Vuk Stefanović Karadžić

For other people with the same surname, see Karadžić. For the TV series, see Vuk Karadžić (TV series).

Vuk Stefanović Karadžić Вук Стефановић Караџић
Vuk Karadžić, around 1850
Born	November 7, 1787(1787-11-07) Tršić, Serbia, Ottoman Empire
Died	February 7, 1864(1864-02-07) (aged 76) Vienna, Austrian Empire
Nationality	Serbian
Ethnicity	Serb
Known for	Serbian language reform Serbian Cyrillic alphabet
Religion	Serbian Orthodox Christianity

Vuk Stefanović Karadžić (pronounced [ʋûːk stefǎːnoʋitɕ kâradʒitɕ], Serbian Cyrillic: Вук Стефановић Караџић; November 7, 1787 – February 7, 1864) was a Serbian philologist and linguist, the major reformer of the Serbian language, and deserves, perhaps, for his collections of songs, fairy tales, and riddles to be called the father of the study of Serbian folklore. He was the author of the first Serbian dictionary. Among his colleagues in linguistics were Jernej Kopitar and Đuro Daničić, while in folklore studies, Vuk Vrčević (1811–82), a friend of writer Stjepan Mitrov Ljubiša.

He was well known abroad and familiar to such giants as Jacob Grimm, Goethe and historian Leopold von Ranke. Vuk was the primary source for Ranke's Serbische Revoluzion ("Serbian Revolution"), written in 1829.

Biography

Early life

Vuk Karadžić’s house today in all-museum village Tršić.

Karadžić was born to parents Stefan and Jegda (née 'Zrnić') in the village of Tršić, near Loznica in Serbia, then in the Ottoman Empire. His family settled from Drobnjaci, and his mother was born in Ozrinići, Nikšić (modern Montenegro). His family had a low infant survival rate, thus he was named Vuk ('wolf') so that witches and evil spirits would not hurt him (Vuk was traditionally given to strengthen the bearer).

Education

Oil painting by Pavel Đurković, dating to 1816 (age 29)

Vuk Karadžić was fortunate to be a relative of Jevta Savić Čotrić, the only literate person in the region at the time, who taught him how to read and write. Karadžić continued his education in Loznica, in the Tronoša Monastery. As a boy he learned calligraphy there, using a reed instead of a pen and a solution of gunpowder for ink. In lieu of proper writing paper he was lucky if he could get cartridge wrappings. Throughout that whole region there was no regular school at that time of Ottoman rule and his father at first did not allow him to go to Austria. Since most of the time while in the monastery Karadžić was forced to pasture the livestock instead of studying, his father brought him back home. Meanwhile, the First Serbian Uprising (against the Ottoman Empire) had broken out in 1804. After unsuccessful attempts to enroll in the gymnasium at Sremski Karlovci, for which 19 year-old Karadžić was too old, Karadžić left for Petrinje where he spent a few months learning Latin and German. Later on, he left for Belgrade in order to meet the highly respected scholar Dositej Obradović, and ask him to support his studies. Unfortunately, Obradović dismissed him. Disappointed, Karadžić left for Jadar and began working as a scribe for Jakov Nenadović. After the founding of the Belgrade Higher School (better known as Grande École or Velika skola), Karadžić became one of its first students.

Later life and death

Soon afterwards, he grew ill and left for medical treatment in Pest and Novi Sad, but was unable to receive treatment for his leg. It was rumored that Karadžić deliberately refused to undergo amputation, instead deciding to make do with a prosthetic wooden [peg-leg], of which there were several sarcastic references in some of his works. Karadžić returned to Serbia later on, however due to the Ottoman defeat of the rebels in 1813, he left for Vienna and later met Jernej Kopitar, an experienced linguist with a strong interest in secular slavistics. Kopitar's influence helped Karadžić with his struggle in reforming the Serbian language and its orthography. Another important influence was Sava Mrkalj.

In 1814 and 1815 Vuk published two volumes of Srpske Narodne Pesme (Serbian National Songs), which afterwards increased to four, then to six, and finally to nine tomes. In enlarged editions, these admirable songs drew towards themselves the attention of all literary Europe and America. Goethe characterized some of them as "excellent and worthy of comparison with Solomon's Song of Songs."

In 1824 he sent a copy of his folksong collection to Jacob Grimm, who was enthralled particularly by "The Walled-Up Wife". Grimm translated it into German and the song was noted and admired for many generations to come. Grimm compared them with the noblest flowers of Homeric poetry, and of Zidanje Skadra na Bojani (Building of Scutari on the Boyana) he said: "one of the most touching poems of all nations and all times." The founders of the Romantic School in France, Charles Nodier, Prosper Mérimée, Lamartine, Gerard de Nerval, and Claude Fauriel translated a goodly number of them, and they also attracted the attention of Russian Alexander Pushkin, Finnish national poet Johan Ludwig Runeberg, Czech Samuel Roznay, Pole Kazimierz Brodzinski, English writers Walter Scott, Owen Meredith, and John Bowring, among others.

