August Kovačec (born 6 August 1938) is a

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

and Romanicist.

Biography

He was born in Donje Jesenje. He received a degree in Romance and Russian

philology Philology () is the study of language in Oral tradition, oral and writing, written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also de ...

at the Faculty of Philosophy in Zagreb in 1960, and a PhD in 1965. From 1960 to 1962, he worked as

Croatian language Croatian (; ) is the standard language, standardised Variety (linguistics)#Standard varieties, variety of the Serbo-Croatian pluricentric language mainly used by Croats. It is the national official language and literary standard of Croatia, o ...

editor at the

University of Bucharest The University of Bucharest (UB) () is a public university, public research university in Bucharest, Romania. It was founded in its current form on by a decree of Prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza to convert the former Princely Academy of Bucharest, P ...

. In 1962 he started working at the Department of Romance Languages at the Faculty of Philosophy in Zagreb, becoming professor in 1983. From 1966 to 1967 he went to

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

to further study under

André Martinet André Martinet (; 12 April 1908 – 16 July 1999) was a French linguist, influential due to his work on structural linguistics. In linguistic theory, Martinet is known especially for his studies on linguistic economy and double articulation. ...

and

Émile Benveniste Émile Benveniste (; 27 May 1902 – 3 October 1976) was a French Structuralism, structural linguistics, linguist and semiotics, semiotician. He is best known for his work on Indo-European languages and his critical reformulation of the linguist ...

. Since 1997, he has been a full member of the

Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts The Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts (; , HAZU) is the national academy of Croatia. HAZU was founded under the patronage of the Croatian bishop Josip Juraj Strossmayer under the name Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts (, JAZU) since its ...

, and since 2011 a secretary of its Department of Philology. His work is focused on the

Istro-Romanian language The Istro-Romanian language () is an Eastern Romance languages, Eastern Romance language, spoken in a few villages and hamlets in the peninsula of Istria in Croatia, as well as in the diaspora of this people. It is sometimes abbreviated to IR. ...

(''Opis današnjeg istrorumunjskog – Descrierea istroromânei actuale'', 1971; ''Istrorumunjsko-hrvatski rječnik: (s gramatikom i tekstovima)'', 1998) as well as Jewish-Spanish spoken in

Dubrovnik Dubrovnik, historically known as Ragusa, is a city in southern Dalmatia, Croatia, by the Adriatic Sea. It is one of the most prominent tourist destinations in the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean, a Port, seaport and the centre of the Dubrovni ...

and

Sarajevo Sarajevo ( ), ; ''see Names of European cities in different languages (Q–T)#S, names in other languages'' is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 2 ...

and their contacts with Croatian. He published papers on

French language French ( or ) is a Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European family. Like all other Romance languages, it descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire. French evolved from Northern Old Gallo-R ...

, Romance comparative syntax, on Balkans languages and Romance literatures (''Francuska književnost XIV. do XVI. st.'', ''Rumunjska književnost'', in: ''Povijest svjetske književnosti'', book 3, 1982). At the Miroslav Krleža Lexicographical Institute he was the Editor-in-Chief of the Croatian General Lexicon (1991–1996), then deputy editor (1996–2001) and finally the Editor-in-Chief of

Croatian Encyclopedia The ''Croatian Encyclopedia'' () is a Croatian general encyclopedia An encyclopedia is a reference work or compendium providing summaries of knowledge, either general or special, in a particular field or discipline. Encyclopedias are divid ...

(2001–2005). His articles on Croatian language policy meet criticism, arising from Kovačec's puristic approach to language and the primordialist view of nations.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kovacec, August Linguists from Croatia 1938 births Living people Members of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts