''Srpski rječnik'' ( sr-cyr, Српски рјечник, , ''The Serbian Dictionary''; full name: Српски рјечник истолкован њемачким и латинским ријечма, "The Serbian Dictionary, paralleled with German and Latin words") is a
dictionary
A dictionary is a listing of lexemes from the lexicon of one or more specific languages, often arranged Alphabetical order, alphabetically (or by Semitic root, consonantal root for Semitic languages or radical-and-stroke sorting, radical an ...
written by
Vuk Stefanović Karadžić, first published in 1818. It is the first known dictionary of the reformed
Serbian language
Serbian (, ) is the standard language, standardized Variety (linguistics)#Standard varieties, 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 ...
.
Development
Karadžić began collecting words of the
Serbian vernacular
Vernacular is the ordinary, informal, spoken language, spoken form of language, particularly when perceptual dialectology, perceived as having lower social status or less Prestige (sociolinguistics), prestige than standard language, which is mor ...
in 1815, as suggested by Slovene 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 ...
. While working in
court
A court is an institution, often a government entity, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between Party (law), parties and Administration of justice, administer justice in Civil law (common law), civil, Criminal law, criminal, an ...
during his time in
Serbia
, image_flag = Flag of Serbia.svg
, national_motto =
, image_coat = Coat of arms of Serbia.svg
, national_anthem = ()
, image_map =
, map_caption = Location of Serbia (gree ...
, he had a habit of "writing down an interesting word or two". The first published edition of the dictionary came out in 1818, and contained 26.270 words which Karadžić had heard in the common speech. His source could also have been the
Avramović Dictionary. Karadžić's dictionary itself was one of the most important steps in his struggle for the Serbian language and
grammar
In linguistics, grammar is the set of rules for how a natural language is structured, as demonstrated by its speakers or writers. Grammar rules may concern the use of clauses, phrases, and words. The term may also refer to the study of such rul ...
because it stated that the pure vernacular should provide the basis for a main
literary language
Literary language is the Register (sociolinguistics), register of a language used when writing in a formal, academic writing, academic, or particularly polite tone; when speaking or writing in such a tone, it can also be known as formal language. ...
. Also reviewed in the dictionary were
phonetic changes, later being a part of the ''Grammar of the Serbian language'', which was later merged with the dictionary and translated by
Jacob Grimm
Jacob Ludwig Karl Grimm (4 January 1785 – 20 September 1863), also known as Ludwig Karl, was a German author, linguist, philologist, jurist, and folklorist. He formulated Grimm's law of linguistics, and was the co-author of the ''Deutsch ...
into
German in 1824, while the dictionary itself was translated into
Latin
Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
and German by Jernej Kopitar.
While being officially completed in 1816, the dictionary could not yet be published for a number of reasons, mainly due to the lack of resources and therefore means to print the dictionaries. While at the time there were no printing presses present in Serbia, printing such a work in Austria required the permission of
Metropolitan Stefan Stratimirović, who saw Karadžić's work in
orthography
An orthography is a set of convention (norm), conventions for writing a language, including norms of spelling, punctuation, Word#Word boundaries, word boundaries, capitalization, hyphenation, and Emphasis (typography), emphasis.
Most national ...
as a threat to the
Serbian Orthodox Church
The Serbian Orthodox Church ( sr-Cyrl-Latn, Српска православна црква, Srpska pravoslavna crkva) is one of the autocephalous (ecclesiastically independent) Eastern Orthodoxy, Eastern Orthodox Eastern Orthodox Church#Constit ...
and its habits of educating
Serbs
The Serbs ( sr-Cyr, Срби, Srbi, ) are a South Slavs, South Slavic ethnic group native to Southeastern Europe who share a common Serbian Cultural heritage, ancestry, Culture of Serbia, culture, History of Serbia, history, and Serbian lan ...
with the so-called
Slavonic-Serbian language, an adaptation of the
Church Slavonic
Church Slavonic is the conservative Slavic liturgical language used by the Eastern Orthodox Church in Belarus, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Serbia, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, Slovenia and Croatia. The ...
language.
Karadžić had also implemented the use of new, reformed letters within the dictionary. These included
Ј,
Љ,
Њ,
Ђ,
Ћ and
Џ. Words including the letter
Х, which Karadžić insisted to be used with foreign words only, did not appear in the first edition of the dictionary. However, Karadžić was later persuaded by
Lukijan Mušicki
Lukijan Mušicki ( sr-cyr, Лукијан Мушицки, ; 27 January 1777 – 15 March 1837) was a Serbian Orthodox bishop, writer and poet. From 1828 he was bishop of Karlovac, now in Croatia.
References
Further reading
*
*
* Jovan Sk ...
and
Pavle Solarić that the letter be used in some words, however "Х" was never attributed in the dictionary as a starting letter, and no words beginning with "Х" were included.
Criticism
The dictionary was sharply criticized and attacked by opponents of the language reform, a strong motive for this being the large amount of
swear words present in the dictionary, which were included partly due to
Kopitar's and
Grimm's persuasions. Jacob Grimm showed a distinct interest in
profanity
Profanity, also known as swearing, cursing, or cussing, is the usage of notionally word taboo, offensive words for a variety of purposes, including to demonstrate disrespect or negativity, to relieve pain, to express a strong emotion (such a ...
within the Serbian language and in his correspondence with Karadžić he requested their equivalent in German. Attacks held against the dictionary did not cease even after 1847, which was considered to be the year of victory for Karadžić's reforms.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Srpski Rjecnik
Serbo-Croatian dictionaries
19th century in Serbia
Serbian language
Principality of Serbia
1818 non-fiction books
History of the Serbs
Cyrillic script
History of the Serbo-Croatian language
Serbian Cyrillic texts