Italian language in Croatia
As of 2009, the Italian language is officially used in twenty cities and municipalities and ten other settlements in Croatia, according to the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. It is an officially recognized minority language in Istria County, where it is spoken by 6.83% of the population on the aggregate and closer to 50% of the population in certain subdivisions.
Vlachs in the history of Croatia
Socioculturally, there were two main ethnic divisions in the Croatian Military Frontier, those of the "native" "Croats" and "immigrant" "Vlachs". The Croats were Catholics, Habsburg subjects, made up of an agrarian population concentrated around frontier towns, of nuclear families, and linguistically predominantly Chakavian-speaking (or Chakavian-based speech). The Vlachs were holders of patriarchal-pastoral culture of the Dinaric, refugees from Ottoman and Venetian territories, of extended families, and linguistically Neo-Shtokavian-speaking.