Karadžić continued collecting song well into the 1830s. He arrived in Montenegro in the fall of 1834. Infirm, he descended to the Bay of Kotor to winter there, and returned in the spring of 1835. It was there that Karadžić met Vuk Vrčević, an aspiring littérateur, born in Risan. From then on Vrčević became Karadžić's faithful and loyal collaborator who collected folk songs and tales and sent them to his address in Vienna for many years to come.

Monument to Vuk Karadžić, Belgrade.

The majority of Karadžić's works were banned from publishing in Serbia and Austria during the rule of Prince Miloš Obrenović. As observed from a political point of view, Obrenović saw the works of Karadžić as a potential hazard due to a number of apparent reasons, one of which being the possibility that the content of some of the works, although purely poetic in nature, is capable of creating a certain sense of patriotism and a desire for freedom and independence, which very likely might drive the populace to take up arms against the Turks. This, in turn, would prove detrimental to Prince Miloš's politics toward the Ottoman Empire, with whom he had recently forged an uneasy peace. In Montenegro, however, Njegoš's printing press operated without the archaic letter known as the "hard sign"; in other words, it adhered to Vuk Karadžić's orthography. Prince Miloš was to resent Njegoš's abandonment of the unhappy hard sign, over which, at that time, furious intellectual battles were being waged, with ecclesiastical hierarchy involved as well. Karadžić's works, however, did receive high praise and recognition elsewhere, especially in Russia. In addition to this, Karadžić was granted a full pension from the Tsar in 1826.

He died at Vienna, and was survived by daughter Mina Karadžić, painter and writer, and son Dimitrije Karadžić, military officer. His bones were relocated to Belgrade in 1897 and buried with great honours next to the grave of Dositej Obradović.

Work

Linguistic reforms

Karadžić reformed the Serbian literary language and standardised the Serbian Cyrillic alphabet by following strict phonemic principles on the German model and Jan Hus' Czech alphabet. Karadžić's reforms of the Serbian literary language modernised it and distanced it from Serbian and Russian Church Slavonic, instead bringing it closer to common folk speech, specifically, to the dialect of Eastern Herzegovina which he spoke. Karadžić was, together with Đuro Daničić, the main Serbian signatory to the Vienna Literary Agreement of 1850 which, encouraged by Austrian authorities, laid the foundation for the Serbian language, various forms of which are used by Serbs in Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia today. Karadžić also translated the New Testament into Serbian, which was published in 1868. The Vukovian effort of language standardization lasted the remainder of the century. Before then the Serbs had achieved a fully independent state (1878), and a flourishing national culture based in Belgrade and Novi Sad. Despite the Vienna agreement, the Serbs had by this time developed a ekavian accent, which was the native speech of their two cultural capitals as well as the great majority of the Serbian population.

Literature

In addition to his linguistic reforms, Karadžić also contributed to folk literature, using peasant culture as the foundation. Because of his peasant upbringing, he closely associated with the oral literature of the peasants, compiling it to use in his collection of folk songs, tales, and proverbs. While Karadžić hardly considered peasant life romantic, he regarded it as an integral part of Serbian culture. He collected several volumes of folk prose and poetry, including a book of over 100 lyrical and epic songs learned as a child and written down from memory. He also published the first dictionary of vernacular Serbian. For his work he received little financial aid, at times living in poverty, though in the very last 9 years he did receive a pension from prince Miloš Obrenović. In some cases Karadžić hid the fact that he had not only collect folk poetry by recording the oral literature but transcribed it from manuscript songbooks of other collectors from Srem.

Non-philological work

Besides his greatest achievement on literary field, Vuk gave his contribution to Serbian anthropology in combination with the ethnography of that time. He left notes on physical aspects of human body alongside with ethnographic notes. He introduced a rich terminology on body parts (from head to toes) into the literary language. It should be mentioned that these terms are still used, both in science and everyday speech. He gave, among other things, his own interpretation of the connection between environment and inhabitants, with parts on nourishment, living conditions, hygiene, diseases and funeral customs. All in all this considerable contribution of Vuk Karadzic is not that famous or studied.

Legacy

Vuk Karadžić, lithography by Josef Kriehuber, 1865

Vuk was honored across Europe. He was chosen as a member of various European learned societies, including:

• Member of academy in Berlin
• Member of academy in Vienna
• Member of academy in Saint Petersburg
• Member of academy in Moscow
• Member of academy in Göttingen
• Member of various societies in Kraków
• Member of academy in Paris

He was decorated by Russian and Austro-Hungarian monarchs, Prussian king and Russian academy of science. UNESCO has proclaimed 1787 the year of Vuk Karadzić.

