Fran Ramovš (14 September 1890 – 16 September 1952; pen name Julij Dub) was a

Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...

. He studied the

dialect The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of linguistic phenomena: One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a ...

s and onomastics of Slovene.

Early life and education

Fran Ramovš was born in

Ljubljana Ljubljana (also known by other historical names) is the capital and largest city of Slovenia. It is the country's cultural, educational, economic, political and administrative center. During antiquity, a Roman city called Emona stood in the are ...

, the capital of the

Duchy of Carniola The Duchy of Carniola ( sl, Vojvodina Kranjska, german: Herzogtum Krain, hu, Krajna) was an imperial estate of the Holy Roman Empire, established under Habsburg rule on the territory of the former East Frankish March of Carniola in 1364. A ...

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...

.Korošec, Josip. 1952. "In memoriam Fran Ramovš." ''Arheološki vestnik'' 3(2): 355. He studied linguistics in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

(1910–1911) and in Graz (1911–1914). While in Graz he selected the topic of his dissertation (the development of Proto-Slavic reduced vowels in Slovene) and completed it in 1912; he submitted it in 1914 to receive his PhD.Logar, Tine. 1996. "Ramovš. Fran." ''Enciklopedija Slovenije'', vol. 10. Ljubljana: Mladinska knjiga, pp. 77–79.

First World War

In October 1915 Ramovš was mobilized and sent to the

Isonzo Front The Battles of the Isonzo (known as the Isonzo Front by historians, sl, soška fronta) were a series of 12 battles between the Austro-Hungarian and Italian armies in World War I mostly on the territory of present-day Slovenia, and the remaind ...

, where he was completely incapacitated during the

Third Battle of the Isonzo The Third Battle of the Isonzo was fought from 18 October through 4 November 1915 between the armies of Italy and Austria-Hungary. Background This battle was a part of World War I. The first move was made in Italy, on the eastern sector; becau ...

. He spent a year recovering in Vienna, and he was dismissed from regular military service in 1917 on grounds of disability and assigned to the territorial reserve in Ljubljana and

Kamnik Kamnik (; german: Stein''Leksikon občin kraljestev in dežel zastopanih v državnem zboru,'' vol. 6: ''Kranjsko''. 1906. Vienna: C. Kr. Dvorna in Državna Tiskarna, pp. 26–27. or ''Stein in Oberkrain'') is a town in northern Slovenia. It is t ...

Academic career

In 1918 Ramovš was given a professorship and offered a teaching position as an associate professor in Chernivtsi,

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

, but with the collapse of

he returned from Graz to Ljubljana, where preparations were underway to establish a university. The

University of Ljubljana The University of Ljubljana ( sl, Univerza v Ljubljani, , la, Universitas Labacensis), often referred to as UL, is the oldest and largest university in Slovenia. It has approximately 39,000 enrolled students. History Beginnings Although certain ...

was founded in 1919, and on 31 August 1919 Ramovš was among the first four full professors appointed at the institution. He was appointed a professor of

Indo-European The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the overwhelming majority of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and the northern Indian subcontinent. Some European languages of this family, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, Dutc ...

and Slavic linguistics and also taught

accentology Accentology involves a systematic analysis of word or phrase stress. Sub-areas of accentology include Germanic accentology, Balto-Slavic accentology, Indo-European accentology, and Japanese accentology. See also *Proto-Slavic accent Proto-Slavic ...

, general phonetics,

Proto-Slavic Proto-Slavic (abbreviated PSl., PS.; also called Common Slavic or Common Slavonic) is the unattested, reconstructed proto-language of all Slavic languages. It represents Slavic speech approximately from the 2nd millennium B.C. through the 6th ...

, and comparative Indo-European grammar. In 1921, the son Primož (1921–1999), the later composer, was born to him. Ramovš served as chancellor of the University of Ljubljana from 1934 to 1935. He was a co-founder and member of the

Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts The Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts ( sl, Slovenska akademija znanosti in umetnosti (SAZU)) is the national academy of Slovenia, which encompasses science and the arts and brings together the top Slovene researchers and artists as members ...

and he served as the chair of the academy from 1950 to 1952. He received the

Prešeren Award The Prešeren Award ( sl, Prešernova nagrada), also called the Grand Prešeren Award ( sl, Velika Prešernova nagrada), is the highest decoration in the field of artistic and in the past also scientific creation in Slovenia. It is awarded each yea ...

in 1950 for his work on the Slovene Normative Guide ( sl, Slovenski pravopis). He was an honorary member of the Slavic Society of Slovenia ( sl, Slavistično društvo Slovenije). Ramovš died 16 September 1952 in Ljubljana.

Commemoration

The Fran Ramovš Institute of the Slovene Language ( sl, Inštitut za slovenski jezik Frana Ramovša ZRC SAZU) is named after Ramovš.Homepage of the Fran Ramovš Institute of the Slovene Language
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Selected bibliography

* ''Historična gramatika slovenskega jezika'' (Historical Grammar of Slovene) (a planned series) ** Volume 2: ''Konzonantizem'' (Consonants; Ljubljana, 1924) ** Volume 7: ''Dialekti'' (Dialects; Ljubljana, 1935) * ''Dialektološka karta slovenskega jezika'' (Slovene Dialect Map; Ljubljana, 1931) * (with Anton Breznik) ''Slovenski pravopis'' (Slovene Normative Guide; Ljubljana, 1935) * ''Kratka zgodovina slovenskega jezika'' (A Short History of Slovene; Ljubljana, 1936) * ''Morfologija slovenskega jezika'' (Slovene Morphology; Ljubljana, 1952)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ramovs, Fran 1890 births 1952 deaths Linguists from Slovenia Prešeren Award laureates University of Graz alumni Academic staff of the University of Ljubljana Members of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts Dialectologists Ethnic Slovene people Toponymists Grammarians from Slovenia 20th-century linguists