ĐURA DANIČIĆ - VUK KARADŽIĆ'S COLLABORATOR IN STRUGGLE FOR LANGUAGE REFORM

BIJELJINA, NOVEMBER 4 /SRNA/ – Philologist Đura Daničić /1825–1882/, a collaborator of Vuk Karadžić in the struggle for the reform of the Serbian language and orthography, died on November 5, 1882.

After studying in Pozsony /Bratislava/, Pest and Vienna, Daničić worked as a librarian at the National Library in Belgrade, secretary of the Society of Serbian Letters, and professor at the Lyceum and the Higher School.

In his first work, The War for the Serbian Language and Orthography /1847/, through which he contributed to the rapid victory of Vuk's ideas, he signed himself with the surname Daničić instead of his family name, Popović.

Đura Daničić consistently applied both Vuk's and his own views on language in his translations of the Psalter and the Old Testament from Latin.

He published several works of Old Serbian literature, including The Life of Saint Sava /by Theodosius/, The Life of Saint Simeon and Saint Sava /by Domentijan/, The Lives of Serbian Kings and Archbishops /by Danilo and his disciples/, and the Nikoljac Gospel.

Daničić published A Dictionary of Old Serbian Literary Terms and began compiling the extensive historical Dictionary of the Croatian or Serbian Language.

He also assisted Vuk in translating the New Testament.

Other works by Daničić include A Short Serbian Grammar, Serbian Syntax, Forms of the Serbian Language, History of Forms, Fundamentals of the Serbian or Croatian Language, Roots, and Serbian Accents.