Bogoslav Šulek (born Bohuslav Šulek; April 20, 1816 – November 30, 1895) was a Croatian

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 ...

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the st ...

and

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 ...

. He was very influential in creating Croatian terminology in the areas of social and natural sciences, technology and civilization.

Early career

Šulek was a Slovak by birth. He was born in

Sobotište Sobotište ( hu, Ószombat, (til 1899) Szobotist) is a village and municipality in Senica District in the Trnava Region of western Slovakia. In 1845 it was the location of the establishment of the first cooperative in Europe by Samuel Jurkovič (Sp ...

(Hungarian: Ószombat, (till 1899) Szobotist), in the Nyitra County of the

Kingdom of Hungary The Kingdom of Hungary was a monarchy in Central Europe that existed for nearly a millennium, from the Middle Ages into the 20th century. The Principality of Hungary emerged as a Christian kingdom upon the Coronation of the Hungarian monarch, c ...

(present-day

Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the ...

) where he attended primary school. He studied at the

evangelical Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide interdenominational movement within Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being " born again", in which an individual expe ...

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 ...

Bratislava Bratislava (, also ; ; german: Preßburg/Pressburg ; hu, Pozsony) is the capital and largest city of Slovakia. Officially, the population of the city is about 475,000; however, it is estimated to be more than 660,000 — approximately 140% of ...

. He decided not to become a

pastor A pastor (abbreviated as "Pr" or "Ptr" , or "Ps" ) is the leader of a Christian congregation who also gives advice and counsel to people from the community or congregation. In Lutheranism, Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy and ...

, but was unable to continue his studies in

Jena Jena () is a German city and the second largest city in Thuringia. Together with the nearby cities of Erfurt and Weimar, it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 inhabitants, while the city itself has a po ...

, so he came to his brother in the

Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = " Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capi ...

n town of Brod na Savi in November 1838. Soon he made contact with

Ljudevit Gaj Ljudevit Gaj (; born Ludwig Gay; hu, Gáj Lajos; 8 August 1809 – 20 April 1872) was a Croatian linguist, politician, journalist and writer. He was one of the central figures of the pan-Slavist Illyrian movement. Biography Origin He was bor ...

, the central figure of the Croatian Illyrian movement, and in autumn 1839 started working as a printer for

Franjo Župan Franjo is a Croatian masculine given name. In Croatia, the name Franjo was among the top ten most common masculine given names in the decades up to 1949. Notable people with the name include: * Franjo Arapović (born 1965), former Croatian baske ...

Zagreb Zagreb ( , , , ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slop ...

. He started writing for Gaj's papers in 1841 and was the editor-in-chief of the illegal paper ''Branislav'', printed in

Belgrade Belgrade ( , ;, ; names in other languages) is the capital and largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and the crossroads of the Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. Nearly 1,166,763 mi ...

, in 1844–45. He was the editor of Gaj's ''Novine Horvatske, Slavonske i Dalmatinske'' (Newspaper of Croatia, Slavonia and Dalmatia) from 1846 to 1849, ''Slavenski jug'' (Slavic South) in 1849, and ''Jugoslavenske novine'' (Yugoslav Newspaper) in 1850. During the 1850s he wrote many textbooks (e.g. ''Learning to Read'', ''Children's Primer'', ''Natural Sciences for Primary School'', ''Plant Studies for High School'' etc.). At the same time, he was writing a German-Croatian dictionary. He also wrote against the linguistic policy of the linguist and folklorist Vuk Karadžić. Šulek held pro- Yugoslav views. He died in Zagreb. Ancestors of Bogoslav Šulek: :hu: Schulek család (felvidéki)

Work

From 1858 till 1865, Šulek was the editor of ''Gospodarski list''. He was one of the initiators of ''Pozor'' magazine (1867). He was an exceptionally prolific journalist and scientific propagator. In 1868 he issued his most famous political work, ''Naše pravice. Izbor zakonah, poveljah i spisah, znamenitih za državno pravo kraljevine dalmatinsko-hrvatsko-slavonske od god. 1202 - 1868'' (Our Rights. A Selection of Laws, Charters and Documents Important for the State Right of the Kingdom of Dalmatia, Croatia and Slavonia, 1202–1868). He was a member 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 ...

and its secretary from 1871 till his death. He was promoted into a doctor of sciences in 1867 on the basis of his study of

Ruđer Bošković Roger Joseph Boscovich ( hr, Ruđer Josip Bošković; ; it, Ruggiero Giuseppe Boscovich; la, Rogerius (Iosephus) Boscovicius; sr, Руђер Јосип Бошковић; 18 May 1711 – 13 February 1787) was a physicist, astronomer, ...

