The clear spirit of the Croatian language
Academician
Stjepan Babić (Oriovac, November 29, 1925 - Zagreb, August 27, 2021) left a
great work permanently woven into the language culture of the Croatian people
and Slavistic literature. He has collaborated with the world's leading
linguists of his time, including our linguists in exile.
Text: Vesna Kukavica
Photo:
HMI-FCE Archive
One of the
most important Croatian linguists, Academician Stjepan Babić, a full member of
the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, died in Zagreb at the age of 96. He
was born on November 29. 1925 in Oriovac, studying in his hometown, Osijek and
Zagreb, and perfecting himself throughout Europe.
He has been
a full professor throughout his working life at the Zagreb Faculty of
Philosophy, defending his doctorate at the parent university, training
generations of Croatian language teachers.
Since 1977
he is an associate member of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, and
since 1991 full member at the Department of Philological Sciences.
He was
editor of “Jezik” magazine from 1963, and from 1970 to 2005 he was
editor-in-chief, member of the Main Board of Matica hrvatska (1989-1992) and
member of the Croatian Philological Society and its Presidency.
From 1993
to 1997 he was a member of the Chamber of Regions (Zupanias) of the Sabor
(Parliament) of the Republic of Croatia elected in the county of Brod-Posavina.
He participated as a polyglot of scholarly education in numerous scientific
congresses and slavistic congresses in the country and abroad.
He was
awarded the highest scientific and state awards of the Republic of Croatia -
the “Bartol Kašić” Prize for his significant scientific activity in the field
of social sciences and humanities in the field of the study of the Croatian
literary language (1991), the "Order of Danica hrvatska with the figure of
Ruđer Bošković" for his special merits in science (1995), the
"Commemorative Medal of Gratitude of the Fatherland" for honorable
and exemplary service over a period of five years (1995), the “Order of Ante
Starčević” (1996) and the State Award for his life work (2004).
Academician
Stjepan Babić dealt mainly with the problems of contemporary Croatian literary
language, especially word formation.
His
complete bibliography includes more than a thousand bibliographic elements.
During the Croatian Spring of 1971, together with academics Milan Moguš and
Božidar Fink, he drew up the "Croatian Spelling-Hrvatski pravopis",
which was destroyed in 1971 for political reasons after printing, and was
reprinted in London in 1972, for tha treason the smuggled work is known in
history as the "London" edition.
The
complete Croatian Spelling (Hrvatski pravopis) was first printed in 1990, after
which it was published several times.
SYNERGY OF PHILOLOGISTS
According to linguists, in the most challenging period in the development of the Croatian literary language, from the end of World War II to the proclamation of the independent and sovereign Republic of Croatia, the linguist Stjepan Babić proved to be a scientist at the height of the goal of standardization and the most complete description of the Croatian language.
More than
other linguists in the homeland, despite the danger, he restored human dignity
to the persecuted Croatian writers in exile.
This serene
scholar was a brave and honest man, so he worked fearlessly for years with the
leading linguists of his day during the world divide of the Cold War, including
Croatian linguists in exile who taught at the most prestigious universities in
the West , from the French Sorbonne, several German universities, Sweden,
England, Canada, the United States, Argentina, Venezuela to Australia, in whose
faculties experts such as Branko Franolić, Vinko Grubišić, Anthony Knežević,
Christopher Spalatin and Luka Budak taught, as well as also by priests
linguists such as Karl Kosor, Jeronim Šetka, Gracijan Biršić and others.
Stjepan
Babić is precisely the mainstay of Croatian linguistic studies, whose
intellectual force united emigrated Croatia and homeland in the early 1970s, in
the same way that Tuđman united the Croatians before the fall of the Wall of
Berlin
Academician
Babić gave lectures, printed spelling and grammar manuals among our emigrants
and wrote articles for the Croatian press in exile from Nikolić's cultured “Croatian
Review-Hrvatska Revija”, “Studia Croatica” edited in Argentina, to the esteemed
American magazine "Journal of Croatian Studies" directed by Mirth and
Jareb, writing about linguistic culture (outside the ideological framework
chained by the so-called “Croatian silence”) and encouraging migrants to
establish independent Croatian language centres and departments in the 1980s in
Australia and Canada, and other migrant destinations in Western democracies who
wanted to teach their children their mother tongue, whose name could not even
be pronounced in the Homeland, and could only be named in variants of the
two-part Yugoslav name Croatian-Serbian.
Contrary to
the claims of the time of the communist regime, no major differences were noted
in attitudes and views on the development of the Croatian literary language in
the second half of the 20th century between Croatian linguistics in the
homeland and in the emigrant and their main referents.
Acting in synergy,
despite the stereotype of the so-called “ustasha spelling”, the aforementioned
Croatian linguists experienced the realization of their life's dream, centred
on the affirmation of the Croatian language in the homeland and in the
international community.
The copies
prohibited in the Homeland of the "Croatian Spelling - Hrvatski
pravopis" by Babić, Finka and Moguš from 1971 and the "Revision of
the grammar of the Croatian literary language - Pregled grammatike hrvatskoga
književnog jezika" by Stjepan Babić and Stjepko Težak (1973 ), were
published in thousands of copies by Kušan's “Nova Hrvatska” magazine in London,
reaching all Croatian households in the Free West, a decade before the “Croatian
Spelling” could be found on the shelves of Croatia.
The
beginning of the 1970s, after all the tests caused by the publication of the
“Declaration” through which the Croatian language passed, brings a new
perspective and renewed strength in the struggle to preserve the uniqueness of
the Croatian literary language, in which the role of Stjepan Babić is
invaluable.
The crown
of Babić's scientific achievements is "The formation of words in the
Croatian literary language" (1986), which is published as a capital
project of the so-called "Great Croatian Grammar" of the Academy
(HAZU), alongside the "Syntax of the Literary Language" by Radoslav
Katičić, while in the field of linguistic lexicography began the publication of
the "Dictionary of the Croatian Literary Language from the Croatian
Renaissance to Ivan Goran Kovačić" by Julij Benešić.
As the
culmination of this effort by the Academy, the first complete Croatian
phonetics is published, ie the “Historical Review, Voices and Forms of the
Croatian Literary Language” by Stjepan Babić and Ivo Škarić and associates (1991).
LEXICOLOGICAL WEALTH
In addition to major philological books, Babić has published hundreds of articles and discussions in national and foreign Croatian and Slavistic journals and anthologies, mainly on contemporary Croatian language and orthography as well as on the history of the language.
He also
wrote on Croatian literature and prepared editions of the oldest Slavonian
writers. Professor Stjepan Babić collaborated with the Croatian Emigration
Foundation on the magazine “Matica”, as well as the “Anthology of Croatian
Emigrants” with valuable philological articles. As a textbook and manual
writer, Stjepan Babić has permanently indebted many generations and has
indelibly marked the culture of the Croatian language.
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