An unfaked Image of Ljudevit Gaj on a Croatian postal stamp. (There were rumours that Serb linguists slipped some Serbian onions into his čevapčiće and therefore say he was a Srb)
*Note - this post will include facts and images which were added to give a clearer and overall informative picture to the reader. Sometimes giving a little extra background information to give a better understanding of the point being presented. Most importantly however, at the end of this post the reader will learn 7 things:
1- Who Ljudevit Gaj was.
2- The Latin script Croatian alphabet he devised, as well as the meaning of a few important linguistic terms like 'digraph', 'diacritic', 'phoneme' and 'orthography' and how they relate to the Croatian alphabet system vis-a-vis the Serbian cyrillic system.
3- Which and who's alphabet Serbs really use when they can't read or write Vuk Karadzic's Serbian Cyrillic alphabet.
4- Have a clearer understanding of the history of various European Slavic languages/alphabets, how they relate to and have influenced each other.
5- That the Croatian orthography standardizing and political work of Ljudevit Gaj and his peers was ultimately vindicated by the Declaration on the Status and Name of the Croatian Standard Language during the Croatian Spring.
6- That nations are free to choose whatever script/writing system they desire to write their language in, but that it should be truthfully and universally acknowledged as to who, where, when, how and which orthographic principles were involved in designing the script.
4- Have a clearer understanding of the history of various European Slavic languages/alphabets, how they relate to and have influenced each other.
5- That the Croatian orthography standardizing and political work of Ljudevit Gaj and his peers was ultimately vindicated by the Declaration on the Status and Name of the Croatian Standard Language during the Croatian Spring.
6- That nations are free to choose whatever script/writing system they desire to write their language in, but that it should be truthfully and universally acknowledged as to who, where, when, how and which orthographic principles were involved in designing the script.
7- Have a clearer understanding of the meaning behind the terms 'subterfuge', 'fake' and 'suspension of disbelief'.
This one is kind of funny. I decided to switch schools recently to a much better college, and with less Serb shitfuckery, so I have a bit of spare time to add this. A little step back into history again, but unlike my previous Let3 addition, this one is a bit more on the non-musical side. For the whole history and story behind the standard Croatian language and alphabet, (and alphabets used in the past including Glagolitic) , one will have to click onto the links. There's too much information about the history of the Croatian language and it's dialects, going back to over a thousand years, to include into one just one short post. This topic reminds me of that funny Serbian media 2008 Beijing Olympic story which I added a video of below as well. Ties in perfectly I think. One can also view this post within a more in-depth context HERE
A reader of Croatian will know what I'm talking about, the person not familiar with the Croatian language, alphabet, or Slavic ones at that, you will have to read up on the subject. The best I can do to give a similar example of the bizarreness would be like coming across an article where they were to read that it was the Chinese who travelled into outer space before the U.S. or the Soviets, complete with the names of the Chinese astronaut names, and not including the names of or even mentioning U.S. or Soviet astronauts/cosmonauts.
Below are 2 contradictory images. The first one is from the Se rbian Cyrillic website with an image that is dated 1841, which I originally came upon by way of a Serb news portal, totally by happenstance while looking for Croatian alphabet/Ljudevit Gaj related stuff. (It makes no mention of Ljudevit Gaj whatsoever, but has a faked Croatian alphabet script dated 1841. In turn, the Croatian alphabet is moved over to a Serb column. Very strange and ludicrous I thought because Serbian linguist Vuk Karadzic only worked on, designed and was concerned with standardizing a Serbian cyrillic alphabet system.
..The image below that is a photo of something that looks more like an original from the same "page".. But wait a second, here there is no faked Croatian alphabets. Ljudevits Gaj's Latin alphabet IS the proper and correct Croatian Latin alphabet in the correct column. The Latin Croatian alphabet he devised and standardized in 1835. So why this blatantly untruthful discrepency? What is going on? Is someones(s) trying to take a step back in history and make Ljudevit Gaj a Serb, or in this case non-existent at all? Hmmm? I had to look into this. Get to the bottom of this chicanery and falsification of a world known commonly accepted truth. Find out who was designing who's alphabet and who's the reptilian shapeshifter?
A reader proficient in Croatian will notice the errors immediately, so I circled the points of interest and omissions to compare the real and fake Croatian alphabet versions for the novice. (The current Serb cyrilic alphabet is called the "Azbuka" btw, the Croatian is called "Gajica" or simply "abeceda"(Pronounced ah-beh-tse-da) The top fake version is dated 1841.
Faked and misrepresented Croatian Alphabet, as well as Faked Serbian Latin script alphabet.
Now, the proper Croatian Latin alphabet based on Ljudevit Gaj's initial standardization work is seen below. Complete with Ljudevit's digraphs (as well as diacritics) representing phonemes, as opposed to the Serb cryillic which contains no digraphs or diacritics at all. This is the Latin Croatian alphabet Ljudevit Gaj devised in 1835. "Dž" is even an example of a digraph AND a diacritic used at once to make a sound Besides even other irregularies in the Serb column, note the ? where the "H" sound is supposed to be. Read on to find out more about that and other juicy details...
Correct Croatian Alphabet in proper column, and most importantly with the correct Latin script characters.
Now, most people taking a brief look at these images may not have noticed any discrepancy, or if looking at just the top fake Croatian version, dated years after Ljudevit Gaj's work, may have just took it at face value, and true and thought nothing more. But hold on a second. That may be the whole premise behind it. However, I'm good at noticing these types of things. For instance, when some guy in front of me leaves after purchasing or paying for something at some counter or desk, I see and hear the chick whisper "He's stupid" or "He's gay" after he leaves. That's because he's too busy feeling good about himself thinking he's hot and she wants him, as he's tucking his receipt back into his wallet. That's about the time he turns around to wave bye, then she quickly flashes the smile and again and adds a cutesy wave too. "Please come again!" she will say sometime. (He 's thinking the girl liked him because she was so polite and friendly to him) Seen it lots of times around here. Or like when a good looking clean, slim Croatian guy walks into a coffee shop, the Serb chick will immediately start whispering around how "That guy, he's sick, or he's gay, or bla bla bla, whatever. Calgary Serb chicks are like that to the extreme. (The whole "we're 403 Serbs/Serb lands" mental disorder thing) Anyway......
Front cover of the 'Danica' (Morning Star) newspaper Ljudevit Gaj started up in 1835.
Top and bottom 2 images taken of the "Brief Basics of the Croatian-Slavonic Orthography" was published in the Zagreb area Kajkavian dialect for a time, and simultaneously in the more widely used southern "Shtokavian" dialect of Croatian. (Croatian has 3 dialects) The very interesting point here is that an example of the diacritic "Ň" is used, like in Czech. The diacritic "Ň" was changed to the digraph "Nj" a short time later when he standardized Croatian solely in Shtokavian dialect.. (As well as the other diacritic and digraph additions that are found in the proper Croatian column in the previously shown image) Looking back in hindsight however, this was a masterful genius stroke in standardizing the Croatian alphabet. Why?...because it distinguished it as unique and differentiated it from not only other Slavic languages, but also from Serbian cyrillic which contained no digraphs or diacritics whatsoever. All during this time and before there was no such thing as a Serbian latin script. From the start of Vuk Karadzic's work, he was only concerned about standardizing his new standard Serbian cyrillic script alphabet only. It's the only script he and Serbs used and knew. This fact makes Ljudevit's diacritic and digraphic changes even more important, because it was years later when the "Serb camp" wanted to get rid of all the digraphs, and as in this instance, change Ljudevit's eventual "Nj" back to this "Ň". Now, if the above faked alphabets page had followed Vuk Karadzic's orthographic principles from the start, it would already have it included. (The reason it doesn't include it though is obvious... there was no Serbian Latin anything script at all ever. No J, No Y, No Lj, No Ly, No Ny, No Nj etc...No nothing at all in Romanized script. Only Ljudevit Gaj's Latin Croatian script which he standardized in complete form with his own particular digraphic and diacritic traits is the only one that ever existed at that time, in the area, influenced by centuries of various Croatian literary works.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaj's_Latin_alphabet
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaj's_Latin_alphabet
The front cover of Ljudevit Gaj's first orthography book. Ljudevit's formative work on standardizing the Croatian language and script was the continuation of previous centuries of Croatian Literature and written works. The Croatian language was was written in "3 dialects" until this time, and at times one dialect seeping into the next affecting spelling. Classic Croatian "shtokavski dialect" literature from Dubrovnik writers had numerous chakavski elements, and chakavski in turn from kajkavian as well. The "shtokavski dialect" was chosen partly for this reason, mainly because some of the greatest verses in Croatian were written there centuries previous, as well as the fact that it best suited to joining all 3 dialects into a single standard Croatian. (If he had not chosen "shtokavski dialect" based on the centuries of rich "shtokavski dialect Croatian literature" he would have been ignoring numerous works of Croatian classical literature. In hindsight, it was a very wise thing to do.
The front cover of "Danica Illrska" Illryian Daystar publication started by Ljudevit Gaj. The goal of this publication, (which he changed the name from Croatian Daystar in 1936 until it went out of print due to Austrian protocol) was planned to promote not only Croatian, but all Slavic languages spoken in the Austro-Hungarian Empire of that time, and especially of the Croatian lanuage.
Handwritten page from 1833 of the lyrics for the Croatian patriotic song Još Hrvatska ni propala. The song was to become an anthem which was sung as a Croatian/Illyrian national revival song. Croatian written works at that time were not orthographically standardized concerning a few sounds. Rising Austrian and Hungarian nationalism was on the rise and a Croatian led movement was needed. This was were Ljudevit Gaj and the Croatian National Revival movement came in, resulting in Ljudevit Gaj's Standard Croatian alphabet and with contributions from fellow writers and poets towards a much wider Croatian/Slavic languages/cultural movement.
In 1833 the lyrics to "Još Hrvatska ni propala" were put to music by Ferdo Livadic
Pictured in the image above one can plainly see all of Vuk Karadzic's Serbian Latin script work. (In the middle of the page, just to the left of center, one can see Vuk Karadzic's work on Serbian digraphs and diacritics which are contrary to his #1 linguistic commandment of one letter for 1 sound/phoneme) One can also plainly see (at the top right corner of page) as well as all Latin script standardizing work for the Serbian language from the centuries even before the start of Vuk Karadzic's work. Right up until the time of Ljudevit Gaj and the Croatian National Revival. The official script today of the republic of Serbia is Serbian cyrillic btw)
In 1833 the lyrics to "Još Hrvatska ni propala" were put to music by Ferdo Livadic
Pictured in the image above one can plainly see all of Vuk Karadzic's Serbian Latin script work. (In the middle of the page, just to the left of center, one can see Vuk Karadzic's work on Serbian digraphs and diacritics which are contrary to his #1 linguistic commandment of one letter for 1 sound/phoneme) One can also plainly see (at the top right corner of page) as well as all Latin script standardizing work for the Serbian language from the centuries even before the start of Vuk Karadzic's work. Right up until the time of Ljudevit Gaj and the Croatian National Revival. The official script today of the republic of Serbia is Serbian cyrillic btw)
Now back to the conundrum of the faked Croatian alphabet script, (and faked Serbian for that matter by using more illogical deduction, and non-existent Slovenian using further spin-logic.
