O jeziku u Pučkome prijatelju, glasilu Hrvatskoga katoličkog pokreta u Istri

Newspapers in Croatian in Istria during the 19th and 20th centuries played a crucial role in promoting national revival ideas and educating the population, serving as an important source for studying the status of the Croatian language in the region. Pučki Prijatelj, the journal of the Croatian Catholic Movement in Istria with a Christian-social orientation, was published intermittently and with varying intensity from 1899 to 1929 in Krk, Pazin, and Trieste. In addition to covering economic, social, religious, and political events, the journal frequently addressed issues of national and linguistic identity during a time when speaking in one’s native language was sometimes prohibited even in private communication. This was especially the case during the Italian occupation and after Italy’s annexation, which led to numerous instances of censorship in the journal and ultimately the cessation of publications in Croatian. Numerous articles show that Pučki Prijatelj is an important source for studying the status of the Croatian language in Istria. These texts reveal the position of the Croatian language in schools, churches, administration, and the media, as well as the Italianization of toponyms, anthroponyms, and crematory names, and the persecution and internment of priests and other cultural and public figures. Furthermore, an analysis of Pučki Prijatelj over its thirty years of publication allows us to trace changes in the orthographic, spelling, and morphological levels. These changes are evident in the following examples: the notation of the palatal sound đ (initially as dj, later đ), the transition from the morphonological to the phonological spelling principle, and the endings for the genitive, dative, locative, and instrumental plural. In the genitive plural, the endings -a/-i dominate, while in the dative, locative, and instrumental plural, the early issues feature non-syncretic case forms, characteristic of the older linguistic state, though newer endings, which become dominant in later issues, also appear. Additionally, we observed variations in the use of negation with verbs, as well as inconsistencies in the realization of the yat sound, regardless of the year of publication.