# Croatian (BCS): Šta



## Mac_Linguist

To my understanding, _što_ is the only form of the interrogative _what_ in Croatian. But I've heard many Croats and seen even some websites using _šta_!

Explain?


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## Athaulf

Mac_Linguist said:


> To my understanding, _što_ is the only form of the interrogative _what_ in Croatian. But I've heard many Croats and seen even some websites using _šta_!
> 
> Explain?



Actually, I've never heard anyone from any region of Croatia, Bosnia, or Serbia using _što_ with the meaning _what_ in natural colloquial speech. People use either _šta _or their regional  variants of _kaj_ or _ča_. _Što_ is  indeed the officially correct pronoun in Croatian, but it sounds totally formal and bookish. I guess you might hear it from Kajkavians and Chakavians who learned the standard Shtokavian only in school, but of course, this isn't the way they talk naturally. You'll certainly never hear it from actual born and bred Shtokavians (such as myself ), except of course in formal contexts. In fact, in Bosnia, _što_ is often used with an entirely different meaning -- as a shortened colloquial form of the interrogative _zašto_ (= _why_). 

I have no idea about what caused this discrepancy between the official standard and the everyday speech. Perhaps the pronoun mutated only in very recent history, after its old form had already been petrified in the standard.


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## !netko!

Hm, I actually always use "što", and I'm a born and bred Shtokavian (well born and bred standard language speaker, to be more precise). Most people around me use "šta", but it's never crossed my lips. I guess that's because my whole family use "što", and they really are born and bred (ikavian) Shtokavians... And it's not cause we talk in an uptight way: my family speaks in dialect a lot, and both them and I use slang...  

Does it really sound that weird and unnatural to you, Athaulf? I never really thought about it before...


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## Athaulf

!netko! said:


> Hm, I actually always use "što", and I'm a born and bred Shtokavian (well born and bred standard language speaker, to be more precise). Most people around me use "šta", but it's never crossed my lips. I guess that's because my whole family use "što", and they really are born and bred (ikavian) Shtokavians... And it's not cause we talk in an uptight way: my family speaks in dialect a lot, and both them and I use slang...
> 
> Does it really sound that weird and unnatural to you, Athaulf? I never really thought about it before...



I wouldn't say "unnatural", but rather strangely formal. But in the places where I've lived (Bosnia and Zagreb), it was really as I described. In Bosnia, where I was born and lived as a kid, _što_ was used in everyday speech only as a shortened form of _zašto_, and never as _what_. In Zagreb, where I also lived for a very long time,_ što_ was definitely perceived as totally bookish by everyone I knew (and in Zagreb, one normally meets people from all around the country on a regular basis). I remember that shortly after I had moved to Zagreb as a kid, I was told by a Zagrebian whom I asked for some language advice that I should use either _kaj_ or _šta_, and that _što_ sounds strangely formal in colloquial language. My later experiences definitely validated this advice.

I do know a handful of people who talk in a very bookish way, including the use of _što _(I talk back the same way when I speak to them). But their speech is definitely perceived by just about anyone I know as unusually formal and bookish.


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## !netko!

As I said already, I've never really thought about this much, but I guess I always presumed "šta" in modern Croatian is more of an urban thing... At least, many older people from the same-dialect region as my family, say "što"... Younger people, not so much... So, is the "što" in the speech of that region (at least its middle-aged and up inhabitants) endemic, is it a remnant of how people used to speak in a much wider area, or did those people originally use to say "šta" before standard-language education rubbed off on their way of talking?   Hm, I'm a bit confused now...


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## Athaulf

!netko! said:


> As I said already, I've never really thought about this much, but I guess I always presumed "šta" in modern Croatian is more of an urban thing... At least, many older people from the same-dialect region as my family, say "što"... Younger people, not so much... So, is the "što" in the speech of that region (at least its middle-aged and up inhabitants) endemic, is it a remnant of how people used to speak in a much wider area, or did those people originally use to say "šta" before standard-language education rubbed off on their way of talking?   Hm, I'm a bit confused now...



I'm pretty sure that _što_ is indeed the older form of the interrogative. It could be that there are still regions where _što_ is the actual local dialectal form. (Which regions are you referring to, by the way?) I don't think that anyone ever started using _što _instead of_ šta _because of the standard-language education, except for people who choose to sound altogether bookish. _Što_ is being used in education throughout the country, and it isn't having much impact on people who use _šta _naturally.