Now, the Croatian alphabet is based upon the work of Croatian linguist Ljudevit Gaj (pronounced Lyoo-da-vit Guy) and to this day is commonly referred to as Gaj's Latin alphabet. Gajica) It was designed by him in 1835. (Serbs never used Latin script, at that time, or before) Now, there were attempts by Srb linguists and politicians (I'll call them the "Srb camp") in the years after his work, to change up to 4 of his Latin script characters (for starters) to their revised alternative characters. (You'll find out why, keep reading) However, Croatian linguists refused these attempts to revise his original design to appease the "Srb camp's" arm twisting and promises of cheap whiskey. An agreement was eventually reached for 1 Croatian alphabetic script character when Ljudevit's character of "Dj" was replaced with "Đ". (Which was an old Roman Latin character anyway, used at times in medieval German even. Not some Serbian invented script character. Still includes the D and D looks like a D.) (This was after Ljudevit was already dead btw, and was agreed to for the sake of regional co-operation and promotion of Slavic languages in Europe during those times) BUT, (And a big BUT here) ...then attempts to change 3 more characters. (and who knows how many more down the road?) There simply was no need to from the Croatian point of view. Croatian linguists and scholars all agreed. The "Serb camp" wasn't to thrilled with being told no, and "Live with it", so to speak, and as for the other 3 "recommended" amendments to the Croatian Latin based alphabetic script characters?....Croatian linguists answered politely "Um...no...no....and...um...no thanks.". (Sort of like how during the 2 Yugoslavia's,attempts at Croatian words being ommitted and replaced with Serbian words, all in some fanciful idea of forcing the 2 languages into 1) Now, why did the "Srb camp" from down the road in Serbia want so badly to replace those specific Latin alphabetic letters? And first only those 4 specific digraphs? At first anyway. (And especially "dž" which contained a digraph AND a diacritic?)
The biggest reasoning behind this attempt at trying to change four of Ljudevit Gaj's Croatian Latin alphabet characters can also be simply explained like this....
Every Serb alphabet character has 1 letter/character for every sound. This is a common rule of thumb with Slavic and non-Slavic languages. However how linguists go about about designing alphabets in relation to how a sound is spelled alphabetically is another topic entirely. But there were 4 (And still 3 in the current standardized Croatian alphabet) letters/script characters which consist of 2 letters to make the one specific sound. The "Serb camp" you see, was attempting to eradicate those 3 remaining Croatian Alphabet letters that consisted of 2 characters, to consist of just 1 character, (with no digraphs and no diacritics most importantly) just like the Serbian alphabet. 1 for 1. If all 4 of those alphabetic Latin characters that were made according to Ljudevit Gaj's system, were to be changed to a 1 character, then comparing the 2 alphabetic systems would have in a far fetched kind of way, made it a sort of bizarro-world system equivalent. (Sort of like Superman and bizarro-Superman, with Ljudevit's Croatian alphabet being the real Superman) . In a rudimentary mode of thinking then able to state that there is 1 Cyrillic script character to every 1 Latin script character, then implying...who knows what (Maybe that even then claiming that Serbs invented Latin and Cyrillic script).
Ljudevits devised Latin alphabet you see, had influence from other Slavic Latin alphabets (Polish, Czech and of course Slovak) which also had alphabets that contained 2 Latin based characters to make 1 sound. To put it into layman's term's....Ljudevit's Croatian standard system didn't jive with Vuk Karadzic's Serbian standard version you see. It wasn't/isn't in harmony, that goes far beyond differentiating just Latin script vis a vis Cyrillic script, you see. . Besides all the various differences in words, their meaning, orthography, etymology, morphology, etc, The deciding factor in the end is even the 2 alphabetic systems are not in syncronization. It wasn't syncronized to Vuk's model and standard system you see, and the "Srb camp" didn't like that at all. There simply was no 1 to 1 character translation.
The standard Croatian Latin script alphabet still containing 3 examples of 2 letters forming 1 alphabetic sound/phoneme. This is called a Di graph. Serbian cyrillic contains not even 1 digraph or diacritic. ("Dž" is even an example of a digraph AND a diacritic used at once to make a sound/phoneme)
Thankfully, the people hung up on this kind of idea, which escalated to the point of even attempting to morph the 2 languages into 1 failed failed. (Attempting to morph languages in those days was a passing fancy of some) These kinds of ideas were partly based on the musings of Slovakian writer Jan Kollar who tried to promote the same thing and make just 1 all encompassing "Czechoslovak" language. (Some things were just never meant to be not matter how much you try, just like New Coke or bellbottom jeans) Thankfully, because today we do have the Croatian, Slovak, Czech, Ukrainian, Macedonian, Belorusian, Bulgarian etc languages. (This particular idea wasn't taken too seriously by other Slovak and Czech scholars back then either, perhaps in a perfect world though, where 1 alphabet and language was to be used for all Slavic speaking peoples from Russia to Macedonia to the Czech Republic) This isn't really surprising at all though, because right from the start of Vuk's work, he was trying to find a way (with prodding from Srb politicians, writers of Greater Serbia pamphlets, radicals and even the Serb church) to magically turn all peoples inhabiting that part of Europe into some mystical esoteric "Srb race". In this instance trying to do it using his out of the blue cyrillic alphabet. Where they all walk on Serbian grass, drinking Serbian milk by the Serbian sea telling Serbian jokes eating Serbian jam from Serbian strawberries. It gets juicier...read on......
Statue of Ljudevit Gaj that I took in Zagreb on my trip to Croatia this past summer. His image is found all over Croatia, especially as statues in cities and towns. Many schools, cultural societies buildings, squares and streets as well. (Not surprisingly, Gaj's name is being stricken in Serbia these days. Streets formerly named in his honour because of his contribution to Stokavski standard work, have been renamed. Streets also previously named after Slovenian writers even, like France Prešeren and Ivan Cankar have been renamed at the urging of Serbian Church leaders. Click image for more detail.
Back to Gaj's Croatian Latin Alphabet, the Latin characters Ljudevit devised, basing it closely to Czech as well, in the end suited him and the Croatian language just fine, and Latin script had already been in use for hundreds of years anyway. All he did was some fine tuning, tweaking and standardize a final complete Standard Croatian Latin script alphabet, that importantly geniusly included digraphs, diacritics, and even digraphs and diacritics all at once. (The first Croatian dictionary and grammar date from the 16th and 17th century respectively) Croatia's literary history had already stretched back hundreds of years overwhelmingly using Latin script, with Croatian writers from Dubrovnik especially, making written classics in the Stokavian dialect, and Stokavian with Cakavian and even Kajkavian influences.
So it seems, according to the top faked page dated 1841, about 6 years later (But even before that actually like I said) in an attempt to totally obliterate Ljudevit's work and existence, and in effect Croatian history and Croatian literary history, written material was being used by the "Serb camp" that in effect attempted to do just that. The images used above of this supposed scholarly historical work of European scripts are contradictory, without foundation and worth 2 looks I recommend. It is being used as subterfuge these days on the Wikipedia Serbian Cyrilic alphabet site, and was included in the Serb propaganda article in the Serb daily that I inadvertently stumbled upon. It's gets better though...hold on.......
Serbian self taught linguist Vuk Karadzic. Did he really write David Nabokov's "Lolita"? (This is the image of Vuk Karadzic from the Serbian article I came across from a Serbian artist. Wierd that it fits the theme of this post perfectly)
No mention of Ljudevit Gaj whatsoever. Rather, his work (And the standard Croatian Latin script alphabet) is erroneously and with blatant subterfuge portrayed as some other version. A faked standard Croatian alphabet. (With 'Y' replacing Ljudevit's standardized 'J', omitting his 'Š', replacing the "S" with the Hungarian 'SZ' characters, a few other strange editions and questionable questionables. But possibly one of the most interesting of all strange things in all this may even be accepting/not accepting the letter 'H' which in Serbian was "X" as part of a Srb alphabet, WHY?... Well, because you see, according to Vuk Karadzic's initial rules, for a Serb the "H" sound (Serb letter"X") was actually non-existent. His first dictionary did not include the sound of "H" (X) Even after persuading from his Serbian camp supporters during the 2nd edition of his first Serbian dictionary, the "H" sound (Serbian X) was eventually added, however no words were to be found in the whole dictionary that started with the "H" sound. Now what's all this no "H" sound business you may ask?........
.....Well, I'll try to explain as simply as possible. Because you see, according to Vuk Karadzic's theology, Srbs don't use or acknowledge the letter 'H', because they don't acknowledge the "H" sound. Karadzic's belief and rule was that a Serb does not use the voiceless pharyngeal fricative "H" (A sound similar to the ending in the Irish and Scottish Gaelic word "Loch") a Srb will not have a letter for that sound. This was his new rule. His first Serbian dictionary had absolutely no words with an "H" sound, which in Serbian is "X".
ONLY after the 2nd edition of his 1st Serbian dictionary did he include words which included that sound at all, for foreign words only though, and only after being persuaded to do so by other Serb writers. AND EVEN THEN his Serbian dictionary had absolutely NO WORDS STARTING WITH THE LETTER "X" (H sound) Sometime down the road it seems his rule was that if it is a foreign word, then an "X", (H sound) will be added. (Example: Xrvatska instead of Hrvatska, or the name of the Croatian island of Hvar, this would then extend naturally to all Latin script foreign language words that contain that sound..."Loch" would then be Locx, ...."Hue" would be Xue, German "Dicht" would be Dicxt,...Polish "Hiacynt" would be Xiacynt...and many other scenarios) Standard Serbian eventually did accept the H in many instances though, and use it currently, or do they? Because who the Hell knows? And seriously I really don't even care whether they do or not. See here for more information: Serbian Letter X
(Important sidenote - Here is where I have to give a little background about this no "H" sound business. This stumbling block of Serbian language is directly related to the Serbian "Torlakian" dialect, which many linguists actually believe to be a Bulgarian dialect. (This is why Vuk Karadzic had issues about if or when or when/when not to use it, in Serbian, and in foreign words. It's a transitional Bulgarian dialect of the South Slavic languages continuum. A dialect where unlike other South Slavic languages, it does not recognize or use the the "H" sound. Source: wikipedia.org/Torlak_dialect)
Yeah, a confusing set of rules it seems at first, as well as out of thin air fake Croatian alphabets if one is not familiar with this topic of Slavic peoples alphabets and how they relate to one another. (This partly explains why Serbs who come over and make rude, uneducated comments at Croatian sites sometimes like to spell "Hrvatska" as Xrvatska. They are proving that they are the best and liguisitically/genetic pure Serbs or something I guess. A true Serbian race member) That's why I think they should just stick to their own Serbian websites, the ones where they can write an X for H to their hearts content like they're supposed to. They could have wrote a Klingon script and made a dozen faked alphabets or scripts for all I care actually. Croatia only needed and needs 1 script to read and write the Croatian standard language in. The script Ljudevit Gaj standardized and that's that. It's really not that difficult to comprehend. There's no point in trying to make up the past with faked anything because "documented facts" don't lie.
Detail from a publication for the Society "Ljudevit Gaj" in Rijeka and Susak in 1910
What does all this mean in the end though? Quite simple, and obvious. That because Ljudevit Gaj refused to revise the Croatian Latin script based alphabet to their whims and edits, Serb politicians, scholars and radicals ("Srb camp") tried again years later, and then decided to take it anyway, publish it and call it Serbian, and credit Ljudevit Gaj and Croatians with some fake made up standardized version that was not Ljudevit's standardized version, and was not ever officially Croatian script. and most definitiely not the Croatian standard (Or in this case, not credit Ljudevit at all) Ipso facto. Sound familiar? (See Serbian Olympic team related video below for a humorous analogy)
In some language orthographies, like that of Croatian (lj, nj, dž), traditional Spanish (ch, ll, rr) or Czech (ch), digraphs are considered individual letters, meaning that they have their own place in the alphabet, in the standard orthography, and cannot be separated into their constituent graphemes; e.g.: when sorting, abbreviating or hyphenating. In others, like English, this is not the case.
