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Bunjevci (Буњевци, ; Буњевац, Буњевка) are a South Slavs sub-ethnic group of Croats living mostly in the Bačka area of northern Serbia and southern Hungary (Bács-Kiskun County), particularly in Baja and surroundings, in Croatia (e.g. Primorje-Gorski Kotar County, Lika-Senj County, Slavonia, Split-Dalmatia County, Vukovar-Srijem County), and in Bosnia-Herzegovina. They originate from Western Herzegovina. As a result of the Ottoman conquest, some of them migrated to Dalmatia, from there to Lika and the Croatian Littoral, and in the 17th century to the Bácska area of Hungary.
Bunjevci who remained in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as those in modern Croatia today, maintain that designation chiefly as a regional identity, and declare as ethnic Croats. Those who emigrated to Hungary underwent an extensive process of integration and assimilation. In the 18th and 19th century they made up a significant part of the population of Bačka. The government of Hungary considers the Bunjevac community to be part of the Croatian minority.
Bunjevci in Serbia and Hungary are split between those who see themselves as a Croatian sub-ethnic group ( bunjevački Hrvati) and those who identify themselves as a distinct ethnic group with their own language. The latter are represented in Serbia by the Bunjevac National Council, and the former by the Croat National Council.
Bunjevci are mainly Catholic and the majority still speaks Neo-Shtokavian Younger Ikavian dialect of the Serbo-Croatian pluricentric language with certain archaic characteristics. Within the Bunjevac community and between Serbia and Croatia, there is an unresolved political identity conflict regarding ethnicity and nationality of Bunjevci and an ongoing language battle over the status of the Bunjevac speech as well.
The earliest mention of the ethnonym is argued to be in 1550 and 1561 when in Ottoman defter is recorded certain Martin Bunavacz in Baranja. However, the name was most probably erroneously transcribed (Ottoman's rarely recorded surname, being rather his father's name, which itself is possibly Dunavacz). The earliest certain mention date from the early 17th century, for example in Bačka is from 1622 when was recorded parochia detta Bunieuzi nell' arcivescovato Kalocsa. In Venetian Dalmatia there was Nicola Bunieuaz (1662, 1680), in Donje Moravice of Zrinski family was Manojlo Bunieuach (1670), and in Slavonia Paval Bunyevacz (1697) and Nikola Bunjevac (1698) from Bosnia. Surname became also present in Orthodox community, denoting from their perspective somebody who came from a foreign, Catholic community. The ethnonym is also mentioned by Bishop of Senj, Martin Brajković, in 1702 whose recorded folk tradition knew for the existence of five ethnic identities which constitute the population of Lika and Krbava, one of them being Catholic Vlachs also known as Bunjevci ( Valachi Bunyevacz). In 1712–1714 census of Lika and Krbava was recorded only one Bunieuacz (Vid Modrich), however the military government usually used alternative term Valachi Catolici, while Luigi Ferdinando Marsili called them Meerkroaten (Littoral Croats). Alberto Fortis in Viaggio in Dalmazia ("Journey to Dalmatia") describing the Velebit ( Montagne della Morlacca) recorded that the population was different from the earlier and called themselves as Bunjevci because they came from area of Buna in Bosnia and Herzegovina. 1828 writing by Colonel Ivan Murgić probably had the last original testimony of Lika-Primorje Bunjevci about their traditional identity, in which they said to be "We are hardworking brothers Bunjevci", while regarding (Catholic) confession always as "I am true Bunjevac". In general, the name came into common usage in literature and official documents only since the second half of the 18th and early 19th century.
The etymological derivation of their ethnonym is unknown. There are several theories about the origin of their name. The most common is that the name derives from the river Buna in central Herzegovina, however, although preserved in Littoral and mostly in Podunavlje branch folk oral tradition, linguists and historians generally dismiss such derivation. Another theory is that the name comes from the term Bunja, a traditional shepherd transhumance stone houseZbornik za narodni život i običaje južnih slavena, JAZU, 1986 in Dalmatia similar to Kažun in Istria, meaning people who live in such type of houses. Derivation from a Vlach personal name Bun/ Bunj deriving from Latin name Bonifacius (with related Slavic names Bunjo, Bunjak, Bunjac, Bunac, Bunoje, Bunilo, Bunislav, Bunuš; Vlach clans of Bunčić, Bunović, and Bunuševci) is getting prominence recently. Other also propose pejorative nickname Obonjavci which is recorded since 1199 in Zadar probably meaning soldiers without order and discipline, and verb "buniti se" (to protest).
