Izvorni znanstveni članak
A Metrical Analysis of the Language of Vladimir Nazor
Anita Runjić-Stoilova
orcid.org/0000-0001-5060-2083
; Filozofski fakultet u Splitu
Marijana Tomelić Ćurlin
; Filozofski fakultet u Splitu
Sažetak
The work of Vladimir Nazor is characterized by diversity in genre,
theme and style. In this article the authors focus on the characteristics
of style in Nazor’s poetry, or, more precisely, they analyse the metric
qualities in the language of his poetry. Special emphasis is given to
specific linguistic elements comprising Nazor’s poetics. Even though
Nazor is considered one of Croatia’s greatest Chakavian poets, he
primarily wrote in Shtokavian. However, his entire poetic oeuvre
was imbued with his native Chakavian dialect. In spite of his great
endeavors, Nazor never truly managed to master the use of Shtokavian
stylistic and accent norms. Insecurity in the usage of accents hindered
his efforts in achieving harmonious versification. This problem is especially evident in the early poetry collections Lirika (1910), Nove
pjesme (1913), Intima (1915) and Niza od koralja (1922). For the
purpose of analysis in this paper, approximately twenty poems were
selected from Nazor’s great and varied poetic oeuvre, poems that were
composed in his early Shtokavian period and which feature the obvious
influence of the Chakavian dialect.
This paper analyzes metrics because this is where Nazor’s struggle
with mastering Shtokavian is mainly reflected. The goal of this article
is thus to provide a metrical analysis of Nazor’s language. This analysis
also includes the usage of disyllabic pronunciation of diphthongs,
the apocope of infinitive affixes, abbreviated past and present verbal
adverbs, the singular masculine active participle form, plural forms,
dialectal lexis, etc.
The question of the disyllabic pronunciation of diphthongs is
important when discussing Nazor’s poetry, his metrics and his orthoepic
irregularities. Standard Croatian has never featured the disyllabic
pronunciation of diphthongs. However, Nazor used it in an attempt to
achieve certain types of metre in his verses. Nazor frequently used the
apostrophe to mark the elision of a vowel, as well as abbreviations.
These include: the omission of certain vowels at the beginning, middle
or the end of words; the omission of the last vowel in infinitives;
the contraction of the vowel group ao into the active participle; and
abbreviated plurals. Nazor also used obscure and unusual forms of
well-known words.
The Shtokavian accent presented an exceptional problem to Nazor,
who was not well versed in it. Many Shtokavian words were not a part
of his native idiom; he lacked the feeling for shifting the accent to
the proclitic. If he sometimes shifted the accent in his verses, he then
marked it as well, having learned that it was the proper, formal form.
However, his poetry contained a greater number of examples where this
shifting should have occurred and yet it did not.
Nazor was well aware of his continuous erring with metre.
However, he did not have a role model or a textbook to turn to. His
hendecasyllables contained a kind of accent deviation which could only
be found in a Chakavian-speaking Dalmatian islander. It is precisely
due to his awareness of accent deviation that he reworked his previously
published poems in newer publications. However, it is difficult to
truly define Nazor’s metrics because his verses can frequently be well
pronounced in various ways.
In his fifty-year-long period of literary creation, which was
characterized by various literary forms, Nazor left us with one of the
largest and most significant oeuvres in Croatian literature of the first
half of the twentieth century. He was a writer who loved, appreciated
and enriched his language. His poetic work is the best testimony of the
depth of his devotion and involvement in language.
Ključne riječi
Chakavian dialect; metrics; accent; Shtokavian dialect; Vladimir Nazor
Hrčak ID:
86358
URI
Datum izdavanja:
15.10.2011.
Posjeta: 2.335 *