Some schemes of Romanization make extensive use of digraphs (e.g. Cyrillic to Roman for English readers), while others rely solely on diacritics (e.g. Cyrillic to the modified Roman used for Turkish). To avoid ambiguity, transliteration based on diacritics is generally preferred in academic circles. Many languages, like Serbian (written in Cyrillic) and Turkish, have no digraphs, and so transliterations into these languages also cannot use digraphs. Source: wikipedia.org/wiki/Digraph_orthography
Ljudevit Gaj's standardized Latin script Croatian alphabet including diacritics and digraphs. (With his/our 2 latin script alphabetic characters used to represent a sound, highlighted in yellow. 2 characters used to make 1 sound/phoneme is called a Digraph)
It has been surmised that Danicic's plan for Gaj' 3 other, 2 Latin script alphabetic characters (digraphs) may have looked something like the above. (I made the above hypothetical examples using Photoshop. The designs for these 3 digraphs may or may not have looked like this.) Surprisingly, these facts about the attempt to redesign 4 of Ljudevit Gaj's Latin based alphabetic characters are rarely ever mentioned, but are ommited even on Danicic's wikipedia page, where they make no mention of the 1 letter modification. So it seems stranger still as to why, if his Serbian camp of linguists in Serbia already had their own Latin alphabet complete as the article from the Serb newspaper and page above implies, with it's fabricated fake alphabets, then why doesn't the Serb Latin alphabet in use contain all 4 of his redesign/modification recommendations already? Then and now? Complete with a Karadzic cyrillic version with his 1 to 1 phonemic and orthographic set of rules, without Ljudevit's totally contradictory to Vuk's rules of NOT containing digraphs and diacritics which they many years later would have no need to modify? Being used in Serbia in his time and/or now? The fact of their different sources and having/not having digraphs and diacritics is a reason that it is IMPOSSIBLE to transliterate from Serbian Cyrillic to Croatian Latin script. (Sort of like trying to fill an empty 2 liter bottle with a 1 liter bottle of water ) Just can't be done......
Now, pay close attention kiddies. Some new juicy material from a Serbian source, which by happenstance again, will shed more light on Vuk Karadzic's cyrillic alphabet and his camp's extravagant claims. (Notice again in the above image, like almost all Serbian sites devoted to Vuk Karadzic, that there is not only no mention of Ljudevit Gaj, but more importantly no mention or discussion about any Latin script work. That's because there wasn't any) Also, in the process of inventing of his Serbian cyrillic alphabet, and standardizing his out of the blue Serbian language, he had many MANY non-Serbian influences. For instance, even though in Serbia "Ekavski" was used overwhelmingly by the majority, he tried to make "Ijekavski" the Serbian standard. (This is just 1 example, I could go on and on with lots more) This is because in his travels OUTSIDE of Serbia, into areas that included large Croatian speaking communities, Montenegrins, and other Non-Serbs, he wanted the nicer sounding, Non-Serbian "Ijekavski" dialect to be the standard. Serbs in Serbia didn't like that, and never did actually, even to this day it is not used nor is the Serbian standard. Even regarding just his newly created Cyrillic alphabet, scholars and church leaders weren't too thrilled with his designs, saying that some of his characters looked "too Latin"
But most importantly, many of the folk stories, poems and tales he used as the foundation for his first Serbian dictionary and orthographic system, was borrowed from many Non-Serb sources, especially containing influences from very old Croatian literary history from the Dubrovnik and Croatian Dalmation regions. Again, this was because he was travelling OUTSIDE of Serbia, into more mixed populations, then spinning many of his Serbian written work as "strictly Serbian" from "strictly Serbian sources". It's very laughable if one studies further into this topic and comes across much more about this topic, including elements taken from the first Croatian dictionary and grammar from 200 years previously. And as you can see above, even just his invented Cyrillic alphabet has many Non-Serb elements. That's ok though. He could have made the Serb Cyrillic look like whatever he wanted to. He could have 5 cyrillic alphabets. No Latin or Cyrillic alphabet system in the world is 100% completely original and containing no borrowings from any other Latin or Cyrillic alphabet system out there in Europe. But the making of fake alphabets, accrediting them falsely, and then especially omitting the existence of historical real people and their work to justify the fake alphabets, then taking the historical real persons work as their own. In the end this is just trying to steal another peoples literary history in the process, and is another thing altogether. Above image source: skeri.hubpages.com
It wasn't long after completing his orthography and script work that Ljudevit abandoned his political work and vision of a greater Slavic confederation of nations, (Which would also have included from Slovene lands to Bulgaria btw.) to include Serbia. He realized that his mistake was stating that he was a non-Serb to begin with and had no desire to be part of some fanciful dreamed up Greater Serbia. He could smell what the Vuk Karadzic camp was up to and wanted no part. He refused to be a signatory to the Vienna Literary Agreement (Where not much was agreed upon anyway, it was not official, and it only solidified the continuation of Croatian literary history and trends, but had directly influenced Serbo-Slavic to accept Croatian historical influences) It's usually used as a buzz word these days from the people who still haven't accepted the demise of 19th century politics, programs and thinking. Trying to fuse the 2 into one and making 1 Yugo-Serbo-Croatian.lanuage and then 1 Yugo-serbo people and culture, including even Montenegro. This will never be possible because during Communist Yugoslavia this was attempted, and failed miserably. Too many words that belong strictly to 1 or the other language. There could be no fusing, because basically one side would have to lose and accept foreign words as the standard. More info: Declaration_on_the_Status_and_Name_of_the_Croatian_Standard_Language
Just one more bizarre attempt to mention which sheds light on how badly the "Serb camp" was tryng to hijack Croatian literary and cultural history and transform it into Serbian. Right around the time Ljudevit refused to have anymore dealings with Serb writers, rumblings and offers were coming from Serb linguists and scholars to make some sort of a weird bizarre deal. A proposition where books in Serbia were to change to strictly being printed in Latin script IF in Croatia the Serb "Ekavski" yat-reflex was included as the Croatian standard in printed publications, and then eventually used as the standard. Very tricky, but this proposed deal fell flat and wasn't even considered seriously, (Sort of like Betamax videocassetes) ...as it was just another underhanded way of trying to Serbianize Croatian language and culture and then hypothetically presto-magikally transform everyone into a `Vuk Kradzic newest defintion of a `Serbian`. Then guys like THIS would have gone around yelling ?A XA!!! (Even with different words and meanings and spelling)...Now the Croatians are spelling AND printing books like us! So they must be Serbs eating Serbian bread and drinking Serbian wine! Just a really dumb idea from the start.
Ljudevit's close supporters Ivan Mazuranic, Dimitrije Demeter, Bogoslav Sulek, Ivan Kukuljevic Sakcinsky, and after them Vatroslav Jagic and others continued to work for the historic Croatian language, it's literature and Croatian history. Croatian and Serbian continued to flow on their own natural course. Serbian continued to use many Greek and Turkish loanwords as they have for centuries, and Croatian language continued to use German and Italian loanwords, as well as the inclusion of newly made Neologism's or editing existing words (Which makes perfect sense) as the vocabulary became larger in this new day and age. That got the "Serb camp" ball rolling. They realized finally that, to put it into the vernacular, that Ljudevit didn't come into town on the Pumpkin Express, from Pumpkinville to sell Pumpkin Pies. He was already a politician, writer, linguist and journalist and understood linguistics, geography and history very well. He also knew that the Croatian Latin based alphabet he was standardizing was based on the rich Croatian literary history of the Shtokavian dialect of Renaissance Dubrovnik and Croatian speaking coastal areas, it's vernacular use there and from the northern Slavonia region. Some of the most beautiful verses in the Croatian language were written there, unlike Vuk who was basing his Serbian alphabet and writings based on speech patterns and stories coming from OUTSIDE of Serbia, including from various non-Serb sources. Then telling the lie that everything he wrote and heard is strictly Serbian sources and that this is the "new Serbian language" Ipso facto. It was around this time that steam was reportedly shooting out of their ears like in those Yosemite Sam cartoons. A non-Serb dared to refuse the demands of representatives of Serbdom? and Serbian Serbisms?
Ljudevit Gaj and members of the Croatian National Revival/Illyrian Movement
In 1848, Gaj was part of the early provisional nationalist triumverate of Croatia. As one of the leaders of the newly created National Assembly, he helped to write their "National Demands" which included:
Details: www.mgz.hr
Dobrica Cosic - "Father of the Srb Nation" (His /their words, not mine)
All this chicanery reminds me of this Serbian biology textbook used in the 90's, which features Nicolas Cage in a scene from "Raising Arizona" on the front cover. Were the baby kidnapping characters in the film a good example for teaching the fundamentals of ejaculations and under arm or nook and cranny hygeine? Is the inclusion of Nicolas Cage on the cover implying that he is something, that in some fantasy novels is referred to as "a Serb"? Pfff, As if.
Why this fake version of Ljudevits Gaj's Latin script alphabet is promoted can probably be explained with another analogy. Sort of like the problem of fake Rolex's. As most of you already know, only an unacquainted and foolish person would believe that a Rolex made in stainless steel has a day and date feature on it. Stainless steel Rolex's that contain those features are fakes. Those are only made in 18 kt gold and platinum. Period. It's even stranger still when it's some Nixon watch salesperson who is trying to tell you that it's actually Nixon watches that invented the Rolex with the day/date feature.
Sometimes Serb vandals aren't happy even with the sight of Ljudevit Gaj statues: dalje.com
Children at Velika Mlaka school commemorating the life and times of Ljudevit Gaj.
A video of Osnova Škola. (Elementary Scool) "Ljudevit Gaj"students in the hometown of Ljudevit Gaj celebrating the schools 100th anniversary in a Ljudevit Gaj school cheer song.
One of the most important Šulek's articles was Serbs and Croats (1856), published in the Neven magazine on more than 30 pages. That sober text, combining history, literature and philology, challenged the Greater Serbian positions and Vuk Karadzic who was attributing the entire Shtokavian literature to the Serbian linguistic corpus. "Those who want to deny the existence of a people should be well-armed with reasons based on the nature of things and evidence from credible historians. The coastal writers call their language Croatian, says Šulek, citing a dozen works mentioning the Croatian language in the title. On the other hand, there are no old books written in Glagolitic or Latin scripts where the writers call their language Serbian in fact, even the books written in Bosnian Cyrillic call their language Croatian or Slav. Croatian writers could not call their language Serbian because the Serbs used a mixture of Old Church Slavonic, Russian and Serbian during most of their history, while the Shtokavian dialect "flourished only with the Croats until recently". - Bogoslav Sulek
Comments even related to the conspiracy driven hot topics of "Was Ljudevit Gaj a reptilian shapeshifter? Was Ljudevit Gaj in cahoots with the "666 Euro-Beast Whore", Are Russians really from Planet Serbitron X-512?" "Are Serbs really just Triballi? Why on earth do some drunken Srb historians think Sclavenia (Which was just an ancient term used by the Byzantine empire in regards to ANY Slavic people they encountered in Europe. I looked into all of this and know what I'm talking about)....was only just Serbia, or Rascia, Servia or Triballia? or sometimes the Romanians and Bulgarians living in Servia? Whats up with the Serb pointy/horned toe opanci?" and "Why do so many Serb songs suck?", "Was Demikhov's dog really just in fact the result of Serbian veterinary-linguists and not some supposed, enigmatic, unproven made up Dr. Vladimir Demikov?" "What exactly on earth is a Serbian race anyway?".. are welcome.
*As an interesting sidenote, Dasha Zhukova, girlfriend of Roman Abramovich would be familiar with this kind of stuff. She graduated university with a degree in Slavic Studies and Literature. You learn something new everyday.
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Updated May 11, 2012.
Statue of Ljudevit Gaj currently located in downtown Zagreb.
I think the above just shows that Serb linguists after Ljudevits death, realized that the Croatian alphabet (Gaj' Latin alphabet) must be changed inn order to be in orthographic union with Vuk Karadzic's orthographic system and principle of strictly 1 character for each sound like devised for his Serb cyrillic. However like the Czech, Slovak, Polish and even Hungarian alphabets, this just wasn't the case. It was different. A different orthographic system, containing digraphs and diacritics. Laughably if the hogwash fake alphabets used on the mentioned recent Serb article were true, why would Vuk Karadzic contradict his own orthographic law of 1 alphabetic letter to 1 sound and then use 2 orthographic principles right from the start? All this just shows that it would be more accurate and correct to say that Serbs write in a Serb cyrillic alphabet, but when deciding to use Latin script, they then use the Croatian system, based upon Ljudevit Gaj's Latin alphabet and orthographic system which includes the digraphs "Lj".."Nj"...and "Dž".
