Božidar Finka (19 December 1925 – 17 May 1999) was a Croatian linguist, lexicographer and member of the

Croatian 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 J ...

Life and education

Božidar Finka was born in Sali on 19 December 1925. In 1947 he finished high school in

Split Split(s) or The Split may refer to: Places * Split, Croatia, the largest coastal city in Croatia * Split Island, Canada, an island in the Hudson Bay * Split Island, Falkland Islands * Split Island, Fiji, better known as Hạfliua Arts, entertai ...

. In 1960 he graduated in Slavic Studies with the dissertation "Dugootočki Čakavski govori". Finka spent most of his scientific career working at the

Institute of Croatian Language and Linguistics The Institute of Croatian Language and Linguistics ( hr, Institut za hrvatski jezik i jezikoslovlje) is an official institute in Croatia whose purpose is to preserve and foster the Croatian language. It traces its history back to 1948, when it was ...

, serving as its director from 1973–77. He was a full member of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts since 1988.

Works

Finka's most significant work was in the fields of Croatian and Slavic

dialectology Dialectology (from Greek , ''dialektos'', "talk, dialect"; and , '' -logia'') is the scientific study of linguistic dialect, a sub-field of sociolinguistics. It studies variations in language based primarily on geographic distribution and their ass ...

and

toponymy Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of ''toponyms'' (proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage and types. Toponym is the general term for a proper name of ...

. With Stjepan Babić and

Milan Moguš Milan Moguš (; 27 April 1927 – 19 November 2017) was a Croatian linguist and academician. Biography He was born in Senj, where he finished primary school and high school. In the academic year 1948/49 he attended in Faculty of Philosophy in Z ...

, he co-authored ''Hrvatski pravopis'' ("Croatian Orthography", 1st ed. 1971).

Sources

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Finka, Božidar
at enciklopedija.hr 1925 births 1999 deaths People from Sali, Croatia Croatian linguists Croatian lexicographers Dialectologists Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb alumni Members of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts 20th-century linguists 20th-century lexicographers {{Croatia-academic-bio-stub