Some scholars consider that the area of origin could have been between rivers Buna in Herzegovina and Bunë in Albania, along with the Adriatic-Dinaric belt (south Dalmatia and its hinterland, Boka Kotorska Bay, the coast of Montenegro and a part of its hinterland), seemingly encompassing the territory of the so-called Red Croatia, regardless of the issue whether the entity is historically founded, which was partly inhabited by Croats according to Byzantine sources from 11th and 12th century. However, the Buna thesis reached popularity more due to mythologization of the old legend rather than proper evidence and historical facts, being historically improbable. Based on modern historiographical studies and archival research, as well dialectological and confessional identity, Bunjevci originated from Western Herzegovina (lands east of river Cetina and west of river Neretva). The core of the Bunjevci was formed by the katuns or of Krmpote, Vojnići/Vojihnići and Sladovići recorded in 1477 as part of the Sanjak of Herzegovina. Some historians like Stjepan Pavičić and Mario Petrić consider they belonged to the broader population of Croatian Ikavian people living in the Dalmatian and Bosnian hinterland. Not all Catholic Vlachs in Croatia were of Bunjevci or Herzegovinian origin. Although initially in the Ottoman service, Bunjevci since the early 17th century had complex relations with Ottomans, Venetians and Habsburgs, regularly migrating and changing sides.
It is considered that from Western Herzegovina they emigrated to Dalmatia, where existed at least since the 1520s, and from there later to Bačka, as well as Lika, Primorje and Gorski Kotar. This with a political situation divided the community into four groups, Western Herzegovinian (Ottoman), Dalmatian (Venetian), Lika-Primorje (Habsburg), and Podunavlje (Hungarian), although the ethnologists often consider the first two as one group (broad Dalmatian) from which other diverged.
In historical documents for them were also used alternative term Uskoks, , Catholic Vlachs/Morlachs (Catholische Walahen, Morlachi chatolici), Catholic Rascians (Rasciani Catolichi, the term had transconfessional meaning), Iliri, Horvati, Meerkroaten, Likaner, Illyrians. In the territory of Croatian Military Frontier complex ethnic-demographic integrations happened, with Ledenice being one of the earliest examples of Croatian-Vlach-Bunjevac integration when an anonymous priest from Senj in 1696 calls them as nostris Croatis, while captain Coronini in 1697 as Croati venturini, at the same time (1693), chiefs of Zdunići in Ledenice emphasized their Krmpote ancestry. Contemporary sources describe them as "gente effrene", "natio bellicosissima" and "katolische Stamm".
The first migration to Primorje is considered to have happened in 1605 when around 50 families from Krmpote near Zemunik Donji settled in Lič near Fužine by Danilo Frankol, captain of Senj, in agreement with Nikola and Juraj Zrinski, (2025). 9789533310596, Sveučilište u Zadru, Centar za istraživanje krša i priobalja, Odjel za geografiju, Hrvatsko geografsko društvo Zadar. ISBN 9789533310596 and with several waves until 1647 settling in Lič, the hinterland of Senj (Ledenice, Krmpote – Sv. Jakov, Krivi Put, Senjska draga), and some to Pag and Istria. Some also arrived during the Cretan War (1645–1669), and after the Ottomans' defeat in Lika (1683–1687), some littoral Bunjevci moved to settlements in Lika, like Pazarište, Smiljan, Gospićko field, Široka Kula, valley of Ričice and Hotuče. According to the common theory based on historical documents happened at least three big migrations to Podunavlje, although some probably already happened in the 16th century, first of 2,000 families from the beginning of the 17th century (1608, without Franciscan friars), second in the mid-17th century during Cretan War, and third during Great Turkish War (1683–1699). The Catholic Church in Subotica celebrates 1686 as the anniversary of the Bunjevac migration when the largest single migration did take place. As a sign of gratitude and soldiery, some foreign soldiers (mostly unpaid frontiersmen), inclusive Bunjevci, received land pastures and Austrian-Hungarian citizenship. Up to the present day, the descendants of these mercenaries have still the right to be citizens of Hungary.