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## el_tigre

In major part of Dalmatia they island people use što/šta randomly.
In western Pelješac and Korčula (chakavian speaking region) they use *što* instead of *ča* , but never *šta* !!


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## tkekte

Boris Yeltsin always said šta.


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## Emmanon82

tkekte said:


> Boris Yeltsin always said šta.


Do you know why?


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## tkekte

Maybe he learned to speak urban Croatian under vodka's influence.


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## JoelBackman

Бог да го прости.
God forgive him.


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## ienne

In Russian the interrogative word WHAT sounds like _šta_ but is written чto.
In Croatian_ što_ is usually pronounced _šta_ because people do not use formal language that much in speech nowadays.
Standard Croatian doesnt use šta in writing unless it is used on purpose to portray the speech of people who use colloquialisms, let's say in a novel or on TV , the news, etc.


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## Emmanon82

No, in Russian _what _normallysounds _shto_. Imo, Yeltsin`s _shta _was his own innovation  or a  kind of Russian dialect...


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## ienne

Well that's exactly what Croats innovate because it is easier to say šta (shta) than što (shto), exactly my point.  
 in Croatian spelling it is što (shto)  not šta (shta) but still almost everyone pronounces it shta or šta.


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## vput

I can deduce a certain trend here. Athaulf being a Bosnian Croat noted that 'što' for 'what' is very rare outside formal contexts among Croats (and indeed has a different meaning with Bosnians and Serbs) while el tigre living on the Dalmatian coast (perhaps one of the islands?) noted that people living on Korcula and western Peljesac never use 'šta'. I'm starting to think that 'šta' was a feature typical of Bosnians and Serbs, and its frequency originally decreased the further west one went from Bosnia and Serbia. 

Perhaps during standardization in the 19th century it was decreed either by the Illyrians or Maretic that standard Croatian would use 'što' even though some Croats were already using 'šta' like their neighbours to the east. For sure it seems odd that all foreigners learn that one of the distinguishing marks (among many others) of Croatian versus Bosnian and Serbian is the Croatian use of 'što' for 'šta', even though a brief observation of a Croatian conversation and these posts suggests otherwise.


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## ienne

People from the capital of Croatia who never lived on the Dalmatian coast nor in Bosnia also say shta in a colloquial speech because it does not require as much effort as shto. It is easier to pronounce A than O. 
Although they would never use it in writing, they tend to use šta rather than što.


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## ServusEtSclavus

In Montenegro, people always say _što_, and they still formally speak Serbian, so it's not a good criterion for making a distinction between Serbian and Croat (if any can be made). My guess is that _što_ is more widely used along the coast line, and _šta_ is preferred in the continental parts of the Serbian/Bosnian/Croat(/Montenegrin/Herzegovinian-why not?) language territory. Any thoughts?


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## ienne

Almost everyone born in Zagreb, almost all urban citizens, when they do not wish to sound strictly formal and extremely educated or pompous say ŠTA in everyday speech. Zagreb is the capital of Croatia. They would never use that in writing though but rather ŠTO.


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## Maja

In Serbia, "što" is only used as abbreviation of  "zašto" (why, what for). Otherwise, what (as a pron and relat pron) is  "šta"!


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## Duya

Maja said:


> In Serbia, "što" is only used as abbreviation of  "zašto" (why, what for). Otherwise, what (as a pron and relat pron) is  "šta"!



No. "Št*o*" is used as a relative pronoun across entire štokavian area (e.g. _ono što sam rekao_). "Ono št*a* sam rekao" is really dialectal and heavily substandard.

The diference of što/šta comes only when it's used as an interrogative pronoun.


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## Maja

Duya said:


> No. "Št*o*" is used as a relative pronoun across entire štokavian area (e.g. _ono što sam rekao_). "Ono št*a* sam rekao" is really dialectal and heavily substandard.



Yes, you are right, I should not have said "only". There are situation in  which usage of "šta" instead of "što" would be strange and vice versa.  Like:
- kaži nam *šta* si čuo;
- pokazaću vam *šta* sam dobio.


