Vuk Stefanović Karadžić (Serbian Cyrillic:Вук Стефановић Караџић,pronounced[ʋûːkstefǎːnoʋitɕkâradʒitɕ]; 6 November 1787 (26 October OS) – 7 February 1864) was aSerbianphilologist,anthropologist andlinguist. He was one of the most important reformers of the modernSerbian language.[2][3][4][5] Vuk Karadžić was a versatile scholar and the founder of several Serbian academic disciplines, with a significant contribution to historiography.[6] For his collection and preservation of Serbian folktales,Encyclopædia Britannica labelled Karadžić "the father ofSerbian folk-literature scholarship."[7] He was also the author of the first Serbian dictionary in the new reformed language. In addition, he translated theNew Testament into the reformed form of the Serbian spelling and language.[8]
Karadžić was born toSerbian parents Stefan and Jegda (néeZrnić) in the village ofTršić, nearLoznica, which was at the time in theOttoman Empire. His family settled fromDrobnjaci (Petnjica, Šavnik), and his mother was born inOzrinići,Nikšić (in present-dayMontenegro.) His family had a low infant survival rate, thus he was named Vuk ("wolf") so that witches and evil spirits would not hurt him (the name was traditionally given to strengthen the bearer).[10]
Karadžić was fortunate to be a relative ofJevta Savić Čotrić, the only literate person in the area at the time, who taught him how to read and write. Karadžić continued his education in theTronoša Monastery in Loznica, whereStefan Tronoški served as archimandrite. As a boy he learnedcalligraphy there, using a reed instead of a pen and a solution of gunpowder for ink. In lieu of proper writing paper, he was lucky if he could get cartridge wrappings. Throughout the whole region, regular schooling was not widespread at that time and his father at first did not allow him to go to Austria. Since most of the time, while in the monastery Karadžić was forced to pasture the livestock instead of studying, his father brought him back home. Meanwhile, theFirst Serbian uprising seeking to overthrow the Ottomans began in 1804. After unsuccessful attempts to enroll in thegymnasium atSremski Karlovci,[11] for which 19-year-old Karadžić was too old,[12] he left forPetrinja where he spent a few months learning Latin and German. Later on, he met highly respected scholarDositej Obradović in Belgrade, which was now in the hands of theRevolutionary Serbia, to ask Obradović to support his studies. Obradović dismissed him. Disappointed, Karadžić left forJadar and began working as a scribe forJakov Nenadović and sometime later for Jevta Savić Čotrić as acustoms officer, all during the uprising (1804–1813). After the founding ofBelgrade'sGreat School, Karadžić became one of its students.[13]
Soon afterwards, he grew ill and left for medical treatment inPest andNovi Sad, but was unable to receive treatment for his leg. It was rumored that Karadžić deliberately refused to undergo amputation, instead deciding to make do with aprosthetic woodenpegleg, of which there were several sarcastic references in some of his works.[clarification needed] Karadžić returned to Serbia by 1810, and as unfit for military service, he served as the secretary for commandersĆurčija andHajduk-Veljko. His experiences would later give rise to two books. With the Ottoman defeat of the Serbian rebels in 1813, he left forVienna and later metJernej Kopitar, an experienced linguist with a strong interest in secularSlavistics. Kopitar's influence helped Karadžić with his struggle in reforming theSerbian language and its orthography Another important influence on his linguistic work wasSava Mrkalj.[14]
In 1814 and 1815, Karadžić published two volumes ofSerbian Folk Songs, which afterwards increased to four, then to six, and finally to nine tomes. In enlarged editions, these admirable songs drew towards themselves the attention of all literary Europe and America.Goethe characterized some of them as "excellent and worthy of comparison with Solomon'sSong of Songs."
Karadžić continued collecting song well into the 1830s.[16] He arrived in Montenegro in the fall of 1834. Infirm, he descended to theBay of Kotor to winter there, and returned in the spring of 1835. It was there that Karadžić metVuk Vrčević, an aspiring littérateur, born inRisan. From then on, Vrčević became Karadžić's faithful and loyal collaborator who collected folk songs and tales and sent them to his address in Vienna for many years to come.[17][18] Another equally diligent collaborator of Vuk Karadžić was another namesake from Boka Kotorska the Priest Vuk Popović. Both Vrčević and Popović were steadily and unselfishly involved in the gathering of the ethnographic, folklore and lexical material for Karadžić.[18] Later, other collaborators joined Karadžić, includingMilan Đ. Milićević.
The majority of Karadžić's works were banned from publishing in Serbia and Austria during the rule of PrinceMiloš Obrenović.[19] As observed from a political point of view, Obrenović saw the works of Karadžić as a potential hazard due to a number of apparent reasons, one of which was the possibility that the content of some of the works, although purely poetic in nature, was capable of creating a certain sense of patriotism and a desire for freedom and independence, which very likely might have driven the populace to take up arms against the Turks. This, in turn, would prove detrimental to Prince Miloš's politics toward the Ottoman Empire, with whom he had recently forged an uneasy peace. In Montenegro, however, Njegoš's printing press operated without the archaic letter known as the "hard sign". Prince Miloš was to resent Njegoš's abandonment of the hard sign, over which, at that time, furious intellectual battles were being waged, with ecclesiastical hierarchy involved as well. Karadžić's works, however, did receive high praise and recognition elsewhere, especially inRussian Empire. In addition to this, Karadžić was granted a full pension from theEmperor of All Russia in 1826.
