Franc Miklošic
Encyclopedia
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
as ), (29 November 1813 – 7 March 1891) was a Slovene philologist
Philology
Philology is the study of language in written historical sources; it is a combination of literary studies, history and linguistics.Classical philology is the philology of Greek and Classical Latin...
.
Biography
Miklošič was born in the small village of RadomerščakRadomerščak
Radomerščak is a settlement in the Municipality of Ljutomer in northeastern Slovenia. The area traditionally belonged to the Styria region and is now included in the Mura statistical region....
near the Lower Styria
Lower Styria
Lower Styria or Slovenian Styria is a traditional region in northeastern Slovenia, comprising the southern third of the former Duchy of Styria. The population of Lower Styria in its historical boundaries amounts to around 705,000 inhabitants, or 34.5% of the population of Slovenia...
n town of Ljutomer
Ljutomer
Ljutomer is a municipality in northeastern Slovenia, some 40 km east of Maribor. Traditionally it was part of the region of Styria. It is now included in the Pomurska statistical region....
, then part of the Austrian Empire
Austrian Empire
The Austrian Empire was a modern era successor empire, which was centered on what is today's Austria and which officially lasted from 1804 to 1867. It was followed by the Empire of Austria-Hungary, whose proclamation was a diplomatic move that elevated Hungary's status within the Austrian Empire...
.
He graduated from the University of Graz
University of Graz
The University of Graz , a university located in Graz, Austria, is the second-largest and second-oldest university in Austria....
as a doctor of philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
, and was for a time professor of philosophy there. In 1838 he went to the University of Vienna
University of Vienna
The University of Vienna is a public university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world...
, where he received the degree of doctor of law. During his studies, he became influenced by the works of the Slovenian philologist and linguist Jernej Kopitar
Jernej Kopitar
Jernej Bartol Kopitar was a Slovene linguist and philologist working in Vienna. He also worked as the Imperial censor for Slovene literature in Vienna...
. He abandoned law, devoting most of his later life to the study of Slavic languages
Slavic languages
The Slavic languages , a group of closely related languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup of Indo-European languages, have speakers in most of Eastern Europe, in much of the Balkans, in parts of Central Europe, and in the northern part of Asia.-Branches:Scholars traditionally divide Slavic...
.
In 1844, he obtained a post at the Imperial Library of Vienna
Austrian National Library
The Austrian National Library , is the largest library in Austria, with 7.4 million items in its collections. It is located in the Hofburg Palace in Vienna; since 2005 some of the collections are located in the baroque Palais Mollard-Clary...
, where he remained to 1862. In 1844, he published a review of Franz Bopp
Franz Bopp
Franz Bopp was a German linguist known for extensive comparative work on Indo-European languages.-Biography:...
's book Comparative Grammar, which attracted attention from the Viennese academic circles. This publication then launched a long series of works, in which Miklošič showed an immense erudition. His works led to a revolutiony change in the study of Slavic languages.
In 1849 Miklošič was appointed to the newly created chair of Slavic philology at the University of Vienna
University of Vienna
The University of Vienna is a public university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world...
, and he occupied it until 1886. He became a member of the Academy of Vienna
Austrian Academy of Sciences
The Austrian Academy of Sciences is a legal entity under the special protection of the Federal Republic of Austria. According to the statutes of the Academy its mission is to promote the sciences and humanities in every respect and in every field, particularly in fundamental research...
, which appointed him secretary of its historical and philosophical section, a member of the council of public instruction and of the upper house, and correspondent of the French Academy of Inscription. His numerous writings deal not only with the Slavic languages, but also with Romanian
Romanian language
Romanian Romanian Romanian (or Daco-Romanian; obsolete spellings Rumanian, Roumanian; self-designation: română, limba română ("the Romanian language") or românește (lit. "in Romanian") is a Romance language spoken by around 24 to 28 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova...
, Albanian
Albanian language
Albanian is an Indo-European language spoken by approximately 7.6 million people, primarily in Albania and Kosovo but also in other areas of the Balkans in which there is an Albanian population, including western Macedonia, southern Montenegro, southern Serbia and northwestern Greece...
, Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
, and Romani
Romani language
Romani or Romany, Gypsy or Gipsy is any of several languages of the Romani people. They are Indic, sometimes classified in the "Central" or "Northwestern" zone, and sometimes treated as a branch of their own....
, the language of the Romani people.
