Jernej Kopitar, also known as Bartholomeus Kopitar (21 August 1780 – 11 August 1844), was a Slovene
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. Lingu ...
and
philologist
Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined ...
working 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 ...
. He also worked as the Imperial censor for
Slovene literature in Vienna. He is perhaps best known for his role in the Serbian language reform started by
Vuk Stefanović Karadžić, where he played a vital role in supporting the reform by using his reputation and influence as a
Slavic philologist.
Early life
Kopitar was born in the small
Carniola
Carniola ( sl, Kranjska; , german: Krain; it, Carniola; hu, Krajna) is a historical region that comprised parts of present-day Slovenia. Although as a whole it does not exist anymore, Slovenes living within the former borders of the region s ...
n village of
Repnje
Repnje (; german: Repne''Leksikon občin kraljestev in dežel zastopanih v državnem zboru,'' vol. 6: ''Kranjsko''. 1906. Vienna: C. Kr. Dvorna in Državna Tiskarna, p. 32. ) is a village in the Municipality of Vodice in the Upper Carniola region ...
near
Vodice, in what was then the
Habsburg monarchy
The Habsburg monarchy (german: Habsburgermonarchie, ), also known as the Danubian monarchy (german: Donaumonarchie, ), or Habsburg Empire (german: Habsburgerreich, ), was the collection of empires, kingdoms, duchies, counties and other polities ...
and is now in
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, and ...
. After graduating from the
lyceum 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 ar ...
, he became a private teacher in the house of baron
Sigmund Zois
Sigmund Zois Freiherr von Edelstein, usually referred as Sigmund Zois ( sl, Žiga Zois, formerly Slovenized as ''Cojs'' or ''Cojz''; ) (23 November 1747 – 10 November 1819) was a Carniolan nobleman, natural scientist and patron of the arts. He ...
, a renowned entrepreneur, scientist and patron of arts. Kopitar later became Zois' personal secretary and librarian. During this period, he became acquainted with the circle of
Enlightenment intellectuals that gathered in
Zois' mansion, such as the playwright and historian
Anton Tomaž Linhart, the poet and editor
Valentin Vodnik, and philologist
Jurij Japelj.
Career as a censor and linguist
In 1808, he moved to Vienna, where he studied law. At the same time, he developed an interest in the comparative analysis of the
Slavic languages
The Slavic languages, also known as the Slavonic languages, are Indo-European languages spoken primarily by the Slavic peoples and their descendants. They are thought to descend from a proto-language called Proto-Slavic, spoken during the ...
, to which he would devote all his later life. He became employed as a librarian and later an administrator at the
Vienna Court Library. He later become the chief
censor for books written in Slavic languages and
Modern Greek
Modern Greek (, , or , ''Kiní Neoellinikí Glóssa''), generally referred to by speakers simply as Greek (, ), refers collectively to the dialects of the Greek language spoken in the modern era, including the official standardized form of the ...
.
Among European linguists, he was considered a valued scientist and thinker. Particularly important is his correspondence with the Bohemian philologist
Josef Dobrovský, his spiritual father, and later with the Serbian philologist
Vuk Karadžić. In 1808, he wrote in German and published the first scientific
Slovene grammar, titled ''Grammatik der Slavischen Sprache in Krain, Kärnten und Steyermark'' (Grammar of the Slavic language in
Carniola
Carniola ( sl, Kranjska; , german: Krain; it, Carniola; hu, Krajna) is a historical region that comprised parts of present-day Slovenia. Although as a whole it does not exist anymore, Slovenes living within the former borders of the region s ...
,
Carinthia
Carinthia (german: Kärnten ; sl, Koroška ) is the southernmost Austrian state, in the Eastern Alps, and is noted for its mountains and lakes. The main language is German. Its regional dialects belong to the Southern Bavarian group. Carin ...
, and
Styria
Styria (german: Steiermark ; Serbo-Croatian and sl, ; hu, Stájerország) is a state (''Bundesland'') in the southeast of Austria. With an area of , Styria is the second largest state of Austria, after Lower Austria. Styria is bordered ...
). In his work ''Glagolita Clozianus'' (1836), he published the first critically revised, translated, and annotated version of the
Freising Manuscripts, the oldest known work in Slovene and the first work in any Slavic language written in the
Latin alphabet
The Latin alphabet or Roman alphabet is the collection of letters originally used by the ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered with the exception of extensions (such as diacritics), it used to write English and the ...
. In the same work, he advanced the
Pannonian Theory of the origin of Common Slavic, which is a theory that is no longer accepted by other scientists.
Under the influence of the efforts of a group of contemporary
Carinthian Slovene philologists, especially
Urban Jarnik and
Matija Ahacel, Kopitar sought to educate a new generation of linguists who would develop grammars and textbooks, advocate orthographic reform, and collect folk literature. Due to these efforts, he was given a chair in Slovene at the
Ljubljana Lyceum
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 ar ...
in 1817.
Language reforms
In the early 1830s, Kopitar became involved in the
Slovene Alphabet War (Slovene: ''Abecedna vojna'', or ''Črkarska pravda''), a debate over orthographic reform. He supported radical reforms of the old
Bohorič alphabet, advanced first by
Peter Dajnko
Peter Dajnko (23 April 1787 – 22 February 1873) was a Slovene priest, author, and linguist, known primarily as the inventor of the Dajnko alphabet ( sl, dajnčica), an innovative proposal for the Slovene alphabet. Dajnko was also a proficien ...
and then by
Franc Serafin Metelko
Franc Serafin Metelko, also known as Fran Metelko (14 July 1789 – 27 December 1860) was a Slovene Roman Catholic priest, author, and philologist, best known for his proposal of a new script for the Slovene called the Metelko alphabet, which ...
