Croatia in other languages: exonyms, flag and the counties of Hrvatska

From Khoroathos to Hrvatska

Hrvatska and the foreign Croatia go back to one ethnonym. Medieval Latin Croātia derives from a Slavic *Xъrvátъ, and the oldest record of a related form is Greek, Χοροάθος (Khoroáthos), on the Tanais tablets of the third century. Its origin is uncertain; the most cited explanation is an Alanian word meaning guardian.

Early Croatian documents show the name settling. The Baška tablet calls Zvonimir kralъ xrъvatъskъ, Croatian king, and the ninth-century Branimir inscription near Benkovac styles Duke Branimir Dux Cruatorvm. The Latin list in the table keeps several of these spellings, Croatia, Crovatia, Chorbatia and Chrobatia, beside the classical region name Liburnia.

In the modern languages two shapes compete. West Slavic and Hungarian keep the old ch- or h- sound: Polish Chorwacja, Czech Chorvatsko, Slovak Chorvátsko, Sorbian Chorwatska, Hungarian Horvátország with ország, country. The Romance and Germanic languages start with Cro- or Kro-: Italian Croazia, Sicilian Croazzia, Spanish Croacia, German Kroatien. Turkish Hırvatistan and Azerbaijani Xorvatıstan add the Persian -stan, while Arabic writes كرواتيا (Kurwātiyā), following the Western form.

Agram, Zágráb, Zagabria: Zagreb under other names

Zagreb has three historical exonyms in the languages of former neighbours: German Agram, Hungarian Zágráb and Italian Zagabria. Latin writes Zagrabia. The Slavic languages mostly keep the Croatian form: Czech writes Záhřeb, Slovak Záhreb, Polish Zagrzeb, Russian and Bulgarian Загреб.

Hungarian and Italian also appear in the counties. Istria County is Regione istriana in Italian, and its seat Pazin is Pisino; Međimurje County is Muraköz megye in Hungarian, and Čakovec is Csáktornya.

The flag of Croatia

The flag, the trobojnica, has three equal horizontal bands of red, white and blue with the coat of arms in the centre. The tricolour has been in use since 1868; the red and white chequered shield was added in 1939, replaced by a red star under communist rule and restored in 1990, a year before independence. The drawing above keeps the band geometry and simplifies the crown of five small shields over the arms.