Ljudevit Jonke (29 July 1907 – 15 March 1979) was a
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 ...
n linguist.
Life and work
Jonke was born in
Karlovac
Karlovac () is a city in central Croatia. In the 2021 census, its population was 49,377.
Karlovac is the administrative centre of Karlovac County. The city is located southwest of Zagreb and northeast of Rijeka, and is connected to them via the ...
, where he completed primary school and
Karlovac Gymnasium. He graduated at the
Faculty of Philosophy
A faculty is a division within a university or college comprising one subject area or a group of related subject areas, possibly also delimited by level (e.g. undergraduate). In North America, academic divisions are sometimes titled colleges, sc ...
at the
University of Zagreb
The University of Zagreb (, ) is a public university, public research university in Zagreb, Croatia. It is the largest Croatian university and one of the oldest continuously operating universities in Europe. The University of Zagreb and the Unive ...
the history of Yugoslav literatures,
Croatian and
Old Church Slavonic
Old Church Slavonic or Old Slavonic ( ) is the first Slavic languages, Slavic literary language and the oldest extant written Slavonic language attested in literary sources. It belongs to the South Slavic languages, South Slavic subgroup of the ...
language and folk history with Russian and Latin. He spent two years (1930-1932) at the
Charles University in Prague
Charles University (CUNI; , UK; ; ), or historically as the University of Prague (), is the largest university in the Czech Republic. It is one of the oldest universities in the world in continuous operation, the oldest university north of the ...
. Demonstrating the affiliation to literary and historical topics, he starts to translate from Czech. From 1933 he worked as a professor at the gymnasium in
Sušak, and in 1940 he relocated to Zagreb, where professor
Stjepan Ivšić
Stjepan Ivšić (; 13 August 1884 – 14 January 1962) was a Croatian linguist, Slavicist, and accentologist.
Biography
Ivšić was born on 13 August 1884 in Orahovica. After finishing primary school in Orahovica, he attended secondary schoo ...
chose him as an assistant in 1942. He was married to Nada Marković in 1940 with whom he had a daughter Dubravka and son Mladen (1944).
Simultaneously engaging himself in the topics of Croatian and Czech studies, he received his Ph.D. with a thesis ''Dikcionar Karlovčanina Adama Patačića'' (''
Rad JAZU
''Rad'' ( Croatian for ''proceedings'', ''work'') is an academic journal
An academic journal (or scholarly journal or scientific journal) is a periodical publication in which Scholarly method, scholarship relating to a particular academic disci ...
'' #274). From autumn 1945 he taught Czech language and literature, and from autumn 1949 modern Croatian at the newly established department which he was a head from 1950, when he acquired the status of ''docent'', up until the retirement in 1973. He became a regular professor in 1960.
In the 1950s, Jonke engaged in systematic study of a completely neglected subject of problems of Croatian from the
Illyrian times to the end of 19th century (''Borbe oko književnog oblika imeničkog genitiva množine u 19. stoljeću'', 1957.; ''Osnovni problemi hrvatskoga književnog jezika u 19. stoljeću'', 1958; ''Sporovi pri odabiranju govora za zajednički književni jezik Hrvata u 19. stoljeću'', 1959). He carefully examined the work of
Bogoslav Šulek
Bogoslav Šulek (born Bohuslav Šulek; April 20, 1816 – November 30, 1895) was a Croatian philologist, historian and lexicographer. He was very influential in creating Croatian terminology in the areas of social and natural sciences, technology ...
and
Adolfo Veber Tkalčević.
Jonke was a participant of the 1954
Novi Sad agreement, styliser and the editor of common orthography, and one of the editors of the ''Dictionary of Standard Serbo-Croatian''. As soon as the application of Novi Sad conclusions was abandoned, he published a series of polemics with Serb linguists and writers in which he defended the right of the Croatian nation to its own language and the right of that language to achieve equal social status.
He edited two columns of language advice (from 1961 in ''Telegram'' and since 1971 in ''
Vjesnik
''Vjesnik'' () was a Croatian state-owned daily newspaper published in Zagreb. Originally established in 1940 as a wartime illegal publication of the Communist Party of Croatia, it later built and maintained a reputation as Croatia's newspaper ...
''), and edited the journal ''
Jezik
''Jezik'' (lit. "Language") is a Croatian language literary magazine published in Croatia by the Croatian Philological Society since 1952. Its editors-in-chief have included Ljudevit Jonke and Stjepan Babić.
The magazine is known for its ann ...
'' for 17 years. From 1970 to 1971, he served as the President of
Matica hrvatska
Matica hrvatska () is the oldest independent, non-profit and non-governmental Croatian national institution. It was founded on February 2, 1842 by the Croatian Count Janko Drašković and other prominent members of the Illyrian movement during ...
. In 1963 he was elected as a member of JAZU.
Due to his alleged "Croat nationalism", having been denounced after signing the 1967
Declaration on the Status and Name of the Croatian Standard Language, and after the
Croatian Spring
The Croatian Spring (), or Maspok, was a political conflict that took place from 1967 to 1971 in the Socialist Republic of Croatia, at the time part of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. As one of six republics comprising Yugoslavi ...
(1971), he was forcibly retired in 1973. Since then he worked on the completion of the JAZU dictionary.
Jonke's main contribution (beside polemical and political discussions) is in revitalising the interest to the contributions of
Zagreb philological school and its essential role in the
standardisation
Standardization (American English) or standardisation (British English) is the process of implementing and developing technical standards based on the consensus of different parties that include firms, users, interest groups, standards organiza ...
of Croatian.
He died in
Zagreb
Zagreb ( ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, north of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the ...
.
Selected works
* ''Dikcionar Adama Patačića'' (Zagreb, 1949),
* ''Književni jezik u teoriji i praksi'' (Zagreb, 1st ed. 1964, 2nd ed. 1965),
* ''Hrvatski književni jezik 19. i 20. stoljeća'' (Zagreb, 1971),
* ''Hrvatski književni jezik danas'' (Zagreb, 1971; forbidden)
References
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jonke, Ljudevit
1907 births
1979 deaths
People from Karlovac
Linguists from Croatia
Members of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb alumni
Charles University alumni
Burials at Mirogoj Cemetery
20th-century Croatian linguists
Presidents of the Matica hrvatska