Abstract

Language is one of the determinants of intangible cultural heritage; therefore, the Croatian language is the basis of overall Croatian culture. In this paper the authors analyze only one aspect of the language, i.e. the lexis of the old Split speech in the first satirical journal in Split entitled "Duje Balavac." This very popular journal from the beginning of the 20th century was known as a particularly socio-politically engaged journal. Its aim was to give harsh criticism of social phenomena as well as to entertain readers. The sources of this research are seven editions of the journal downloaded from the website http://www.gkmm.hr/duje_balavac.htm. Seventy words were extracted from the text, mostly nouns and verbs. A survey was conducted in the form of a questionnaire for three different age groups of examinees. The respondents were asked to specify the meaning of the lexemes and to put them into context. For respondents, only inhabitants of Split (those who were born and live in Split, and whose parents are from Split) were selected. The purpose of the research was to detect whether the respondents recognize the lexemes and to discover the percentage of (non)understanding of the old Split lexemes by today's residents of Split. The results show that the lexemes have been recognized in the smallest percentage by youngest examinees. Therefore, it can be concluded that the language heritage, and, in particular, the Chakavian dialect of Split, is not cherished by its residents despite the fact that it has been added to the list of the endangered intangible cultural heritage.