day long Dedicate a pure heart to you.
Duh batritelj, posvetitelj, Daj obladat grišnu ćut, Va stalnosti, va svetosti Poznat, slijedit pravi put.
Spirit of comfort, of holiness, Let me overcome the urge to sin, With constancy, with holiness To know and follow the right path.
O Marija najmilija, Mati Božja, Mati svim! S manom budi, kad me bludi Zali duh, da zlo činim.
O Mary, most beloved, Mother of God, mother of all! Be with me when the evil spirit Leads me astray to do wrong.
Andjel blagi, andjel dragi, Moj branitelj, moj čuvar, Budi meni drug ljubljeni, Kraj odvrni svaki kvar.
Kind angel, dear angel, My defender, my guardian, Be a beloved companion to me, Turn every harm away from me.
Mate Meršić Miloradić (1850-1928)
Original text: Matica hrvatska, Matičina bilježnica (2018), pp. 3-4
Translation: Lingualia (2026)

03. Linguistic description

Croatian, a South Slavic language, has no articles, definite or indefinite1. A single word means both 'hand' and 'arm'1. As in other languages that received tea overland, its name (čaj) goes back to Chinese cha1,2.

Sources

The 2003 CD had no description of this language: this text was written for the site from the sources below.

  1. WALS Online – Serbian-Croatian, World Atlas of Language Structures, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, 2013 (v2026).
  2. Ö. Dahl, « Tea », chapitre 138 du WALS, World Atlas of Language Structures, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, 2013.

04. Cartoon

Tri praščića - Najljepše priče za djecu - Animacija
Cartoon · 6 min 11 s · channel: Mi Klinci · YouTube

Video hosted on YouTube and published by the channel shown; its author may remove it at any time.