Now, pay close attention kiddies. Some new juicy material from a Serbian source, which by happenstance again, will shed more light on Vuk Karadzic's cyrillic alphabet and his camp's extravagant claims. (Notice again in the above image, like almost all Serbian sites devoted to Vuk Karadzic, that there is not only no mention of Ljudevit Gaj, but more importantly no mention or discussion about any Latin script work. That's because there wasn't any) Also, in the process of inventing of his Serbian cyrillic alphabet, and standardizing his out of the blue Serbian language, he had many MANY non-Serbian influences. For instance, even though in Serbia "Ekavski" was used overwhelmingly by the majority, he tried to make "Ijekavski" the Serbian standard. (This is just 1 example, I could go on and on with lots more) This is because in his travels OUTSIDE of Serbia, into areas that included large Croatian speaking communities, Montenegrins, and other Non-Serbs, he wanted the nicer sounding, Non-Serbian "Ijekavski" dialect to be the standard. Serbs in Serbia didn't like that, and never did actually, even to this day it is not used nor is the Serbian standard. Even regarding just his newly created Cyrillic alphabet, scholars and church leaders weren't too thrilled with his designs, saying that some of his characters looked "too Latin"
But most importantly, many of the folk stories, poems and tales he used as the foundation for his first Serbian dictionary and orthographic system, was borrowed from many Non-Serb sources, especially containing influences from very old Croatian literary history from the Dubrovnik and Croatian Dalmation regions. Again, this was because he was travelling OUTSIDE of Serbia, into more mixed populations, then spinning many of his Serbian written work as "strictly Serbian" from "strictly Serbian sources". It's very laughable if one studies further into this topic and comes across much more about this topic, including elements taken from the first Croatian dictionary and grammar from 200 years previously. And as you can see above, even just his invented Cyrillic alphabet has many Non-Serb elements. That's ok though. He could have made the Serb Cyrillic look like whatever he wanted to. He could have 5 cyrillic alphabets. No Latin or Cyrillic alphabet system in the world is 100% completely original and containing no borrowings from any other Latin or Cyrillic alphabet system out there in Europe. But the making of fake alphabets, accrediting them falsely, and then especially omitting the existence of historical real people and their work to justify the fake alphabets, then taking the historical real persons work as their own. In the end this is just trying to steal another peoples literary history in the process, and is another thing altogether. Above image source: skeri.hubpages.com
It wasn't long after completing his orthography and script work that Ljudevit abandoned his political work and vision of a greater Slavic confederation of nations, (Which would also have included from Slovene lands to Bulgaria btw.) to include Serbia. He realized that his mistake was stating that he was a non-Serb to begin with and had no desire to be part of some fanciful dreamed up Greater Serbia. He could smell what the Vuk Karadzic camp was up to and wanted no part. He refused to be a signatory to the Vienna Literary Agreement (Where not much was agreed upon anyway, it was not official, and it only solidified the continuation of Croatian literary history and trends, but had directly influenced Serbo-Slavic to accept Croatian historical influences) It's usually used as a buzz word these days from the people who still haven't accepted the demise of 19th century politics, programs and thinking. Trying to fuse the 2 into one and making 1 Yugo-Serbo-Croatian.lanuage and then 1 Yugo-serbo people and culture, including even Montenegro. This will never be possible because during Communist Yugoslavia this was attempted, and failed miserably. Too many words that belong strictly to 1 or the other language. There could be no fusing, because basically one side would have to lose and accept foreign words as the standard. More info: Declaration_on_the_Status_and_Name_of_the_Croatian_Standard_Language
Just one more bizarre attempt to mention which sheds light on how badly the "Serb camp" was tryng to hijack Croatian literary and cultural history and transform it into Serbian. Right around the time Ljudevit refused to have anymore dealings with Serb writers, rumblings and offers were coming from Serb linguists and scholars to make some sort of a weird bizarre deal. A proposition where books in Serbia were to change to strictly being printed in Latin script IF in Croatia the Serb "Ekavski" yat-reflex was included as the Croatian standard in printed publications, and then eventually used as the standard. Very tricky, but this proposed deal fell flat and wasn't even considered seriously, (Sort of like Betamax videocassetes) ...as it was just another underhanded way of trying to Serbianize Croatian language and culture and then hypothetically presto-magikally transform everyone into a `Vuk Kradzic newest defintion of a `Serbian`. Then guys like THIS would have gone around yelling ?A XA!!! (Even with different words and meanings and spelling)...Now the Croatians are spelling AND printing books like us! So they must be Serbs eating Serbian bread and drinking Serbian wine! Just a really dumb idea from the start.
Ljudevit's close supporters Ivan Mazuranic, Dimitrije Demeter, Bogoslav Sulek, Ivan Kukuljevic Sakcinsky, and after them Vatroslav Jagic and others continued to work for the historic Croatian language, it's literature and Croatian history. Croatian and Serbian continued to flow on their own natural course. Serbian continued to use many Greek and Turkish loanwords as they have for centuries, and Croatian language continued to use German and Italian loanwords, as well as the inclusion of newly made Neologism's or editing existing words (Which makes perfect sense) as the vocabulary became larger in this new day and age. That got the "Serb camp" ball rolling. They realized finally that, to put it into the vernacular, that Ljudevit didn't come into town on the Pumpkin Express, from Pumpkinville to sell Pumpkin Pies. He was already a politician, writer, linguist and journalist and understood linguistics, geography and history very well. He also knew that the Croatian Latin based alphabet he was standardizing was based on the rich Croatian literary history of the Shtokavian dialect of Renaissance Dubrovnik and Croatian speaking coastal areas, it's vernacular use there and from the northern Slavonia region. Some of the most beautiful verses in the Croatian language were written there, unlike Vuk who was basing his Serbian alphabet and writings based on speech patterns and stories coming from OUTSIDE of Serbia, including from various non-Serb sources. Then telling the lie that everything he wrote and heard is strictly Serbian sources and that this is the "new Serbian language" Ipso facto. It was around this time that steam was reportedly shooting out of their ears like in those Yosemite Sam cartoons. A non-Serb dared to refuse the demands of representatives of Serbdom? and Serbian Serbisms?
Scene from Jelačić’s ceremonial installation on the position of Croatian ban in Zagreb, June 4, 1848, with Ljudevit Gaj pictured bottom right corner. (Contemporary engraving published in Zagreb’s weekly Svijet on May 19, 1928)
Ljudevit Gaj and members of the Croatian National Revival/Illyrian Movement
Realities are real. I may have given a bit more background information here than I had initially planned, but in the end it just gives even a clearer picture as to the Croatian Latin script alphabet. To believe the above page with the fake alphabets, or it's implied insinuations, would be like believing that in Croatia, (In cities like Zagreb, Rijeka, Dubrovnik or Osijek) Croatians wear the famous horned/pointy toe Serbian opanci. or Serbian nationalist chetnik caps. Or that they wear them in Poland, Russia, or the Ukraine or even other less well known places like Bavaria, Muscovia, Lubuskie, Puglia, Murcia, Galicia, Moravia, Styria and Wallachia. I don't know if this rubbish is being espoused by Serb media and chauvinist's because the Greater Serbia dreamers dream hasn't panned out for them, because Croatia is independent now and in NATO, because other Non-Serb Republics have chosen to go their own way as well, because Croatia will most likely to vote in favour of becoming a member state in the European Union next year, or because Ljudevit had a better looking moustache and cooler looking shoes, but to me this is just another one of those irredentist Serb attempts to negate non-Serbs on the history scene. (Not just Croatians)
This article that I found by chance, which included the above fake alphabets, (and which seems to have disappeared because I can't find it now on the site, I'll keep trying) really doesn't surprise me though. I've come across on Youtube, on forums, and news articles, (when looking for something completely unrelated) proclamations by armchair historians (who have probably never read more than 10 books and are basing their truth probably on some 5 page pamphlet or something their grandfather told them one time after drinking too much) things that made me almost piss my pants from laughter. Proclamations that Serbs came to that part of Europe 300 years before anybody, (Because the Byzantine flag/coat of arms was flying on Byzantine ships, and it looks almost exactly like the Serbian coat of arms of later years I guess) ..and they already had a large navy before the Croats or Venetians came. Mind boggling ludicrous stuff. What the hell are they teaching in the history books over in Serbia these days anyway? Making real alphabets and people disappear from history, then making ancient Serbian navy's appear in history books that came to the Adriatic before the Romans even, then disappear? Then claiming to making Byzantine Serb orthodox churches before even the existence of the Byzantine Empire, and then proclaiming that because Serbia got squashed in 1389 by the Ottomans, they therefore have the right to ethnically cleanse Non-Serbs centuries later because Serbian Jesus said it's OK?. Who believes this nonsense and crazy talk? Sounds kind of made up or like some form of narcissistic megalomania.
Some more subterfuge. After the controversy regarding President Tadic displaying the Serb nationalistic and fascist 3 fingered salute at the Olympic opening ceremonies, Serbian media tried to downplay and legitimize the topic by posting photos of former American President, George Bush, also proudly displaying the fascist 'Serb 3 finger salute'. The photo as reported shortly after on Croatian news portal 'Jutarnji List' however, and as seen in the video, turned out laughably to be a cropped and edited fake. Sound familiar? (Many times btw, regarding different topics, I never have to go far, and many times am not even looking for similar eye opening material. Serbian sources upload all kinds of video footage that makes my job very easy)
In 1848, Gaj was part of the early provisional nationalist triumverate of Croatia. As one of the leaders of the newly created National Assembly, he helped to write their "National Demands" which included:
- The union of all Croatian provinces (Croatian-Slavonian Kingdom, Istria and Dalmatia).
- Separation from the Kingdom of Hungary.
- Abolition of serfdom.
- Full civil rights.
- Affirmation of the equality of nations.
As a close advisor of the Croatian Ban (Viceroy) Josip Jelacic, he headed the political section of the Ban's Council. Ljudevit Gaj's political career ended on June 7, 1848. At the time it was a much talked about political move for regional politics. Gaj arrested the exiled Serbian Prince Milos of the Obrenovic dynasty as a matter of foreign policy talks with Serbia. It was known as the Milos affair. There are various accounts of what exactly the behind the scenes goings on were regarding this, but one fact that can be verified is that the Belgrade government in Serbia, which was ruled by the rival Karadjordjevic dynasty, wanted Milos killed while he was travelling through Zagreb on his way to Vojvodina. The arrest caused quite a stir in some circles because it was felt that Gaj was getting too involved with Serbian politicians, however Gaj did not arrange for the Prince to be killed and instead set him free.
Having dealings with the Serbian government and their bickering dynasties left a bad taste in Ljudevits mouth, and he felt no desire to associate with Serb politicians after this point. After letting the rival Serb Prince free, he stayed out of politics altogether and did not seek to be re-elected to office in any capacity. He now also officially abandoned even the concept of a greater South Slavic/Illyrian union of nations which would include Serbia. He and his close associates realized the aspirations of politicians and writers coming from Belgrade were only interested in the creation of some sort of a Greater Serbia incorporating many Non-Serb lands, and using various means. The Illyrian concept was officially now a thing of history. He did still though continue to influence Croatian literary history and future from the background, even if not an elected official anymore. Previous colleagues from his Illyrian Movement days, such as Bogoslav Sulek and Ivan Kukuljevic Sakcinski continued doing much for Croatian language and Gaj`s Croatian Latin script alphabet, albeit with a more Croatian flavour now, since they also dropped the earlier Illyrian concept. Over time people from even other Slavic lands also came to reside in the Croatian lands, and a number of them also taking part in the defence of Croatian culture and language throughout the Croatian lands. After Ljudevit Gaj's retirement, he died peacefully in Zagreb in 1872 at the age of 62.
Having dealings with the Serbian government and their bickering dynasties left a bad taste in Ljudevits mouth, and he felt no desire to associate with Serb politicians after this point. After letting the rival Serb Prince free, he stayed out of politics altogether and did not seek to be re-elected to office in any capacity. He now also officially abandoned even the concept of a greater South Slavic/Illyrian union of nations which would include Serbia. He and his close associates realized the aspirations of politicians and writers coming from Belgrade were only interested in the creation of some sort of a Greater Serbia incorporating many Non-Serb lands, and using various means. The Illyrian concept was officially now a thing of history. He did still though continue to influence Croatian literary history and future from the background, even if not an elected official anymore. Previous colleagues from his Illyrian Movement days, such as Bogoslav Sulek and Ivan Kukuljevic Sakcinski continued doing much for Croatian language and Gaj`s Croatian Latin script alphabet, albeit with a more Croatian flavour now, since they also dropped the earlier Illyrian concept. Over time people from even other Slavic lands also came to reside in the Croatian lands, and a number of them also taking part in the defence of Croatian culture and language throughout the Croatian lands. After Ljudevit Gaj's retirement, he died peacefully in Zagreb in 1872 at the age of 62.
