Šumadija–Vojvodina dialect


Šumadija–Vojvodina dialect is a dialect of Shtokavian / Serbo-Croatian. It is a base for Ekavian Standard Serbian.

Distribution

The dialect is mainly spoken in Serbia or more exactly in most of the province of Vojvodina, as well as in Belgrade, Mačva, Šumadija, and western Serbia. Some of the speakers could be also found in neighboring areas of Romania, Croatia and Hungary.

History

In the 16th century, the dialect was spoken in entire Vojvodina, as well as in some parts of present-day Hungary and Romania. During the Great Serb Migration from 1690, many speakers of the dialect were settled in the Budapest region. Most of these settlers were later assimilated. During the 18th and 19th century, the territorial distribution of the dialect was reduced due to the migrations of speakers of Hungarian language from the north and speakers of Romanian language from the east.

Linguistic standard

Šumadija–Vojvodina dialect is a base for the standard Ekavian version of the Serbian literary language. It was also a base for the Serbian literary language in the 18th and 19th century, before the linguistic reform was introduced by Vuk Karadžić. During the reform, the standard variety of the dialect was adapted to be more similar to Ijekavian dialect.