Marko Pohlin

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Marko Pohlin (April 13, 1735 - February 4, 1801), was a Slovene philologist and author. He is generally considered as the first exponent of the Age of Enlightenment in the Slovene Lands.

He was born as Anton Pohlin in Ljubljana, in what was then the Duchy of Carniola in the Habsburg Empire, as the son of a tavern owner. He studied in Jesuit colleges in Novo Mesto and Ljubljana, and joined the Augustinian order.

He is most famous for his book Kraynska grammatica ("Carniolan Grammar"), a grammar of the Slovene language written in German. In it, Pohlin attempted to modernize Adam Bohorič's grammar from the 16th century. The work is especially important for its preface, in which Pohlin praised the Slovene language and rejected those who regarded it as rough and unworthy of being used in literature. Pohlin also compoied a Slovene-German-Latin dictionary, entitled Tu malu besedišče treh jezikov or Dictionarium slavicum carniolicum. In 1779, he published the first issue of Pisanice, an almanach of popular songs from Carniola and Carinthia.

Pohlin was also the author of the book Kraynske kroneke ("The Carniolan Chronicles", 1770), which are considered the first work of historiography written in the Slovene language. In his monograph, republished and enlarged in 1788, Pohlin took as source the Dalmatian humanist historian Mauro Orbini, who saw the Slavs as the most ancient people in Europe. Pohlin's historiographical work is considered of little worth, but was important in boosting the national cosciousness of his contemporary countymen.

Although Pohlin's linguistic innovations were later rejected by his successors, his Kraynska grammatika marked the beginning of the revival of the Slovene language and culture, which was later continued in the Zois' circle.

He died in the monastery of Mariabrunn near Vienna.