11 Facts About Ljudevit Gaj

Ljudevit Gaj was one of the central figures of the pan-Slavist Illyrian movement.

Ljudevit Gaj was born in Krapina on August 8,1809.

Ljudevit Gaj's father Johann Gay was a German immigrant from the Kingdom of Hungary, and his mother was Juliana, the daughter of a German immigrant arriving in the 1770s.

Ljudevit Gaj completed high school in Varazdin, Zagreb and Karlovac, and he studied philosophy in Vienna and Graz and law in Budapest.

Ljudevit Gaj started publishing very early; his 36-page booklet on stately manors in his native district, written in his native German, appeared already in 1826 as Die Schlosser bei Krapina.

Ljudevit Gaj followed the example of Pavao Ritter Vitezovic and the Czech orthography, using one letter of the Latin script for each sound in the language.

Ljudevit Gaj used diacritics and the digraphs lj and nj.

Ljudevit Gaj died in Zagreb, Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia, Austria-Hungary, in 1872 at the age of 62.

Ljudevit Gaj married 26-year-old Paulina Krizmanic, niece of an abbott, in 1842 at Marija Bistrica.

In 2008, a total of 211 streets in Croatia were named after Ljudevit Gaj, making him the fourth most common person eponym of streets in the country.

Ljudevit Gaj followed the example of Pavao Ritter Vitezovic and the Czech orthography, making one letter of the Latin script for each sound in the language.