Illyrian (South Slavic)

The Illyrian language was a common name of the South Slavic languages before the emergence of Slavistics and Cyrillo-Methodian Studies, and especially during the Ottoman period. It was imposed as a common language as a result of Catholic propaganda in the Balkans in the 17th century. In the 18th century it was replaced by the Slavonic-Serbian.[1]

Its base is Dubrovnik literature and Kotor literature from the Bugarštica, and its first representative is Dinko Zlatarić. Bartol Kašić can be considered the father of this language. In 1595, during the Long Turkish War, he became a Jesuit. From 1609 to 1633 he lived in Dubrovnik. In 1613-1614 and 1618-1619 he was on a mission in Bosnia, Serbia and Eastern Slavonia.

In 1604 Institutionum linguae illyricae libri duo (the structure of the Illyrian language in two books; 200 pages) was published in Rome. Grammar is used as textbooks by Jesuits who have been sent on a mission in the Balkans. Bartol Kašić adopts the South Slavic dialect of grammar in Shtokavian, pointing out as such the subdialect of Dubrovnik that is everyday for him. [2]