Details: www.mgz.hr
Dobrica Cosic - "Father of the Srb Nation" (His /their words, not mine)
All this chicanery reminds me of this Serbian biology textbook used in the 90's, which features Nicolas Cage in a scene from "Raising Arizona" on the front cover. Were the baby kidnapping characters in the film a good example for teaching the fundamentals of ejaculations and under arm or nook and cranny hygeine? Is the inclusion of Nicolas Cage on the cover implying that he is something, that in some fantasy novels is referred to as "a Serb"? Pfff, As if.
Why this fake version of Ljudevits Gaj's Latin script alphabet is promoted can probably be explained with another analogy. Sort of like the problem of fake Rolex's. As most of you already know, only an unacquainted and foolish person would believe that a Rolex made in stainless steel has a day and date feature on it. Stainless steel Rolex's that contain those features are fakes. Those are only made in 18 kt gold and platinum. Period. It's even stranger still when it's some Nixon watch salesperson who is trying to tell you that it's actually Nixon watches that invented the Rolex with the day/date feature.
Sometimes Serb vandals aren't happy even with the sight of Ljudevit Gaj statues: dalje.com
As for the above article/piece with the faked alphabets, at the end of the day, it really doesn't surprise me in the least. I've come across articles how children in Serb schools are actually being taught an alternate history where the wars of Serb aggression all throughout the former-Yugoslavia, including the shelling and mortaring of unarmed towns, cities, schools, homes, hospitals etc, were being taught as Serbia being attacked and Serbs defending themselves. So not surprising at all. I could go and delve even deeper into the wacky beliefs that this Vuk Karadzic and his lackeys had in those days and their political plans, and what and where were located his sources for his supposed Serbian language stories, and out of the blue presto-magiko Serb language, but I'll leave that for another time. (Again, not from Serbia) However if there is one sidenote lesson that can be learned from all this, and facts that can be verified, it is this.......
Children at Velika Mlaka school commemorating the life and times of Ljudevit Gaj.
A video of Osnova Škola. (Elementary Scool) "Ljudevit Gaj"students in the hometown of Ljudevit Gaj celebrating the schools 100th anniversary in a Ljudevit Gaj school cheer song.
1- Glagolitic script is the precursor and root of all National Cyrillic scripts in Europe. ipso facto. What does this mean? Not much really these days, it's just a fact. All cyrillic script of various countries are rooted in Glagolitic,which eventually brought about the first Cyrillic script even in Bulgarian cyrillic. (ipso facto) Even the Croatian Cyrillic script that was used sporadically for a time in the past. (This Croatian Cyrillic was eventually completely overtaken by Latin Script centuries ago, it was a Cyrillic script that was differentiated from Serbian cyrillic used at that time as well) Glagolitic is the script that Croatian was written in before the acceptance of Latin script in all Croatian spheres, and was in use in some instances (Mainly religious) right up to the 20th century. This again was used long before the introduction of any sort of Latin script being introduced to Serbian language and literary works. ipso facto. (More about Croatian early history and kings/rulers can be found HERE
2- Croatian alphabet uses digraphs (digrams)and diacritics, and even both simultaneously. The failed Vienna Literary Agreement of 1850 was not an officially organized or sanctioned meeting and no party was bound by any or all of the meetings proposals. It was and is just a buzz word used by some to give their proclamations more clout. Vuka Karadzic's reforms to the Serbian cyrillic script language was not accepted in Serbia until after his death, and even then not to the extent that he had wished. The reality is that the Croatian linguistic course did not divert from it's natural course, however, changes were eventually made to Serbian standard which were already present in Croatian. The rich Croatian literary history written in the Shtokavski dialect from Dubrovnik, from Croatia's coastal regions and from the northern Slavonia region ALREADY HAD Cakavian and Kajkavian dialect influences in it. Dating back to over 200 years from the times of the first Croatian dictionary and grammar. This is what made it the perfect choice, because it was completely based on Croatian territory and Croatian literary history. Ljudevit Gaj attended but refused to be a signatory of the proceedings. All attempts during Communist Yugoslavian rule also failed in it's attempt to FUSE the 2 languages into 1.(Inventing the term ``Croato-Serbian/Serbo-Croatian`` a communist era relic term, that would be similar to inventing 1 ``Czecho-Slovak`` language. This can extend to Russian-Ukrainian, Bulgarian-Macedonian. It`s far from that simple. ipso facto.
3- Because of temporary border shifts during the times of the Byzantine and Western Roman/Frankish empires, Croatians at different times were writing in Latin, Glagolitic and even CroatianCyrillic script. At times even simultaneously in different areas of Croatian lands. Having 3 scripts of a European language used in parallel, independently of each other, is still to this day considered a European phonomena! However Serbs have no history of writing in Latin script, especially in regards to historic monuments and inscriptions on historic buildings until especially Ljudevit Gaj came along. ipso facto.
4 - The legacy of Ljudevit Gaj lives on to this day as his Latin script devised alphabet system, and is not only the official national script and alphabet of Croatia, but also has been used by Serbs, Montenegrins, throughout Bosnia - Hercegovina, and in a slightly modified form, is the national alphabet and script of Slovenia. Gaj's Latin alphabet used for writing the Croatian language includes features similar to Czech, Slovak and Polish which differentiate it from Serb cyrillic script system. ipso facto.
5 - When Serbs decide to write Serbian in Latin script, (or just Romanized Serbian as Serbs like to call it, but it is actually the Croatian script)...it is more than just another script, they are actually writing according to a writing system that uses a system of orthographic rules that are contradictory to the ones put forward by Vuk Karadzic, yet at the same time can be correctly and without a doubt be called the Croatian alphabetical writing system. This is why articles espousing fakeness across the board like this are out there, they would love nothing better than to bump Ljudevit Gaj, the Croatian National Revival, Croatian literary/cultural history, even anything Non-Serb, completely right out of the picture altogether. ipso facto.
This inconvenient stumbling block for translating Serbian cyrillic into a Latinized variant reached even more ludicrous proportions during the final death knell years of Communist Yugoslavia and rise of Serbian nationalism. A Serbian by the name of Rajko Igic ludicrously tried to invent a new script, a new script he called the Slavica alphabet for a hybrid Croatian-Serb language that has never existed. What he wanted to slyly do was invent a new Latinized way of writing Serbian cyrillic, a new alphabet. BUT where every single one of the Croatian/Ljudevit Gaj's diacritics AND dipgraphs would be replaced...be replaced by Cyrillic letters! (Can the utter ludicrousness and reasoning behind this idea be any more plainer to see?) This way the 1 to 1 transliteration would be completed according to Vuk Karadzic's rules AND all of Ljudevit Gaj's work and previous Croatian literary works would have been thrown into the garbage. This idea was probably very well taken by Tito era Communist Greater YugoSerbia aparatchiks and maybe by people who like to play spin the bottle by themselves. but among Croatian linguists and historians about as popular as getting bit by a Tsetse fly. Some people just can't leave well enough alone I guess.
This recent example of subterfuge and blatant misrepresentation from a Serbian news site is really not surprising at all though, and is just one example from a long list of lies emanating from Serb portals these days. (I've come across some doozies, claims to Serbs being in the balkans before anybody and building Byzantine churches before there even was a Byzantine Empire, and a lot more) Even from those days in the 19th century, claiming territory belonging to other people/nations/states, from claiming literary works of Non-Serbs as being Serbian, from claiming people who are not Serbs as being part of some magikal mystical Serb race, a race that is so magical and mystical that they are not included in school cirriculum history or science books even. The "article" that was included with the above faked image of alphabets was can be proven to be made even just this way. Where are the various originals or other works related to this articles claims? Why haven't they been telling the world of this momentous "fact" for the last 150 years with these proofs? Proofs sent to scholarly institutions the world over, to major newspapers all over the world? Why would Vuk Karadzic or his camp use a contradictory orthography system to write Latin script from Vuk's cyrilic in the first place, a Latin script orthography system that includes Vuk's hated diacritics and especially digraphs, in the first place?..and then for years later be trying to change them back to Vuk Karadzic's Non-digraph/diacritic character system again? Why?...because the above faked alphabets image and the related news portal "article" is a bunch of B.S. Or as we say these days in the vernacular...just plain hogwash.
This inconvenient stumbling block for translating Serbian cyrillic into a Latinized variant reached even more ludicrous proportions during the final death knell years of Communist Yugoslavia and rise of Serbian nationalism. A Serbian by the name of Rajko Igic ludicrously tried to invent a new script, a new script he called the Slavica alphabet for a hybrid Croatian-Serb language that has never existed. What he wanted to slyly do was invent a new Latinized way of writing Serbian cyrillic, a new alphabet. BUT where every single one of the Croatian/Ljudevit Gaj's diacritics AND dipgraphs would be replaced...be replaced by Cyrillic letters! (Can the utter ludicrousness and reasoning behind this idea be any more plainer to see?) This way the 1 to 1 transliteration would be completed according to Vuk Karadzic's rules AND all of Ljudevit Gaj's work and previous Croatian literary works would have been thrown into the garbage. This idea was probably very well taken by Tito era Communist Greater YugoSerbia aparatchiks and maybe by people who like to play spin the bottle by themselves. but among Croatian linguists and historians about as popular as getting bit by a Tsetse fly. Some people just can't leave well enough alone I guess.
This recent example of subterfuge and blatant misrepresentation from a Serbian news site is really not surprising at all though, and is just one example from a long list of lies emanating from Serb portals these days. (I've come across some doozies, claims to Serbs being in the balkans before anybody and building Byzantine churches before there even was a Byzantine Empire, and a lot more) Even from those days in the 19th century, claiming territory belonging to other people/nations/states, from claiming literary works of Non-Serbs as being Serbian, from claiming people who are not Serbs as being part of some magikal mystical Serb race, a race that is so magical and mystical that they are not included in school cirriculum history or science books even. The "article" that was included with the above faked image of alphabets was can be proven to be made even just this way. Where are the various originals or other works related to this articles claims? Why haven't they been telling the world of this momentous "fact" for the last 150 years with these proofs? Proofs sent to scholarly institutions the world over, to major newspapers all over the world? Why would Vuk Karadzic or his camp use a contradictory orthography system to write Latin script from Vuk's cyrilic in the first place, a Latin script orthography system that includes Vuk's hated diacritics and especially digraphs, in the first place?..and then for years later be trying to change them back to Vuk Karadzic's Non-digraph/diacritic character system again? Why?...because the above faked alphabets image and the related news portal "article" is a bunch of B.S. Or as we say these days in the vernacular...just plain hogwash.
6- Another interesting sidenote. When the Jugo-Serb military backed Serbs paramilitaries and chetniks in Croatia started their cleansing campaigns and attacks in the border areas of Croatia in the 90's, one of the first things they did was tear down and replace not only Croatian government and cultural symbols, signs, plaques, statues, etc, while also deystroying all sorts of buildings, BUT also even including replacing the Croatian road signs. (Some of the roadsigns were even in Serbian cyrillic and Croatian Latin script) The road signs were then replaced with Serbian cyrillic script signs only. This is very strange however. Why the roadsigns to Serbian cyrillic only? Strange because....the Serb minority living in those areas of Croatia at the time didn't even use, read or understand cyrillic script. The majority of them only knew how to read according to the Croatian/Ljudevit Gaj's alphabet. So that's very strange indeed. Why all of a sudden abhor Latin script so, so much? This all encompassing post gives insight as to why this was done.