The Austro-Hungarian censuses from 1869 onward to 1910 numbered the Bunjevci distinctly. They were referred to as "bunyevácok" or "dalmátok" (in the 1890 census). In 1880 the Austro-Hungarian authorities listed in Subotica a total of 26,637 Bunjevci and 31,824 in 1892. In 1921 Bunjevci were registered by the Royal Yugoslav authorities as speakers of Serbian or Croatian – the city of Subotica had 60,699 speakers of Serbian or Croatian or 66.73% of the total city population. Allegedly, 44,999 or 49.47% were Bunjevci. In the 1931 population census of the Royal Yugoslav authorities, 43,832 or 44.29% of the total Subotica population were Bunjevci.
The Croat national identity was adopted by some Bunjevci in the late 19th and early 20th century, especially by the majority of the Bunjevac clergy, notably one of the of Kalocsa, Ivan Antunović (1815–1888), supported the notion of calling Bunjevci and Šokci with the name Croats. Antunović, with journalist and ethnographer Ambrozije Šarčević (1820–1899), led Bunjevci national movement in the 19th century, and in 1880 was founded the Bunjevačka stranka ("the Bunjevac party"), an indigenous political party, mostly concentrated on language rights, preservation, and ethnographic work. When their 1905 request for having police patrol and church services in Croatian was denied by Hungarian language policy, one group of 1,200 people converted to Orthodoxy.
Between the World Wars, the national dispute included pro-Bunjevci, pro-Croatian, and pro-Serbian position. As Bunjevci were mostly supporters of the Croatian Peasant Party, and the ethnic boundary between Serbs and Croats was established on confessional line, they naturally felt closer to Croats. During the late World War II, Partisan General Božidar Maslarić spoke on the national councils in Sombor and Subotica on 6 November 1944 and General Ivan Rukavina on Christmas in Tavankut in the name of the Communist Party about the Croatdom of the Bunjevci. After 1945, in SFR Yugoslavia the census of 1948 did not officially recognize the Bunjevci (nor Šokci), and instead merged their data with the Croats, even if a person would self-declare as a Bunjevac or Šokac. However, local schools used the Serbian version of Serbo-Croatian in Latin script, while during the 1990s even in Cyrillic script, policy interpreted as an attempt to assimilate them into the Serbian culture. There are different opinions about the historical context of the content of document "Dekret 1945".
Proponents of a distinct Bunjevac ethnicity regard this time as another dark period of encroachment on their identity and feel that this assimilation did not help in the preservation of their language. The censuses of 1953 and 1961 also listed all declared Bunjevci as Croats. The 1971 population census listed the Bunjevci separately under the municipal census in Subotica upon the personal request of the organization of Bunjevci in Subotica. It listed 14,892 Bunjevci or 10.15% of the population of Subotica. Despite this, the provincial and federal authorities listed the Bunjevci as Croats, together with the Šokci and considered them that way officially at all occasions. In 1981 the Bunjevci made a similar request – it showed 8,895 Bunjevci or 5.7% of the total population of Subotica. Robert Skenderović emphasizes that already before 1918 and the Communist rule, Bunjevci have made strong efforts to be recognized as part of the Croatian people. Many, on an example of Donji Tavankut, also declared as Yugoslavs.
The national councils receive funds from the state and province to finance their own governing body, cultural, and educational organisations. The level of funding for the National Councils depends on the results of a census, in which the Serbian citizens can register and self-declare as belonging to a state-recognized minority of their choice. In the results of census taking is a disagreement between real ethnicity and declared ethnicity. Most people, who declare that they belong to a specific ethnic/minority group, have come already for centuries from families with mixed family backgrounds (e.g. mixed marriages between different nationalities/ethnicities, interreligious marriages).
In the former Yugoslavia, Bunjevci were, along with Šokci, registered as the subcategory of Croatian ethnicity. Beginning in the late 1980s in Vojvodina, attempts were made to separate these two subcategories into distinct ethnicities, leading to a change in choices for ethnic affiliation in the 1991 Yugoslavian census. According to Kameda (2013), the categories of Bunjevac and Šokac were introduced for the purpose of reducing the number of Croatian population inside Serbia. Bunjevci were officially recognized as a separate ethnic group at the start of 1991. In 1991 census lived 74,808 Croats, and 21,434 Bunjevci in Vojvodina, while in the district of Subotica, there were approximately equal numbers of declared Croats and Bunjevci: 16,369 and 17,439. In the administrative area of the city of Subotica region, there were 13,553 Bunjevci and 14,151 in 2011. The historically Bunjevac village of Donji Tavankut had 1,234 Croats, 787 Bunjevci, 190 Serbs and 137 declared as Yugoslavs. A 1996 survey by the local government in Subotica found that in the community, 94% of declared Croats agreed that Bunjevci were part of the Croatian nation, while 39% of declared Bunjevci supported this view.
