Fran Kurelac

Croatian writer and philologist (Bruvno, January 14, 1811 – Zagreb, June 18, 1874). He was educated in various places, but did not finish his studies. Although self-taught, he was a highly educated polyglot. In 1846, he studied the songs and customs of the Croats of Gradišće (Jačke ili narodne pěsme, 1871), in 1849 he taught Croatian at the Rijeka gymnasium, and in 1854 he was dismissed from the service. Served in various places. Traveled in Dalmatia in 1869, studied manuscripts of old works, collected poems (Runes and snowflakes, 1866–68). Member of JAZU since 1867 – The breadth of his tumultuous life path was also reflected in the breadth of his view of language. He stood up for the literary and linguistic unity of the Slavic peoples in the spirit of the all-Slavic ideas of the time, but at the same time he had clear views on the Croatian national question and did not renounce the Croatian name. Worked on national awakening, especially in Rijeka, where he gathered a circle of like-minded people (Rijeka Philological School). He is close to the Zagreb School of Philology in his fight for the Croatian literary language, and in his understanding of what kind of fierce opponent he should be (Kako da sklanamo imena, 1852). He built a literary language on the basis of all three dialects, with numerous Church Slavonicisms, Slavicisms, his creations, grammatical and lexical revivals. The archaic nature of that language is contributed by the genitive plural with a zero ending, older endings and the dual, and etymological spelling. Kurelac presented his opinions on Old Slavonic, on the literary language, on Slavic syllables in the book Recimo kojja (1860). He published speeches in the Rijeka grammar school, poems and proclamations from 1848 in the work Fluminensia (1862). He translated classical writers and collected material for the dictionary (Barbarismi, Idiotismi, manuscripts). Due to his distinctive language, which is decorated with great linguistic purity (Vlaške rěči u jejeku našem, 1872; Mulj govora nespretna i nepodobna..., 1873), excellent style and emphasized rhetoric, due to his polemical fervor, literary language model, dedication to his ideas, Kurelac was a unique person of Croatian national revival.