Tuone Udaina, last speaker of Dalmatian, killed
- When
- 1898
- Where
- Krk
- Episodes
- 1
Tuone Udaina, also known as Antonio Udina, was the last known speaker of the Dalmatian language. He died on 10 June 1898 in an explosion during road construction on the island of Krk. His death marked the extinction of the language, as no other speakers were known to have lived.
Episodes
Background and detail
Background. Tuone Udaina, nicknamed Burbur, was the primary source for the Veglia dialect of Dalmatian for linguist Matteo Bartoli, who recorded it in 1897. Dalmatian was a Romance language variety that developed along the Dalmatian coast. Udaina's death in 1898 is generally assumed to have caused the language's extinction, as no other speakers were found.
Death. Udaina was killed in an explosion during road construction on 10 June 1898. He was 74 years old at the time. The event occurred on the island of Krk, where Dalmatian had previously been spoken alongside other languages. His death is widely accepted as the end of the Dalmatian language.
People involved
- Tuone Udaina · Last known speaker of Dalmatian
- Matteo Bartoli · Linguist who recorded Udaina's dialect
Sources
- Tuone Udaina Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-05
- Dalmatian language Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-05
- Krk Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-27
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.