Nobody understands this language..find out why! 🇮🇹

Aquaviva Collecroce (or as the locals call it, Kruć), Italy. In the southern Italian region of Molise exist 3 towns which were historically settled by Croats in the 1500's. 500 years later, Croats still inhabit these picturesque Italian towns and apparently speak a variety of the Croatian language to this day.

0:00 Croats in Italy!?
2:33 Italian Train FAILURES
7:40 Europe's SMALLEST Street
11:51 Italy's CROATIAN Town!
20:12 HISTORY of Aquaviva
25:23 Village Life
31:02 Back to Civilization!

It seemed crazy to me that a language could survive for over half a millennium in a foreign country, so I decided to investigate. I met many of the Italian Croats and spoke with them in both Italian and Croatian. However, most people there didn't speak much of the Croatian that I've learned while travelling the Balkans. To my surprise, they had their own proper language! And don't try to call this Croatian-based language in Molise a dialect, it's a proper language and is recognized by the Italian government as such :)

As a final note, it was great to finally see the region of Molise, which many Italians say doesn't exist! Well, in this video we put this myth to rest! Molise is real and so are the Molise Croats! Come join me on this adventure!

Thanks for watching as always! Grazie di aver guardato! Hvala za gledanje!

Special thanks to Carlo and Sedo for translation/subtitle help!

#molise #languages

[kVjeko]

Amazing video. I live in Istria, Croatia and I understand almost everything they are saying!
I do speak čakavski dialect of Croatian which is also spoken in Dalmatia. And also Italian.
People that only speak standard Croatian might understand less but still at least 50%.
Here we also say that we speak in our langugage - "po našu", whish you do well - "stoj mi dobro" etc.
That was awesome. Thanks.

[markopejatovic]

As an Italo-Croatian, this video is hilarious, hearing a southern Italian accent guy speaking also Croatian fluently.. That's mind blowing

[ivansostarec]

As a Croatian, this video means a lot. Its a beautiful peace of history you recorded there. Veery interesting and beautiful. Thank you for documenting this!!❤

[nikolared]

I'm Croatian but I heard this story about Molise Croats for the first time. Thank you for expanding my knowledge about my nation.

[andrijajuvancic]

As a Croat i can confirm that only reason train was late is because it was going to Croatian village. Railroads associated with Croatia are always late :P

[AlexDelPiero]

I'm italian and believe me, I had never heard of them before. Wow! thanks for everything you did. Awesome documentary.

[kastro]

When they want to ask "How are you", they say "Kako stojiš", literally meaning "How are you standing?"
When Nicola said "Za sada siduć" it means literally "right now I am sitting".

It's a fun play on words, because although you asked "how are you", the phrase in Croatian involves the word "standing", so he answered jokingly that he isn't standing, but rather sitting!

You can also ask someone "Kako se držiš?" - it also means "How are you", but literally translated its "how are you holding (up)?" These weird phrases are common in Croatian.
Amazing video BTW loved it!

[LennonWayne]

BTW: I'm a Burgenland-Croat, we speak also a quite archaic version of Croatian as the ancestors came here in the 17th century. You are welcome to visit us as well! ;)

[marijamociccikanovic]

I understood almost every word. Born and raised in Croatia. Moliški Hrvati speak dialect so that's the reason why their language is so diffrent from modern standard croatian language.
Very interesting story and I admire their speak croatia after 500 years. It is amazing 😊

[tomislavmatic]

In the city of Rijeka (Fiume) there is a completely opposite situation, so there is an authentic Italian community (minorità - Fiumani), that speak also an unique dialect of Italian (that could be considered a language)-that has the opposite influence, so croatian words in italian. Fiuman (la lingua) is a derivation of the veneto dialect.

[josiprakonca]

Very interesting for me as a Croatian, I'm fascinated by Croatian communities around Europe that emigrated from our country during Ottoman times.

[jeandellagjianni]

Did you know that Croations of Italy have a very similar story to that of the Arbereshe of Italy also known as Albanians of Italy who fled Ottoman persecution. and funny enough there are also four Arbereshe villages in the Molise region in the same province of Campobasso.

the four main Arbereshe villages in Molise Province of Campobasso: are. Campomarino: Këmarini, Montecilfone: Munxhufuni, Portocannone: Portkanuni, Ururi: Rùri
and of course there is also a community of Molise Croats in Campobasso which are: Acquaviva Collecroce (Kruč), San Felice del Molise (Štifilić) and Montemitro (Mundimitar)

[danp]

I'm from central Italy and never heard of this, thank you for showing me a part of my country I was not aware of :)

[alicesluytermanvanlangewey]

I am german but speak croatian since my mum is a socalled Svabica / Donauschwäbin who left former Jugoslavia when she was 15. Only the past 3 years I got to know and love Rovinj and was surprised at first how vivid italian is there, this year learning about their dialect which is like kind of a language mixture. Now this the first time that I learn about Croats in Italy. Very interesting, Thank you!

[miroslavkusek]

Only the accents are a bit confusing, but once the pattern is understood, almost everything can be understood. It is a branch of the Croatian Chakavian dialect.

[cetriemmmmm]

I have a reverse story. My great grandfather came from Italy to Croatia. (To Fiume). As a kid I spoke with my grandad fiumano. It was also an Italo-Croatian combo. Now I feel like we're not alone. I have to go to Molise and explore this.

[exalfisti]

Jako interesantno, Hvala!
Iskreno, Bravo braco da i nakon 500 godina niste zaboravili na naš
Pozdrav od jednog Srbina iz njemacke

[krunoslavkovacec]

The story of Moliški Hrvati (Molise Croats) is astonishing, but also their destiny is sort of sad...the assimilation led to most people abandoning their Croatian identity and the language. There used to be about 10 towns full of Croats but now it's just a couple thousand Croats in the three towns.

Thank you for this so much.

[Sena-uvsc]

Great clip in just 1h visit. Oduševljena sam da si iskoristio znanje roditelja i naučio još 2 jezika. Nažalost puno djece ne nauči materinji jezik roditelja. I'm impressed.

[MarcusLangbart]

I live 20km from Acquaviva and I respect your adventure and investigation spirit. It's very hard to travel through Molise, especially little villages, given how bad is the public transport from the coastal town of Termoli or even from Campobasso. Even if you have a car the quality of the roads is abysmal sometimes, but I love my rural region off the beaten tracks. thanks for showing an underrated part of italy and salute to all the croats! What I also like from Acquaviva is that they do special spring ritual at the beginning of May (Maja) with a man moving from the inside a big structure made of flowers and trees branches, something my village shares with them.