Croatian language
Standard Croatian is the official language of the Republic of Croatia and, along with Standard Bosnian and Standard Serbian, one of three official languages of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is also official in the regions of Burgenland (Austria), Molise (Italy) and Vojvodina (Serbia). Additionally, it has co-official status alongside Romanian in the communes of Carașova and Lupac, Romania. In these localities, Croats or Krashovani make up the majority of the population, and education, signage and access to public administration and the justice system are provided in Croatian, alongside Romanian.
Vlachs in the history of Croatia
The Vlachs were predominantly Orthodox Christian by religion, and also, the traditional social grouping of Vlachs was the Orthodox group itself. The Orthodox Vlachs spoke the Eastern Herzegovinian dialect while the Catholic Vlachs (the Bunjevci), spoke the Western Herzegovinian dialect. The Vlachs were also called on some occasions as "Rasciani sive Serviani" and "Valachicae seu Rascianae gentis", which was an exonym for the Serbs or Orthodox Christians. In the 1500–1800 period in Europe, the religious difference was one of the main cultural differences in ethnic groups. The state triangle at Lika in what is today Croatia was an area in which Roman Catholicism, Serbian Orthodoxy, and Islam met. Ethno-confessionally, the Orthodox Vlachs were part of the Serb identity since the mid 16th-century.