Ivan Klajn
Ivan Klajn was a Serbian linguist, philologist and language historian, with primary interest in Romance languages and Serbian. He was a regular member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, and the editor-in-chief of the Matica srpska's journal Jezik danas. Through his paternal family, which lived in Vukovar for generations, he was of Croatian-Jewish descent.
He completed the studies of the Italian language and literature at the University of Belgrade Faculty of Philology. After graduation, he started working at the same faculty, becoming a regular professor of the Italian language and the comparative grammar of Romance languages. Beside Romance Studies, his interest also lies in the language morphology, linguistic consultancy and the standardization of the modern Serbian language. His major works are the Rečnik jezičkih nedoumica, Tvorba reči u savremenom srpskom jeziku and Italijansko-srpski rečnik.
In 2017, he signed the Declaration on the Common Language of the Croats, Serbs, Bosniaks and Montenegrins.
Klajn died from COVID-19 on 31 March 2021, in Belgrade at the age of 84.
Books and articles
In 1974 he started writing weekly columns on the problems of modern Serbo-Croatian, first in Borba, and afterward in Politika and NIN.He was the editor-in-chief of the linguistic journal Jezik danas, published by Matica srpska. He published a number of papers in linguistic journals, as well as 18 books:Ispeci pa reciIstorijska gramatika španskog jezikaItalijansko-srpski rečnik Uticaji engleskog jezika u italijanskom Jezik oko nas Lingvističke studije O funkciji i prirodi zamenica Pisci i pismenjaci Razgovori o jeziku Rečnik jezičkih nedoumica Rečnik novih reči Stranputice smislaTvorba reči u savremenom srpskom jeziku - Volume I Tvorba reči u savremenom srpskom jeziku - Volume II
In co-authorship with Pavle Ivić, Mitar Pešikan and Branislav Brborić he wrote Jezički priručnik, published by Radio Television Belgrade. In the miscellany Srpski jezik na kraju veka he wrote a part dealing with lexis. His Rečnik jezičkih nedoumica was reprinted in 6 editions. For his Italijansko-srpski rečnik, he received an award from the Italian government.