Editing Dubrovnik (section)

===Languages===
[[File:Libertas.svg|thumb|right|The "Libertas" Flag of Dubrovnik]]
The [[official language]] until 1472 was [[Latin]]. As a consequence of the increasing migration of Slavic population from inland Dalmatia, the language spoken by much of the population was [[Croatian language|Croatian]], typically referred to in Dubrovnik's historical documents simply as "Slavic". To oppose the demographic change due to increased Slavic immigration from the Balkans, the native Romance population of Ragusa, which made up the oligarchic government of the Republic, tried to prohibit the use of any Slavic languages in official councils.<ref>{{cite book|author=J. Fine|title=When Ethnicity Didn't Matter|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wEF5oN5erE0C&q=When+ethnicity+did+not+matter|pages=155–156|isbn=978-0472025602|date=2010-02-05|publisher=University of Michigan Press }}</ref> Archeologists have also discovered medieval [[Glagolitic script|Glagolitic]] tablets near Dubrovnik, such as the [[inscription of Župa Dubrovačka]], indicating that the Glagolitic script was also likely once used in the city.

The [[Italian language]] as spoken in the republic was heavily influenced by the [[Venetian language]] and the [[Tuscan language|Tuscan dialect]]. Italian took root among the Dalmatian-speaking merchant upper classes, as a result of Venetian influence which strengthened the original Latin element of the population.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8QMEAAAAYAAJ|title= The Republic of Ragusa: an episode of the Turkish conquest|first= Luigi |last=Villari|page=370|publisher= J. M. Dent & Co. |location=London|year= 1904}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://xoomer.virgilio.it/histria/storiaecultura/testiedocumenti/tesiscaglioni/tesi.htm |title=La presenza italiana in Dalmazia, 1866–1943 |year=1996 |work=Tesi di Laurea |publisher=Facoltà di Scienze politiche – Università degli studi di Milano |last=Marzio |first=Scaglioni |archive-date=2010-09-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100914232053/http://xoomer.virgilio.it/histria/storiaecultura/testiedocumenti/tesiscaglioni/tesi.htm |access-date=2010-02-17 |language=it |url-status=dead }}</ref>

On 14 July 1284 in Ragusa, the [[Albanian language]] was attested for the first time in history when a crime witness testified: "I heard a voice crying on the mountain in the Albanian language" ([[Latin language|Latin]]: ''Audivi unam vocem, clamantem in monte in lingua albanesca'').<ref>Nicholas Geoffrey Lemprière Hammond (1976). ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=O9saAAAAYAAJ Migrations and invasions in Greece and adjacent areas]''. Noyes Press. p. 57. {{ISBN|978-0-8155-5047-1}}</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=iLkWAQAAMAAJ ''Zeitschrift für Balkanologie''.] R. Trofenik. 1990. p. 102.</ref>