Molise Croats

[14] Slavs founded fifteen settlements in Molise,[21] according to Giacomo Scotti with around seven or eight thousand people,[22] of which only three (San Felice, Montemitro, Acquaviva Collecroce) today have a Slavic-speaking community.

Vikentij Makušev while researching Slavic immigrants in Naples and Palermo, heard "Old-Slavonic" words rab, teg, kut, dom, gredem etc., and being uninformed about their common use in Chakavian speech of Dalmatia, thought that they were Bulgarians.

[14][24] Risto Kovačić,[25][26] Miroslav Pantić,[26] Giovanni de Rubertis and Graziadio Isaia Ascoli,[27] considered Molise Croats to be Serbs from Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbian littoral.

[34][35] The basic vocabulary was done by Milan Rešetar (in monography), Agostina Piccoli (along Antonio Sammartino, Snježana Marčec and Mira Menac-Mihalić) in Rječnik moliškohrvatskoga govora Mundimitra (Dizionario dell' idioma croato-molisano di Montemitro), and Dizionario croato molisano di Acquaviva Collecroce, the grammar Gramatika moliškohrvatskoga jezika (Grammatica della lingua croato-molisana), as well work Jezik i porijeklo stanovnika slavenskih naseobina u pokrajini Molise by Anita Sujoldžić, Božidar Finka, Petar Šimunović and Pavao Rudan.

[36][37] Giacomo Scotti noted that the ethnic identity and language was only preserved in San Felice, Montemitro and Acquaviva Collecroce thanks to the geographical and transport distance of the villages from the sea.

[38] Josip Smodlaka noted that during his visit in the early 1900s the residents of Palata still knew to speak in Croatian about basic terms like home and field works, but if the conversation touched more complex concepts they had to use Italian.

[16] Preserved Italianized surnames in Acquaviva Collecroce include Jaccusso (Jakaš), Lali (Lalić), Matijacci (Matijačić), Mileti (Miletić), Mirco (Mirko), Papiccio (Papić), Pecca (Pekić, Peršić), Radi (Radić), Tomizzi (Tomičić), Veta (Iveta);[36] in San Felice include Blasetta (Blažeta), Gliosca (Joško), Petrella (Petrela), Radata (Radetić), Zara (Zaro, Zadro);[36] in Montemitro include Blascetta (Blažeta), Giorgetta (Jureta), Lali, Miletti, Mirco, Staniscia (Stanišić), Gorgolizza (Gurgurica, Grgurić), Sciscia (Šišić), Juricci (Jurić), Joviccio (Jović) etc.

[36][40] The surnames differ; patronymics with suffix -ović (Marovicchio, Marcovicchio, Pastrovicchio), diminutive-hypocoristic (Vucenichio, Popicchio, Milicchio), nicknames attribute (Vecera, Tosti, Poganizza, Bilac, Berhizz), ethnic-toponyms attribute (Klissa, Lisa, Zara, Rauzei, Schiavone di Corzula, Traù, Ciuppana, de Raguza), Italian lexic origin (Curic, Scaramucchio).

[47] The names of Molise settlements are Italianized Acquaviva Collecroce (Živavoda Krȕč), Montemitro (Mundìmītar), San Felice (Stifìlīć > Fìlīć).

[48] Toponymy includes several semantic categories; characteristics of the ground (Brdo, Dolaz, Draga, Grba, Kraji, Livade, Polizza, Ravnizza, Vrisi), soil composition (Stina, Drvar), hydronyms (Vrila, Jesera, Jaz, Locqua, Potocco, Coritti, Fontizza), flora (Dubrava, Valle di Miscignavizza, Paprato, Topolizza), fauna (Berdo do kujne, Most do tovari), position of the object (Monte svrhu Roccile, Fonte donio, Fonte zdolu Grade), human activity (Gradina, Ulizza, Puč, Cimiter, Selo, Grad, Stasa), and property owners (Maseria Mirco, Colle di Jure).

[46] The long-term exposure to the disintegration processes and Italian foreign language surroundings, as well absence of cultural institutions, resulted in the loss of ethnic identity.

[55] In the late 18th century, Giuseppe Maria Galanti in his work Descrizione dello stato antico ed attuale del Contado di Molise (1781), as Schiavoni settlements considered Acquaviva Collecroce (1380 pop.

[46] For the residents of Tavenna noted that until 1805 they still spoke slavo-dalmato, but in the last census (probably from 1861), certain sixty elders who preserved the language did not declare for lingua dalmata because was afraid of being considered strangers.

[22] During the years, due to economic and social issues, many families migrated to Northern Italy, Switzerland, Germany, and overseas to United States, Brazil, Argentina, Canada, and Western Australia.