Christopher Spalatin - In Memory of Ljudevit Jonke - JCS 20

IN MEMORY OF LJUDEVIT JONKE


CHRISTOPHER SPALATIN

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Journal of Croatian Studies, XX, 1979, – Annual Review of the Croatian Academy of America, Inc. New York, N.Y., Electronic edition by Studia Croatica, by permission. All rights reserved by the Croatian Academy of America.
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Professor Ljudevit Jonke, who taught the Croatian language at the University of Zagreb during the whole postwar era until lately, passed away on March 15, 1979. The chair of the Croatian language at the University of Zagreb enjoys a special prestige. During the last ninety years or so (1886-1973) Professor Jonke was the third Croatian linguist to occupy it: Maretić-Ivšić-Jonke. Tomo Maretić (1854-1938) taught Slavic philology from 1886 till 1914 and Stjepan Ivšić (1884-1962) from 1918 till 1962; Ljudevit Jonke 1907-1979) came to the University of Zagreb in 1950 as a Privat-docent and in 1960 became a full professor of the Croatian literary language. From that position he was removed and pensioned off in September 1973.

Ljudevit Jonke was born in Karlovac on July 29, 1907. Having finished the Classical Gymnasium in his native city, he studied Croatian language and South Slavic literatures at the University of Zagreb. After graduation he pursued Slavic studies at the University of Prague from 1930 to 1932. From 1933 to 1940 he taught at the Gymnasium in Sušak and after 1940 at one of Zagreb Gymnasiums.

His scholarly activity covers three areas: Croatian language, Croatian and Czech literatures.[1] Even the long titles of Jonke's articles bring out the main characteristic of his writing, his clarity. All his papers excel in good composition and clear presentation. This is why the general public enjoyed reading his column in the daily press. Most of his articles also give evidence of a pedagogical approach to the subject matter. That may be the reason why some of his peers considered his research not striking but rather ordinary. However, his contribution to Croatian linguistic scholarship is very significant. His treatises on the development of the Croatian literary language in the nineteenth century throw a new light on a period that before him was not sufficiently explored, especially because of a biased trend in Yugoslav scholarship. His special merit consists in examining linguistic data in connection with political and literary changes. Among his other achievements, Jonke, after Petar Skok, helped restore Bogoslav Šulek's reputation as one of the most creative linguists of the last century. Henceforth, any research on the nineteenth century Croatian standard will have to take into account Jonke's accomplishments. As a matter of fact, his student, Zlatko Vince, continued Jonke's work in this field and has just published a volume of more than 600 pages, devoting its main part to the Croatian literary language in the nineteenth century.[2]

Jonke wrote essays about the contemporary Czech authors and translated some twenty Czech novels and short stories by Capek, Drda, Fučik, Hašek, Majerová, Nemcová, Neruda, Olbracht, Šalda, Vančura and Wolker.

See comlete article at: http://www.studiacroatica.org/jcs/20/2006.htm


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Journal of Croatian Studies, XX, 1979, – Annual Review of the Croatian Academy of America, Inc. New York, N.Y., Electronic edition by Studia Croatica, by permission. All rights reserved by the Croatian Academy of America.
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