Adolfo Veber Tkalčević (11 May 1825 − 6 August 1889) was a

Croat The Croats (; hr, Hrvati ) are a South Slavic ethnic group who share a common Croatian ancestry, culture, history and language. They are also a recognized minority in a number of neighboring countries, namely Austria, the Czech Republic, Ge ...

ian philologist, writer, literary critic, aestheticist and politician. Veber is regarded as one of the most prominent Croatian intellectuals of the 19th century and as the founder of Croatian literary criticism.

Life

Veber was born in

Bakar Bakar ( it, Buccari; hu, Szádrév) is a town in the Primorje-Gorski Kotar County in western Croatia. The population of the town was 8,279 according to the 2011 Croatian census, including 1,473 in the titular settlement. Ninety percent of the ...

in 1825. His father, Josef Weber, an army officer, was a German immigrant from

Moravia Moravia ( , also , ; cs, Morava ; german: link=yes, Mähren ; pl, Morawy ; szl, Morawa; la, Moravia) is a historical region in the east of the Czech Republic and one of three historical Czech lands, with Bohemia and Czech Silesia. The me ...

. He received degrees in

philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

in Zagreb,

theology Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

and

Slavistics Slavic (American English) or Slavonic (British English) studies, also known as Slavistics is the academic field of area studies concerned with Slavic areas, languages, literature, history, and culture. Originally, a Slavist or Slavicist was prim ...

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

. He has continued the tradition of the

Illyrian movement The Illyrian movement ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, Ilirski pokret, Илирски покрет; sl, Ilirsko gibanje) was a pan-South-Slavic cultural and political campaign with roots in the early modern period, and revived by a group of young Croatian inte ...

, as outlined by

Vjekoslav Babukić Vjekoslav (Alojzije) Babukić (16 July 1812 – 20 December 1875) was a Croatian revivalist and a linguist. He was born in Požega. He received a degree in law in 1832 in Zagreb. He was a prominent follower of the Illyrian movement, supporting th ...

and

Antun Mažuranić Antun Mažuranić (Novi Vinodolski, 13 June 1805 – 18 December 1888, Zagreb) was Croatian writer and linguist, brother of Croatian Ban Ivan Mažuranić and writer Matija Mažuranić. He was an active participant of the Illyrian movement and one ...

, but clearly distanced himself from Gaj's attempts of relating to

Vuk Karadžić Vuk Stefanović Karadžić ( sr-Cyrl, Вук Стефановић Караџић, ; 6 November 1787 (26 October OS)7 February 1864) was a Serbian philologist, anthropologist and linguist. He was one of the most important reformers of the mode ...

. He was important as one of the storytellers which has, in the middle of the 19th century, broken the practice of Turkish novellas and romantic prose introducing the elements of Realism into Croatian literature. His aesthetic views with a classicistic background influenced his philological works and many of his solutions in norming the Croatian

standard language A standard language (also standard variety, standard dialect, and standard) is a language variety that has undergone substantial codification of grammar and usage, although occasionally the term refers to the entirety of a language that includes ...

. He was the author of the first syntax of

Croatian literary language Croatian (; ' ) is the standardized variety of the Serbo-Croatian pluricentric language used by Croats, principally in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Serbian province of Vojvodina, and other neighboring countries. It is the official an ...

, ''Skladnja ilirskog jezika'' (Vienna, 1859). He authored several school-level textbooks and wrote grammars of Croatian and Latin language for high schools. His ''Slovnica hèrvatska'', first published in 1871, has been used as standard high-school textbook, and as a norm and codification of standard language of the period. Veber was a long-time secretary of

Matica hrvatska Matica hrvatska ( la, Matrix Croatica) is the oldest independent, non-profit and non-governmental Croatian national institution. It was founded on February 2, 1842 by the Croatian Count Janko Drašković and other prominent members of the Illyri ...

and was one of the inaugural members of the

Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts The Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts ( la, Academia Scientiarum et Artium Croatica, hr, Hrvatska akademija znanosti i umjetnosti, abbrev. HAZU) is the national academy of Croatia. HAZU was founded under patronage of the Croatian bishop Jo ...

