Matija Čop (; 26 January 1797 – 6 July 1835), also known in German as Matthias Tschop, was a Slovene

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 ...

polyglot Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. When the languages are just two, it is usually called bilingualism. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolin ...

literary historian The history of literature is the historical development of writings in prose or poetry that attempt to provide entertainment or education to the reader, as well as the development of the literary techniques used in the communication of these pie ...

and

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Biography

Čop was born in the small northern Carniolan town of Žirovnica, in what was then the

Habsburg monarchy The Habsburg monarchy, also known as Habsburg Empire, or Habsburg Realm (), was the collection of empires, kingdoms, duchies, counties and other polities (composite monarchy) that were ruled by the House of Habsburg. From the 18th century it is ...

(now in

Slovenia Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia, is a country in Central Europe. It borders Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the south and southeast, and a short (46.6 km) coastline within the Adriati ...

), into a relatively wealthy peasant family. He was sent to

Ljubljana {{Infobox settlement , name = Ljubljana , official_name = , settlement_type = Capital city , image_skyline = {{multiple image , border = infobox , perrow = 1/2/2/1 , total_widt ...

for primary and secondary schooling and then studied

philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

at the

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. Basic science and some introduction to ...

s of Ljubljana and

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

for three years. In 1817, he returned from Vienna and attended a priest seminary until 1820, when he left it to become a secondary school teacher in

Rijeka Rijeka (; Fiume ( �fjuːme in Italian and in Fiuman dialect, Fiuman Venetian) is the principal seaport and the List of cities and towns in Croatia, third-largest city in Croatia. It is located in Primorje-Gorski Kotar County on Kvarner Ba ...

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 ...

. In 1822 he moved to

Lviv Lviv ( or ; ; ; see #Names and symbols, below for other names) is the largest city in western Ukraine, as well as the List of cities in Ukraine, fifth-largest city in Ukraine, with a population of It serves as the administrative centre of ...

(then also part of the

Austrian Empire The Austrian Empire, officially known as the Empire of Austria, was a Multinational state, multinational European Great Powers, great power from 1804 to 1867, created by proclamation out of the Habsburg monarchy, realms of the Habsburgs. Duri ...

), when he started working as a teacher at the local lyceum, but was soon promoted to assistant professor at Lviv University. In 1827 he returned to Ljubljana, when he was offered a job as a secondary school teacher again. In 1828, he accepted the post of librarian at the Lyceum, which he held full-time after 1831. During his time in Ljubljana, he became a close friend of the poet

France Prešeren France Prešeren () (3 December 1800 – 8 February 1849) was a 19th-century Romantic Slovene poet whose poems have been translated into many languages.

. He served as his tutor, providing him with information on contemporary developments in European literature. In 1835, at age 38, Čop drowned while swimming in the Sava River. Prešeren dedicated his major poem '' The Baptism on the Savica'' to his late friend. Prior to his death, he was engaged to the noblewoman Antonija Höffern.

Influence

With his command of 19 languages (including Albanian), Čop was perhaps the most erudite Slovene of his time. Although he did not publish much original work during his lifetime, Čop had a great influence on the later development of Slovene culture. Unlike such contemporaries as the linguist

Jernej Kopitar Jernej Kopitar, also known as Bartholomeus Kopitar (21 August 1780 – 11 August 1844), was a Slovene linguist and philologist working in Vienna. He also worked as the Imperial censor for Slovene literature in Vienna. He is perhaps best known ...

and the poet Stanko Vraz, Čop believed in the possibility of the development of a distinctive Slovenian national culture. He can thus be seen as the predecessor of the Slovenian national awakening in the second part of the 19th century. His broad cosmopolitan education enabled him to recognise the poetic talent of France Prešeren, which remained unnoticed by most of his contemporaries, and to advise him on stylistic and linguistic issues. Today, Čop is generally regarded as one of the most important Slovenian intellectuals of the 19th century. Several streets, schools and other institutions throughout Slovenia bear his name, among them the fashionable Čop Street in Ljubljana.

References

Sources

* Fedora Ferluga Petronio, ''Jernej Kopitar - Matija Čop''. Ljubljana: Filozofska fakulteta, 1996. *

Janko Kos Janko Kos (born 9 March 1931) is a Slovenian literary historian, theoretician, and critic. Early life He was born in Ljubljana in what was then the Kingdom of Yugoslavia as the son of the painter and sculptor Tine Kos. His father was a liberal ...

, ''Matija Čop''. Ljubljana: Partizanska knjiga, 1979.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cop, Matija 1797 births 1835 deaths People from Žirovnica, Žirovnica Carniolan historians Slovenian literary historians Linguists from Carniola Carniolan literary critics Carniolan philologists Deaths by drowning 19th-century Carniolan writers Scholars from the Austrian Empire

Biography

Influence

See also

References

Sources

External links