Minority languages of Croatia
The Istro-Romanian language is one of the smallest minority languages spoken in Croatia with fewer than 500 speakers concentrated mainly in the north-eastern part of the Istrian Peninsula. While the language is not officially recognized in the Constitution of Croatia under that name (the Constitution does reference Romanians and Vlachs), it is specifically recognized as such in the Statute of the Istrian Region and in the Statute of the Municipality of Kršan . In 2016, with funding from the Romanian government, the school in the village of Šušnjevica was fully renovated and is expected to start offering education in Istro-Romanian.
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.