Bunjevci
Bunjevci are a South Slavic ethnocultural group, variously described as either a Croatian sub-ethnic group or a separate ethnic group, living mostly in the region of Bačka of northern Serbia; Bács-Kiskun County of southern Hungary; in Croatia ; and in Bosnia-Herzegovina. They originate from Western Herzegovina. As a result of the Ottoman conquest, some of them migrated to Dalmatia, from there to Lika and the Croatian Littoral, and in the 17th century to Bačka.
Those who emigrated to Bačka underwent an extensive process of integration and assimilation. In the 18th and 19th century they made up a significant part of the population of Bačka. The government of Hungary considers the Bunjevac community to be part of the Croatian minority.
Bunjevci in Serbia and Hungary are split between those who see themselves as a Croatian sub-ethnic group and those who identify themselves as a distinct ethnic group with their own language. The latter are represented in Serbia by the Bunjevac National Council, and the former by the Croat National Council.
Bunjevci are mainly Catholic and the majority still speaks neo-Shtokavian Younger Ikavian dialect of the Serbo-Croatian pluricentric language with certain archaic characteristics. Within the Bunjevac community and between Serbia and Croatia, there is an unresolved political identity conflict regarding ethnicity of Bunjevci and an ongoing language battle over the status of the Bunjevac speech as well.
Ethnology
Their endonym, used in Serbo-Croatian, is Bunjevci . In Hungarian their name is bunyevácok, in Dutch Boenjewatsen, and in German Bunjewatzen. According to Petar Skok they also called themselves in Bačka as Šokci, while Hungarians in Szeged also called them as Dalmát, which they also used for themselves in Hungary. In addition, the term meant Catholic population from Livanjsko field up to Montenegro which was mostly considered by the neighbor Serbian Orthodox population, while at Peroj in Istria it was a pejorative name for Croats as well pobunjevčit pejoratively meant "become Catholic". In the 20th century hinterland of Novi Vinodolski, called as Krmpote, the Primorje Bunjevci were economically less powerful rural population and hence it had an attribution of "otherness" with negative connotation by urban citizens. Compared to Sveti Juraj they were more powerful and refused to call themselves Bunjevci because of such broad connotation and rather used "Planinari", and the citizens name "Seljari" had negative and mockery connotation by Bunjevci. In the territory from Krmpote to Sv. Marija Magdalena in North Dalmatia there also existed multilayered regional identities Primorci and Podgorci, local Krmpoćani, while the subethnic term Bunjevci loses identity on the boundary with Velebit Podgorje.The earliest mention of the ethnonym is argued to be in 1550 and 1561 when in Ottoman defter is recorded certain Martin Bunavacz in Baranja. However, the name was most probably erroneously transcribed. The earliest certain mention date from the early 17th century, for example in Bačka is from 1622 when was recorded parochia detta Bunieuzi nell' arcivescovato Colociense. In Venetian Dalmatia there was Nicola Bunieuaz, in Donje Moravice of Zrinski family was Manojlo Bunieuach, and in Slavonia Paval Bunyevacz and Nikola Bunjevac from Bosnia. Surname became also present in Orthodox community, denoting from their perspective somebody who came from a foreign, Catholic community. The ethnonym is also mentioned by Bishop of Senj, Martin Brajković, in 1702 whose recorded folk tradition knew for the existence of five ethnic identities which constitute the population of Lika and Krbava, one of them being Catholic Vlachs also known as Bunjevci. In 1712–1714 census of Lika and Krbava was recorded only one Bunieuacz, however the military government usually used alternative term Valachi Catolici, while Luigi Ferdinando Marsili called them Meerkroaten. Alberto Fortis in Viaggio in Dalmazia describing the Velebit recorded that the population was different from the earlier and called themselves as Bunjevci because they came from area of Buna in Bosnia and Herzegovina. 1828 writing by Colonel Ivan Murgić probably had the last original testimony of Lika-Primorje Bunjevci about their traditional identity, in which they said to be "We are hardworking brothers Bunjevci", while regarding confession always as "I am true Bunjevac". In general, the name came into common usage in literature and official documents only since the second half of the 18th and early 19th century.
The etymological derivation of their ethnonym is unknown. There are several theories about the origin of their name. The most common is that the name derives from the river Buna in central Herzegovina, however, although preserved in Littoral and mostly in Podunavlje branch folk oral tradition, linguists and historians generally dismiss such derivation. Another theory is that the name comes from the term Bunja, a traditional shepherd transhumance stone house in Dalmatia similar to Kažun in Istria, meaning people who live in such type of houses. Derivation from a Vlach personal name Bun/''Bunj deriving from Latin name Bonifacius is getting prominence recently. Other also propose pejorative nickname Obonjavci'' which is recorded since 1199 in Zadar probably meaning soldiers without order and discipline, and verb "buniti se".
