Franc Serafin Metelko, also known as Fran Metelko (14 July 1789 – 27 December 1860) was a Slovene Roman Catholic priest, author, and

philologist Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as th ...

, best known for his proposal of a new script for the Slovene called the

Metelko alphabet The Metelko alphabet ( sl, metelčica) was a Slovene writing system developed by Franc Serafin Metelko. It was used by a small group of authors from 1825 to 1833 but it was never generally accepted. Metelko introduced his alphabet in the book ...

, which was meant to replace the traditional

Bohorič alphabet The Bohorič alphabet ( sl, bohoričica) was an orthography used for Slovene between the 16th and 19th centuries. Origins Its name is derived from Adam Bohorič, who codified the alphabet in his book ''Articae Horulae Succisivae''. It was print ...

, used since the late sixteenth century. Metelko was born in the village of Škocjan in

Lower Carniola Lower Carniola ( sl, Dolenjska; german: Unterkrain) is a traditional region in Slovenia, the southeastern part of the historical Carniola region. Geography Lower Carniola is delineated by the Ljubljana Basin with the city of Ljubljana to the n ...

, then part of the Habsburg monarchy. He studied theology and philosophy in

Ljubljana Ljubljana (also known by other historical names) is the capital and largest city of Slovenia. It is the country's cultural, educational, economic, political and administrative center. During antiquity, a Roman city called Emona stood in the are ...

. In 1814 he was ordained a priest and in 1817 he started teaching Slovene at the

Lyceum The lyceum is a category of educational institution defined within the education system of many countries, mainly in Europe. The definition varies among countries; usually it is a type of secondary school. Generally in that type of school the t ...

in Ljubljana. In 1825, he published a book in German titled ''Lehrgebäude der slowenischen Sprache im Königreiche Illyrien und in den benachbarten Provinzen'' (Slovenian Textbook for the Kingdom of Illyria and Neighboring Provinces). Following the advice of the linguist

Jernej Kopitar Jernej Kopitar, also known as Bartholomeus Kopitar (21 August 1780 – 11 August 1844), was a Slovene linguist and philologist working in Vienna. He also worked as the Imperial censor for Slovene literature in Vienna. He is perhaps best known ...

, his newly created alphabet (which soon became known as the ''metelčica'' '

') was

phonetic Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that studies how humans produce and perceive sounds, or in the case of sign languages, the equivalent aspects of sign. Linguists who specialize in studying the physical properties of speech are phoneticians. ...

, with each character corresponding a sound in the spoken language. It was also quite complicated, containing unneeded or redundant characters for glottal ''h'' and the clusters ''lj'', ''nj'', and ''šč'' as well as unfamiliar characters taken from Cyrillic. In addition, Metelko based his phonology on his local

Lower Carniolan dialect This article uses Logar transcription. The Lower Carniolan dialect ( , ) is a major Slovene dialect in the Lower Carniolan dialect group. It is one of the two central Slovene dialects and was the original foundation for standard Slovene alo ...

, which was not acceptable for most contemporary Slovenian authors. Metelko's proposal further aggravated the "

Slovene alphabet The Slovene alphabet ( sl, slovenska abeceda, or ''slovenska gajica'' ) is an extension of the Latin script used to write Slovene. The standard language uses a Latin alphabet which is a slight modification of the Croatian Gaj's Latin alphabet, ...

War", which was started by

Peter Dajnko Peter Dajnko (23 April 1787 – 22 February 1873) was a Slovene priest, author, and linguist, known primarily as the inventor of the Dajnko alphabet ( sl, dajnčica), an innovative proposal for the Slovene alphabet. Dajnko was also a proficie ...

's quest for a new, more phonetic alphabet, replacing the traditional

(''bohoričica''). Metelko's main opponent, the philologist

Matija Čop Matija Čop (; 26 January 1797 – 6 July 1835), also known in German as Matthias Tschop, was a Slovene linguist, polyglot, literary historian and critic. Biography Čop was born in the small northern Carniolan town of Žirovnica, in what ...

, convinced the

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, ...

scholar

František Čelakovský František Ladislav Čelakovský (7 March 1799 Strakonice - 5 August 1852 Prague) was a Czech poet, translator, linguist, and literary critic. He was a major figure in the Czech " national revival". His most notable works are ''Ohlas písní rus ...

to publish a devastating critique of Metelko's alphabet, which undermined the chances of its success. Čop also persuaded the local

Austrian Austrian may refer to: * Austrians, someone from Austria or of Austrian descent ** Someone who is considered an Austrian citizen, see Austrian nationality law * Austrian German dialect * Something associated with the country Austria, for example: ...

educational authorities to ban Metelko's alphabet from schools, which they did with an official decree in 1833. The Alphabet War nevertheless continued until the 1840s, when a slightly modified version of

Gaj's Latin alphabet Gaj's Latin alphabet ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, Gajeva latinica, separator=" / ", Гајева латиница}, ), also known as ( sh-Cyrl, абецеда, ) or ( sh-Cyrl, гајица, link=no, ), is the form of the Latin script used for writing Serb ...

was finally adopted, which is still used to this day. Metelko's alphabet remained in public memory because of a satirical poem by

France Prešeren France Prešeren () (2 or 3 December 1800 – 8 February 1849) was a 19th-century Romantic Slovene poet whose poems have been translated into many languages.

titled "Al' prav se piše kaa ali kaſha" (How to Write the Word Porridge), which criticized the Alphabet War as nonsense. Metelko was also a collector of

folk songs Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has be ...

and an amateur poet. Metelko Street () in the center of Ljubljana is named after him. He died in

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*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Metelko, Franc Serafin 1779 births 1860 deaths People from the Municipality of Škocjan Grammarians from Carniola Carniolan Roman Catholic priests Carniolan collectors

See also

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