SOURCE: Stolz, Benjamin. “Kopitar and Vuk: An Assessment of Their Roles in the Rise of the New Serbian Literary Language.” Papers in Slavic Philology 2 (1982): 150-67.

In the following essay, Stolz describes Kopitar's considerable influence on Vuk Karadžić and the modern development of the Serbo-Croatian literary language.

But the most important result of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars together was the quickening of nationalism, marked by a return to local origins: the collection and imitation of folklore, folk dance, and music, and medieval and Renaissance works. This passed beyond a revival of themes and forms into the rebirth of the use of inhibited languages … in literature.

Francis Scarfe

The scholarly literature on Jernej (Bartholomäus) Kopitar and Vuk Karadžić is so voluminous … that anyone who approaches the topic runs the risk of mere repetition, with slight reinterpretation, or of loose speculation and reckless theorizing. Still, the contribution...