. Kopitar's main opponent in the conflict was the philologist
Matija Čop. Čop convinced the renowned
Czech scholar
František Čelakovský
František Ladislav Čelakovský (7 March 1799 Strakonice - 5 August 1852 Prague) was a Czech poet, translator, linguist, and literary critic. He was a major figure in the Czech " national revival". His most notable works are ''Ohlas písní rus ...
to publish a devastating critique on the proposed alphabet reforms, which undermined Kopitar's authority. The issue was resolved with the compromise adoption of
Gaj's Latin alphabet. Čop and Kopitar also disagreed on the issue of whether the Slovenes should develop their own national culture. Kopitar favored gradual evolution towards a common literary language for all
South Slavic peoples, with
Slovene dialects remaining the colloquial language of the peasantry. Čop, on the other hand, insisted on the creation of a
high culture in Slovene that would follow contemporary literary trends. One of the main supporters of Čop's project, the poet
France Prešeren, sharply criticized Kopitar's views, which led to frequent confrontations between the two.
Politically, Kopitar was a supporter of
Austroslavism
Austro-Slavism or Austrian Slavism was a political concept and program aimed to solve problems of Slavic peoples in the Austrian Empire. It was most influential among Czech liberals around the middle of the 19th century. First proposed by Karel ...
, a doctrine aimed at the unity of
Slavic peoples
Slavs are the largest European ethnolinguistic group. They speak the various Slavic languages, belonging to the larger Balto-Slavic language, Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European languages. Slavs are geographically distributed throughout ...
within the
Austrian Empire
The Austrian Empire (german: link=no, Kaiserthum Oesterreich, modern spelling , ) was a Central- Eastern European multinational great power from 1804 to 1867, created by proclamation out of the realms of the Habsburgs. During its existence, ...
. He was also a staunch
conservative, and supporter of the
Metternich regime, with a paternalistic approach to the peasant culture. On the other side, Čop and Prešeren emphasized on the cultivation of Slovene as the means for the emergence of a lay Slovene intelligentsia that would foster and develop a specific Slovene identity within the framework of Slavic solidarity. After the Alphabet War in the 1830s, Kopitar's political and cultural influence in his native
Slovene Lands
The Slovene lands or Slovenian lands ( sl, Slovenske dežele or in short ) is the historical denomination for the territories in Central and Southern Europe where people primarily spoke Slovene. The Slovene lands were part of the Illyrian provin ...
diminished significantly. At the same time, however, he gained influence among other South Slavic
intelligentsia
The intelligentsia is a status class composed of the university-educated people of a society who engage in the complex mental labours by which they critique, shape, and lead in the politics, policies, and culture of their society; as such, the i ...
, especially the
Serbian
Serbian may refer to:
* someone or something related to Serbia, a country in Southeastern Europe
* someone or something related to the Serbs, a South Slavic people
* Serbian language
* Serbian names
See also
*
*
* Old Serbian (disambiguation ...
one. He influenced
Vuk Stefanović Karadžić in forming a new standard for the
Serbian
Serbian may refer to:
* someone or something related to Serbia, a country in Southeastern Europe
* someone or something related to the Serbs, a South Slavic people
* Serbian language
* Serbian names
See also
*
*
* Old Serbian (disambiguation ...
literary language based on common use.
Death and heritage
Kopitar died in Vienna on 11 August 1844, reportedly with Karadžić standing at his deathbed. He was buried in
St. Marx Cemetery in Vienna, and the theologian
Michal Josef Fessl had a gravestone for Kopitar erected there in October 1845.
Kopitar's remains and gravestone were moved to
St. Christopher's Cemetery 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 ar ...
in 1897.
In 1955, Kopitar's remains were transferred to
Navje Memorial Park, where his gravestone is also now displayed, at the edge of the former St. Christopher's Cemetery.
A neighbourhood in
Belgrade
Belgrade ( , ;, ; names in other languages) is the capital and largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and the crossroads of the Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. Nearly 1,166,763 mi ...
, the capital of
Serbia
Serbia (, ; Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia ( Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin and the Balkans. It shares land borders with Hu ...
, called
Kopitareva Gradina
Kopitareva Gradina ( sr-cyr, Копитарева градина) is a square and an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in Belgrade's municipality of Stari Grad.
Location
Kopitareva Gradina is located in th ...
, is named after him.
Notes
References
*
Lencek, Rado. ''To Honor Jernej Kopitar 1780–1980.'' Papers in Slavic Philology, no. 2.
Ann Arbor
Anne, alternatively spelled Ann, is a form of the Latin female given name Anna. This in turn is a representation of the Hebrew Hannah, which means 'favour' or 'grace'. Related names include Annie.
Anne is sometimes used as a male name in the ...
: University of Michigan, 1982.
*
Merchiers, Ingrid. ''Cultural nationalism in the South Slav Habsburg lands in the early nineteenth century: the scholarly network of Jernej Kopitar (1780–1844)''. Munich:
Sagner, 2007.
Mario Grčević. Jernej Kopitar as a strategist of Karadžić’s reform of the literary language/Jernej Kopitar kao strateg Karadžićeve književnojezične reform
Filologija 53, 2009.
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kopitar, Jernej
1780 births
1844 deaths
People from the Municipality of Vodice
Carniolan philologists
Carniolan linguists
Slavists
Paleolinguists
Corresponding members of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences
Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class)