Dalibor Brozović

Dalibor Brozović (Croatian pronunciation: [dǎlibor brǒːzovitɕ]; 28 July 1927, Sarajevo - 19 June 2009, Zagreb) was a Croatian linguist, Slavist, dialectologist and politician. He studied the history of standard Slavic languages, especially Croatian. He was an active Esperantist since 1946, and wrote Esperanto poetry as well as translated works into the language. ^[1]

Life and career

He was born in Sarajevo and went to primary school in Zenica. Then he went to comprehensive secondary schools in Visoko, Sarajevo and Zagreb. He received a BA degree in the Croatian language and Yugoslav literatures at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb. In 1957, he received his Ph.D. with the thesis Speech in the Fojnica Valley.

Brozović worked as an assistant at the Zagreb Theater Academy (1952–1953) and as a lecturer at the University of Ljubljana (until 1956). He subsequently went to the Faculty of Philosophy in Zadar, becoming an associate professor (1956), docent (1958), extraordinary (1962) and full (1968-1990) professor. In 1969 he worked as a visiting professor at the University of Michigan, and since 1971 at the University of Regensburg.

In 1975 he became an associate, and in 1977 extraordinary, and in 1986 full member of the Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts. Since 1986 he was an external member of the Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts, and since 1991 of the Academia Europaea. In the late 1980s, he was a co-founder and vice-president of the Croatian Democratic Union, which would win the 1990 elections. He was the vice-president of the presidency of the Republic of Croatia (in 1990) and a member of the Croatian Parliament (1992-1995). In the period 1991-2001 he headed the Miroslav Krleža Lexicographical Institute. He edited the Atlas of European and Slavic Dialectology.

Brozović was one of the authors of the Declaration on the Status and Name of the Croatian Standard Language, an influential programmatic statement against Yugoslavian linguistic unitarianism from a Croatian national perspective. Instead of "Serbo-Croatian", Brozović preferred the term Central South Slavic diasystem,^[2] asserting separate language status for Croatian and Serbian.

He died in Zagreb on 19 June 2009.^{[3][4][5][6][7][8]}

Linguistic importance

Brozović has been described as the most influential Croatian linguist of the 20th century.^[9] Among his main works are Standardni jezik("Standard Language") (1970) and Croatian Language, Its Place among the South Slav and Other Slav Languages, Its Historical Changes as the Language of Croatian Literature (1978). This work divides the history of the Croatian language into three pre-standard and three standard periods. Whereas it was widely believed that Croatian was only standardized around the time of the Illyrian movement and Ljudevit Gaj, Brozović argued that the standardization began around 1600 and greatly developed around 1750.

Brozović received the Zadar City Award for a prominent scientific activity (for the book Standardni jezik) in the 1970, and an Award for Life's Work of the Republic of Croatia in 1992.

Works

• Rječnik jezika ili jezik rječnika (Dictionary of a Language or a Language of Dictionaries), Zagreb, 1969
• Standardni jezik (Standard Language), Zagreb, 1970
• Deset teza o hrvatskome jeziku (Ten Theses on Croatian Language), Zagreb, 1971

This work was originally an intro on Savjetovanje o Osnovama nastavnog plana i programa hrvatskog književnog jezika s književnošću za srednje škole, held in hotels "Solaris" in Šibenik, Croatia, 22-24 November 1971, in organization of Republička konferencija Saveza omladine Hrvatske. Abroad, this work was published in Hrvatska revija in Croatian, and in Journal of Croatian Studies in English.

• Hrvatski jezik, njegovo mjesto unutar južnoslavenskih i drugih slavenskih jezika, njegove povijesne mijene kao jezika hrvatske književnosti (Croatian Language, Its Place among the South Slav and Other Slav Languages, Its Historical Changes as the Language of Croatian Literature), 1978
• Fonologija hrvatskoga književnog jezika (Phonology of the Croatian Standard Language) in the book Povijesni pregled, glasovi i oblici hrvatskoga književnog jezika (Historical Overview, Sounds and Forms of the Croatian Standard Language), Zagreb, 1991

References

1. ^ Josip Pleadin: "Biografia leksikono de kroatiaj esperantistoj" — Đurđevac: Grafokom, 2002.
2. ^ (Croatian) Deset teza o hrvatskom jeziku, Zagreb, 1971
   published in:
   Susreti 6, Zbornik radova sa susreta hrvatskih studenata u tuđini (1981-1986), Zagreb-Bochum, 1986, str. 136-145, under title O ključnim pitanjima hrvatskoga književnog jezika
   in the book Stjepan Babić: Hrvatski jezik u političkom vrtlogu, 1990, str. 271-283, under title Deset teza o hrvatskome jeziku,
   in the two editions of Deklaracija o hrvatskome jeziku, Matica hrvatska, Zagreb 1991.
   in Hrvatska revija
   in Journal of Croatian Studies
   
3. ^ http://metro-portal.hr/vijesti/hrvatska/umro-dalibor-brozovic
4. ^ http://www.ezadar.hr/clanak/umro-akademik-dalibor-brozovic
5. ^ http://www.24sata.hr/index.php?cmd=show_clanak&tekst_id=122348&_no_browse=1
6. ^ http://www.croportal.net/link/view/714641
7. ^ http://www.bitno.ba/vijesti/kultura/umro-dalibor-brozovic
8. ^ http://www.advance.hr/clanak/preminuo-jezikoslovac-dalibor-brozovic/
9. ^ http://www.057info.hr/vijesti/2009-06-19/umro-dalibor-brozovic-najveci-lingvist-20st

External links

In Croatian:

• Dalibor Brozović, academy member
• Dalibor Brozović: interview
• Organic Foundation of the Croatian Language

Persondata
Name	Brozovic, Dalibor
Alternative names
Short description	Croatian linguist
Date of birth	28 July 1927
Place of birth
Date of death	19 June 2009
Place of death