VUK'S CYRILLIC
author: Stjepan Fileki
March 2007
translation into English: Danijela Tomazović
November 2009
Vuk Stefanović Karadžić (1787-1864) was a major reformer of Serbian literary language and written language. He was self-taught and did not go through formal education. He learned reading and writing while being monastery pupil in Tronoša monastery. He was Duke Aleksa Nenadović's secretary, then Secretary of Praviteljstvujušči Sovjet [1]. After that he was a teacher and then customs and court clerk. In 1813 he leaves for Vienna where he meets Kopitar, in whom he found highly motivated helper. Then in 1819 he travels to Russia , and afterwards in Germany where he meets many prominent cultural and literary workers, which provided significant support, especially moral support to him. Between 1834 and 1841 he traveled across almost all south Slovenian countries, while gathering folk poems, tales, and proverbs. After 1825, he stayed mostly in Vienna .
His reforms included the following:
All the way to 40s of the 19 th century, when Branko Radičević and Đura Daničić stood up to defend his reforms, Vuk was lonely among conservative intellectuals, and often prosecuted by official Serbia. Serbian government authorized his orthography only four years after he died. Vuk affirmed our culture abroad. Based on his collections, our folk poetry became not only known but also highly valued and even translated into foreign languages (Goethe, Grim and others). Thanks to him, the history of Serbian people became recognized: based on his spoken information Ranke wrote his famous “Serbian Revolution” book which at that time became the main source of knowledge about Serbia abroad. Conservative and clerical circles represented their fight against Vuk's work as the fight for national defense, accusing him that he sold himself out to Roman pope and that by introducing Latin letter “j”, he aims at Orthodox Serbs catholicizing and turning into Croatians and Šokci [3], that he is the number one enemy, destroyer of Serbian and Croatian identity, and that he works for the devil. But anyways, it is the fact that Vuk Stefanović Karadžić was a great and significant person in culture and during that time the only Serb that was a person of European importance.
The first Vuk's Serbian dictionary was published in 1818. For the purpose of his reform ideas realization, Vuk was closely connected to significant people in the cultural life of that time. Famous writer Pavle Solarić was among the first ones and Vuk followed his ideas in “Grammar of Serbian language” published in 1814. Then Vuk consulted Professor Geršić and after that his major adviser Jernej Kopitar about the final shape of letter “?” known from before in handwritten literature. Kopitar did not agree with Geršić's suggestion, so the third helper, knowledgeable Lukijan Mušicki (once Vuk's teacher) assisted in order to solve the problem. The point of disagreement between Vuk and Mušicki was the shape of letter “?”[4]. Vuk thought that all capital letters should be of even height, which Mušicki did not agree with, because the letter seemed “somehow cramped” to him. Eventually Vuk “got it in line“. Some of the contemporary linguists agree with this as well. Contemporary typographic letters designers almost by default extend bottom terminal of letter “?” below the baseline.
[1] One of the central authorities in the state organized after Serb Uprising, founded in August 14th 1805
[2]Dialect of Eastern Herzegovina which Vuk spoke, one of several dialects in Serbian and Croatian language
[3] Croatians living in northern parts of Serbia ; also understood as a pejorative term for Croatians
[4] Latin “ đ ”