Croatia
Croatia (i/kroʊˈeɪʃə/ kroh-ay-shə; Croatian: Hrvatska pronounced [xř̩ʋaːtskaː]), officially the Republic of Croatia (Croatian: Republika Hrvatska listen (help·info)), is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of Central Europe, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers 56,594 square kilometres (21,851 square miles) and has diverse, mostly continental and Mediterranean climates. Croatia's Adriatic Sea coast contains more than a thousand islands. The country's population is 4.28 million, most of whom are Croats, with the most common religious denomination being Roman Catholicism.
Croatia today has a very high Human Development Index. The International Monetary Fund classified Croatia as an emerging and developing economy, and the World Bank identified it as a high income economy. Croatia is a member of the United Nations, the Council of Europe, NATO, the World Trade Organization, CEFTA and a founding member of the Union for the Mediterranean. Croatia is an acceding state of the European Union, with full membership expected in July 2013. As an active participant in the UN peacekeeping forces, Croatia has contributed troops to the NATO-led mission in Afghanistan and took a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council for the 2008–2009 term.
The service sector dominates Croatia's economy, followed by the industrial sector and agriculture. Tourism is a significant source of revenue during the summer, with Croatia ranked the 18th most popular tourist destination in the world. The state controls a part of the economy, with substantial government expenditure. The European Union is Croatia's most important trading partner. Since 2000, the Croatian government has invested in infrastructure, especially transport routes and facilities along the Pan-European corridors. Internal sources produce a significant portion of energy in Croatia; the rest is imported. Croatia provides a universal health care system and free primary and secondary education, while supporting culture through numerous public institutions and through corporate investments in media and publishing. The nation prides itself in its cultural, artistic and scientific contributions to the world, as well as in its cuisine, wines and sporting achievements.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croatia
Croats
Croats (IPA: kroʊæt, kroʊɑt; Croatian: Hrvati) are a nation and South Slavic ethnic group mostly living in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and nearby countries. There are around 4 million Croats living inside Croatia and up to 4.5 million throughout the rest of the world.[1][2][3] Responding to political, social and economic pressure, many Croats have migrated throughout the world, and established a notable Croatian diaspora. Large Croat communities exists in the United States, Chile, Argentina, Germany, Austria, Australia, Peru, Canada, Hungary, Serbia, New Zealand and South Africa.
Croats are noted for their culture, which has been influenced by a number of other neighboring cultures through the ages. The strongest influences came from Central Europe and the Mediterranean where, at the same time, Croats have made their own contribution. The Croats are predominantly Catholic with minor groups of Muslims, Protestants, Orthodox, Jews and non-religious atheists and agnostics. Their language is Croatian.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croats
Croatian language
Croatian (hrvatski jezik) is a standardized register of the Serbo-Croatian language[3][4][5] used by Croats,[6] principally in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Serbian province of Vojvodina and other neighbouring countries. It is the official and literary language of Croatia and one of the official languages of Bosnia-Herzegovina, and neighboring countries.
Standard Croatian is based on the most widespread dialect of Serbo-Croatian, Shtokavian, more specifically on Eastern Herzegovinian, which is also the basis of Standard Serbian, Bosnian, and Montenegrin. The other Serbo-Croatian dialects spoken by Croats are Chakavian, Kajkavian, and Torlakian (by the Krashovani). These four dialects, and the four national standards, are usually subsumed under the term "Serbo-Croatian" in English, though this term is controversial for native speakers[7] and paraphrases such as "Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian" are therefore sometimes used instead, especially in diplomatic circles.
Standardization began in the period sometimes called "Baroque Slavism" in the first half of the 17th century,[8] while some authors date it back to the end of 15th century.[9] The modern Neo-Shtokavian standard that appeared in the mid 18th century was the first unified Croatian literary language.[10]
Croatian is written in Gaj's Latin alphabet.[11]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croatian_language
Croatian Proverbs
Advice
¶ Bog govori: pomozi si sam, pomoci cu ti.
Idiomatic translation: God helps those who help themselves.
References
Croats
[1]^ a b Daphne Winland (2004), "Croatian Diaspora", in Melvin Ember, Carol R. Ember, Ian Skoggard, Encyclopedia of Diasporas: Immigrant and Refugee Cultures Around the World. Volume I: Overviews and Topics; Volume II: Diaspora Communities 2 (illustrated ed.), Springer, p. 76, ISBN 9780306483219, "It is estimated that 4.5 million Croatians live outside Croatia (...)"
[2]^ a b c Hrvatski Svjetski Kongres, Croatian World Congress, "4.5 million Croats and people of Croatian heritage live outside of the Republic of Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina", also quoted here [1]
[3]^ a b [2] "...newly independent Croatia with a population of approximately four and a half million adopted citizenship law in 1993 that granted citizenship rights to ethnic Croatians abroad that number approximately 4 million people." - expert from the book National Minorities in Inter-State Relations
Croatian language
[3]^ David Dalby, Linguasphere (1999/2000, Linguasphere Observatory), pg. 445, 53-AAA-g, "Srpski+Hrvatski, Serbo-Croatian".
[4]^ Benjamin W. Fortson IV, Indo-European Language and Culture: An Introduction, 2nd ed. (2010, Blackwell), pg. 431, "Because of their mutual intelligibility, Serbian, Croatian, and Bosnian are usually thought of as constituting one language called Serbo-Croatian."
[5]^ Václav Blažek, "On the Internal Classification of Indo-European Languages: Survey" retrieved 20 Oct 2010, pp. 15–16.
[6]^ E.C. Hawkesworth, "Serbian-Croatian-Bosnian Linguistic Complex", in the Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, 2nd edition, 2006.
[7]^ Radio Free Europe – Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian, Or Montenegrin? Or Just 'Our Language'? Živko Bjelanović: Similar, But Different, Feb 21, 2009, accessed Oct 8, 2010
[8]^ Stjepan Krasić: Počelo je u Rimu – Katolička obnova i normiranje hrvatskoga jezika u XVII stoljeću, Matica hrvatska, Dubrovnik, 2009, ISBN 978-953-6316-76-2
[9]^ Stjepan Babić: Hrvatski jučer i danas, Školske novine, Zagreb, 1995, ISBN 953-160-052-X, p. 250
[10]^ Journal of Croatian studies (1986) 27-30:45
[11]^ "Croatia: Themes, Authors, Books | Yale University Library Slavic and East European Collection". Library.yale.edu. 2009-11-16. Retrieved 2010-10-27.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croatia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croats
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croatian_language