Vuk Karadžić's phonemic reform of Serbian Cyrillic
Reforma fonémica del cirílico serbio (Vuk Karadžić)
- Date
- 1818 · confidence high
- Place
- Vienna, Austria
- Credited to
- Vuk Stefanović Karadžić
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
What it is
With his 1818 Serbian dictionary he imposed the rule of writing as one speaks: one letter for each sound, with new letters (j, lj, nj, ћ, ђ, џ). The system, officially adopted in Serbia in 1868, is still in use.
The reform was designed in Vienna with Kopitar's support; the 1818 date is that of his Srpski rječnik. Precedents (Sava Mrkalj, 1810) are considered partial.
What it led to
- Serbian phonemic orthography and the basis of the standard language
- a model for the reformers of the Croatian Latin alphabet (Gaj)