Srpski Rječnik
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

''Srpski rječnik'' ( sr-cyr, Српски рјечник, , ''The Serbian Dictionary''; full name: Српски рјечник истолкован њемачким и латинским ријечма, "The Serbian Dictionary, paralleled with German and Latin words") is a
dictionary A dictionary is a listing of lexemes from the lexicon of one or more specific languages, often arranged alphabetically (or by radical and stroke for ideographic languages), which may include information on definitions, usage, etymologies ...
written by Vuk Stefanović Karadžić, first published in 1818. It is the first known dictionary of the reformed
Serbian language Serbian (, ) is the standardized variety of the Serbo-Croatian language mainly used by Serbs. It is the official and national language of Serbia, one of the three official languages of Bosnia and Herzegovina and co-official in Montenegro and Kos ...
.


Development

Karadžić began collecting words of the Serbian
vernacular A vernacular or vernacular language is in contrast with a "standard language". It refers to the language or dialect that is spoken by people that are inhabiting a particular country or region. The vernacular is typically the native language, n ...
in 1815, as suggested by Slovene 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 f ...
. While working in
court A court is any person or institution, often as a government institution, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between parties and carry out the administration of justice in civil, criminal, and administrative matters in accordance ...
during his time in
Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe, Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Bas ...
, he had a habit of "writing down an interesting word or two". The first published edition of the dictionary came out in 1818, and contained 26.270 words which Karadžić had heard in the common speech. His source could also have been the Avramović Dictionary. Karadžić's dictionary itself was one of the most important steps in his struggle for the Serbian language and
grammar In linguistics, the grammar of a natural language is its set of structure, structural constraints on speakers' or writers' composition of clause (linguistics), clauses, phrases, and words. The term can also refer to the study of such constraint ...
because it stated that the pure vernacular should provide the basis for a main
literary language A literary language is the form (register) of a language used in written literature, which can be either a nonstandard dialect or a standardized variety of the language. Literary language sometimes is noticeably different from the spoken langu ...
. Also reviewed in the dictionary were phonetic changes, later being a part of the ''Grammar of the Serbian language'', which was later merged with the dictionary and translated by
Jacob Grimm Jacob Ludwig Karl Grimm (4 January 1785 – 20 September 1863), also known as Ludwig Karl, was a German author, linguist, philologist, jurist, and folklorist. He is known as the discoverer of Grimm's law of linguistics, the co-author of th ...
into
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...
in 1824, while the dictionary itself was translated into
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
and German by Jernej Kopitar. While being officially completed in 1816, the dictionary could not yet be published for a number of reasons, mainly due to the lack of resources and therefore means to print the dictionaries. While at the time there were no printing presses present in Serbia, printing such a work in Austria required the permission of Metropolitan
Stefan Stratimirović Stefan Stratimirović ( sr, Стефан Стратимировић; 27 December 1757 – 22 September 1836) was a Serbian bishop who served as the Metropolitan of Karlovci, head of the Serbian Orthodox Church in the Austrian Empire, between 1790 ...
, who saw Karadžić's work in
orthography An orthography is a set of conventions for writing a language, including norms of spelling, hyphenation, capitalization, word breaks, emphasis, and punctuation. Most transnational languages in the modern period have a writing system, and mos ...
as a threat to the
Serbian Orthodox Church The Serbian Orthodox Church ( sr-Cyrl, Српска православна црква, Srpska pravoslavna crkva) is one of the autocephalous (ecclesiastically independent) Eastern Orthodox Christian denomination, Christian churches. The majori ...
and its habits of educating
Serbs The Serbs ( sr-Cyr, Срби, Srbi, ) are the most numerous South Slavic ethnic group native to the Balkans in Southeastern Europe, who share a common Serbian ancestry, culture, history and language. The majority of Serbs live in their na ...
with the so-called
Slavonic-Serbian Slavonic-Serbian (славяносербскій, ''slavjanoserbskij''), Slavo-Serbian, or Slaveno-Serbian (славено-сербскiй, ''slaveno-serbskij''; sr, славеносрпски''/slavenosrpski'') was a literary language used by ...
language, an adaptation of the
Church Slavonic Church Slavonic (, , literally "Church-Slavonic language"), also known as Church Slavic, New Church Slavonic or New Church Slavic, is the conservative Slavic liturgical language used by the Eastern Orthodox Church in Belarus, Bosnia and Herzeg ...
language. Karadžić had also implemented the use of new, reformed letters within the dictionary. These included Ј, Љ, Њ, Ђ, Ћ and Џ. Words including the letter Х, which Karadžić insisted to be used with foreign words only, did not appear in the first edition of the dictionary. However, Karadžić was later persuaded by
Lukijan Mušicki Lukijan Mušicki ( sr-cyr, Лукијан Мушицки, ; 27 January 1777 – 15 March 1837) was a Serbian Orthodox bishop, writer and poet. From 1828 he was bishop of Karlovac Karlovac () is a city in central Croatia. According to the 2011 ...
and Pavle Solarić that the letter be used in some words, however "Х" was never attributed in the dictionary as a starting letter, and no words beginning with "Х" were included.


Criticism

The dictionary was sharply criticized and attacked by opponents of the language reform, a strong motive for this being the large amount of
swear words Profanity, also known as cursing, cussing, swearing, bad language, foul language, obscenities, expletives or vulgarism, is a socially offensive use of language. Accordingly, profanity is language use that is sometimes deemed impolite, ru ...
present in the dictionary, which were included partly due to Kopitar's and
Grimm Grimm may refer to: People * Grimm (surname) * Brothers Grimm, German linguists ** Jacob Grimm (1785–1863), German philologist, jurist and mythologist ** Wilhelm Grimm (1786–1859), German author, the younger of the Brothers Grimm * Christian ...
's persuasions. Jacob Grimm showed a distinct interest in
profanity Profanity, also known as cursing, cussing, swearing, bad language, foul language, obscenities, expletives or vulgarism, is a socially offensive use of language. Accordingly, profanity is language use that is sometimes deemed impolite, rud ...
within the Serbian language and in his correspondence with Karadžić he requested their equivalent in German. Attacks held against the dictionary did not cease even after 1847, which was considered to be the year of victory for Karadžić's reforms.


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Srpski Rjecnik Serbo-Croatian dictionaries 19th century in Serbia Serbian language Principality of Serbia 1818 non-fiction books History of the Serbs Cyrillic script History of the Serbo-Croatian language