Dialectological work of Nikola Majnarić

Abstract

Among Croatian dialectologists of the 20th century, the scholarly opus of Nikola Majnarić stands aside, but not because he showed interest for the speech of a small number of dialect speakers or because he had studied the idiom from a universal comparative point of view. In two of his three articles on the speech of his native Ravna Gora, Gorski kotar, he was concerned first of all with syntax. Majnarić succesfully made use of his intimate knowledge of the idiom, and also of his thorough classical education, important in syntactic studies. The study on “A Rovtar Dialect in Gorski kotar“ is an exemplary model of aproach to the topic, although the application of phonology would remove the need for some necessary corrections. Majnarić outlines the idiom of Ravna Gora as of Slovenian origin although its speakers are Croats. Majnarić's dialectological work was not extensive, yet it was significant.