On the 100th anniversary of Vuk's death (in 1964) student work brigades on youth action "Tršić 64" raised an amphitheater with a stage that was needed for organizing the "Vuk's Council", and "Vuk's Student Council". In 1987 Tršić received a comprehensive overhaul as a cultural-historical monument. Also, the road from Vuk's home to Tronoša monastery was built.

Vuk's birth house was declared Monument of Culture of Exceptional Importance in 1979, and it is protected by Republic of Serbia. Recently, rural tourism has become popular in Tršić, with many families converting their houses into buildings designed to accommodate guests. TV series based on his life were broadcast on Radio Television of Serbia. His portrait is often seen in Serbian schools.

Works (in Serbian)

• Mala prostonarodna slaveno-serbska pesnarica, Beč, 1814
• Pismenica serbskoga jezika, Beč, 1814
• Narodna srbska pjesnarica, II deo, Beč, 1815
• Srpski rječnik istolkovan njemačkim i latinskim rječima, Beč, 1818
• Narodne srpske pripovjetke, Beč, 1821, dopunjeno izdanje, 1853
• Narodne srpske pjesme III, Lajpcig, 1823
• Narodne srpske pjesme II, Beč, 1823
• Narodne srpske pjesme I, Beč, 1824
• Mala srpska gramatika, Lajpcig, 1824
• Žizni i podvigi Knjaza Miloša Obrenovića, Petrograd, 1925
• Danica I-V, Beč, 1825-1833
• Žitije Djordja Arsenijevića, Emanuela, Budim, 1827
• Žitije hajduk-Veljka Petrovića
• Miloš Obrenović, knjaz Srbije ili gradja za srpsku istoriju našega vremena, Budim, 1828
• Luke Milovanova opit…, Beč, 1823
• Narodne srpske pjesme IV, Beč, 1833
• Narodne srpske poslovice i druge različne, kao i one u običaj
• Uzete riječi, Cetinje, 1836
• Crna Gora i Crnogorci (na nemačkom), Štutgart, 1837
• Pisma Platonu Atanackoviću, Beč, 1845
• Kovčežić za istoriju, jezik i običaje Srba sva tri zakona, Beč, 1849
• Praviteljstvujušči sovjet serbski za vremena Kara-Djordjijeva, Beč, 1860
• Srpske narodne pesme V, Beč, 1865
• Srpske narodne pjesme iz Hercegovine, Beč, 1866
• Život i običaji naroda srpskog, Beč, 1867
• Nemačko srpski rečnik, Beč, 1872

Translations:

• New Testament

Quotes

Write as you speak and read as it is written.

—The essence of modern Serbian spelling

In Serbian: Пиши као што говориш и читај како је написано. (Piši kao što govoriš i čitaj kako je napisano.)

Although the above quotation is usually attributed to Vuk Stefanović Karadžić, it is in fact an orthographic principle devised by the German grammarian and philologist Johann Christoph Adelung. Karadžić merely used that principle to push through his language reform. The attribution of the quote to Karadžić is a common misconception in Serbia, Montenegro and the rest of former Yugoslavia. Due to that fact, the entrance exam to the University of Belgrade Faculty of Philology occasionally contains a question on the authorship of the quote (as a sort of trick question).

If everyone do as much as he is capable, the nation will not fall.

In Serbian: Ако свако уради онолико колико је способан, неће народ пропасти. (Ako svako uradi onoliko koliko je sposoban, neće narod propasti.)

See also

• Museum of Vuk and Dositej

People closely related to Vuk:

• Lukijan Mušicki
• Filip Višnjić
• Jernej Kopitar
• Sima Milutinović Sarajlija
• Dimitrije Davidović
• Jacob Grimm
• Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
• Leopold von Ranke
• Đuro Daničić
• Branko Radičević
• Petar II Petrović Njegoš
• Ljudevit Gaj
• Franc Miklošič
• Ivan Mažuranić

References

2. Jovan Skerlić, Istorija Nove Srpske Književnosti/History of New Serbian Literature (Belgrade, 1914, 1921) pages 239-276. 3. Karadzic Vuk, Works, book XVIII, Belgrade 1972.

Further reading

• Wilson, Duncan (1970). The Life and Times of Vuk Stefanović Karadzić, 1787-1864; Literacy, Literature and National Independence in Serbia. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 

External links

• Biography (Serbian)
• Encyclopedia of World Biography from Bookrags.com (English)
• Works by Vuk Stefanović Karadžić at Project Gutenberg
• Vuk's Foundation (Serbian)
• Vuk Karadžić online library at Project Rastko (Serbian)
• Jernej Kopitar as a strategist of Karadžić’s reform of the literary language PDF (Serbian)