Serbocroatian-English Dictionary [antikvár]

PREFACE The acute need for an adequate bilingual dictionary became clear to the compiler when he began teaching SerboCroatian at the University of Pennsylvania in 1960. Initial contacts with Yugoslav specialists were made in the summer of 1962, when the compiler spent one month in Belgrade. It became obvious that the compilation of a dictionary would require considerable financial support. In May, 1964, the compiler received a grant from the University of Pennsylvania Committee on Travel Grants and Awards for preliminary work on the language of the Yugoslav press. In the fall of 1964, inquiries about support were submitted to the United States Office of Education, which expressed its general interest in the project. The compiler spent twelve months in Yugoslavia from July, 1965 to July, 1966, under a Fulbright-Hays Research Award. Professor Mihailo Stevanovic, Director of the Serbo-Croatian Language Institute of the Serbian Academy of Sciences in Belgrade, graciously allowed the compiler to work in the Institute. The year was devoted to the gathering of material for the planned dictionary. The following types of material were gathered: 1. Data on neologisms and on new meanings of words, unrecorded in existing dictionaries. 2. Data on noun declension forms and on accentuation. Whenever the Pravopis (item 31 of the Bibliography) did not supply the necessary forms, or when the other published sources were not in agreement, the following specialists were consulted: Professor Pavle Ivid, Novi Sad University; Dr. Berislav Nikolid, SerboCroatian Language Institute, Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Belgrade; Dr. Asim Peco, Belgrade University. 3. Data on aspectual pairs of verbs. Whenever existing sources did not supply the necessary data, Dr. Irena Grickat-Radulovid of the Serbo-Croatian Language Institute was consulted. In addition. Dr. Stjepan Babic of Zagreb University was consulted regarding problems in describing the vocabulary of modern Serbo-Croatian.