He was married to Ana Maria Kraus from 1818 until the end of his life. They had 13 children together, but only two of them outlived the parents.[20]
Vuk Karadžic died in 1864 in Vienna. He was survived by his wife, by his daughterMina Karadžić, who was a painter and writer, and by his son Dimitrije Karadžić, a military officer. His remains were relocated to Belgrade in 1897 and buried with great honours next to the grave ofDositej Obradović, in front ofSt. Michael's Cathedral (Belgrade).[21]
At about the same period, Vuk Karadžić reformed the Serbian literary language and standardized theSerbian Cyrillic alphabet by following strictphonemic principles on theJohann Christoph Adelung' model andJan Hus'Czech alphabet. Karadžić's reforms of the Serbian literary language modernized it and distanced it from Serbian and RussianChurch Slavonic and brought it closer to common folk speech. For example, Karadžić discarded earlier signs and letters that had no match in common Serbian speech, and he introduced 6 Cyrillic letters to make writing the Serbian language simpler.[22] Karadžić also translated theNew Testament into Serbian, which was published in 1847.
Because theSlavonic-Serbian written language of the early 19th century contained many words connected to the Orthodox church and a large number of loanwords from Russian Church Slavonic, Karadžić proposed to abandon this written language and to create a new one, based on the EasternHerzegovina dialect which he spoke. Some Serbian clergy and other linguists opposed him, for example, the Serbian clergy with a base in the area around modernNovi Sad, who viewed the grammar and vocabulary of the Eastern Herzegovinian dialect as almost a foreign tongue that was unacceptable as a basis for a modern language.[23] But Karadžić successfully insisted that his linguistic standard was closer to popular speech and could be understood and written by more people. He called his dialect Herzegovinian because, as he wrote, "Serbian is spoken most purely and correctly in Herzegovina and in Bosnia." Karadžić never visited those lands, but his family roots and speech came from Herzegovina.[24] Ultimately, Vuk Karadžić's ideas and linguistic standard won against his clerical and scientific opponents. Karadžić was, together withĐuro Daničić, the main Serbian signatory to theVienna Literary Agreement of 1850, which, encouraged by Austrian authorities, laid the foundation for theSerbo-Croatian language; Karadžić himself only ever referred to the language as "Serbian".
The Vukovian effort of language standardization lasted the remainder of the century. Before then the Serbs had achieved a fully independent state (1878), and a flourishing national culture based in Belgrade and Novi Sad. Despite the Vienna agreement, the Serbs had by this time developed anEkavian pronunciation, which was the native speech of their two cultural capitals as well as the great majority of the Serbian population. Vuk Karadžić greatly influenced South Slavic linguists across Southeast Europe. Serbian journals in Austria-Hungary and in Serbia proper began to use his linguistic standard. In Croatia, the linguistTomislav Maretić acknowledged Karadžić's work as foundational to his codification of Croatian grammar.[25]
Karadžić held the view that all South Slavs that speak theShtokavian dialect were Serbs or of Serbian origin, and considered all of them to speak theSerbian language (for consequences of such idea seeGreater Serbia#Vuk Karadžić's Pan-Serbism), which was by then and still is today disputed by linguists and historians (seeEthnic affiliation of native speakers of Shtokavian dialect). He personally considered Serbs to be of three different creeds (Serbian:zakona), specifically of the Orthodox, Catholic, and Mohammedan, citing general similarities in local traditions that only differed because of the local religion and, in the case of Catholicism and Islam, foreign influences.[26][27][28] However, Karadžić wrote later that he gave up this view because he saw that the Croats of his time did not agree with it, and he switched to the definition of the Serbian nation based on Orthodoxy and the Croatian nation based on Catholicism.[29]
In addition to his linguistic reforms, Karadžić also contributed to folk literature, using peasant culture as the foundation. Because of his peasant upbringing, he closely associated with the oral literature of the peasants, compiling it to use in his collection of folk songs, tales, and proverbs.[30] While Karadžić hardly considered peasant life romantic, he regarded it as an integral part of Serbian culture. He collected several volumes of folk prose and poetry, including a book of over 100 lyrical and epic songs learned as a child and written down from memory. He also published the first dictionary of vernacular Serbian. For his work he received little financial aid, at times living in poverty, though in the very last 9 years he did receive a pension from princeMiloš Obrenović.[31] In some cases Karadžić hid the fact that he had not only collected folk poetry by recording the oral literature but transcribed it from manuscript songbooks of other collectors fromSyrmia.[32]
