Yugoslav Oral Lyric, Primarily in Serbo-Croatian

Abstract

In spite of structural differences, Yugoslav oral lyric represents a unified whole in its genesis. For Yugoslavs, as well as other peoples, lyric song was the first poetic form in their aspirations toward human culture. When their ancestors immigrated to the Balkan Peninsula, they already had a well developed tradition of oral lyric that was rich and varied. From that period--the sixth and seventh centuries--until our own, under the influence of the new climate and the oral poetry of neighboring peoples, new lyric genres arose while others died out.