Secretary: Ranko Matasović, F.C.A.
Deputy secretary: Milan Mihaljević, F.C.A.
Trg Nikole Šubića Zrinskog 11, 10000 Zagreb
Phone: +385 01 4895 170
Central: +385 01 4895 111
E-mail: kim@hazu.hr
The philological sciences have been a concern of the Academy since its very beginning. One of the Academy’s original aims was to “care for the study of language and literature”. The department has constantly based its work on this fundamental duty. With this aim in mind, one of the most comprehensive works in these parts was compiled and published: Rječnik hrvatskoga ili srpskoga jezika (Dictionary of the Croatian or Serbian Language, 97 volumes). Two large Supplement Volumes to the Dictionary, as well as Rječnik hrvatskoga kajkavskoga književnog jezika (Dictionary of the Croatian Kajkavian Literary Language, of which seven volumes have been published to date), are currently being compiled and published. Special dictionaries of the Kajkavian and Čakavian dialects are also being compiled, and Benešić’s Rječnik hrvatskoga jezika (Dictionary of the Croatian Language) is being prepared for publication. From the start, the Academy has encouraged the study of Croatian texts written in the Glagolitic script, which represent a fundamental component of Croatian writing, literature, and culture.
The department has joined several national and international projects on linguistic geography (linguistic/dialectological atlases) and extensive work is being done on the dialectological and onomastic problems of the Croatian language. The department has been permanently concerned with general Slavic theoretical and practical linguistic problems, including Croatian Latinism, Balkan and classical philology, the history of literature, and increasingly, Oriental studies. A number of relevant periodicals are published by the department: Filologija (Philology), Hrvatski dijalektološki zbornik (Croatian Dialectological Themes), Folia Onomastica Croatica, Građa za povijest književnosti hrvatske (Documents for the History of the Croatian Literature), Stari pisci hrvatski (Early Croatian Writers), Rad (Monographs), and others.
The Linguistic Research Institute in Zagreb, as well as numerous expert groups and committees collaborate with the department. Department members Vatroslav Jagić and Stjepan Ivšić (Slavic accentology), Petar Skok (onomastics and etymology), as well as Petar Guberina (the verbotonal method of language acquisition), all achieved worldwide recognition.