Bratoljub Klaić (also ''Adolf Klaić''; 27 July 1909 in Bizovac – 1983 in

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, north of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the ...

) was a Croatian

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

translator Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''trans ...

Biography

He was born in the municipality of Bizovac in the

Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia The Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia (; or ; ) was a nominally autonomous kingdom and constitutionally defined separate political nation within the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It was created in 1868 by merging the kingdoms of Kingdom of Croatia (Habs ...

as Adolf Klaić. His father, Adolf Klotz, changed the family name to Klaić. After finishing classical gymnasium in

, and graduating at the

Faculty of Philosophy A faculty is a division within a university or college comprising one subject area or a group of related subject areas, possibly also delimited by level (e.g. undergraduate). In North America, academic divisions are sometimes titled colleges, sc ...

the history of

South Slavic languages The South Slavic languages are one of three branches of the Slavic languages. There are approximately 30 million speakers, mainly in the Balkans. These are separated geographically from speakers of the other two Slavic branches (West Slavic la ...

and literatures,

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 *Czech (surnam ...

and German, Bratoljub Klaić pursues further specialisation in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

and

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

. He received his Ph.D. in 1941 with the thesis ''Bizovačko narječje'' ('The dialect of Bizovac'). He was a professor at the gymnasium in

Vukovar Vukovar (; sr-Cyrl, Вуковар, , ) is a city in Croatia, in the eastern Regions of Croatia, regions of Syrmia and Slavonia. It contains Croatia's largest river port, located at the confluence of the Vuka (river), Vuka and the Danube. Vukova ...

Prijedor Prijedor ( sr-cyrl, Приједор, ) is a city in Republika Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina. As of 2013, it had a population of 80,916 inhabitants within its administrative limits. Prijedor is situated in the northwestern part of the Bosanska ...

Osijek Osijek () is the fourth-largest city in Croatia, with a population of 96,848 in 2021. It is the largest city and the economic and cultural centre of the eastern Croatian region of Slavonia, as well as the administrative centre of Osijek-Baranja ...

and Zagreb, and at the ''Viša pedagoška škola'' in Zagreb. From 1950. he is a professor of

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 ...

at the Academy for Theater and Film Arts. As a member of the State Committee for Language in NDH, Klaić has, in collaboration with other members, arranged an orthographical handbook ''Koriensko pisanje'' ('Root-based writing'; 1942), and with Franjo Cipra also a voluminous ''Hrvatski pravopis'' ('Croatian orthography'; 1944, reprint in 1992), both based on the morphological-etymological principles in accordance with the official language policy. He became famous for his ''Rječnik stranih riječi'' ('The dictionary of foreign words'), originally published in 1951 and printed in several editions, most recently in 2012. He translated from foreign languages (

Aeschylus Aeschylus (, ; ; /524 – /455 BC) was an ancient Greece, ancient Greek Greek tragedy, tragedian often described as the father of tragedy. Academic knowledge of the genre begins with his work, and understanding of earlier Greek tragedy is large ...

Sophocles Sophocles ( 497/496 – winter 406/405 BC)Sommerstein (2002), p. 41. was an ancient Greek tragedian known as one of three from whom at least two plays have survived in full. His first plays were written later than, or contemporary with, those ...

Euripides Euripides () was a Greek tragedy, tragedian of classical Athens. Along with Aeschylus and Sophocles, he is one of the three ancient Greek tragedians for whom any plays have survived in full. Some ancient scholars attributed ninety-five plays to ...

Virgil Publius Vergilius Maro (; 15 October 70 BC21 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Rome, ancient Roman poet of the Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Augustan period. He composed three of the most fa ...

etc.). As a versed accentologist, he published papers on Croatian prosody, leaving an orthoepical dictionary in MS. He commented and provided critical editions of various Croatian writers (e.g. in the edition ''Pet stoljeća hrvatske književnosti'', 'The five centuries of Croatian literature') and linguistically adapted many theater and film performances. He practised

diction Diction ( (nom. ), "a saying, expression, word"), in its original meaning, is a writer's or speaker's distinctive vocabulary choices and style of expression in a piece of writing such as a poem or story.Crannell (1997) ''Glossary'', p. 406 In its c ...

with actors for the shows and was a main interpreter for unknown words. He studied Polish-Croatian cultural ties and wrote on them. Beside linguistics, he also studied

literary theory Literary theory is the systematic study of the nature of literature and of the methods for literary analysis. Culler 1997, p.1 Since the 19th century, literary scholarship includes literary theory and considerations of intellectual history, m ...

(''Između jezikoslovlja i nauke o književnosti'', 'Between linguistics and the literary theory'; 1972). In

Croatian studies Croatian studies or Croatistics (; ; ; ) is an academic discipline within Slavic studies which is concerned with the study of Croatian language, literature, history and culture. Within Slavic studies it belongs to the South Slavic subgroup. Besid ...

as well as in Croatian culture in general, Bratoljub Klaić left a permanent written and oral mark as a versed

lexicographer Lexicography is the study of lexicons and the art of compiling dictionaries. It is divided into two separate academic disciplines: * Practical lexicography is the art or craft of compiling, writing and editing dictionary, dictionaries. * The ...

and orthographical normativist.

References

Sources

Rođen Bratoljub Klaić

External links

Kada kažemo 'rječnik' onda mislimo na Klaića
{{DEFAULTSORT:Klaic, Bratoljub 1909 births 1983 deaths People from Bizovac People from the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia Linguists from Croatia Croatian lexicographers Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb alumni 20th-century Croatian translators Translators of Virgil 20th-century Croatian linguists 20th-century lexicographers Burials at Mirogoj Cemetery