His work had a chief role in establishing the importance of theKosovo Myth inSerbian national identity and history.[33][8] Karadžić collected traditional epic poems related to the topic of the Battle of Kosovo and released the so-called "Kosovo cycle", which became the final version of the transformation of the myth.[33][34] He mostly published oral songs, with special reference to the heroic deeds ofPrince Marko and the Kosovo Battle-related events, just like the singers sang without changes or additions.[35] Karadžić collected most of the poems aboutPrince Lazar near the monasteries onFruška Gora, mostly because the seat of theSerbian Orthodox Church wasmoved there after theGreat Migrations of the Serbs.[36]
Besides his greatest achievement on literary field, Karadžić gave his contribution to Serbian anthropology in combination with the ethnography of that time.He left notes on physical aspects of the human body alongside his ethnographic notes. He introduced a rich terminology on body parts (from head to toes) into the literary language. It should be mentioned that these terms are still used, both in science and everyday speech. He gave, among other things, his own interpretation of the connection between environment and inhabitants, with parts on nourishment, living conditions, hygiene, diseases and funeral customs. All in all this considerable contribution of Vuk Karadžić is not that famous or studied.[citation needed]
He collected historical sources and applied a critical approach to the study of Serbian history.[37]
In his workGeografičesko-statističkom opisu Srbije (Geographical and Statistical Description of Serbia) published in 1828, he systematically analyzed old towns, cities, and settlements, classifying them into three levels according to their size and administrative function. He used vernacular names and distinguished fortified from unfortified settlements, demonstrating the continuity of urban development in Serbia. His work reveals the deep roots of Serbian urban centers and their role in society, forming a foundation for historical research on urbanization.[38]
Literary historianJovan Deretić summarized his work as "During his fifty years of tireless activity, he accomplished as much as an entire academy of sciences."[39]
Vukov Sabor cultural event was established in Tršić on the day of the opening of the renovated birth house of Vuk Karadžić, September 17, 1933. Since then it has been held annually in September, with 20-30,000 visitors in attendance.[44] On the 100th anniversary of Karadžić's death (in 1964) student work brigades on youth action "Tršić 64" raised an amphitheater with a stage that was needed for organizing the Vukov sabor, and students' Vukov sabor. In 1987 Tršić received a comprehensive overhaul as a cultural-historical monument. Also, the road from Karadžić's home to Tronoša monastery was built. Karadžić's birth house was declaredMonument of Culture of Exceptional Importance in 1979, and it is protected byRepublic of Serbia.[45] Recently, rural tourism has become popular in Tršić, with many families converting their houses into buildings designed to accommodate guests. TV series based on his life were broadcast onRadio Television of Serbia. His portrait is often seen in Serbian schools.Federal Republic of Yugoslavia andSerbia and Montenegro awarded a stateOrder of Vuk Karadžić.[46]
Vuk's Foundation maintains the legacy of Vuk Stefanović Karadžić in Serbia and Serb diaspora as well.[47][48] A student of primary (age six or seven to fourteen or fifteen) or secondary (age fourteen or fifteen to eighteen or nineteen) school in Serbia, that is awarded best grades for all subjects at the end of a school year, for each year in turn, is awarded at the end of his final year a "Vuk Karadžić diploma" and is known (in common speech) as "Vukovac", a name given to a member of an elite group of the highest performing students.[49]
The essence of modern Serbian spelling is summued up with:Write as you speak and read as it is written. Although the above quotation is often attributed to Vuk Stefanović Karadžić in Serbia, it is in fact an orthographic principle devised by the German grammarian and philologistJohann Christoph Adelung.[50] Karadžić merely used that principle to push through his language reform.[51]
^Kilian, Ernst (1995). "Die Wiedergeburt Kroatiens aus dem Geist der Sprache" [The rebirth of Croatia from the spirit of the language]. In Budak, Neven (ed.).Kroatien: Landeskunde – Geschichte – Kultur – Politik – Wirtschaft – Recht (in German). Wien. p. 380.ISBN9783205984962.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^Pavlović, Aleksandar; Atanasovski, Srđan (2016). "From Myth to Territory: Vuk Karadžić, Kosovo Epics and the Role of Nineteenth-Century Intellectuals in Establishing National Narratives".Hungarian Historical Review.2:357–376.S2CID209475358.
^Ćirković, Sima (2007).O istoriografiji i metodologiji. Beograd: Istorijski institut. pp. 85–87.ISBN978-86-7743-060-3.
^Ćirković, Sima (2007).O istoriografiji i metodologiji. Beograd: Istorijski institut. pp. 85–87.ISBN978-86-7743-060-3.
Skerlić, Jovan,Istorija Nove Srpske Književnosti/History of New Serbian Literature (Belgrade, 1914, 1921) pages 239–276.
Stojanović, Ljubomir (1924).Život i rad Vuka Stefanovića Karadžića. Belgrade: BIGZ.
Vuk, Karadzic.Works, book XVIII, Belgrade 1972.
Wilson, Duncan (1970).The Life and Times of Vuk Stefanović Karadzić, 1787–1864; Literacy, Literature and National Independence in Serbia. Oxford: Clarendon Press.ISBN0-19-821480-4.