History
Origins
According to modern ethnological studies, Bunjevci are a South Slavic people with some elements of non-Slavic ancestry, with partial Vlach-Arbanasi anthroponymy structure, originating from Vlach-Croatian ethnic symbiosis of Ikavian Chakavian/Chakavian-Shtokavian language group, with some similarities to Vlach-Montenegrin symbiosis, but both being more archaic and different from the Vlach-Serbian symbiosis of Ekavian/Jekavian-Shtokavian group. Although some scholars considered them as Slavicized Vlachs, such argumentation is poorly substantiated and misunderstanding the meaning of the term Vlach, as other scholars emphasize, they were Slavs and the term Vlach in the historical context of the 16th century did not mean some distinctive Romance ethnolinguistic identity, but an Ottoman social class which mostly included people who were not of Vlachian origin in strict sense. Bunjevci were not a separate ethnic group of Vlach-Romance origin, there's no evidence they ever spoke a Romance language, designated themselves as Vlachs or considered themselves as ethnically different from near Slavic-speaking people. The emergence of the identity of Bunjevci is related to the historical, social and confessional dichotomies and events related to the Ottoman period on the so-called Triplex Confinium.Some scholars consider that the area of origin could have been between rivers Buna in Herzegovina and Bunë in Albania, along with the Adriatic-Dinaric belt, seemingly encompassing the territory of the so-called Red Croatia, regardless of the issue whether the entity is historically founded, which was partly inhabited by Croats according to Byzantine sources from 11th and 12th century. However, the Buna thesis reached popularity more due to mythologization of the old legend rather than proper evidence and historical facts, being historically improbable. Based on modern historiographical studies and archival research, as well dialectological and confessional identity, Bunjevci originated from Western Herzegovina. The core of the Bunjevci was formed by the katuns or djamaats of Krmpote, Vojnići/Vojihnići and Sladovići recorded in 1477 as part of the Sanjak of Herzegovina. Some historians like Stjepan Pavičić and Mario Petrić consider they belonged to the broader population of Croatian Ikavian people living in the Dalmatian and Bosnian hinterland. Not all Catholic Vlachs in Croatia were of Bunjevci or Herzegovinian origin. Although initially in the Ottoman service, Bunjevci since the early 17th century had complex relations with Ottomans, Venetians and Habsburgs, regularly migrating and changing sides.
It is considered that from Western Herzegovina they emigrated to Dalmatia, where existed at least since the 1520s, and from there later to Bačka, as well as Lika, Primorje and Gorski Kotar. This with a political situation divided the community into four groups, Western Herzegovinian, Dalmatian, Lika-Primorje, and Podunavlje, although the ethnologists often consider the first two as one group from which other diverged.
In historical documents for them were also used alternative term Uskoks, Dalmatians, Catholic Vlachs/Morlachs, Catholic Rascians, Iliri, Horvati, Meerkroaten, Likaner, Raci or Illyrians. In the territory of Croatian Military Frontier complex ethnic-demographic integrations happened, with Ledenice being one of the earliest examples of Croatian-Vlach-Bunjevac integration when an anonymous priest from Senj in 1696 calls them as nostris Croatis, while captain Coronini in 1697 as Croati venturini, at the same time, chiefs of Zdunići in Ledenice emphasized their Krmpote ancestry. Contemporary sources describe them as "gente effrene", "natio bellicosissima" and "katolische Stamm".
Ottoman conquest and Habsburg Empire
The migrations to Dalmatia were influenced by Ottomans conquest in the late 15th and early 16th century. In parts west of river Krka in Northern Dalmatia of the then Sanjak of Klis, in 1636 roughly lived 13,700 Catholics who could be related to the Bunjevci.The first migration to Primorje is considered to have happened in 1605 when around 50 families from Krmpota near Zemunik settled in Lič near Fužine by Danilo Frankol, captain of Senj, in agreement with Nikola and Juraj Zrinski, and with several waves until 1647 settling in Lič, the hinterland of Senj, and some to Pag and Istria. Some also arrived during the Cretan War, and after the Ottomans' defeat in Lika, some littoral Bunjevci moved to settlements in Lika, like Pazarište, Smiljan, Gospićko field, Široka Kula, valley of Ričice and Hotuče. According to the common theory based on historical documents happened at least three big migrations to Podunavlje, although some probably already happened in the 16th century, first of 2,000 families from the beginning of the 17th century, second in the mid-17th century during Cretan War, and third during Great Turkish War. The Catholic Church in Subotica celebrates 1686 as the anniversary of the Bunjevac migration when the largest single migration did take place. As a sign of gratitude and soldiery, some foreign soldiers, inclusive Bunjevci, received land pastures and Austrian-Hungarian citizenship. Up to the present day, the descendants of these mercenaries have still the right to be citizens of Hungary.
The Austro-Hungarian censuses from 1869 onward to 1910 numbered the Bunjevci distinctly. They were referred to as "bunyevácok" or "dalmátok". In 1880 the Austro-Hungarian authorities listed in Subotica a total of 26,637 Bunjevci and 31,824 in 1892. In 1921 Bunjevci were registered by the Royal Yugoslav authorities as speakers of Serbian or Croatian – the city of Subotica had 60,699 speakers of Serbian or Croatian or 66.73% of the total city population. Allegedly, 44,999 or 49.47% were Bunjevci. In the 1931 population census of the Royal Yugoslav authorities, 43,832 or 44.29% of the total Subotica population were Bunjevci.
The Croat national identity was adopted by some Bunjevci in the late 19th and early 20th century, especially by the majority of the Bunjevac clergy, notably one of the titular bishops of Kalocsa, Ivan Antunović, supported the notion of calling Bunjevci and Šokci with the name Croats. Antunović, with journalist and ethnographer Ambrozije Šarčević, led Bunjevci national movement in the 19th century, and in 1880 was founded the Bunjevačka stranka, an indigenous political party, mostly concentrated on language rights, preservation, and ethnographic work. When their 1905 request for having police patrol and church services in Croatian was denied by Hungarian language policy, one group of 1,200 people converted to Orthodoxy.