Ivan Klajn ( sr-cyr, Иван Клајн, ; 31 January 1937 31 March 2021) was a Serbian linguist, philologist and language historian, with primary interest in

Romance languages The Romance languages, sometimes referred to as Latin languages or Neo-Latin languages, are the various modern languages that evolved from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages in the Indo-European language ...

and

Serbian Serbian may refer to: * someone or something related to Serbia, a country in Southeastern Europe * someone or something related to the Serbs, a South Slavic people * Serbian language * Serbian names See also * * * Old Serbian (disambiguation ...

. He was a regular member of the

Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts The Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts ( la, Academia Scientiarum et Artium Serbica, sr-Cyr, Српска академија наука и уметности, САНУ, Srpska akademija nauka i umetnosti, SANU) is a national academy and the ...

, and the editor-in-chief of the

Matica srpska The Matica srpska ( sr-Cyrl, Матица српска, Matica srpska, la, Matrix Serbica, grc, Μάτιτσα Σρπσκα) is the oldest Serbian language independent, non-profit, non-governmental and cultural-scientific Serbian national in ...

's journal ''Jezik danas''. Through his paternal family, which lived 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 ...

for generations, he was of Croatian-Jewish descent. He completed the studies of the

Italian language Italian (''italiano'' or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire. Together with Sardinian, Italian is the least divergent language from Latin. Spoken by about 8 ...

and literature at the

University of Belgrade The University of Belgrade ( sr, / ) is a public university in Serbia. It is the oldest and largest modern university in Serbia. Founded in 1808 as the Belgrade Higher School in revolutionary Serbia, by 1838 it merged with the Kragujevac-ba ...

Faculty of Philology. After graduation, he started working at the same faculty, becoming a regular professor of the Italian language and the comparative grammar of Romance languages. Beside Romance Studies, his interest also lies in the language morphology, linguistic consultancy and the standardization of the modern

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 ...

. His major works are the ''Rečnik jezičkih nedoumica'' ('The dictionary of linguistic dilemmas'), ''Tvorba reči u savremenom srpskom jeziku'' ('Morphology in modern Serbian language', 2 volumes) and ''Italijansko-srpski rečnik'' ('Italian-Serbian dictionary'). In 2017, he signed the

Declaration on the Common Language The Declaration on the Common Language ( sh, Deklaracija o zajedničkom jeziku / ) was issued in 2017 by a group of intellectuals and NGOs from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia who were working under the banner of a projec ...

of the

Croats The Croats (; hr, Hrvati ) are a South Slavic ethnic group who share a common Croatian ancestry, culture, history and language. They are also a recognized minority in a number of neighboring countries, namely Austria, the Czech Republic ...

Serbs The Serbs ( sr-Cyr, Срби, Srbi, ) are the most numerous South Slavs, South Slavic ethnic group native to the Balkans in Southeastern Europe, who share a common Serbian Cultural heritage, ancestry, Culture of Serbia, culture, History of ...

Bosniaks The Bosniaks ( bs, Bošnjaci, Cyrillic script, Cyrillic: Бошњаци, ; , ) are a South Slavs, South Slavic ethnic group native to the Southeast European historical region of Bosnia (region), Bosnia, which is today part of Bosnia and Herzeg ...

and

Montenegrins Montenegrins ( cnr, Црногорци, Crnogorci, or ; lit. "Black Mountain People") are a South Slavic ethnic group that share a common Montenegrin culture, history, and language, identified with the country of Montenegro. Genetics Accordi ...

. Klajn died from

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quick ...

on 31 March 2021, 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 ...

at the age of 84.

Books and articles

In 1974 he started writing weekly columns on the problems of modern

Serbo-Croatian Serbo-Croatian () – also called Serbo-Croat (), Serbo-Croat-Bosnian (SCB), Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian (BCS), and Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian (BCMS) – is a South Slavic language and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia an ...

, first in Borba, and afterward in

Politika ''Politika'' ( sr-Cyrl, Политика; ''Politics'') is a Serbian daily newspaper, published in Belgrade. Founded in 1904 by Vladislav F. Ribnikar, it is the oldest daily newspaper still in circulation in the Balkans. Publishing and owners ...

and NIN. He was the editor-in-chief of the linguistic journal ''Jezik danas'' ('Language today'), published by

. He published a number of papers in linguistic journals, as well as 18 books: * ''Ispeci pa reci'' * ''Istorijska gramatika španskog jezika'' * ''Italijansko-srpski rečnik'' (2 editions) * ''Uticaji engleskog jezika u italijanskom'' (1971) * ''Jezik oko nas'' (1980) * ''Lingvističke studije'' (2000) * ''O funkciji i prirodi zamenica'' (1985) * ''Pisci i pismenjaci'' (1994) * ''Razgovori o jeziku'' (1978) * ''Rečnik jezičkih nedoumica'' (6 editions) * ''Rečnik novih reči'' (1992) * ''Stranputice smisla'' * ''Tvorba reči u savremenom srpskom jeziku'' - Volume I (2002) * ''Tvorba reči u savremenom srpskom jeziku'' - Volume II (2003) In co-authorship with

Pavle Ivić Pavle Ivić ( sr-cyr, Павле Ивић, ; 1 December 1924 – 19 September 1999) was a Serbian South Slavic dialectologist and phonologist. Biography Both his field work and his synthesizing studies were extensive and authoritative. A few of ...

, Mitar Pešikan and Branislav Brborić he wrote ''Jezički priručnik'' ('Language manual'), published by Radio Television Belgrade (1991). In the miscellany ''Srpski jezik na kraju veka'' ('Serbian language at the end of century') he wrote a part dealing with lexis. His ''Rečnik jezičkih nedoumica'' ('The dictionary of language dilemmas') was reprinted in 6 editions. For his ''Italijansko-srpski rečnik'' ('Italian-Serbian dictionary', 2nd edition, 2000), he received an award from the Italian government.

Translation

He translated a number of books from Italian and English. His translation of the

Giordano Bruno Giordano Bruno (; ; la, Iordanus Brunus Nolanus; born Filippo Bruno, January or February 1548 – 17 February 1600) was an Italian philosopher, mathematician, poet, cosmological theorist, and Hermetic occultist. He is known for his cosmolog ...

's ''Il Candelaio'' ('The Torchbearer'; Serbian: ''Svećar'') was played at the ''Atelje 212'' in Belgrade. He was one of the editors of the Serbian edition of the ''Cambridge Encyclopedia of Languages'' (Nolit, Belgrade, 1995), and of the translators of the Serbian edition of the ''Encyclopedic dictionary of modern linguistics'' (Nolit, Belgrade, 1988).

Membership

He was a member of the '' Vukova zadužbina'' Council ('Vuk's endowment') and the

Board for Standardization of the Serbian Language The Board for Standardization of the Serbian Language ( sr, Одбор за стандардизацију српског језика , translit=Odbor za standardizaciju srpskog jezika) is a linguistic institute in Serbia, Montenegro and Republik ...

. He was a member and the contributor of

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Klajn, Ivan 1937 births Writers from Belgrade Linguists from Serbia Serbian translators University of Belgrade Faculty of Philology alumni Serbian people of Croatian-Jewish descent Signatories of the Declaration on the Common Language 2021 deaths Serbian Jews Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in Serbia Italian–Serbian translators English–Serbian translators