Molise Croats are Croatian subgroup, found in the Molise region of Italy. They form majority in the villages Acquaviva, San Felice del Molise and Montemitro. There are about 1.700 speakers of Molise Croatian in these villages. Additionally, there are about 1.000 people in other parts of Italy in emigrants in other countries originating from these villages.

Of all the members most speak Italian, along with Molise Croatian, and some know literary Croatian. Molise Croatian has some connections to Croatian, and is considered to be a diaspora language due to the many differences.

They have not been influenced by the romantic nationalism of the 19th century, so they have come to refer to their language merely as "Slavic". There has been some controversy as to whether they are Molise Croats or Molise Serbs. Currently they are generally considered to be Croatian rather than Serbian.

See also

• Molise Croatian dialect

External links

• The Croatian minority in Italy (http://www.uoc.edu/euromosaic/web/document/croat/fr/i2/i2.html)
• Mundimitar/Montemitro municipality (http://www.mundimitar.it/)
• Molise Croatian (http://www.helsinki.fi/~tasalmin/europe_report.html#MCroatian)
• Molise Croatian-in Italian (http://www.uniud.it/cip/min_tutelate_scheda.htm#2)