Filologija, No. 8, 1978.
Izvorni znanstveni članak
On the origin of the Croatian Neo-Štokavian linguistic standard, on its place in the history of the Croatian literary language and in the whole of standard Neo-Štokavian
Radoslav Katičić
Sažetak
The usual answer to the question suggested in the title of this paper is that the Croatian Neo-Štokavian Standard Language was formed and came into use in the eighteen thirties as a result of the Illyrian movement and the reforms of Ljudevit Gaj. These reforms are more or less contemporary with the brilliant scholarly achievements of Vuk Stefanović Karadžić, which became the foundation of the modern Serbian Neo-Štokavian standard. This suggested an identity of origin. The Neo-Štokavian Serbo-Croatian standard is thus considered to have both a founder: Karadžić, and a co-founder: Gaj. According to such views, Karadžić shaped it on the model of the language of Neo-Štokavian folklore literature, at the same time reforming the Cyrillic script to make it most appropriate for the spelling of the forms of that language, while Gaj reformed the Latin script on similar lines and introduced that language, which was originally intended to serve Štokavians only, into the standard usage of the Non-Štokavian Croats also, making it the vehicle of the whole of modern Croatian culture. This answer may seem plausible, as it states only indisputable facts; yet, on the whole it is not correct.
If one just considers the texts and the sources, it immediately becomes evident that Gaj and the Illyrians did not introduce the Neo-Štokavian standard in the forms in which it is used today, and that their principles of standardization were quite different, in many respects even contrary, to those of Karadžić. Standardization on Karadžić's lines was established in Croatia only at the end of the nineteenth century, and that is the actual beginning of the Neo-Štokavian Croatian standard as it is in use today.
But such an answer to our question, although correct, can satisfy us
only if the appearance of the full-grown Croatian Neo-Štokavian standard is all we are interested in, if we neglect its foundations and its development, if we choose to ignore its growth. Such an attitude would certainly be absurd, especially since the final standardization of written Croat at the end of the last century did not introduce a new standard language among the Croats, but only removed the last controversial points in the already existing usage, which functioned in unbroken continuity. It can even be observed that among the solutions proposed by the followers of Karadžić, only those which correspond to traits prevailing in the Neo-Štokavian dialects of the Croatian area were eventually accepted.
The final standardization in the eighteen nineties was only the end of the last evolutionary period in the full establishment of the Croatian Neo-Štokavian standard. Our initial question which originally only concerned a starting point has now become a more complex one about the periodization of a historical process.
Where does the period preceding the final standardization begin? Without any question, the Illyrian movement is the most important turning point. Yet, at a closer look, while it appears to have been a turning point in the use of Latin characters, in the area of use of the Neo-Štokavian Croat standard and in its position in cultural and public life, and in the principles of standardization, it was not a turning point in the standard usage itself, and even less a break in its continuity. Thus the Illyrian movement itself appears to be the beginning of one period in the growth of the Neo-Štokavian Croatian standard and the end of a preceding one. This is clearly illustrated by the fact that the Illyrian grammarians only continued the work of their Pre-Illyrian predecessors.
A Neo-Štokavian literary language shaped on the model of the koiné of folklore literature has existed among the Croats from the seventeenth century onwards. About the middle of the eighteenth century it began to acquire the essential traits of a standard language in statu nascendi. This is a most fundamental turning point and the very beginning of Neo-Štokavian standardization among the Croats, even though the intellectual and artistic achievements of this cultural activity were quite modest and the young standard did not embrace the whole Croatian area, but only its major part.
The roots of this process of standardization lie in the popular edificational literature of the seventeenth century, and this literature, in its turn, has a base in the whole of the older Croatian writing, medieval and renaissance. The Neo-Štokavian Croatian standard as it exists today is thus an integral part of the whole of Croatian literary language, and is heir to the whole of its potential of expression and its stylistic values. At the same time it interacts with the whole of modern standard Neo-Štokavian, as one of its variants, each set in its own cultural setting.
Ključne riječi
Hrčak ID:
184207
URI
Datum izdavanja:
15.10.1978.
Posjeta: 1.439 *