Three new Croatian words awarded

17 March 2019 – The Croatian language has got three new words after the annual Croatian linguistics awards for the best three new words coined was held in Lipik.

Croatian language professor Lidija Stević Brtan from Vinkovci has won the Dr. Ivan Šreter Award for her word ‘Zapozorje’. The word which she created is a replacement for the term ‘backstage’ or ‘space behind the stage’.

“The word came to me because it was very hard for me to use the term backstage, whether saying it in a sentence or writing it,” Lidija said after receiving the award.

Lidija with her award (Lipički Compas/Facebook)

The second-place award went to Drago Štambuk for his word he made up ‘oznak’ (oznakovljenje) created to replace the English words ‘brand’ and ‘branding’ which are commonly used in Croatian.

Croatian language professor Carmen Lešina from Split won the third-placed award for her creation ‘bilješkinja’ which is intented to replace the word ‘javna bilježnica’ (female public notary).

Carmen with her award (Lipički Compas/Facebook)

Around 1000 new words from around 50 people were submitted for the awards which are named after Dr. Ivan Šreter (1951–1991), a Croatian physician who was sentenced to jail time in Yugoslavia in 1987 for choosing to use the distinct Croatian umirovljeni časnik to refer to his patient as a retired officer, rather than using penzionisani oficir.

The awards have been organised by the literary magazine Jezik since 1993.