Jernej Kopitar, known as Bartholomeus Kopitar, was a Slovene linguist and philologist working in Vienna.
16 Facts About Jernej Kopitar
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Jernej Kopitar worked as the Imperial censor for Slovene literature in Vienna.
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Jernej Kopitar is perhaps best known for his role in the Serbian language reform started by Vuk Stefanovic Karadzic, where he played a vital role in supporting the reform by using his reputation and influence as a Slavic philologist.
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Jernej Kopitar became employed as a librarian and later an administrator at the Vienna Court Library.
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Jernej Kopitar later become the chief censor for books written in Slavic languages and Modern Greek.
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Under the influence of the efforts of a group of contemporary Carinthian Slovene philologists, especially Urban Jarnik and Matija Ahacel, Jernej Kopitar sought to educate a new generation of linguists who would develop grammars and textbooks, advocate orthographic reform, and collect folk literature.
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Jernej Kopitar supported radical reforms of the old Bohoric alphabet, advanced first by Peter Dajnko and then by Franc Serafin Metelko.
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Cop and Jernej Kopitar disagreed on the issue of whether the Slovenes should develop their own national culture.
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Jernej Kopitar favored gradual evolution towards a common literary language for all South Slavic peoples, with Slovene dialects remaining the colloquial language of the peasantry.
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Politically, Jernej Kopitar was a supporter of Austroslavism, a doctrine aimed at the unity of Slavic peoples within the Austrian Empire.
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Jernej Kopitar was a staunch conservative, and supporter of the Metternich regime, with a paternalistic approach to the peasant culture.
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Jernej Kopitar influenced Vuk Stefanovic Karadzic in forming a new standard for the Serbian literary language based on common use.
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Jernej Kopitar died in Vienna on 11 August 1844, reportedly with Karadzic standing at his deathbed.
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Jernej Kopitar was buried in St Marx Cemetery in Vienna, and the theologian Michal Josef Fessl had a gravestone for Kopitar erected there in October 1845.
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Jernej Kopitar's remains and gravestone were moved to St Christopher's Cemetery in Ljubljana in 1897.
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In 1955, Jernej Kopitar's remains were transferred to Navje Memorial Park, where his gravestone is displayed, at the edge of the former St Christopher's Cemetery.