Political engagement
In the Spring of Nations of 1848, Miklošič, who was 35 at the time, actively engaged in the Slovenian national movement. He was the chairman of the political association, called Slovenija (Slovenia) organized by Slovenian students that studied in GrazGraz
The more recent population figures do not give the whole picture as only people with principal residence status are counted and people with secondary residence status are not. Most of the people with secondary residence status in Graz are students...
and Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
. Together with Matija Majar
Matija Majar
Matija Majar, also spelled Majer was a Carinthian Slovene Roman Catholic priest and political activist, most famous as the author of the idea of a United Slovenia...
and Lovro Toman
Lovro Toman
Lovro Toman was a Slovene politician and author. Together with Janez Bleiweis and Etbin Henrik Costa, he was part of the leadership of the national conservative Old Slovene party....
, he was among the authors who elaborated the political demand for a United Slovenia
United Slovenia
United Slovenia is the name of an unrealized political programme of the Slovene national movement, formulated during the Spring of Nations in 1848...
. After the failure of the revolutionary requests, he again turned to an exclusively academic activity.
Selected bibliography
- Lexicon linguae slovenicae veteris dialecti, 1850 (1862-65 als Lexicon Palaeoslovenico-graeco-latinum)
- Vergleichende Grammatik der slaw. Sprachen, 4 Bde., 1852–75
- Vergleichende Formenlehre der slavischen Sprachen, 582 pages, 1856, mainly consisting of the 3rd book of Vergleichende Grammatik, and for which he was awarded the Volney prizeVolney prizeThe Prix Volney is awarded by the Institute of France after proposition by the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres to a work of comparative philology....
- Monumenta Serbica Spectantia Historiam Serbiae, Bosniae, Ragusii, 1858 (Hg.)
- "Die Bildung der slavischen Personennamen", 1860
- Etymolog. Wörterbuch der slaw. Sprachen, 1886
- Über die Mundarten und Wanderungen der Zigeuner Europas, 12 Tle., 1872-80.
Further reading
- Franz Miklosich (Lemma by Katja Sturm-Schnabl, p. 186-193) in: Marija Mitrović, Die Geschichte der slowenischen Literatur von den Anfängen bis zur Gegenwart. Aus dem Serbokroatischen übersetzt, redaktionell bearbeitet und mit ausgewählten Lemmata und Anmerkungen ergänzt von Katja Sturm-Schnabl. Klagenfurt/Celovec – Ljubljana/Laibach – Wien/Dunaj 2001. 617 p. (Mohorjeva-Hermagoras) , ISBN 978-3-85013-834-5 (http://www.hermagoras.at).
- Walter Lukan (Hg.): Franz Miklosich (Miklošič): neue Studien und Materialien anläßlich seines 100. Todestages. Wien 1991 (= Österreichische Osthefte: Sonderheft 33).
- Katja Sturm-Schnabl, Der Briefwechsel Franz Miklosich's mit den Südslaven = Korespondenca Frana Miklošiča z Južnimi Slovani, Obzorja, Maribor 1991, XXIV, 855 S., ISBN 86-377-0565-0.
- Katja Sturm-Schnabl, Franz Miklosich als Wegbegleiter bei der Entstehung der ukrainischen Schriftsprache. In: Juliane Besters-Dilger, Michael Moser, Stefan Simonek (Hg.), Sprache und Literatur der Ukraine zwischen Ost und West – Мова та література України між сходом і заходом. Bern; Berlin; Bruxelles; Frankfurt am Main; New York; Oxford; Wien: Lang 2000,195 – 209.
- Katja Sturm-Schnabl, Franz Miklosich – ein „Europäer“ im 19. Jahrhundert. Short version http://www.inst.at/studies/s_0104_d.htm
- Katja Sturm-Schnabl, Fran Miklošič, An Early Visionary of European Integration in Philological Studies. The Difficult Path Towards the Acceptance of the Concept of Diversity and Plurality. http://cf.hum.uva.nl/natlearn/
- Katja Sturm-Schnabl, Aktualnost Miklošičevega znanstvenega dela in misli. In: Jezikovni zapiski . Glasilo inštituta zs slovenski jezik Frana Ramovša ZRC SAZU 10/2(2004)19 – 46.
See also
- AustroslavismAustroslavismAustroslavism was a political concept and program aimed to solve problems of Slavic peoples in the Austrian Empire.It was most influential among Czech liberals around the middle of the 19th century...
- Culture of SloveniaCulture of SloveniaSlovenia's first book was printed by the Protestant reformer Primož Trubar . It was actually two books, Katekizem and Abecednik, which was published in 1550 in Tübingen, Germany....