Franc Serafin Metelko
Encyclopedia
Priest
A priest is a person authorized to perform the sacred rites of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particular, rites of sacrifice to, and propitiation of, a deity or deities...
, author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
, and philologist, best known for his proposal of a new script for the Slovene called the Metelko alphabet
Metelko alphabet
The Metelko alphabet was a Slovene writing system developed by Franc Serafin Metelko. It was used by a small group of authors from 1825 to 1833 but it was never generally accepted....
, which was meant to replace the traditional Bohorič alphabet
Bohoric alphabet
The Bohorič alphabet was an orthography used for the Slovene language between the 16th and 19th centuries. Its name is derived from Adam Bohorič, who codified the alphabet in his book Articae Horulae Succisivae, published in 1584....
, used since the late sixteenth century.
Metelko was born in the village of Škocjan
Škocjan
Škocjan is a settlement and a municipality in the traditional region of Lower Carniola in southeastern Slovenia. It should not be confused with Škocjan Caves, which is located in a different part of the country, near Divača...
, in what was then the Duchy of Carniola
Duchy of Carniola
The Duchy of Carniola was an administrative unit of the Holy Roman Empire and the Habsburg Monarchy from 1364 to 1918. Its capital was Ljubljana...
in the Habsburg Monarchy
Habsburg Monarchy
The Habsburg Monarchy covered the territories ruled by the junior Austrian branch of the House of Habsburg , and then by the successor House of Habsburg-Lorraine , between 1526 and 1867/1918. The Imperial capital was Vienna, except from 1583 to 1611, when it was moved to Prague...
. He studied theology
Theology
Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...
and philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
in Ljubljana
Ljubljana
Ljubljana is the capital of Slovenia and its largest city. It is the centre of the City Municipality of Ljubljana. It is located in the centre of the country in the Ljubljana Basin, and is a mid-sized city of some 270,000 inhabitants...
. In 1814 he was ordained a priest and in 1817 he started teaching Slovene at the Lyceum
Lyceum
The lyceum is a category of educational institution defined within the education system of many countries, mainly in Europe. The definition varies between countries; usually it is a type of secondary school.-History:...
in Ljubljana.
In 1825, he published a book in German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
titled Lehrgebäude der slowenischen Sprache im Königreiche Illyrien und in den benachbarten Provinzen (Slovenian Textbook for the Kingdom of Illyria
Kingdom of Illyria
The Kingdom of Illyria was an administrative unit of the Austrian Empire from 1816 to 1849. Its administrative centre was Ljubljana and it included the western and central part of present-day Slovenia, the present Austrian state of Carinthia, as well as some territories in north-western Croatia ...
and Neighboring Provinces). Following the advice of the liguist Jernej Kopitar
Jernej Kopitar
Jernej Bartol Kopitar was a Slovene linguist and philologist working in Vienna. He also worked as the Imperial censor for Slovene literature in Vienna...
, his newly created alphabet (which soon became known as the metelčica 'Metelko alphabet
Metelko alphabet
The Metelko alphabet was a Slovene writing system developed by Franc Serafin Metelko. It was used by a small group of authors from 1825 to 1833 but it was never generally accepted....
') was phonetic, with each character corresponding a sound in the spoken language. It was also quite complicated, containing unneeded or redundant characters for glottal h and the clusters lj, nj, and šč as well as unfamiliar characters taken from Cyrillic. In addition, Metelko based his phonology on his local Lower Carniolan dialect
Lower Carniolan dialect group
The Lower Carniolan dialect group is a group of closely related dialects of Slovene. The Lower Carniolan dialects are spoken in most of Lower Carniola and in the eastern half of Inner Carniola....
, which was not acceptable for most contemporary Slovenian authors.
Metelko's proposal further aggravated the "Slovene Alphabet War", which was started by Peter Dajnko
Peter Dajnko
Peter Dajnko was a Slovene priest, author, and linguist, known primarily as the inventor of an innovative proposal for the writing system for Slovene: the Dajnko alphabet ....
's quest for a new, more phonetic alphabet, replacing the traditional Bohorič alphabet
Bohoric alphabet
The Bohorič alphabet was an orthography used for the Slovene language between the 16th and 19th centuries. Its name is derived from Adam Bohorič, who codified the alphabet in his book Articae Horulae Succisivae, published in 1584....
(bohoričica). Metelko's main opponent, the philologist Matija Čop
Matija Cop
Matija Čop , also known in German as Matthias Tschop, was a Slovene linguist, literary historian and critic.- Biography :...
, convinced the Czech
Czech people
Czechs, or Czech people are a western Slavic people of Central Europe, living predominantly in the Czech Republic. Small populations of Czechs also live in Slovakia, Austria, the United States, the United Kingdom, Chile, Argentina, Canada, Germany, Russia and other countries...
scholar František Čelakovský
František Celakovský
František Ladislav Čelakovský, also known by the pseudonym Marcian Hromotluk, was a Czech writer and translator.-Life:...
to publish a devastating critique of Metelko's alphabet, which undermined the chances of its success. Čop also persuaded the local Austrian
Austrian Empire
The Austrian Empire was a modern era successor empire, which was centered on what is today's Austria and which officially lasted from 1804 to 1867. It was followed by the Empire of Austria-Hungary, whose proclamation was a diplomatic move that elevated Hungary's status within the Austrian Empire...
educational authorities to ban Metelko's alphabet from schools, which they did with an official decree in 1833. The Alphabet War nevertheless continued until the 1840s, when a slightly modified version of Gaj's Latin alphabet was finally adopted, which is still used to this day.
Metelko's alphabet remained in public memory because of a satirical poem by France Prešeren
France Prešeren
France Prešeren was a Slovene Romantic poet. He is considered the Slovene national poet. Although he was not a particularly prolific author, he inspired virtually all Slovene literature thereafter....
titled "Al' prav se piše ka
a ali kaſha" (How to Write the Word Porridge), which criticized the Alphabet War as nonsense.Metelko was also a collector of folk songs and an amateur poet. Metelkova ulica 'Metelko Street' in the center of Ljubljana is named after him.
He died in Ljubljana
Ljubljana
Ljubljana is the capital of Slovenia and its largest city. It is the centre of the City Municipality of Ljubljana. It is located in the centre of the country in the Ljubljana Basin, and is a mid-sized city of some 270,000 inhabitants...
.
See also
- Dajnko alphabetDajnko alphabetThe Dajnko alphabet or dajnčica was a Slovene writing system invented by Peter Dajnko. It was used in from 1824 to 1839 mostly in Styria ....
- Slovene alphabet
- History of SloveniaHistory of SloveniaThe history of Slovenia chronicles the period of the Slovene territory from the 5th Century BC to the present times. In the Early Bronze Age, Proto-Illyrian tribes settled an area stretching from present-day Albania to the city of Trieste. The Holy Roman Empire controlled the land for nearly 1,000...
- Culture of SloveniaCulture of SloveniaSlovenia's first book was printed by the Protestant reformer Primož Trubar . It was actually two books, Katekizem and Abecednik, which was published in 1550 in Tübingen, Germany....
- Language reformLanguage reformLanguage reform is a type of language planning by massive change to a language. The usual tools of language reform are simplification and purification. Simplification makes the language easier to use by regularizing vocabulary and grammar...
- Anton JanežičAnton JanežicAnton Janežič, also known in German as Anton Janeschitz was a Carinthian Slovene linguist, philologist, author, editor, literary historian and critic.- Life :...