SANU: The year of Đura Daničić, who was the first in many areas

The Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts declared 2025 as the year of Đura Daničić, and on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of his birth.

Đura Daničić is one of the greatest philologists and linguists in the history of Serbian science and culture, the founder of modern Serbian studies and, along with Vuk Karadžić, the creator of the modern Serbian literary language.

He was born on April 19, 1825 as Đurađ Popović, according to a statement from SANU.

As one of the best students in the history of the Serbian Orthodox High School in Novi Sad, he went to Požun and Vienna for further education. In Vienna, together with Franz Miklosic and Vuk Karadzic, in his early twenties he became the main Serbian of his time. With the study "War for the Serbian Language and Spelling" from 1847, he introduced modern scientific methodology in solving the issue of the Serbian language, achieving a symbolic victory in decades of discussions on how to shape this language. His "Little Serbian Grammar", tireless

proofreading work on texts and social activity always in the service of education and science

they led to the final victory of the Serbian literary language based on centuries of oral literature experience and reliable ascertainment of facts, in the best traditions of Central European philology of that time.

Daničić was the first among Serbs and even other Slavs in many areas. He was the first to publish a historical dictionary of the language of a Slavic people, "Dictionary from Serbian Literary Antiquities", and his monumental "Serbian Syntax" is ahead of all other syntactic studies of the time. Along with Vuk Stefanović Karadžić, there is an unnamed author of the capital "Serbian Dictionary" from 1852. He entrusted Serbian culture with an exceptional translation of the "Old Testament", editions of great medieval writers, monographs, studies and criticism, but also by introducing a mandatory copy for the National Library of every book published in Serbia. He was manager of the National Library, secretary of the Society of Serbian Literature, professor of the Lyceum and the Great School in Belgrade, secretary of the Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts, president of the Serbian Learned Society, member of the Literary Department of Matica Srpska, foreign member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences in Petrograd.

How much do we owe to Dositej Obradović, Vuk Stefanović Karadžić, Petar II

To Petrović Njegoš, we owe nothing less to Đura Daničić, a modest man, an exceptional scientist and a great patriot - the SAN press release says.