. Veber served two terms in the Parliament between 1861 and 1867, but retired from politics after the

Croatian–Hungarian Settlement The Croatian–Hungarian Settlement ( hr, Hrvatsko-ugarska nagodba, hu, magyar–horvát kiegyezés, german: Kroatisch-Ungarischer Ausgleich) was a pact signed in 1868 that governed Kingdom of Croatia (Habsburg), Croatia's political status in th ...

of 1868. His defence of Illyrian views on literary language was published in ''

Vienac ''Vijenac'' (English: '' The Wreath'') is a biweekly magazine for literature, art and science, established in December 1993 and published by ''Matica hrvatska'', the central national cultural institution in Croatia. Historical background The ...

'' in 1884 under the title ''Brus jezika ili zagrebačka škola''. After

and

, he became the leader of

Zagreb Philological School Zagreb philological school ( sh, Zagrebačka filološka škola) was a 19th-century philological school that operated in Zagreb, offering a set of solutions for the issues involved in the standardization of Croatian literary language. It was led by A ...

, in opposition to Vukovian orthography. Veber died in Zagreb in 1889, virtually forgotten by his peers.

Works

* ''Skladnja ilirskoga jezika'', Vienna, 1859. (I ed.), 1862. (II ed.), reprint in Zagreb, 2005. (the first work on syntax of Croatian) * ''Slovnica za četvrti razred katoličkih glavnih učionah u Carevini austrijanskoj'', Vienna, 1862., 1863., 1867., 1868., 1870. * ''Slovnica za IV. razred pučkih učionah'', 1875. * ''Slovnica hrvatska za pučke učione'', Vienna, 1876. * ''Slovnica hrvatska i pismovnik za pučke učione'', Vienna, 1878., 1879. * ''Slovnica hèrvatska za srednja učilišta'', Zagreb 1871., 1873., 1876. * ''Kako bi se imale pisati slovnice za gimnazije, uz nieke protuopazke na opazke gosp. dra. Jovana Turomana '', ''

Rad JAZU ''Rad'' ( Croatian for ''proceedings'', ''work'') is an academic journal An academic journal or scholarly journal is a periodical publication in which scholarship relating to a particular academic discipline is published. Academic journals se ...

'', Knj. 34(1876) * ''Kritika o skladnji Petra Budmana izašloj u Beču g. 1867 : njiževna obznana', Rad JAZU, Knj. 4, 1868. * ''O glagolju'', Rad JAZU, Knj. 22, 1873. * ''O naravi hervatske izreke '', Rad JAZU, Knj. 28, 1874. * ''O pridavniku'', Rad JAZU, Knj. 14, 1871. * ''Pabirci po slovnici hrvatskoj'', Rad JAZU, Knj. 42, 1878.

Fiction

* ''Zagrebkinje'' (1855) * ''Avelina Bakranina ljuvezne sgode i nesgode'' (1855) * ''Nadala Bakarka'' (1870) * ''Paskva'' (1874) * ''Dobrotvor djački'' (1879) * ''Božićno zvonce'' (1886)

Works about Veber

Radoslav Katičić Radoslav Katičić (; 3 July 1930 – 10 August 2019) was a Croatian linguist, classical philologist, Indo-Europeanist, Slavist and Indologist, one of the most prominent Croatian scholars in the humanities. Biography Radoslav Katičić was born ...

, ''Prva gramatika Adolfa Vebera Tkalčevića'', Filologija, Knj. 14, 1986.

References

Sources

External links

*
Institut za hrvatski jezik i jezikoslovlje
Gramatike (slovnice) hrvatskog jezika (Grammars of Croatian language) *
Ljiljana Kolenić: Pogled u tvorbu staroga hrvatskoga gramatičkoga nazivlja
(*.pdf), Filologija, br. 46–47., Zagreb, 2006. *
Faculty of Philosophy-Library catalogue
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tkalcevic, Adolfo Veber 1825 births 1889 deaths Linguists from Croatia Croatian writers Members of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts Burials at Mirogoj Cemetery Representatives in the Croatian Parliament (1848–1918) Croatian people of German descent Danube-Swabian people