Molise Croats or Molise Slavs are a Croatian subgroup, found in the Molise region of Italy. In the villages Acquaviva, San Felice del Molise and Montemitro, they are a majority. There are about 1.700 speakers of Molise Croat, or Molise Slavic, 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 Croat, or rather Molise Slavic, 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, but in reality they're neither; linguistic and historic evidence points to that they originated from the Neretvans of the Neretva Valley in what is now Bosnia and Dalmatia.

See also

• Molise Slavic language

External links

• The Croatian minority in Italy
• Mundimitar/Montemitro municipality
• Molise Croatian
• Molise Croatian-in Italian