Bunjevac dialect

[5] Bunjevac dialect has been included in the list of official public administrative languages of the Subotica Municipality in Serbia since 2021.

There have been three meritorious people who preserved the Bunjevac dialect in two separate dictionaries: Grgo Bačlija[6] and Marko Peić[7] with "Rečnik bački Bunjevaca"[8] (editions 1990, 2018), and Ante Sekulić[9] with "Rječnik govora bačkih Hrvata" (2005).

This has created a special situation that contradicts the official position, of both the Serbian government and Matica Srpska, that classified Bunjevac speech as a dialect.

[10] According to the 2011 census in Serbia, 6,835 people declared Bunjevac dialect as their mother tongue (bunjevački maternji jezik) and it was listed independently.

According to the 2002 census in Serbia, some members of the Bunjevac community declared that their native language to be Serbian or Croatian.

[27] There is an ongoing wish among the members of the Bunjevac community for affirmation of their dialect in Croatia, Hungary, and in Serbia.

[28] The Croat National Council in Subotica is organizing the yearly Bunjevac Song Contest "Festival bunjevački' pisama"[29] On March 4, 2021, the municipal council in Subotica has voted in favor of amending the city statute adding Bunjevac dialect to the list of official public administrative languages in the municipality, in addition to Serbian, Hungarian, and Croatian.

Map of Shtokavian dialects. Shtokavian or Štokavian (/ʃtɒˈkɑːviən, -ˈkæv-/; Serbo-Croatian Latin: štokavski / Serbo-Croatian Cyrillic: штокавски, pronounced [ʃtǒːkaʋskiː]) is the prestige dialect of the pluricentric Serbo-Croatian language and the basis of its Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian and Montenegrin standards, as well for sub-dialects. It is a part of the South Slavic dialect continuum .
Ethnic map of the Municipality of Subotica showing e.g. villages with Bunjevac majority, including both, Bunjevci who declared themselves as Croats and Bunjevci who declared themselves as Bunjevci.