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## Duya

Hm. The _interrogative_ application of šta I posted above should have been taken in a wider sense, i.e. whenever the meaning (rather than form) is inquiring. However, your second sentence "pokazaću vam *šta* sam dobio" makes me wonder -- is  not interrogative by any stretch of imagination. 

I suppose that, rather, što/šta difference (in dialects that have it) depends whether it's an anchor (head) of a noun phrase (in which case *šta* is required, as in your last sentence) or it's another noun or pronoun (when *što* is used, as in my example _ono što sam rekao_, or _sve što znam_). 

That (new) little theory of mine   also fails on sentences like _št*o* je bilo--bilo je,_ which I'll ascribe to idiomatic use .

In sum, I'd say that vast majority of štokavian speakers _knows_ when to use što and when šta correctly (I really seldom hear counterexamples, and they would certainly hurt my ears), but I find it difficult to _explain. _A grammar book, anyone?


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## miss_anna_murray

It's really not easy to explain, formally it should me 'što', BUT I think 'šta' camed into everyones ears already. I can catch my Croatian teacher when she is saying 'šta', and it's not incorrect....


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## Athaulf

Duya said:


> I suppose that, rather, što/šta difference (in dialects that have it) depends whether it's an anchor (head) of a noun phrase (in which case *šta* is required, as in your last sentence) or it's another noun or pronoun (when *što* is used, as in my example _ono što sam rekao_, or _sve što znam_).
> 
> That (new) little theory of mine   also fails on sentences like _št*o* je bilo--bilo je,_ which I'll ascribe to idiomatic use .



I would guess that it's not idiomatic use in the sense of an archaic form that survived in an idiomatic form, but rather an elision of the pronoun that was supposed to be the head of the noun phrase. The expression _što je bilo, bilo je_ sounds to me like a contracton of _*to* što je bilo, bilo je_ (this latter form is also heard occasionally). The same goes for other similar expressions -- _što si napravio, napravio si_; _što je htio, to je i dobio_; etc.


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## slavic_one

Athaulf said:


> Actually, I've never heard anyone from any region of Croatia, Bosnia, or Serbia using _što_ with the meaning _what_ in natural colloquial speech. People use either _šta _or their regional  variants of _kaj_ or _ča_. _Što_ is  indeed the officially correct pronoun in Croatian, but it sounds totally formal and bookish. I guess you might hear it from Kajkavians and Chakavians who learned the standard Shtokavian only in school, but of course, this isn't the way they talk naturally. You'll certainly never hear it from actual born and bred Shtokavians (such as myself ), except of course in formal contexts. In fact, in Bosnia, _što_ is often used with an entirely different meaning -- as a shortened colloquial form of the interrogative _zašto_ (= _why_).
> 
> I have no idea about what caused this discrepancy between the official standard and the everyday speech. Perhaps the pronoun mutated only in very recent history, after its old form had already been petrified in the standard.



I always try to say 'što' and teach others to say that too, not 'šta'! I don't know from where that 'šta' came from, but it's not official at all! And I really don't know where you live when you never heard 'što'. 
The only reason I see is because of pronouncing word 'što' it's more common for position of mouth to say 'a' after 't' than 'o'! And it sometimes may sounded like 'šta' or even more like Russian unstressed 'o' (like in word страшно for example) so people accept word 'šta' as easier to say than 'što'! But don't teach people wrong, because 'što' is the right word like it or not!



JoelBackman said:


> Бог да го прости.



hahahaha


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## slavic_one

And one more thing.. I sometimes (in a fast speaking) say only 'šo' or 'ša' and i'm sure you can hear that from other people as well! But please don't take it as a correct!


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## ienne

Yes. My friend used to say _šooo?_ a lot as some sort of_ popular_ youth _collloquial speech_  that was supposed to be _fun_ or original or something like that. It meant _što?_. I had never heard it before and that was some 10-15 years ago until several months ago when I saw one _Serbian_ movie on TV called _We Are Not Angels _ _(Mi nismo anđeli) _ dealing with youth and their lifestyles, where one of the female protagonists was using the same elliptical form of that particular question word all the time as an expression form of her surprise and astonishment. She was not speaking fast. She was _drawling_.


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## slavic_one

Savudin Šimširpašić in Audicija - "šoooooooo???!!" hahaha


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