Serbia P-54b 10 Dinara 2013 UNC—Architect of Serbo-Croatian language

Front:

• Vuk Stefanović Karadžić, his writing kit, and an open book (exhibits from the standing collection of the Museum devoted to Vuk S. Karadžic and Dositej Obradović)
• Three letters of the modern Serbian alphabet
• Filip Višnjić, epic poet and guslar from the 18th century

Watermark: Vuk Stefanović Karadžić

• Vuk Stefanović Karadžić (photo detail)
• Participants of the First Slavic Congress held in Prague in 1848 (photo detail) and vignette of letters
• Great coat-of-arms
  

Vuk Stefanović Karadžić (1787–1864) is the titan of the Serbian language.

He was a self-taught philologist, linguist, and anthropologist who single-handedly dragged the Serbian language out of the Middle Ages and into the modern world. If you ever look at Yugoslavian banknotes (the Dinars that the Tolar replaced), you will frequently see his image.

The "Slovenian Connection"

You cannot understand Karadžić without mentioning Slovenia. When he was a young man in Vienna, he met the Slovenian linguist Jernej Kopitar (who was the court librarian).

• Kopitar recognized Vuk’s genius and mentored him.

• Kopitar essentially "commissioned" Vuk to do for the Serbs what Trubar had done for the Slovenes: standardize the language and collect the folk songs.

His Three Great Achievements

1. The Great Linguistic Purge

Before Vuk, Serbs wrote in "Slavonic-Serbian," a clunky mix of Russian and Old Church Slavonic that only priests and the elite understood. Vuk believed the literary language should be the language of the common people. He famously said:

"Write as you speak, and read as it is written."

2. The Cyrillic Revolution

He simplified the Serbian Cyrillic alphabet. He threw out about 30 "useless" letters that didn't correspond to sounds and invented new ones to make the alphabet perfectly phonetic.

• The Result: The Serbian Cyrillic alphabet ($vukovica$) is widely considered one of the most logical and efficient writing systems in the world.

3. The "Brother" of the Brothers Grimm

Vuk traveled the Balkans on horseback, collecting thousands of folk songs, fairy tales, and riddles. He sent these to the Brothers Grimm in Germany, who were so impressed they learned Serbian just to read them. This put Serbian culture on the map for the rest of Europe.

Why he was Controversial

Much like Trubar, Vuk was hated by the Church at first. The Serbian Orthodox Church felt that by using the "peasant" language and changing the holy alphabet, he was "desecrating" the culture. It took decades for his reforms to be officially adopted, but today he is arguably the most revered figure in Serbian history.

Quick Facts:

• Born: Tršić, Ottoman Empire (now Serbia).

• Identifying Feature: He had a wooden leg (due to a childhood illness/injury), which made his travels through the rugged mountains of the Balkans even more heroic.

• Legacy: He was the primary driver of the 1850 Vienna Literary Agreement, which unified the Serbian and Croatian (and what would now be called Bosnian and Montenegrin, as well) languages into Serbo-Croatian—a move that laid the linguistic foundation for the future Yugoslavia.

Serbo-Croatian has become Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian…

Vuk Karadžić is the father of the Serbian standard, but his work was the literal foundation of what became Serbo-Croatian.

The Linguistic Reality: One Language

To a linguist, Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian, and Montenegrin are mutually intelligible. If a person from Belgrade (Serbia) and a person from Zagreb (Croatia) meet, they can discuss philosophy, car engines, or the weather with 95%–100% clarity.

Historically, this shared base was called Serbo-Croatian, by far the most used at a national level within Yugoslavia.

The 1850 Vienna Literary Agreement

Vuk Karadžić and the Slovenian Jernej Kopitar met with Croatian scholars (like Ivan Mažuranić) in Vienna in 1850. They signed an agreement to pick one dialect (the Shtokavian dialect) to be the basis for a unified literary language for both Serbs and Croats.

• Vuk’s Goal: To unite all Serbs (including those in Croatia and Bosnia) under one linguistic roof.

• The Result: They succeeded so well that for nearly 150 years, the world viewed them as one language with two alphabets (Cyrillic for Serbs, Latin for Croats).

The Modern Political Reality: Four Languages

Since the breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s (around the time the Tolar was born), the term "Serbo-Croatian" has become politically "radioactive."

• Croatians emphasize their unique vocabulary and Latin history.

• Serbians maintain Vuk's Cyrillic tradition and specific phonetics.

• Bosniaks and Montenegrins have codified their own standards.

Today, they are officially four separate languages, though they remain as similar as American English is to British English (or even closer).

Filip Višnjić: the "Blind Homer of the Serbian Epic"

If Vuk Karadžić was the "Architect" of the Serbian language, Filip Višnjić (VISH-NYICH, 1767–1834) was its "Voice."

He was a blind Serbian epic poet and guslar (a performer who sings long narrative poems while playing the gusle, a single-stringed instrument). He is often called the "Serbian Homer" because, like the ancient Greek poet, he was blind and composed massive, complex historical epics entirely from memory.

The Partnership with Vuk Karadžić

Filip Višnjić is the reason many of the Serbian folk songs we have today actually exist.

• In 1815, Vuk Karadžić traveled to the monastery of Šišatovac specifically to meet Višnjić.

• Over several days, Višnjić sang, and Vuk frantically wrote down the lyrics.

• From this meeting, Vuk recorded some of the greatest epic poems in Slavic literature, including "The Beginning of the Revolt Against the Dahijas," which chronicles the Serbian uprising against Ottoman rule.

His Life and Legend

• The Blind Bard: He wasn't born blind; he lost his sight to smallpox as an infant.

• The Survivor: His family was devastated by Ottoman raids. After his father died, his mother (Višnja) raised him, which is why he took the surname Višnjić (meaning "son of Višnja").

• The War Reporter: During the First Serbian Uprising (1804), Višnjić didn't just sing about ancient legends; he traveled with the army. He sat by the campfires of the soldiers and composed songs about the battles that had happened that same week. He was essentially a living, singing newspaper.