001 Molin?

Dalmacija: Being and speaking Dalmatian #001

Molin?

If you have been learning Croatian of the official variety, perhaps with SpeakCro, the first thing that you notice when you come go to Dalmacija is that they replace an "m" on the end of some types of word with an "n".

For example, instead of saying “Ja sam …..”, dalmatinci govore “Ja san …..” Like, "Nisan ja kriv!"

And other verb endings in first person singular: 
          Učin hrvatski, ali ne govorin još dobro .
          Pitan se zašto je ona tamo išla.
           Plivan u moru.

Furthermore, dalmatinci say sedan (not sedam), and osan (not osam), for example.

And the most charming of all is the form of greeting or request: "Molin?"

How do such differences come about, I wonder? Come on, you linguists .... shine light on the subject for us.

Some would say that having caught fjaka, Dalmatians find that little less demanding to write osan, rather than osam – one less stroke of the pen. Being of Dalmatian blood, I wouldn’t agree with that!

Conversely, of course, if you have grown up speaking the Dalmatian dialect, perhaps in the family home, isn't it strange how those people from Zagreb say sedam, osam, and Ja sam ...!  What's wrong with them?
 

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