One of the most important Šulek's articles was Serbs and Croats (1856), published in the Neven magazine on more than 30 pages. That sober text, combining history, literature and philology, challenged the Greater Serbian positions and Vuk Karadzic who was attributing the entire Shtokavian literature to the Serbian linguistic corpus. "Those who want to deny the existence of a people should be well-armed with reasons based on the nature of things and evidence from credible historians. The coastal writers call their language Croatian, says Šulek, citing a dozen works mentioning the Croatian language in the title. On the other hand, there are no old books written in Glagolitic or Latin scripts where the writers call their language Serbian in fact, even the books written in Bosnian Cyrillic call their language Croatian or Slav. Croatian writers could not call their language Serbian because the Serbs used a mixture of Old Church Slavonic, Russian and Serbian during most of their history, while the Shtokavian dialect "flourished only with the Croats until recently". - Bogoslav Sulek
Comments even related to the conspiracy driven hot topics of "Was Ljudevit Gaj a reptilian shapeshifter? Was Ljudevit Gaj in cahoots with the "666 Euro-Beast Whore", Are Russians really from Planet Serbitron X-512?" "Are Serbs really just Triballi? Why on earth do some drunken Srb historians think Sclavenia (Which was just an ancient term used by the Byzantine empire in regards to ANY Slavic people they encountered in Europe. I looked into all of this and know what I'm talking about)....was only just Serbia, or Rascia, Servia or Triballia? or sometimes the Romanians and Bulgarians living in Servia? Whats up with the Serb pointy/horned toe opanci?" and "Why do so many Serb songs suck?", "Was Demikhov's dog really just in fact the result of Serbian veterinary-linguists and not some supposed, enigmatic, unproven made up Dr. Vladimir Demikov?" "What exactly on earth is a Serbian race anyway?".. are welcome.
*As an interesting sidenote, Dasha Zhukova, girlfriend of Roman Abramovich would be familiar with this kind of stuff. She graduated university with a degree in Slavic Studies and Literature. You learn something new everyday.
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Updated May 11, 2012.
Statue of Ljudevit Gaj currently located in downtown Zagreb.
All of the above facts, dates, people involved, faked alphabets, images and technical terms involving the hurly burly world of language orthography and related script sciences, as well as briefly touching upon Croatian language history, may seem like a lot of information to digest for the average person with absolutely no previous exerience in this field or is an orthography novice. (I'm not a university professor, but I know a fake, and faked things when I see them. Also, perhaps may miscronstrue some things written as uncalled for meanness. On the contrary, I've come across much more worse and nasty lies out there. This blog contains Croatianicity humour to retort back)
....That is why I've decided to add this entertaining addendum as a serious possibility. A hypothetical series of probabilities and surmising done in a thought provoking and eye opening way, that just may enlighten and give a clearer understanding of the facts presented to the reader regarding this post. Especially if the reader even is a true believer of reptilian shapeshifters, Bigfoot, that Elvis is still alive, Jackalopes, images of Jesus and Abraham Lincoln in potato chips, and maybe a fan of programmes such as X-Files, Star Trek, Buck Rogers, The Fly, Back to the Future, The DaVinci Code, Twighlight Zone and whole bunch of other similar films that you like to watch with a big bowl of buttery, crunchy popcorn under a comfy blanket on a Friday night in the dark living room.
The following is based upon a 1st person account interview with an anonymous person who had been a historian and lecturer at various European museums, universities and centers of study for European history and archeology, he eventually was employed at the Croatian National Archives in Zagreb, Croatia...
Related: arhinet.arhiv.hr
biblionet.arhiv.hr
www.arhiv.hr
www.mhas-split.hr
www.kultura.hr
www.unizg.hr
"These things are strictly confidential, and I will only tell you once. Some of these facts are commonly known in our community, but some things even I was not supposed to be privy to or ever hear about. Many people had risked their lives to uncover the information that we all now know. Consider yourself privileged and a very lucky individual, as I am...."......Anonymous - University of Zagreb, 2004
biblionet.arhiv.hr
www.arhiv.hr
www.mhas-split.hr
www.kultura.hr
www.unizg.hr
"These things are strictly confidential, and I will only tell you once. Some of these facts are commonly known in our community, but some things even I was not supposed to be privy to or ever hear about. Many people had risked their lives to uncover the information that we all now know. Consider yourself privileged and a very lucky individual, as I am...."......Anonymous - University of Zagreb, 2004
....."It had been hypothesized that Ljudevit Gaj was not actually a reptilian shapeshifter at all, over the decades, there have been astonishing discoveries, and most recently from publishing house archives, old bookstore back rooms as well as from the dark, danky cellars and tunnelways found deep below the streets of Zagreb, amazing manuscripts and symbols that point to something almost beyond belief.? Not only there however, but also in Prague, Paris, in dripping and dark catacombs underneath the busy streets of Rome, within the walls of Dubrovnik, in recently excavated areas in and around Knin Fortress, within the earthen hills of Tomislavgrad and other places as well, pointing to something new. Something astounding and so spellbounding, that some scholars have disengaged from studying further on this topic for fear their hearts would explode, or their minds go insane. It seems likely and probable now, based on the abundant evidence presented by world renown and respected archeologists, scientists, historians and philologists over the years, that on the day of April 13th 1834, Ljudevit Gaj did indeed start work on another project of equal importance to his standardizing work on the Croatian alphabet, script and language, which is on top of being a bulwark for Croatian language, history and culture.
.....It was a rainy, gusty evening on that day of April 13th in the year 1834. It was at approximately 9:52 pm that Ljudevit during an eerie moment of lucidity like he had never experienced before, started work on his long dreamed of 'teleporting time machine'. A vision that had been keeping him up at night ever since he was a child. Waking him up in the middle of night, red faced and gasping for breathe, throbbing hot temples and sweat on his brow, always so sure that the dream was real. Eventually, a few years later, his dream and visions of being able to teleport himself to the past, as well as to the future, and then back again, had become a reality afterall. He did not dare try his new invention yet, but he knew that it would work. Like a rush of adrenalin traveling from the bottom of his feet, leading to his head, he knew it would work. He had kept his invention tucked away in his shed, covered with canvas tarps and straw, nestled in between the wine barrels, blocks of different cheeses and extra carriage wheels. There it was kept safe from the elements, from the burning sun, from the frigid cold and from prying eyes, certain prying eyes that were phosphorous with malevolence and jealousy, (Eyes like that had a name in the olden days)... until the day may possibly arrive when he would be in need of it and should have to use it..........
That day did indeed arrive. It arrived like a bad case of fever, a fever and cramps and a dizziness that had travelled all the way from his stomach, then leading up to his chest. Travelling like a slow polluted worm until it eventually reached his head and mind, then whispered in his ear that now was the time. It was some time years later, in April of 1850 that he uncovered his time machine, unlocked it and brushed away the years of dust and loose pieces of straw. It looked shiny and sparkling in the sunlight sneaking in through the cracks of the shed, just like it did the day he locked it away. It was the following day that he steppped inside his 'time machine' for the very first time, with sweating brow and heavy heart hoping that it would not be his last as well. He was following a will that was not his own, yet at the same time was very much so. Ljudevit filled his lungs one last time from his pipe before casting it aside, took one last sip of his cherished homemade wine and placed the empty glass on a nearby wooden crate. He stepped inside and closed the door behind him. (Some ravens that were helping themselves to some morsels of corn that was spilled by the front doors quickly darted away when that metallic sound echoed through the valley, some children playing by the well looked up and watched them fly up to the nearby tall trees, and then rest there watching all of them from above)
He sighed a deep sigh as the echo was still emanating throughout the shed, he hoped for the best and proceeded to navigate the controls. "There was no turning back now" he thought, .."They were coming, it won't be long now, those Medusa-like tentacled horrors, and those approaching rumblings of future flocks and fiends that only he and the select few could sense through the earth, like an oncoming cankerous storm of hooves, blasphemies and unspeakable strangeness, bubbling from the bowels of the earth as from some ancient flotsam and jetsam filled bubbling caldron. (And those horrendous looking specimens of footwear, from whence those ghastly monstrosities, that has perplexed him for ages?) Ljudevit was ready now, (The horrors were worse than he could have imagined), there was still time to stop the monstrosity that was approaching from far off in the distance, his 'time machine' was completed and at the ready now, ready because now "they" indeed will be coming"..............
He sighed a deep sigh as the echo was still emanating throughout the shed, he hoped for the best and proceeded to navigate the controls. "There was no turning back now" he thought, .."They were coming, it won't be long now, those Medusa-like tentacled horrors, and those approaching rumblings of future flocks and fiends that only he and the select few could sense through the earth, like an oncoming cankerous storm of hooves, blasphemies and unspeakable strangeness, bubbling from the bowels of the earth as from some ancient flotsam and jetsam filled bubbling caldron. (And those horrendous looking specimens of footwear, from whence those ghastly monstrosities, that has perplexed him for ages?) Ljudevit was ready now, (The horrors were worse than he could have imagined), there was still time to stop the monstrosity that was approaching from far off in the distance, his 'time machine' was completed and at the ready now, ready because now "they" indeed will be coming"..............
(........At this point the manuscripts that were discovered and found in various parts of Zagreb and other places are tattered, worn with age and are unreadable, smudged in places and corners missing from pages, leaving a void of time and space before being able to continue with this amazing epic of history known only to those who know, and the elect chosen few. The accounts of where exactly and what precise time into the future Ljudevit had traveled, still remains a mystery for the most part. All that can be verified based on carbon dated manuscripts, DNA samples (Rumors also of being included in a group photograph taken in Paris, which is kept in secret state archives of some Baltic country) and eye witness accounts, is that it is known beyond the shadow of a doubt that Ljudevit Gaj did indeed travel in his time machine to the year 1893, and was for a span of 2 days spotted walking on the streets and at various locations, but not only Zagreb..No....but also on the streets of Prague, Split, London, Rome, Vienna and a town in Vojvodina as well. (The 1 photo of him which was miraculously discovered in a local photographers archives in 1981, is of him during his few spent hours in London, the photo was miraculously found because of his later mentioning to some of his inner circle about the carriage accident he had witnessed, (A chambermaid had overheard this while washing the linen and performing other chores at the mansion) Dressed for the most part in his usual clothing and holding his trusty sabre at his hip at all times.(Except for the span of only a few hours during his time spent in London, he was getting strange looks from the vegetable stall workers, and chimney sweeps it seems) He was usually spotted in the company of people, with unknown individuals, but strangely also, every sighting included him being in the company of the same always accurately described, strange hypnotic-eyed woman. (There are less substantiated accounts of him being seen the day previous in Moscow and Paris as well, even in both cities on the same day and at precisely the same time of day, which has perturbed many in the field of quantum physics, worm holes, time travel and the time travel investigators)
......He was always seen clutching a leather embroidered case, with checked patterns and stars and some kind of strange looking horned animals, and other designs on it. There were various printed papers and manuscripts inside. He was seen holding onto the case as if inside was a pandora waiting to be let loose upon the world, releasing some sort of cancerous winged worm to torment mens and womens lives for eternity. But it wasn't that at all, rather something enigmatic and so spellbounding that the same care and attention in protecting the case was needed. In it was a Medusa-esque secret and danger, but a danger only for "them". Eye witnesses have verified that he was seen conversing with strange men and women, seen speaking with these unknown darkly dressed individuals underneath street gas lamps in the dead of night in the aforementioned locations, speaking with embassy people and attractive long haired ladies, speaking on the dark cobbled back roads and by the gates of various estates and manors dotted through the more sophisticated parts of town. The best eye witness accounts of him were given by a troika of girl waitresses who were working at the U_Fleku Pub that one rainy night. The girls stated that without a doubt it was him they saw drinking beer and laughing that night, laughing with those strange, mysterious people, (and that long locked woman again, the one with the translucent eyes. She strictly remembered that woman's eyes and never forgot their translucency)...as if not having a worry in the world. One of the girls, (her name was Magda, a recent arrival to Prague from Jastrzębie-Zdrój in Poland in search of work in the many officer and soldier filled pubs) ..a tall lanky girl, with brown curly hair, and an attractive bossom,, stated to the investigators that she strictly remembers the words Ljudevit said to her when she brought his drinks to the table. "Hej Girl, did you know that this glass of beer is really 2 glasses of beer?" he lightheartedly said, before passing her the coins, telling her to keep the change, and continuing to converse with his enigmatic looking and mysterious mannered table guests. All of them sitting at the back by the tall dark wood paneled walls, and writing things on pieces of paper, carefully writing and whispering, agreeing and laughing, clinking large glasses of beer all through the night, making toasts until the early hours of the morning)
.....The manuscript deteriorates exceedingly again at this point. All that can be verified from this point of time, based on the manuscripts and personal accounts, is that approximately 9 months before his death in Zagreb, in April of 1872, Ljudevit did give this case full of manuscripts, which also included an 8" x 10" lithograph of the sketched and painted likeness of himself clutching his favorite sabre, along with a certain future calender date written on the back of the lithograph, to some members of his inner circle for permanent safekeeping. In the case was also included some written instructions, some other sketches, and some lyrics to some sort of song or poem. It wasn't accurately determined which.
