Retro-Digitization of Croatian Pre-Standard Grammars

Abstract

In this article, we will present the rich linguistic heritage of the Croatian language and our attempts to ensure its preservation and presentation to the general public by means of the "Retro-digitization and Interpretation of Croatian Grammar Books before Illyrism ‒ RETROGRAM" project. There is a long tradition of grammatical description in the history of the Croatian language. The first grammar book of the Croatian language was written at the beginning of the 17th century and the first grammar book written in Croatian was compiled in the middle of the 17th century. In later years, when literary and linguistic activity were transferred from the Dalmatian area to the northern and eastern part of Croatia, the Latin model for the description of the Croatian language was still present, even though German was also used. There were a large number of grammars written up to the second half of the 19th century, which are considered pre-standard Croatian grammars. They are the subject of research within the project "Pre-standard Croatian Grammars" at the Institute of Croatian Language and Linguistics. This research proposal "Retro-digitization and Interpretation of Croatian Grammar Books before Illyrism" aims to create a model for the retro-digitization of the chosen eight Pre-standard Croatian Grammars (written from the 17th until the 19th century). The retro-digitization of Croatian grammar books implies the transfer of printed media to computer-readable and searchable text. It also includes a multilevel mark-up of transcribed or translated grammar text. The next step of the project is the creation of a Web Portal of Pre-standard Croatian Grammars, on which both the facsimiles and the digitized text of the grammars will be presented. Our aim is to present to the wider and international public the attainments of the Croatian language and linguistics as an important part of Croatian culture in general. Keywords: pre-standard Croatian grammars, history of the Croatian language, retro-digitization, Extensible mark-up language, Text encoding initiative, web portal of pre-standard Croatian grammars