In the results of the 2022 census of the Republic of Serbia: 39,107 Croats are registered, of which the census methodology has not made a subdivision of percentage respondents identifying themselves as Bunjevac Croats. According to the same census, there are 11,104 citizens who have registered as Bunjevac, of which the results do not indicate how much respondents of these citizens considered themselves as sub-ethnic group of the Croatian people or as separate ethnicity, in conjunction with their belief of being a distinct Bunjevac people.
It has been argued that they are Croats, Serbs, and yet another as a fourth nation of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes among the South Slavic nations. In the period between 1920 and 1930 and again in 1940, there were three types of manipulation to neutralize their Croatian nationality, primarily emphasizing their ethnic distinctiveness from both the Croats and Serbs, that can be both Croats and Serbs or it's unimportant because both are Yugoslavs, and open denial of their ethnicity and religious belonging considering that Bunjevci and Šokci are Serbs of the Catholic faith. The third was argued by Serbian academic elite, including Aleksa Ivić, Radivoj Simonović, Jovan Erdeljanović among others. Some Croatian authors reject these point of view as unfounded.
Following the breakup of Yugoslavia, the Bunjevac community was, during the regime of Slobodan Milošević (a follower of the Greater Serbia ideology), officially granted the status of autochthonous people in 1996. In the 1990s many Croats declared themselves as Bunjevac in order to avoid social stigma, which increased the number of self-declared Bunjevci. The self-declaration of Bunjevac was also aided by grass-roots demands for a separate Bunjevac nation.
In early 2005, the Bunjevac issue ( bunjevačko pitanje) was again popularized when the Vojvodina government decided to allow the official use of the Štokavian dialect with ikavian pronunciation " bunjevac speech with elements of national culture" (Bunjevački govor s elementima nacionalne kulture) MINLANG (2015)20rev 3rd Evaluation Report Serbia for plenary – Coe. The subject 'Mother tongue with elements of National Culture' is arranged by the national minorities in Serbia in schools in the first year in Cyrillic script and in the following school years in Latin script. This was protested by the Serbian Bunjevac Croat community as an attempt of the government to widen the rift between the Bunjevac communities. They favour integration, regardless of whether some people declared themselves distinct, because minority group rights (such as the right to use a minority language) are applied based on the number of members of the minority. As opposed to this, supporters of pro-Bunjevci option are accused Croats for attempts to assimilate Bunjevci. In 2011, Bunjevac pro-Yugoslav politician Blaško Gabrić and Bunjevac National Council, asked Serbian authorities to start juristic criminal responsibility procedure against those Croat minorities who are denying the existence of Bunjevci being an ethnicity, which is, according to them, violation of laws and constitution of the Republic of Serbia.
Since 2006, some people of the Hungarian Bunjevac community and political activists, who are collaborating with the Serbian Bunjevac National Council, attempted to gain recognition as a separate ethnic group, but those initiatives have been rejected by the government, based on the opinion of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, who consider them part of the Croatian minority.
The former president of Serbia, Tomislav Nikolić, stated in 2013 that Bunjevci are "You are neither Serbs nor Croats, but an authentic Slavic nation, ..." The Croat National Council and Croatian MEPs responded critical to his statement, stating that the Serbian government is encouraging the division of the Croatian minority into Bunjevci and Šokci, and favouring those Bunjevci who do not declare themselves to be Croats. Until 2016 the Bunjevac National Council believed that Bunjevci presumably originate from Dacia and then added to support their claim that they are not part of the Croatian Nation.
In late September 2021, president of Croatia, Zoran Milanović, stated that "Croatia considers the Bunjevac community to be Croats". The Bunjevac National Council responded harshly to his statement, stating that Bunjevci have been living in Subotica for 350 years and that the difference between Bunjevci and Croats, according to their opinion, is attested in historical sources.