These members of his inner circle were sworn to abide by the instructions that he had given them, to abide by them or terrible things may happen, things which will make their children's children, and their children after them, wish that they had never been born. He and his inner circle conversed that warm summer night in 1871, just like that chilly day in April of 1850, after his arriving back from his first and only time machine travel adventure, listening carefully to what he was telling them. For many hours they listened. He told fantastic things and they listened to every word...and then everything was put back into the case and locked, then locked again and placed in a safe location in the back of the dark cold cellar of the mansion. (It had been rumored that it was hidden within a wall, at the back of the cellar, and then bricks put back in place with mortar over the hole just to make sure.) Ljudevit's cherished sabre was also handed over to be put in a safe place. Ljudevit told them in 1850 that he would give the case back to them again, at a future allotted time and date, and he did as he promised on that rainy day in 1871. He told them that he had also written another future date on the back of the lithograph containing his sketched and painted likeness........
....That case full of the manuscripts, along with the lithograph of Ljudevit clutching his trusty sabre at his hip and his handwriting on the back, and also the other written material, was eventually opened again. They were opened on that specific date that Ljudevit had written on the back of the lithograph himself, the date Ljudevit told them to open it on, way back in 1871. His inner circle had sworn not to open the case until that date arrived. And that day has finally arrived today, it arrived not with hesitation or with an ominous foreboding, but with an anticipation and lucid clarity that reminded them of the time when they were all children, when they could here the chocolatier and his wife coming into town in his carriage and loud breathing horses, with his attractively decorated and ribbon-tied wares, bells ringing and his wife always singing, and then they would all run home as fast as they could, to beg for extra coins or pull on mothers apron.... ......
....The case was opened on the evening of December 31st, 1899, at exactly midnight, just as they had all agreed to do all those years before in 1871. His inner circle had accomplished the task that Ljudevit had given them way back then. They accomplished Ljudevits exact instructions that they all swore to many years before, not a one of them had broken the pledge and the duty that they were told to do. They followed exactly even though they didn't understand why he wanted them to do so. It is not known if Ljudevit Gaj's inner circle was told about the time machine, or whether they knew where and how far into the future he had travelled to. It is not even certainly known now, beyond the shadow of a doubt, whether anybody knows where the time machine is today, if it indeed does still exist. Some say that it is lost..lost forever. Some say that it was melted down and included in the cast for some statue somewhere. Some reports state that it was taken to St. Petersburg and is currently stored away with items that belonged to Peter the Great, which he brought back with him from his western travels. There are even some theories and rumours about it being buried in a deep cave, a cave that almost nobody knows about, in the north slope of Medvednica mountain which is just outside of Zagreb. There it is supposedly protected and safe and ready to be used again should the need arise. (Some say that it was indeed used again, that it was brought out by the people who knew, used for the span of 3 days in the 90's, and then quickly hidden away again under lock and key.........)
....All that is known for sure however, is that on that snowy night of Dec 31st 1899, a few members of his inner circle did open the case as they promised to. They opened it by the light of the fireplace, after they had all put their glasses of beer and wine and heart warming cognac down on the table. After the leader of the group had opened it, they all looked inside, peering over one anothers shoulder, trying to see what was inside. No rushing phantasm or horrid stench of carcasses came spewing out when it was unlocked and opened. No cacophony of screeching and putrid smelling wailing owls or bats in a misty green fog, to attack them and make all kinds of Hellish awful noises, No, not any of those things. When the leader of the group took his hand and placed it inside the case, his mouth dropped instantly. The only things he could see in the decorated case was the lithographed image of Ljudevit.... but stranger still, a small lock of some woman's shoulder length hair, which was tied tightly with a long white string,..and a shiny reddish and green apple. And only these 3 things alone.
The case had been locked all those years and then locked again in the deep cellar of the mansion all this time, but all the manuscripts and other written notes were gone. Vanished! The leader of the group was speechless, confused, dumbfounded, shocked. The apple was unrotten, looking as fresh as though it had been picked just that afternoon from a nearby tree, to be used in a pastry or some fine tasting jam...."But it's winter now" thought the old man, "Where on earth could this apple have come from?...What is going on? Who put this apple in here?". The leader looked around the room, glancing at all the men's faces, then looked back at the case..."Who's hair is this?!, How did it get in here?!..What is going on?!"...The leader of the group was on the verge of fainting, his face was tingling, he could hear a buzzing echoing in his ears, but he stood strong, he had to. He left the apple and locket of hair alone in the case, then took the lithograph and brought it closer to the candlelight, so that the others may see also.
It was that same image of Ljudevit all right, the same colorful lithograph he had written todays date on the back of. and then placed into the decorated case himself back in 1871. The lithograph of himself with his sabre that he showed them in 1850. There he was, holding his cherished sabre, (He really liked that sword, he said it always felt right hanging there by his side, the leader of the group recalled).....and there was Ljudevits smile, that old familar half hidden smile. Smiling like he had a secret to tell, a secret for the future that was so good that he was barely able to contain himself, yet a smile that was not to be fooled with. (People heard the stories, he could hold a sword as well as a pen) But upon closer examination of the back of the lithograph, the date of "December 31st, 1899" was not there any longer. It was gone, vanished. He strictly remembered watching him write the date with his own eyes back then, before he placed it in the case. (He even dipped his pen twice in the ink, he recalled, to make sure that it held enough, he always did that) Now there was no trace of any kind of ink at all. The old mans heart was starting to skip beats and his toes felt like they were covered with ants. "Where did it go? Huh? What?...What is happening?" He thought. In it's place instead there was now some other words in Ljudevit's handwriting. (It surely was Ljudevit's handwriting, he remembered the way he wrote, even the way he used to hold the pen, and curse when he ran out of ink or paper, ...When did he write it??) .....his handwriting made a written sentence that was not there when the case was locked and hidden away so long ago.....
The leader of the group put on his spectacles, brought the written words closer to his eyes and the light of the candle, then read the words that were in Ljudevits handwriting. After a moment turned his head and looked away. He looked out of the window, into the blackness of the night and just stared, a blank look across his face. (He could hear the sound of ravens cawing out somewhere in the vast dark beyond.. "How odd and strange that I should hear them now" He thought) The others in the room yelled out after a minute, a minute so quiet yet full of electricity that if Ljudevit himself had knocked on the door, they wouldn't have heard or cared. "What is it? What does it say?!" one of the group asked. The leader of the group just kept staring out of the window, remembering what Ljudevit had told him all those years ago...remembering it like it was just yestereday....remembering now why they did what they did, remembering Ljudevits grin and earnestness, remembering Ljudevit holding his sabre and mentioning "her" and mumbling some things back then about Prague, about some people in a pub, some machine of his, (Machine? what machine? They were all drinking a lot at the party back then in the 50's's, it was Jelena's birthday afterall, and each of them was slurring a little here and there. The cognac and beer was going down just too smoothly and easily that autumn)....about the people he met and talked to, about that lady, about her eyes, something about the womans eyes, about Moscow, and then again, while firmly holding onto his sabre in that familiar pose of his, mumbling again and again about his machine and Prague, about that strangely familiar looking woman with the lovely hair and those magical eyes, and those other people he met in Prague, again and again......
"What is it man!!??...You've become as white as a ghost!! What is written??!! "Tell us what it says!?? ..We must know!!!..shouted a few of the other members from the back of the room....The leader of the group, still staring at the snow coming down outside, and seeing the wind and cold start to attack and frost up the glass in the window, he could hear the people laughing and toasting and celebrating from the large room down the hall of the manor (It was midnight now, time was flying, it was a new century now afterall, a brand new century, time for new ideas, new ideals, new horizons, horizons that recall past horizons)... he then dropped the lithograph from his hands, and suddenly recalled again. He recalled that night in 1871, the night Ljudevit gave them the case for the 2nd time, and told them what would happen in the future. What the ramshackle strange footed hordes from the east would try to do in later years. Back then Ljudevit uncannily foretold them that "they" would come, looking for things that "they" can call their own, and theirs alone. Tentacles drawn and searching for more hosts, to bleed dry and then toss away. He told them to be prepared, to not give in and believe their promises, insolent stories, brackish prophecies and twisted oddity inspired customs, (which were in reality nothing but a foreign painted collection of bric a brac visions on a shelf, mixed among other trinkets of deciet).. but also most importantly what his inner circle were to do in return. The old man ( He'd been leader of the inner circle for over 50 years, his fingers all of a sudden felt very old) .. suddenly he looked back at the fireplace, then remembered. It all came back to him now.."Of course!" he thought..."That's it! of course!". In a flash of light it all came back to him.
He glanced at the string tied lock of hair and the lovely looking apple that was still in the case, the apple still as shiny and perfect looking as it was a few moments ago, and then looked outside of the window again, and he whispered the words. The words which had been caught in his throat for minutes now, as if stuck or being unwilling to be spoken, or as if he wasn't worthy to speak them, or frightened what may happen to the others in the room once they were spoken,..(Were they all losing their minds?) .but the words were now free to be set free...at this precise moment....at this time......because now was the time.
..."It...says.....It....it....says....."Jedan narod treba samo jedan jezik i jedan rukopis, daj njima samo jedno slovo, i samo jedan put....L.G. - Listopad 1893 " (One people needs only one language and one script, give them only one letter, and only the one time...L.G. - October 1893.) The room full of the members of the inner circle immediately became silent, and the wind was very, very strong and bone numbingly cold outside, the hardened snowflakes making tapping noises on the window as if wanting to come into the warmth of the room, and the sound of the wind making the sounds that winds usually do, but they were all still and silent. The wine, beer and champagne flowed freely that very early morning, ushering in the new century and a new day. (there was much joy and laughing, stories were told, congratulations given, many toasts were made, and bottle after bottle was uncorked well into the morning).... it flowed like it had never flown before, and tasted unusually fine, finer than ever before as well.
Postscript. - September 17th, 2008. The lock of hair and apple that were found in the case that night of 1899, were given to a particular group of connected men and women who were familiar with these things. It has been rumored that the lock of hair is under the care and protection of individuals associated with the Brethren of the Croatian Dragon. The apple was, according to the best knowledge of our anonymous source, eventually relocated along with many other manuscripts and mysterious objects, to important individuals who reside within the walled city of Dubrovnik, and secret locations among the Molise countryside. Clues left by some of the manuscripts have led archeologists to the Polish-Ukranian border area, where currently teams are working to find other astounding things based on deciphered clues. Some individuals who are known through certain circles to the anonymous source of this epic account, have assured him that they have been in contact for some years with Croat-Krashovani spokespeople in Transylvania, near Severin County, Romania. Investigators are perplexed by the genuine carbon dated signatures on one of the manuscripts, containing penmanship from the famed Pyotr Alexeyevich Romanov and a slightly newer signature from Benjamin Franklin. (The complete details of the manuscript have never been disclosed however, save to a few unspecified individuals in the vocation of time travel mysteries) They have been rumored to be safely stored away, along with Croatian Royal documents written in Glagolitic script, which were delivered by a famous Frankish envoy from the vicinity of Lombardy, via the island of Lastovo in the year 783..........
