Franz Miklosich

(Franz MikloŠiČ). Born Nov. 20, 1813, in RadomerŠČak, near Luttenberg, present-day Ljutomer, Republic of Slovenia; died Mar. 7, 1891, in Vienna. Austrian and Slovenian linguist. Founder of the comparative-historical study of the grammar of the Slavic languages. Member of the Academy of Sciences of Vienna (1851).

Miklosich graduated from the University of Graz. From 1850 to 1886 he taught at the University of Vienna. In the late 1830’s and 1840’s he joined the Illyrian movement. Miklosich’s principal works deal with comparative Slavic grammar and lexicology and include his Comparative Grammar of the Slavic Languages (vols. 1–4, 1852–75). The first and third volumes of this work were later completely revised and published in the second edition—the revised vol. 1 in 1879 and vol. 3 in 1876. Miklosich also studied Old Slavic (Vocabulary of Old Slavic, 1850; 2nd ed., 1862–65). An adherent of V. Kopitar’s Pannonian theory, Miklosich identified Old Slavic with the language of the ancestors of the Slovenes, the ancient Slavs of Pannonia. He studied the cross influences of the Slavic languages and the languages of neighboring peoples, including the Hungarians, the Rumanians, and the Albanians. He also studied Slavic toponymies and onomastics and the language of the gypsies.

Miklosich made an important contribution to Slavic studies with his publication of medieval Slavic texts, including the Codex Suprasliensis (1851), the Apostuluse codice monasterii ŠiŠatovac paleoslovenice (1853), and Nestor’s Chronicle (1860), and sources on the history of the Slavs (Monumenta serbica, 1858). He studied Slavic literatures and was the founder of the comparative study of Slavic epic poetry. He also studied Slavic law and ethnology. Miklosich was a member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences and other academies.