PROFESSOR EMERITUS SVEIN MØNNESLAND, DISTINGUISHED NORWEGIAN SLAVIST AND SOCIOLINGUIST, HAS PASSED AWAY

Professor Emeritus Svein Mønnesland, a distinguished Norwegian Slavist and sociolinguist, has passed away. He completed his studies of our language at the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Novi Sad, under the guidance of the renowned Serbian linguist Professor Pavle Ivić, who was also his mentor.

Among his many works, Professor Mønnesland was the author of one of the most prestigious bilingual Serbian-English monographs on our homeland, “Serbia in the 19th Century Through the Eyes of Foreigners”, published by Prometej in Novi Sad.

Not only his unquestionable scholarly expertise, but also decades of dedicated work, devotion, affection and a profound desire to preserve the testimonies of foreigners about Serbia are evident on every page of Svein Mønnesland’s extensive work. His legacy represents an important contribution to our understanding of Serbia in the century in which it rose from the ashes and became part of the European cultural and intellectual sphere.

Even as a student, he passionately read and translated into Norwegian verses from Vuk Karadžić’s collection “Serbian Folk Poems”, introducing Norwegian readers to Serbian decasyllabic verse, its epic heroes, and the emotional depth of traditional lyric poetry.