Croatia

Yes, the standard languages are similar due to movement of unification of South Slavic nations in mid-19th century.

Croatian languages has 3 literature vernaculars:

1. Kajkavian
2. Chakavian
3. Shtokavian

Each of them has many dialects. Serbian has Torlakian and Shtokavian. Shtokavian in Croatia and Bosnia is called "Western Shtokavian" and in Serbia "Eastern Shtokavian".

The basis for the standard languages in Croatia and Serbia (and other neighbour countries but not all) was chosen Shtokavian vernacular as it was at the moment in mid-19th century the most spread one. And later in 20th century many nations joined into one Yugoslav country which was called Kingdom of Yugoslavia then Social Federal Republic of Croatia and inside these countries two most influential nations were Croats and Serbs, thus there were desires from some people to merge this two languages into one, which was impossible due to 8 centuries long tradition of Croatian vernaculars and Serbian vernaculars.

The reason Croatian and Serbian standards or Shtokavian dialect have many words is also historic one - because of Ottoman Empire many nations fled to the west, thus Serbs as well and there was mixture of language. Shtokavian vernacular now spread to the west more than it was in history. As for Croatian language (I'm Croat and I don't know Serbian language history that much), each of our vernacular can be considered as single language.

What is more, Kajkavian has its own grammar and Kajkavian was until mid-19th century considered as Croatian language in international circles. People from different vernacular (and dialect) regions cannot understand each other much unless using standard language.

Northern Croatia is mostly Kajkavian and it has a huge influence of German and Hungarian language due to historic events. People in Northern Croatia had been learning Hungarian and German for a long time while in last 120 years the common thing was to know German more.

There are around 3000 words from German in Croatian, especially Kajkavian, though we tend to use our own words since independence (it's like English has more than 60% of foreign words and instead of using "vocabulary" the germanic word should be like "wordstock"). Litoral Croatia (Chakavian) has had huge influence of Romance languages, especially Italian due to 1000 years of sharing cultures with Italian peninsula (and wars as well).

If you visit Istria, Kvarner, Lika or Dalmatia (and islands along the coast) you will notice in local's speech many italian words which have been preserved for centuries. Eastern Croatia (and Bosnia and Herzegovina) has Shtokavian which is most mutually intelligible with Serbian dialects. It is also the vernacular with the highest percentage of Turkish words due to historic events (read more about Croatian-Ottoman wars).

So, since Shtokavian is used as basis for both Croatian and Serbian, we are able to understand each almost perfectly. When we speak to each other, it sounds like dialect. Serbian has still huge amount of words that are different from ours and even the words that look like the same different in 1-2 voices/letters, but we don't mind it as we can guess from context.

Imagine it like in Spanish and Portuguese, la mujer vs a mulheror in English and German: I drink Water vs Ich trinke Wasser. Now imagine if I add the Dutch language, which is so confusing to learn at first if you have knowledge of English and German, it's just int he middle but it's special language (and I like it).

Standards are really more similar than these examples, however Croatian vernaculars are more like example: la leche vs il latte or la fresa vs la fragola. Vernaculars at its best can be totally unrecognizable without same roots even!

So, when people say it's the same language (aware only of what they hear of standards without analysis), the same could be said for Spanish and Portuguese, Italian etc...when speaking one of them it's like when people from Northern and Southern Croatia meet, but you it would be insult to say Portuguese and Spanish are the same.

Croatia's terrain is diverse, including:

• plains, lakes and rolling hills in the continental north and north-east (Central Croatia and Slavonia, part of the Pannonian Basin);
• densely wooded mountains in Lika and Gorski Kotar, part of the Dinaric Alps;
• rocky coastlines on the Adriatic Sea (Istria, Northern Sea coast and Dalmatia).

From Wikipedia

The red, white and blue colors are Slavic colors and are also used by a lot of other Slavic countries, such as Russia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Serbia etc.

There was a Croatian writer who saw something else in the colors of the Croatian flag. Red is representing the blood that many Croatians have lost when they fought for their country, white is representing the peace in the coutnry, and blue is representing the subjection to God (because we Croats are very religious, we're all Catholics)

The Coat of arms of Croatia consists of one main shield and five smaller shields which form a crown over the main shield. The main coat of arms is a checkerboard (chequy) that consists of 13 red and 12 silver (white) fields. It's commonly known as Å¡ahovnica ("chessboard", from Å¡ah, "chess" in Croatian.) The five smaller shields represent five different historical regions that comprise Croatia.

1. the oldest known Croatian coat of arms: a golden six-pointed star (representing the mornign star) over a silver moon on a blue shield. It is also representing the Croatian capital, Zagreb.
2. an older coat of arms of the Republic of Dubrovnik : two red stripes on a dark blue shield. The coat of arms on the flags and stone portals of Dubrovnik were painted black as a sign of grief by Dubrovnik' s citizens after the invasion by Napoleon.
3. the coat of arms of Dalmatia : three golden, crowned leopards , two over one, on a blue shield. This coat of arms originates from the Roman Emperor Diocletian who made his palace (the core of city of Split) the capital of the Western Roman Empire. His palace, to this day, still stands in Split.
4. the coat of arms of Istria: a golden goat with red hooves and horns, on a dark blue shield.
5. the coat of arms of Slavonia: two silver stripes on blue shield (representing the rivers Drava and Sava that mark the northern and the southern border of Slavonia), between them on a red field a black, running marten (kuna in Croatian - note national currency is related to the marten - Croatian kuna), above a six-pointed, golden star. This coat was to Slavonia was officially recognised by king Ladislaus Jagiello in 1496.

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1. belive it is Illyrian arms, since Illyrians are ancestors of the Croats.

EDIT

Illyrians weren't ancestors of the Croats, they had just lived there before.

No. But the following languages are spoken in the region that was once called Yugoslavia:

1. Bosnian
   
2. Macedonian
   
3. Croatian
   
4. Serbian
   
5. Slovene
   
6. Montenegrin
   
7. Albanian
   

Croatia is located in South Eastern Europe, and is home to many lakes that are famous for their bright colors due to the mineral deposits within the lakes. This country has an extremely diverse terrain, including wooded mountains, plains, rolling hills, lakes, and a very rocky coastline. This provides for a wide variety of wildlife that call Croatia home.

One of the most beautiful animals that call the country home is the wolf. In recent years their numbers dramatically decreased. There are many reasons for their unfortunate decrease. Most of these reasons are human related and maybe the number one reason is the simple fact that wolfs has long had a bad reputation which has led to their slaughter. In recent years the wolf has been protected by Croatian law which is helping to bring the creature back from the verge of extinction. Another unique animal that is native to Croatia is the Grey Dolphin. This wonderful and much loved animal is found on the coastline of Croatia. Grey Dolphins live in groups and can vary in numbers living in each group starting at about 3 up to around 50. This specific species of dolphins tend stay away from boats but some of the juvenile grey dolphins can be seen swimming along side. Maybe the most unique and beautiful creature living in Croatia is the

Eurasian Lynx. This is the largest cat that can be found in Europe measuring around 110 CM and reaching 38 kg. This fantastic cat is getting close to being put on the threatened species list and figures to do so in the coming years. The

Golden Jackal or Asiatic Jackal can be found in the plains of Croatia. These scavengers are often seen cleaning up after a larger animals kill. The Golden Jackal can almost always be found in pairs and live, hunt, and scavenge with their mate. They are sometimes hunted for there furs but remain in abundance.