Babić was born in the small town ofOriovac inBrod-Posavina County, even though his biological parents are fromHrvatsko Zagorje. He attended primary school in Oriovac, andgymnasium inSlavonski Brod,Osijek and finally inZagreb.[1] In 1948, he was employed by Industrogradnja, but soon thereafter the political winds threw him toPetrinjska prison. After Petrinjska, he enrolled toFaculty of Philosophy at theUniversity of Zagreb in 1949, graduating in 1955 with a degree inCroatian,Russian andGerman.[1] Afterwards, he remained working as an assistant at the Faculty of Philosophy, defending his PhD in 1962 and receiving full professorship in 1975.[1] He was the vice-president ofMatica hrvatska from 1989 to 1992, and representative in theŽupanijski Dom ('Chamber of the Counties') from 1993 to 1997.[1] He retired as professor in 1991.[1] Babić died inZagreb on 27 August 2021, at the age of 95.[2]
Babić was one of the most prolific Croatian linguists, with over one thousand published works (books, articles, etc.).[1] His work deals predominantly with modern Croatian standard language,word formation in particular.[1] In his papers published during the 1960s, Babić advocated a linguistic unification of Serbs and Croats.[3][4][5][6][7] Since the 1990s, Babić has been one of the leading proponents of language purism in Croatia.[6][8] His puristic approach has been criticised byIvo Pranjković[9] and especially[10] bySnježana Kordić.[11][12][13][14][15] Babić's tendency to use the topic of language to spread nationalist ideology was evident in his articles published in the journalJezik, in which Babić was editor-in-chief.[16]
This listing includes only books:
"Hrvatski pravopis" (co-authored withBožidar Finka andMilan Moguš) 1. edition was outlawed in 1971 (reprints:London 1972, Zagreb 1990.), 2 1994, 3 1995, 4 1996, 5 2000, 6 2002, 7 2003
"Pregled gramatike hrvatskoga književnog jezika" (co-authored with Stjepko Težak) 1973 (later editions are called "Gramatika hrvatskoga jezika", such as that of 1992. (7. ed.), 2000. (12. ed.): "Gramatika hrvatskoga jezika : priručnik za osnovno jezično obrazovanje")
"Tvorba riječi u hrvatskom književnom jeziku" 1 (an outline for the grammar) 1986, 2 1991, 3 2002
"Opća i slavenska terminološka problematika" 1987
"Hrvatska jezikoslovna čitanka" 1990
"Hrvatski jezik u političkom vrtlogu" 1990
"Povijesni pregled, glasovi i oblici hrvatskoga književnog jezika" 1991
^Babić, Stjepan (1964). "Uklanjanje hrvatsko-srpskih jezičnih razlika" [Elimination of language differences between Croats and Serbs].Jezik (in Serbo-Croatian).11 (3):71–72, 74.ISSN0021-6925.
^Babić, Stjepan (1965). "Vukov i naš današnji književni jezik" [Vuk’s language and our today’s language].Jezik (in Serbo-Croatian).13 (1):24–25.ISSN0021-6925.
^Babić, Stjepan (6 March 1966). "Zvučnik, glasnogovornik i varijante" [Vowel, spokesman and variants].Vjesnik (in Serbo-Croatian): 6.ISSN0350-3305.
^abGröschel, Bernhard (2009).Das Serbokroatische zwischen Linguistik und Politik: mit einer Bibliographie zum postjugoslavischen Sprachenstreit [Serbo-Croatian Between Linguistics and Politics: With a Bibliography of the Post-Yugoslav Language Dispute]. Lincom Studies in Slavic Linguistics ; vol 34 (in German). Munich: Lincom Europa. pp. 75, 371.ISBN978-3-929075-79-3.LCCN2009473660.OCLC428012015.OL15295665W.
^Visković, Velimir (2022)."Slučaj Kordić" [The Kordić case].O drugima, o sebi: autobiografsko-memoarski zapisi [About others, about myself: autobiographical-memoir records]. Biblioteka Posebna izdanja (in Serbo-Croatian). Zagreb: Naklada Ljevak. pp. 207–208.ISBN978-953-355-596-6.LCCN2022489279.OCLC1356400109.COBISS129538051.Archived from the original on 4 November 2024. Retrieved21 November 2024. p. 207:Međutim, nakon nekog vremena svima je bilo očito da je u polemikama Kordić nadmoćna; osobito se to pokazalo u polemici sa Stjepanom Babićem, kojemu je pronašla njegove stare, unitarističke tekstove o jeziku i ismijala ga. [However, after a while it became obvious to everyone that Kordić was superior in polemics; this was especially evident in the polemic with Stjepan Babić, where she found his old, unitarian texts on language and ridiculed him.]
^Czerwiński, Maciej (2005).Język – ideologia – naród: polityka językowa w Chorwacji a język mediów [Language – ideology – nation: Language policy in Croatia and the language of media] (in Polish). Kraków: Scriptum. p. 131.ISBN8360163049.OCLC64586273.
^Zanelli, Aldo (2018).Eine Analyse der Metaphern in der kroatischen Linguistikfachzeitschrift Jezik von 1991 bis 1997 [Analysis of Metaphors in Croatian Linguistic JournalLanguage from 1991 to 1997]. Studien zur Slavistik ; 41 (in German). Hamburg:Dr. Kovač. pp. 67–70,39–54.ISBN978-3-8300-9773-0.OCLC1023608613.(NSK).(FFZG).
