Ćići
Ćić (plural Ćići, Slovene: Čiči, German: Tschitschen, Italian: Cicci, Chicchi, Ciccio, Cici) is an ethnonym and exonym in a broader sense for all the people who live in the mountainous Ćićarija area in Croatia and Slovenia.
[1] Linguist and phonologist Josip Ribarić (1880–1954), a native of Vodice in Ćićarija, disproved this thesis with historical documents, anthroponyms and language dialects in the karst.
[2] According to him, the term Ćići initially referred to the Romance-speaking Balkan population, the same as Morlachs (i.e. Vlachs) and became an exonym for all newcomers to the karst plateau.
[3] Ribarić noted the thesis by Arthur Byhan (1899), which asserted that Chichi (ch/ci=ć) comes from the Italian word cicaleccio (from verb cicalare), which means "insistent and confused (indistinct) talking".
[4] Petar Šimunović similarly proposed Croatian verb variations čičerati[5] or čičarati, čačarat and k'ik'rat, which mean "speak".
[5][7] Ribarić noted two other terms that could supply the origin; Cincari for Aromanians in Macedonia, Bulgaria and Serbia and Ćiribirci in Istria.
In Istro-Romanian language was noted the secondary palatalization, in village Šušnjevica t becomes ț ("c"), in Nova Vas and Žejane becomes č.
[13] In 1499, the Carinthian parish priest, Jakob Urnest, mentioned territory Czyschnlandt between Croatian and Bosnian kingdoms (zwischn Wossen und Krabaten), which some consider to be the Cetina river region in southern Croatia.
[24] In 1539, royal commissioner Erasmo von Thurn submitted a request by Ćići to King Ferdinand I, asking if they could be given some deserted land on karst and Istria.
[30] The Middle Chakavian dialect of Ikavian accent, which was spoken in Dalmatia, Krbava and now parts of western Bosnia, is represented in some villages of part of the Matulji municipality: Lipa, Rupa, Šapjane, Pasjak, Brdce, Veli Brgud, Mali Brgud, Vele Mune, Male Mune and Žejane,[31] and in Slovenian villages of the Ilirska Bistrica municipality: Podgrad, Starod, Račice, Podbeže, while Obrov, Poljane and Skadanščina in Hrpelje-Kozina (see Čičarija dialect).
[34] Chakavian-Shtokavian of the Ikavian accent, is represented in the upper part of the Lanišće municipality in the villages of Rašpor, Črnehi, Trstenik, Dane, Vodice, and Jelovice.
[39] Substantial income was acquired from forestry, cutting firewood, logging transported by draft horses and most often making k(a)rbunica, a wood pile covered with soil, producing charcoal.
[41] In Istria the Ćići in Ćićarija and in village Žejane were known for now almost extinct practice of singing folk songs, called bugarštine.
[23] This way of singing in Istria is known as bugarenje, while in Ćićarija also as pivati po starinsku, rozgat, kantat, guditi (Vodice, Dane, Jelovice, Golac), and žaliti (mourn).
In contrast to epic poetry in Dalmatia and other parts of the Balkans, only three Turkish words (harač, ćorda, delija) were mentioned.
