A New York City linguist is giving hope to a dying language in Croatia.<\/p>\n
Zvjezdana Vrzic is originally from Croatia, and grew up in a household with Vlashki roots. The historical homeland of the Vlashki language<\/a> (also known as Istro-Romanian) is the Istrian Peninsula in Croatia\u2019s north-west. The language has been dying out since World War II, when emigration made the population smaller. <\/p>\n Vrzic initiated a project to save the language after she became a professor at New York University and connected with the community of Vlashki speakers in the city. <\/p>\n “I want to create a digital archive — a regional digital archive — where all the materials available on the language, including those that I’m collecting myself, will be deposited,” Vrzic says. “[I want to create] an archive that will become available to the community members. And I’m kind of bringing a different angle to it by making it very technologically-inspired.” (Source: Radio Free Europe<\/a>)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Crucially, Vrzic realises that to save the language, the community needs to work to revitalise it. And it seems Vrzic has had some success \u2013 in Croatia her team is working with locals to plan a Vlashki heritage centre and has already organised well-attended language workshops. <\/p>\n