Faraun
Faraun is a name given to Croatian merchants from the town of Trpanj in Croatia who, in the late 19th century, began insisting on using the Croatian language in their correspondence with their Italian suppliers.
Background
Like most other Dalmatian merchants, Trpanj businessmen used Italian wholesalers in Trieste, communicating in Italian. In the early 1890s, Ivo Cibilic, a wholesaler from Alexandria, originally from Trpanj, wrote as a freelancer in the *Narodni List*, a Croatian newspaper printed in Zadar, suggesting that Trpanj merchants switch to Croatian in their correspondence with Italian suppliers for two main reasons:
- it would provide young Croatians (usually the sons of merchant families studying in Trieste) with jobs as translators
- it would be a symbolic gesture of respect towards Croatian language and culture
The *Narodni List*, in its issue no. 58 from 1893, reported that at a special dinner held at the Croatian library in Trpanj on 15 August 1893, the Trpanj merchants pledged to exclusively use Croatian in their business dealings and to refuse to do business with merchants who did not use Croatian in their transactions. The town merchants signed a proclamation to this effect, which was published on the front page of issue no. 69 of the *Narodni List* on 30 August 1893.
Reaction
The autonomasi, a Croatian term for the Italian minority in Dalmatia and those opposed to the emerging Croatian national identity, published a satirical song against the Trpanj merchants in their newspaper *Il Dalmata*. The author, A. Piasevoli, wrote that a faraun race emerged from Trpanj as a result of the mating between a Latin mule and an Egyptian donkey. The product of this mating was the Faraun bastard, who betrayed his Latin-Italian origins. The name originated from other towns on Pelješac using it to refer to the Trpanj residents, implying they were Gypsies.
Consequences
The Trpanj merchants were thus the first in Dalmatia to require commercial correspondence in Croatian, at a time when the aristocracy and citizens of Italian background tried to downplay the cultural significance of the language of the common people. The proclamation from Trpanj ignited negative reactions from autonomasi throughout Dalmatia. However, the initially derogatory term "Faraun" became a source of pride for those associated with it, representing the effort to integrate the national language into all aspects of society.
The name Faraun was used for the Trpanj soccer team founded in 1921. It was also used to label the top-quality sardine products of the now-closed Divna factory in Trpanj. Ivan Mirkovic, a Trpanj businessman from San Pedro, USA, also specializing in fishing, used the name Faraon for his products. Today, the main hotel in Trpanj is named Faraon.
See also
References
- All factual information in this article is based on paraphrased and summarised translations of the Faraun chapter from the 1989 book in the Croatian language "Trpanj proslost, sadasnjost, spomenici" (Trpanj past, present, monuments) by Dr. Frano Glavina.
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