A man of linguistics about a man

"My acquaintance with him, which will eventually develop into friendship, has lasted for more than fifty years, during which we have collaborated on numerous and varied jobs and projects. With similar views, interests and professional activities, as well as value orientations and political views, we found solid common ground, especially in the uncompromising resistance to nationalism that tore apart our homeland, Yugoslavia". This is what Ranko wrote about our long-standing friendship. For me, friendship with him was and remains one of the most valuable rewards. It is difficult for me to accept that it has ended, that there is no continuation, that all that remains is - as Ranko would say - a trip down memory lane.

It is difficult for me, it is unusual for me, that today is the first time I am speaking publicly about Ranko without him, in his absence. And about him, about his books, for the past almost forty years, I have spoken many times, most often at the promotions of books published in the XX Century Library. Even today, when he is gone, what I will say will not differ much from what I have said about Ranko so far. I am convinced that with his departure, the promotion of his works, his thoughts, is not over, that his work will find a new audience, new readings and - let's say that - also new publishers.

Ranko made the greatest contribution to the study of political manipulations of language, that is, as he himself said in the book Faces of language, the study of "language as a mirror of the regime in Serbia and Yugoslavia". His analyzes of political language manipulations represent an important and internationally recognized contribution to science, to contemporary sociolinguistics. But they are an equally important example of the social engagement of an intellectual, that is, a man who thinks, who feels that his task, that his raison d'etre, to put his knowledge and skills at the service of exposing, interpreting and condemning manipulations, abuses, lies - in a word, violence - to which the government resorts in the struggle for power.

As philologists know best, the terrain on which the violence of government appears with particular brutality is violence against language. And as philologists in Serbia know, that violence has become almost everyday in our time. So for Ranko Bugarski, there was work here, there were challenges, to which he responded tirelessly, reacted like few others.

He wrote about politics and language as events brought them. Most of his texts were first published in newspapers or magazines. This means that he accepted the risk of an immediate, almost urgent response, not only in front of the narrow scientific public, but also in front of the widest audience. He was - I will repeat this on this occasion - one of those rare people in modern Serbia thanks to whom we have not yet completely lost faith in knowledge, in education, in books, in reason, he was an educator.

Linguistics that Ranko wrote is Linguistics about man, as the title of his first book published in the XX Century Library reads. We, his readers, know that this linguistics also speaks of the man Ranko Bugarski. Most in the book A travelogue from memory, but also in all his other books, the voice of not only an exceptional linguist and writer can be heard, but also the voice of an exceptional man, a rare personality emerges before us.

Finally, let me mention that Ranko - as you know - was a passionate collector and researcher of spelunkers and sinkers. I made them myself, enjoyed it. When someone tells him about this commemoration where he is now, I believe he will say: Wait, that was the Rankomemoration.