Vuk Stefanovic Karadzic

Language and writing system reformer

Born: Trsic, near Loznica, Turkish Empire; October 29 (or November 6, new calendar), 1787

Died: Vienna, Austria, 1864

One of the most important figures in Serbian cultural history. He has worked on collecting and popularizing folk epics, lyrics, proverbs, and short-stories; ethnographic studies; lexicography; language reform; and particularly writing system reform.

Main Events and Works

• 1795-1813 irregular education in Loznica, Tronosa, Petrinja, Beograd, Novi Sad. Acquaintances included Lukijan Musicki, Dimitrije Davidovic, Sava Mrkalj, Luka Milovanov. All of them will influence his work.

• 1813 Vuk goes to Vienna, where he meets Slovenian philologist Jernej Kopitar, who will crucially influence his work.

• 1814 Vuk publishes "Mala prostonarodna slaveno-serbska pjesnarica", a collection of folk songs, and "Pismenica serbska", a grammar.

• 1815 Review of Vidakovic's "Usamljeni junosa", where Vuk acts as a literary critic

• 1818 Karadzic publishes his most important book "Srpski rjecnik", where he shows his lexicographic ability, but also presents adapted version of his grammar for his model of literary language based on new stokavian dialekt and its folklore, and finally new writing system.

• 1821 Collection of folk short stories

• 1823-24 Three volume collection of folk poetry

• 1825-1834 Vuk publishes an almanac "Danica"

• 1833 The forth volume of folk poetry

• 1836 Collection of folk proverbs

• 1847 Karadzic's translation of the New Testament appears

• 1857 "Primjeri Srpsko-slavenskoga jezika", examples from old books and other documents with the description of their linguistic features

• 1860 His work on "Praviteljstvujusci sovjet", describing the structures of power in the first half of the 19th century

• 1864 Vuk Karadzic is buried in Vienna.

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