40-Minute Croatian

Croatian () is a South Slavic language which is used primarily in Croatia, by Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina, by Croatian minorities in some neighbouring countries, in the Italian region of Molise, and parts of the Croatian diaspora worldwide.

Standard Croatian is dialectally based on the Western ?tokavian dialect with the Ijekavian reflex of the Common Slavic yat vowel. The Croatian linguistic area encompasses two other major dialects, ?akavian and Kajkavian, which contribute lexically to the standard language. It is written with the Croatian alphabet, based on the Latin alphabet. Along with Serbian and Bosnian, Croatian belongs to the Central South Slavic diasystem (also referred to as "Serbo-Croatian").

Knji?evni (hrvatski) jezik (literally: (Croatian) book language ) is a common phrase that is used for Standard Croatian (both written and spoken). Knji?evni jezik (literally: book language) is a common phrase for any standard language.

The modern Croatian standard language is a continuous outgrowth of more than nine hundred years of literature written in a mixture of Croatian Church Slavonic and the vernacular language. Croatian Church Slavonic was abandoned by the mid-15th century, and Croatian as embodied in a purely vernacular literature (Croatian literature) has existed for more than five centuries.

Croatia (; ), officially the Republic of Croatia (Croatian: Republika Hrvatska ), is a country in central and southeastern Europe, at the crossroads of the Pannonian Plain, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean Sea. Its capital (and largest city) is Zagreb. Croatia borders Slovenia and Hungary to the north, Bosnia and Herzegovina to the southeast, and Serbia and Montenegro to the east.

The Croats arrived in the early seventh century in what is Croatia today. They organized the state into two dukedoms. The first king, King Tomislav was crowned in AD 925 and Croatia was elevated into the status of a kingdom. The Kingdom of Croatia retained its sovereignty for almost two centuries, reaching its peak during the rule of Kings Peter Kre?imir IV and Demetrius Zvonimir. Croatia entered a union with Hungary in 1102. In 1526, the Croatian Parliament elected Ferdinand from the House of Habsburg to the Croatian throne. In 1918, Croatia declared independence from Austria?Hungary and co-founded the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. After World War II, Croatia became a founding member of the Second Yugoslavia. On 25 June 1991, Croatia declared independence and became a sovereign state.

Croatia is a member of the United Nations, the Council of Europe, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, NATO, the World Trade Organization, CEFTA, and is an elected member of the UN Security Council for the 2008?09 term. The country is a candidate for European Union membership and is a founding member of the Union for the Mediterranean. Croatia is classified as an emerging and developing economy by the International Monetary Fund and a high income economy by the World Bank.

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|Category: File - :Main street-Dubrovnik-2.jpg|right|150px|thumb|Stradun, Dubrovnik's main street

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|Category: File - :Old City, Dubrovnik.jpg|thumb|right|150px|Rooftops in Dubrovnik's Old City, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

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|Category: File - :Dubrovnik-F.Tudjman-Bridge.jpg|thumb|right|150px|Dubrovnik bridge of Franjo Tu?man and the Port of Gru?

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|Category: File - :Onofrio's Fountain, Dubrovnik, Croatia.JPG|thumb|right|150px|Onofrio's Fountain

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|Category: File - :Sponza Palace-Dubrovnik-4.jpg|thumb|right|150px|Rector's Palace

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|Category: File - :Forteresse de Dubrovnik.jpg|thumb|right|150px|Min?eta Tower

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Dubrovnik () (Italian, Ragusa), is a Croatian city on the Adriatic Sea coast in the extreme south of Dalmatia, positioned at the terminal end of the Isthmus of Dubrovnik. It is one of the most prominent tourist destinations on the Adriatic, a seaport and the center of Dubrovnik-Neretva county. Its population was 43,770 in 2001City of Dubrovnik. Dubrovnik.hr. Retrieved July 2, 2007. down from 49,728 in 1991.Dubrovnik. History.com Encyclopedia. Retrieved July 2, 2007. In 1979, the city of Dubrovnik joined the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites.

The prosperity of the city of Dubrovnik has always been based on maritime trade. In the Middle Ages, as the Republic of Ragusa, also known as the fifth Maritime Republic (together with Amalfi, Pisa, Genoa and Venice), it became the only eastern Adriatic city-state to rival Venice. Supported by its wealth and skilled diplomacy, the city achieved a remarkable level of development, particularly during the 15th and 16th centuries.

Although demilitarized in 1970s with a purpose to prevent it from war devastation forever,

in 1991 after the breakup of Yugoslavia it was besieged by Serb-Montenegrin forces for 7 months and heavily damaged by bombing.