Pretvorba hrvatskog iz crkvenog u književni jezik
Transition of Croatian from Liturgical to Literary Language (Analysis of the Use of Theological and Literary Terms by Šiško Menčetić and Džore Držić)

Summary/Abstract: Unlike Italian or French, heirs of the rich Latin theological and cultural terms, Croatian of the early Middle Ages was a barbarous language spoken by a number of tribes which converted to Christianity to become a kingdom and a nation. So the new religion was obliged to coin many terms for ecclesiastic use as the mass in Croatia was celebrated in Old Slavic, not in Latin which was not commonly understood. This started a rivalry between Latin and Old Slavic in the area of theology and liturgy, which ended in the 15th e. with the victory of Latin, and the Old Slavic mass was driven out of the coastal cities to rural areas. A number of theological terms were set free and became ready for use in a Croatian language literature which unexpectedly blossomed...

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