A reproduction of the photo of Ljudevit Gaj (below arrow) that was taken in London in 1893. Discovered by a team of "unexplained phenomena and worm hole time travel" investigators in 1976, the photograph is guarded and in safe keeping by specialists of this scientific field. Nobody, save for highly trained specialists working for various world bodies have access to the photograph. The only thing known for certain is that for 6 months of the year it is in possession by scientists and investigative specialists working at times for The Louvre in Paris, The Nationalmuseet in Copenhagen, The Vatican Archive Museum and the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg. (Special thanks to Prof. Svetlana Petrovna from the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg for kind permission to reproduce the photograph)
.....The manuscript deteriorates exceedingly again at this point. All that can be verified from this point of time, based on the manuscripts and personal accounts, is that approximately 9 months before his death in Zagreb, in April of 1872, Ljudevit did give this case full of manuscripts, which also included an 8" x 10" lithograph of the sketched and painted likeness of himself clutching his favorite sabre, along with a certain future calender date written on the back of the lithograph, to some members of his inner circle for permanent safekeeping. In the case was also included some written instructions, some other sketches, and some lyrics to some sort of song or poem. It wasn't accurately determined which.
These members of his inner circle were sworn to abide by the instructions that he had given them, to abide by them or terrible things may happen, things which will make their children's children, and their children after them, wish that they had never been born. He and his inner circle conversed that warm summer night in 1871, just like that chilly day in April of 1850, after his arriving back from his first and only time machine travel adventure, listening carefully to what he was telling them. For many hours they listened. He told fantastic things and they listened to every word...and then everything was put back into the case and locked, then locked again and placed in a safe location in the back of the dark cold cellar of the mansion. (It had been rumored that it was hidden within a wall, at the back of the cellar, and then bricks put back in place with mortar over the hole just to make sure.) Ljudevit's cherished sabre was also handed over to be put in a safe place. Ljudevit told them in 1850 that he would give the case back to them again, at a future allotted time and date, and he did as he promised on that rainy day in 1871. He told them that he had also written another future date on the back of the lithograph containing his sketched and painted likeness........
....That case full of the manuscripts, along with the lithograph of Ljudevit clutching his trusty sabre at his hip and his handwriting on the back, and also the other written material, was eventually opened again. They were opened on that specific date that Ljudevit had written on the back of the lithograph himself, the date Ljudevit told them to open it on, way back in 1871. His inner circle had sworn not to open the case until that date arrived. And that day has finally arrived today, it arrived not with hesitation or with an ominous foreboding, but with an anticipation and lucid clarity that reminded them of the time when they were all children, when they could here the chocolatier and his wife coming into town in his carriage and loud breathing horses, with his attractively decorated and ribbon-tied wares, bells ringing and his wife always singing, and then they would all run home as fast as they could, to beg for extra coins or pull on mothers apron.... ......
....The case was opened on the evening of December 31st, 1899, at exactly midnight, just as they had all agreed to do all those years before in 1871. His inner circle had accomplished the task that Ljudevit had given them way back then. They accomplished Ljudevits exact instructions that they all swore to many years before, not a one of them had broken the pledge and the duty that they were told to do. They followed exactly even though they didn't understand why he wanted them to do so. It is not known if Ljudevit Gaj's inner circle was told about the time machine, or whether they knew where and how far into the future he had travelled to. It is not even certainly known now, beyond the shadow of a doubt, whether anybody knows where the time machine is today, if it indeed does still exist. Some say that it is lost..lost forever. Some say that it was melted down and included in the cast for some statue somewhere. Some reports state that it was taken to St. Petersburg and is currently stored away with items that belonged to Peter the Great, which he brought back with him from his western travels. There are even some theories and rumours about it being buried in a deep cave, a cave that almost nobody knows about, in the north slope of Medvednica mountain which is just outside of Zagreb. There it is supposedly protected and safe and ready to be used again should the need arise. (Some say that it was indeed used again, that it was brought out by the people who knew, used for the span of 3 days in the 90's, and then quickly hidden away again under lock and key.........)
....All that is known for sure however, is that on that snowy night of Dec 31st 1899, a few members of his inner circle did open the case as they promised to. They opened it by the light of the fireplace, after they had all put their glasses of beer and wine and heart warming cognac down on the table. After the leader of the group had opened it, they all looked inside, peering over one anothers shoulder, trying to see what was inside. No rushing phantasm or horrid stench of carcasses came spewing out when it was unlocked and opened. No cacophony of screeching and putrid smelling wailing owls or bats in a misty green fog, to attack them and make all kinds of Hellish awful noises, No, not any of those things. When the leader of the group took his hand and placed it inside the case, his mouth dropped instantly. The only things he could see in the decorated case was the lithographed image of Ljudevit.... but stranger still, a small lock of some woman's shoulder length hair, which was tied tightly with a long white string,..and a shiny reddish and green apple. And only these 3 things alone.
The case had been locked all those years and then locked again in the deep cellar of the mansion all this time, but all the manuscripts and other written notes were gone. Vanished! The leader of the group was speechless, confused, dumbfounded, shocked. The apple was unrotten, looking as fresh as though it had been picked just that afternoon from a nearby tree, to be used in a pastry or some fine tasting jam...."But it's winter now" thought the old man, "Where on earth could this apple have come from?...What is going on? Who put this apple in here?". The leader looked around the room, glancing at all the men's faces, then looked back at the case..."Who's hair is this?!, How did it get in here?!..What is going on?!"...The leader of the group was on the verge of fainting, his face was tingling, he could hear a buzzing echoing in his ears, but he stood strong, he had to. He left the apple and locket of hair alone in the case, then took the lithograph and brought it closer to the candlelight, so that the others may see also.
It was that same image of Ljudevit all right, the same colorful lithograph he had written todays date on the back of. and then placed into the decorated case himself back in 1871. The lithograph of himself with his sabre that he showed them in 1850. There he was, holding his cherished sabre, (He really liked that sword, he said it always felt right hanging there by his side, the leader of the group recalled).....and there was Ljudevits smile, that old familar half hidden smile. Smiling like he had a secret to tell, a secret for the future that was so good that he was barely able to contain himself, yet a smile that was not to be fooled with. (People heard the stories, he could hold a sword as well as a pen) But upon closer examination of the back of the lithograph, the date of "December 31st, 1899" was not there any longer. It was gone, vanished. He strictly remembered watching him write the date with his own eyes back then, before he placed it in the case. (He even dipped his pen twice in the ink, he recalled, to make sure that it held enough, he always did that) Now there was no trace of any kind of ink at all. The old mans heart was starting to skip beats and his toes felt like they were covered with ants. "Where did it go? Huh? What?...What is happening?" He thought. In it's place instead there was now some other words in Ljudevit's handwriting. (It surely was Ljudevit's handwriting, he remembered the way he wrote, even the way he used to hold the pen, and curse when he ran out of ink or paper, ...When did he write it??) .....his handwriting made a written sentence that was not there when the case was locked and hidden away so long ago.....
The leader of the group put on his spectacles, brought the written words closer to his eyes and the light of the candle, then read the words that were in Ljudevits handwriting. After a moment turned his head and looked away. He looked out of the window, into the blackness of the night and just stared, a blank look across his face. (He could hear the sound of ravens cawing out somewhere in the vast dark beyond.. "How odd and strange that I should hear them now" He thought) The others in the room yelled out after a minute, a minute so quiet yet full of electricity that if Ljudevit himself had knocked on the door, they wouldn't have heard or cared. "What is it? What does it say?!" one of the group asked. The leader of the group just kept staring out of the window, remembering what Ljudevit had told him all those years ago...remembering it like it was just yestereday....remembering now why they did what they did, remembering Ljudevits grin and earnestness, remembering Ljudevit holding his sabre and mentioning "her" and mumbling some things back then about Prague, about some people in a pub, some machine of his, (Machine? what machine? They were all drinking a lot at the party back then in the 50's's, it was Jelena's birthday afterall, and each of them was slurring a little here and there. The cognac and beer was going down just too smoothly and easily that autumn)....about the people he met and talked to, about that lady, about her eyes, something about the womans eyes, about Moscow, and then again, while firmly holding onto his sabre in that familiar pose of his, mumbling again and again about his machine and Prague, about that strangely familiar looking woman with the lovely hair and those magical eyes, and those other people he met in Prague, again and again......
"What is it man!!??...You've become as white as a ghost!! What is written??!! "Tell us what it says!?? ..We must know!!!..shouted a few of the other members from the back of the room....The leader of the group, still staring at the snow coming down outside, and seeing the wind and cold start to attack and frost up the glass in the window, he could hear the people laughing and toasting and celebrating from the large room down the hall of the manor (It was midnight now, time was flying, it was a new century now afterall, a brand new century, time for new ideas, new ideals, new horizons, horizons that recall past horizons)... he then dropped the lithograph from his hands, and suddenly recalled again. He recalled that night in 1871, the night Ljudevit gave them the case for the 2nd time, and told them what would happen in the future. What the ramshackle strange footed hordes from the east would try to do in later years. Back then Ljudevit uncannily foretold them that "they" would come, looking for things that "they" can call their own, and theirs alone. Tentacles drawn and searching for more hosts, to bleed dry and then toss away. He told them to be prepared, to not give in and believe their promises, insolent stories, brackish prophecies and twisted oddity inspired customs, (which were in reality nothing but a foreign painted collection of bric a brac visions on a shelf, mixed among other trinkets of deciet).. but also most importantly what his inner circle were to do in return. The old man ( He'd been leader of the inner circle for over 50 years, his fingers all of a sudden felt very old) .. suddenly he looked back at the fireplace, then remembered. It all came back to him now.."Of course!" he thought..."That's it! of course!". In a flash of light it all came back to him.
He glanced at the string tied lock of hair and the lovely looking apple that was still in the case, the apple still as shiny and perfect looking as it was a few moments ago, and then looked outside of the window again, and he whispered the words. The words which had been caught in his throat for minutes now, as if stuck or being unwilling to be spoken, or as if he wasn't worthy to speak them, or frightened what may happen to the others in the room once they were spoken,..(Were they all losing their minds?) .but the words were now free to be set free...at this precise moment....at this time......because now was the time.
..."It...says.....It....it....says....."Jedan narod treba samo jedan jezik i jedan rukopis, daj njima samo jedno slovo, i samo jedan put....L.G. - Listopad 1893 " (One people needs only one language and one script, give them only one letter, and only the one time...L.G. - October 1893.) The room full of the members of the inner circle immediately became silent, and the wind was very, very strong and bone numbingly cold outside, the hardened snowflakes making tapping noises on the window as if wanting to come into the warmth of the room, and the sound of the wind making the sounds that winds usually do, but they were all still and silent. The wine, beer and champagne flowed freely that very early morning, ushering in the new century and a new day. (there was much joy and laughing, stories were told, congratulations given, many toasts were made, and bottle after bottle was uncorked well into the morning).... it flowed like it had never flown before, and tasted unusually fine, finer than ever before as well.
Postscript. - September 17th, 2008. The lock of hair and apple that were found in the case that night of 1899, were given to a particular group of connected men and women who were familiar with these things. It has been rumored that the lock of hair is under the care and protection of individuals associated with the Brethren of the Croatian Dragon. The apple was, according to the best knowledge of our anonymous source, eventually relocated along with many other manuscripts and mysterious objects, to important individuals who reside within the walled city of Dubrovnik, and secret locations among the Molise countryside. Clues left by some of the manuscripts have led archeologists to the Polish-Ukranian border area, where currently teams are working to find other astounding things based on deciphered clues. Some individuals who are known through certain circles to the anonymous source of this epic account, have assured him that they have been in contact for some years with Croat-Krashovani spokespeople in Transylvania, near Severin County, Romania. Investigators are perplexed by the genuine carbon dated signatures on one of the manuscripts, containing penmanship from the famed Pyotr Alexeyevich Romanov and a slightly newer signature from Benjamin Franklin. (The complete details of the manuscript have never been disclosed however, save to a few unspecified individuals in the vocation of time travel mysteries) They have been rumored to be safely stored away, along with Croatian Royal documents written in Glagolitic script, which were delivered by a famous Frankish envoy from the vicinity of Lombardy, via the island of Lastovo in the year 783..........
