Language and Literature library/selected biographies
This page is part of the School of Language and Literature, specifically a sub-page of the School of Language and Literature library.
Selected biographies[edit | edit source]
Vuk Stefanović Karadžić (1787-1864) was one the most prominent Serbian linguists. He reformed the Serbian Cyrillic alphabet by applying the principles one letter per one sound and write as you speak, and realized the idea of introducing the spoken language into the Serbian literature. He was collecting and publishing Serbian folk stories and poems. His major books were Serbian Dictionary and Serbian Grammar, both published together in 1818, in which he for first time used the reformed alphabet. Although there were some opponents of Vuk's language reform, his principles were finally accepted and realized in Serbian literature and linguistics. Vuk's language was a base upon which the modern Serbian standard language was developed.