Today, both major parts of the community (the pro-independent Bunjevac one and the pro-Croatian one) continue to consider themselves ethnology as Bunjevci, although each subscribing to its own interpretation of the term. The government of Serbia implemented two laws to protect the minority rights of the divided Bunjevac community:
1. Croatian minority (Bunjevci, Croats, Šokci) in the Republic of Serbia: " Pursuant to the law on the Rights and liberty of national minorities (adopted by the Assembly of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, on 26 February 2002), the Croat national minority was guaranteed, for the first time ever, the status of minority. Although they carry several regional and sub-ethnic names (e.g. "Bunjevci" and "Šokci"), Croats in Vojvodina constitute an integral part of the Croatian people, who in the capacity of an autochthone people reside in the parts of the Srijem of the Vojvodina province, in the Banat and the Bačka region, but also in a significant number in Belgrade. From the historical perspective, this population, in its overwhelming number, has been for centuries an indigenous population."
2. Bunjevac minority in the Republic of Serbia: " The constituting session of the Bunjevac National Minority Council was held on 14 June 2010 in Subotica. By the Ministry of Human and Minority Rights of the Republic of Serbia document No. 290-212-00-10/2010-06 of 26 July 2010 Bunjevac National Minority Council was entered into the national council register."
However, many Bunjevci questioned the new categorization and continued to identify themselves not as a distinct ethnicity from Croatian but simply as Yugoslav, or, as a part of Croatian ethnicity in the frame of "Vojvodina Croats" (which includes Šokci).
In summary, we can say that people nowaday, who prefer to identify themselves as Bunjevac or Bunjevac-Croat, have already come from ethnically mixed families for generations. Up to the present day, historical events are still influencing public opinion and media, demographic movements, politics of national identity of different ethnic/minority groups, language politics, and citizenship.
Croatia considers the Bunjevac community an integral part of the Croatian nation, even though they live in the diaspora (e.g. Serbia and Hungary).
The Republic of Serbia is using a " segregated model of multiculturalism". In Serbia, Bunjevci live in AP Vojvodina, mostly in the northern part of Bačka region. The community, however, has been divided around the issue of ethnic and national affiliation: in the 2011 census, in terms of ethnicity, 16,706 inhabitants of Vojvodina self-declared as Bunjevci and 47,033 as Croats. Not all of the Croats in Vojvodina have Bunjevac roots; the other big group are Šokci. In the 2022 census of the Republic of Serbia: 39,107 Croats and 11,104 Bunjevci are registered, of which the census methodology has not made a subdivision of percentage respondents identifying themselves as Bunjevac Croats or as a separate Bunjevac ethnicity, in conjunction with their belief of being a distinct Bunjevac people.
In the Serbian Bunjevac community are people who have only economic based motives to declare to be Bunjevac Croat, to ensure access to the EU (e.g. labour migration, business, education). And there are citizens who declare that they are part of the Bunjevac community (pro-Bunjevac or pro-Croat one) to benefit from financial grants, or just based on their personal feelings.
The largest concentration of Bunjevci in Serbia, is in the city of Subotica, which is their cultural and political center. Another significant urban center is the city of Sombor.
Opinions on the status of the Bunjevac dialect remain divided. Bunjevac speech is considered a dialect or vernacular of the Serbo-Croatian pluricentric language, by linguists. It is noted by Andrew Hodges that it is mutually intelligible with the standard Serbian language and Croatian varieties. Popularly, the Bunjevac dialect is often referred to as "Bunjevac language" (bunjevački jezik) or Bunjevac mother tongue (materni jezik). At the political level, depending on goal and content of the political lobby, the general confusion concerning the definition of the terms language, dialect, speech, mother tongue, is cleverly exploited, resulting in an inconsistent use of the terms.
Since the year 2010, members of the Bunjevac National Council have started to develop their own symbols (e.g. flag) and Bunjevac festivals and gatherings (e.g. "Dan Dužijance", "Dan velikog prela"), mostly close to the dates of the original traditional Bunjevac festivals and folklore gatherings of the Bunjevac Croats of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Hungary, and Serbia.
The Catholic Church is an important catalyst in preserving Bunjevac heritage, in particular the Franciscans has historical ties with the Bunjevac community. Nowadays this is mainly due to the Diocese of Subotica and the efforts of e.g. mgr. dr. Andrija Anišić and the venerable sister Eleonora Merković, that the Christian significance of many Bunjevac customs ( bunjevački običaji) are again appreciated, in contrast to the Communism and Socialism 20st century governing periods in the Balkans, where e.g. the harvest festival as Dužijanca, had only a Secularity character in public.
Also from the civilian population there are outstanding personalities (e.g. Ruža Juhas, Kata Kuntić, prof. dr. Gyula J. Obádovics, Grgo Piuković, Jozefa Skenderović) who cherish and make efforts to preserve the Bunjevac heritage for future generations.
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