Influence on Croatian terminology

Šulek supported linguistic principles of the Zagreb Philological School and promoted Croatian linguistic purism. For his work he has been described as the "father of Croatian scientific terminology". He liberally coined

neologisms A neologism Ancient_Greek.html"_;"title="_from_Ancient_Greek">Greek_νέο-_''néo''(="new")_and_λόγος_/''lógos''_meaning_"speech,_utterance"is_a_relatively_recent_or_isolated_term,_word,_or_phrase_that_may_be_in_the_process_of_entering_com ...

and borrowed words from other

Slavic languages The Slavic languages, also known as the Slavonic languages, are Indo-European languages spoken primarily by the Slavic peoples and their descendants. They are thought to descend from a proto-language called Proto-Slavic, spoken during the ...

to serve as replacements for non-Slavic

loanwords A loanword (also loan word or loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language. This is in contrast to cognates, which are words in two or more languages that are similar because th ...

. When a

Shtokavian Shtokavian or Štokavian (; sh-Latn, štokavski / sh-Cyrl, italics=no, штокавски, ) is the prestige dialect of the pluricentric Serbo-Croatian language and the basis of its Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian and Montenegrin standards. It ...

word for a loanword was not available, he drew upon

Chakavian Chakavian or Čakavian (, , , sh-Latn, čakavski proper name: or own name: ''čokovski, čakavski, čekavski'') is a South Slavic regiolect or language spoken primarily by Croats along the Adriatic coast, in the historical regions of Dalmat ...

and

Kajkavian Kajkavian (Kajkavian noun: ''kajkavščina''; Shtokavian adjective: ''kajkavski'' , noun: ''kajkavica'' or ''kajkavština'' ) is a South Slavic regiolect or language spoken primarily by Croats in much of Central Croatia, Gorski Kotar and no ...

lexical stock, and when those were insufficient he borrowed words from other Slavic languages such as

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, ...

, Slovak,

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

and Slovene, or proposed his own neologisms. His activities often drew him to conflict with

Croatian Vukovians Croatian Vukovians ( sh, hrvatski vukovci) refers to a group of Croatian linguists that were active at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. Their work focused on the standardization of the Croatian variety of Serbo-Croatian l ...

who advocated pure folk language and derisively called his neologisms and borrowings ''šulekizmi'' ("Šulekisms"). Despite their initial unpopularity, most of Šulek's new vocabulary slowly entered into common parlance of Croatian upper classes throughout the 20th century; many of these words are nowadays considered standard Croatian expressions for various concepts. Most of his coinages used in modern Croatian include words in

chemistry Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the elements that make up matter to the compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions: their composition, structure, proper ...

(''kisik'' "oxygen", ''vodik'' "hydrogen", ''dušik'' "nitrogen") and other technical fields (''plin'' "gas", ''plinomjer'' "gas meter", ''narječje'' "dialect", ''glazba'' "music", ''skladba'' "composition", ''obrazac'' "template; form", ''sustav'' "system", ''tlak'' "pressure", ''tlakomjer'' "

barometer A barometer is a scientific instrument that is used to measure air pressure in a certain environment. Pressure tendency can forecast short term changes in the weather. Many measurements of air pressure are used within surface weather analysis ...

", ''zemljovid'' "map", ''uzor'' "role model", ''pojam'' "concept", ''tvrtka'' "company", ''uradak'' "piece of work", ''zdravstvo'' "healthcare").

Works

* ''"Deutsch-kroatisches Worterbuch - Njemačko-ilirski rječnik"'', I. - II. (Zagreb, 1860) - German-Croatian Dictionary * ''"Hrvatsko-njemačko-talijanski rječnik znanstvenoga nazivlja"'', I. - II. (Zagreb, 1874/75; reprint: Zagreb, 1995) - Croatian-German-Italian Dictionary of Scientific Terms * ''"Jugoslavenski imenik bilja"'', (Zagreb, 1879.) - Yugoslavian Plant Lexicon

References

Sources

* *

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sulek, Bogoslav 1816 births 1895 deaths People from Senica District Slovak Lutherans Croatian Lutherans Croatian people of Slovak descent Linguists from Croatia Croatian lexicographers Croatian philologists Members of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts Burials at Mirogoj Cemetery 19th-century Lutherans 19th-century lexicographers