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Introduction to Croatian language.

Croatian language belongs to the Slavic branch of the Indo-European family. Historically, it absorbed influence from Latin and Old Church Slavonic, as well as from its neighboring countries like Hungary, Italy, or Ottoman Turkiye. Through centuries, these contacts left an imprint on Croatian vocabulary, toponyms, or even syntax. Today, around 6 million people speak it worldwide, and it's one of the official languages in the European Union. The most significant communities of Croatian speakers are located in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and minorities exist in Serbia, Montenegro, Austria, Hungary, Italy, Slovakia and Romania. Croatian uses the Latin alphabet in a version standardized by Ljudevit Gaj in the 19th century that's sometimes called gajica. The orthograph is largely phonetic, meaning every sound pronounced is also written and red.

Letter	IPA	Example Word
A	/a/	auto (“car”)
B	/b/	brat (“brother”)
C	/ts/	cesta (“road”)
Č	/tʃ/	čaj (“tea”)
Ć	/tɕ/	ćevap (“kebab”)
D	/d/	dom (“home”)
Dž	/dʒ/	džem (“jam”)
Đ	/dʑ/	đak (“pupil”)
E	/e/	ekipa (“team”)
F	/f/	flaša (“bottle”)
G	/ɡ/	grad (“city”)
H	/x/	hrana (“food”)
I	/i/	igra (“game”)
J	/j/	jaje (“egg”)
K	/k/	kava (“coffee”)
L	/l/	list (“leaf”)
Lj	/ʎ/	ljubav (“love”)
M	/m/	more (“sea”)
N	/n/	nož (“knife”)
Nj	/ɲ/	njega (“him”)
O	/o/	oko (“eye”)
P	/p/	pas (“dog”)
R	/r/	rijeka (“river”)
S	/s/	sunce (“sun”)
Š	/ʃ/	škola (“school”)
T	/t/	torba (“bag”)
U	/u/	ulica (“street”)
V	/ʋ/	voda (“water”)
Z	/z/	zima (“winter”)
Ž	/ʒ/	žaba (“frog”)