Bratoljub Klaić (also ''Adolf Klaić''; 27 July 1909 in

Bizovac Bizovac is a town and a municipality in Osijek-Baranja County, Croatia. Population There are a total of 4,507 inhabitants in the municipality (census 2011), in the following settlements: * Bizovac, population 2,043 * Brođanci, population 547 ...

– 1983 in

Zagreb Zagreb ( , , , ) is the capital and largest city of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb stands near the international border between Croatia and Slov ...

) was a Croatian

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...

and

translator Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transl ...

Biography

He was born in the municipality of

in the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia as Adolf Klaić. His father, Adolf Klotz, changed the family name to Klaić. After finishing classical gymnasium in

, and graduating at the

Faculty of Philosophy A faculty is a division within a university or college comprising one subject area or a group of related subject areas, possibly also delimited by level (e.g. undergraduate). In American usage such divisions are generally referred to as colleges ...

the history of South Slavic languages and literatures,

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus' Places * Czech, ...

and German, Bratoljub Klaić pursues further specialisation in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

and

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

. He received his Ph.D. in 1941 with the thesis ''Bizovačko narječje'' ('The dialect of Bizovac'). He was a professor at the gymnasium in

Vukovar Vukovar () ( sr-Cyrl, Вуковар, hu, Vukovár, german: Wukowar) is a city in Croatia, in the eastern region of Slavonia. It contains Croatia's largest river port, located at the confluence of the Vuka and the Danube. Vukovar is the seat of ...

Prijedor Prijedor ( sr-cyrl, Приједор, ) is a city and municipality located in the Republika Srpska entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina. As of 2013, it has a population of 89,397 inhabitants within its administrative limits. Prijedor is situated in ...

, Osijek and Zagreb, and at the ''Viša pedagoška škola'' in Zagreb. From 1950. he is a professor of Croatian language at the Academy for Theater and Film Arts. As a member of the State Committee for Language in NDH, Klaić has, in collaboration with other members, arranged an orthographical handbook ''Koriensko pisanje'' ('Root-based writing'; 1942), and with Franjo Cipra also a voluminous ''Hrvatski pravopis'' ('Croatian orthography'; 1944, reprint in 1992), both based on the morphological-etymological principles in accordance with the official language policy. He became famous for his ''Rječnik stranih riječi'' ('The dictionary of foreign words'), originally published in 1951 and printed in several editions, most recently in 2012. He translated from foreign languages (

Aeschylus Aeschylus (, ; grc-gre, Αἰσχύλος ; c. 525/524 – c. 456/455 BC) was an ancient Greek tragedian, and is often described as the father of tragedy. Academic knowledge of the genre begins with his work, and understanding of earlier Greek ...

Sophocles Sophocles (; grc, Σοφοκλῆς, , Sophoklễs; 497/6 – winter 406/5 BC)Sommerstein (2002), p. 41. is one of three ancient Greek tragedians, at least one of whose plays has survived in full. His first plays were written later than, or c ...

Euripides Euripides (; grc, Εὐριπίδης, Eurīpídēs, ; ) was a tragedian of classical Athens. Along with Aeschylus and Sophocles, he is one of the three ancient Greek tragedians for whom any plays have survived in full. Some ancient scholars a ...

Virgil Publius Vergilius Maro (; traditional dates 15 October 7021 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He composed three of the most famous poems in Latin literature: th ...

etc.). As a versed accentologist, he published papers on Croatian prosody, leaving an orthoepical dictionary in MS. He commented and provided critical editions of various Croatian writers (e.g. in the edition ''Pet stoljeća hrvatske književnosti'', 'The five centuries of Croatian literature') and linguistically adapted many theater and film performances. He practised

diction Diction ( la, dictionem (nom. ), "a saying, expression, word"), in its original meaning, is a writer's or speaker's distinctive vocabulary choices and style of expression in a poem or story.Crannell (1997) ''Glossary'', p. 406 In its common meanin ...

with actors for the shows and was a main interpreter for unknown words. He studied Polish-Croatian cultural ties and wrote on them. Beside linguistics, he also studied literary theory (''Između jezikoslovlja i nauke o književnosti'', 'Between linguistics and the literary theory'; 1972). In Croatian studies as well as in

Croatian culture The culture of Croatia has roots in a long history: the Croatian people have been inhabiting the area for fourteen centuries. Linguistic anthropological evidence suggests Croats originated from orth Iran There are important remnants of the ear ...

in general, Bratoljub Klaić left a permanent written and oral mark as a versed

lexicographer Lexicography is the study of lexicons, and is divided into two separate academic disciplines. It is the art of compiling dictionaries. * Practical lexicography is the art or craft of compiling, writing and editing dictionaries. * Theoretica ...

and orthographical normativist.

References

Sources

Rođen Bratoljub Klaić

External links

Kada kažemo 'rječnik' onda mislimo na Klaića
{{DEFAULTSORT:Klaic, Bratoljub 1909 births 1983 deaths People from Bizovac People from the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia Linguists from Croatia Croatian translators Croatian lexicographers Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb alumni 20th-century translators Translators of Virgil 20th-century linguists 20th-century lexicographers