Ljudevit Gaj in the context of "Croatian culture"

The Illyrian movement (Croatian: Ilirski pokret; Slovene: Ilirsko gibanje) was a pan-South-Slavic cultural and political campaign with roots in the early modern period, and revived by a group of young Croatian intellectuals during the first half of the 19th century, around the years of 1835 to 1863. This movement aimed to create a Croatian national establishment in Austria-Hungary through linguistic and ethnic unity, and through it lay the foundation for cultural and linguistic unification of all South Slavs under the revived umbrella term Illyrian.

Aspects of the movement pertaining to the development of Croatian culture are considered in Croatian historiography to be part of the Croatian national revival (Croatian: Hrvatski narodni preporod).

The Serbian Cyrillic alphabet (Serbian: Српска ћирилица / Srpska ćirilica, IPA: [sr̩̂pskaː t͡ɕirǐlitsa]), also known as the Serbian script, (Српско писмо, Srpsko pismo, Serbian pronunciation: [sr̩̂psko pǐːsmo]), is a standardized variation of the Cyrillic script used to write Serbo-Croatian, namely its Serbian and Bosnian (mainly in Republika Srpska) standard varieties. It originated in medieval Serbia and was significantly reformed in the 19th century by the Serbian philologist and linguist Vuk Karadžić.

The Serbian Cyrillic alphabet is one of the two official scripts used to write modern standard Serbian, the other being Gaj's Latin alphabet. Karadžić based his reform on the earlier 18th-century Slavonic-Serbian script. Following the principle of "write as you speak and read as it is written" (piši kao što govoriš, čitaj kao što je napisano), he removed obsolete letters, eliminated redundant representations of iotated vowels, and introduced the letter ⟨J⟩ from the Latin script. He also created new letters for sounds unique to Serbian phonology. Around the same time, Ljudevit Gaj led the standardization of the Latin script for use in western South Slavic languages, applying similar phonemic principles.

The culture of Croatia has historically been influenced by Central European, Mediterranean, and Balkan cultures. Croatia's unique culture and identity can be traced back to the historical llyricum. The early Croatian cultural and political identity developed through the integration of the ancient Roman heritage of Dalmatia, the traditions of early Slavic groups who settled in the region during the Migration period, and the emergence of a distinct Croatian polity by the 9th century. The Croatian language is believed to have been formed in the 6th or 7th century, with the written language present in Glagolitic texts from the 11th century.

In terms of Croatian national emancipation, the 19th-century Illyrian movement led by Ljudevit Gaj was a key driver for emergence of Croatian romantic nationalism. In 1842, the Matica ilirska organization (renamed Matica hrvatska in 1872) was established as part of the Zagreb Reading Room. The organization's mission was to promote Croatian national and cultural identity in fields of arts, science spiritual creation, economy, and public life. In 1847-1848 Croatian language replaced Latin as official language in Croatia.

Gaj's Latin alphabet (Serbo-Croatian: Gajeva latinica / Гајева латиница, pronounced [ɡâːjeva latǐnit͡sa]), also known as abeceda (Serbo-Croatian Cyrillic: абецеда, pronounced [abet͡sěːda]) or gajica (Serbo-Croatian Cyrillic: гајица, pronounced [ɡǎjit͡sa]), is the form of the Latin script used for writing all four standard varieties of Serbo-Croatian: Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin, and Serbian. It contains 27 individual letters and 3 digraphs. Each letter (including digraphs) represents one Serbo-Croatian phoneme, yielding a highly phonemic orthography. It closely corresponds to the Serbian Cyrillic alphabet.

The alphabet was initially devised by Croatian linguist Ljudevit Gaj in 1835 during the Illyrian movement in ethnically Croatian parts of the Austrian Empire. It was largely based on Jan Hus's Czech alphabet and was meant to serve as a unified orthography for three Croat-populated kingdoms within the Austrian Empire at the time, namely Croatia, Dalmatia and Slavonia, and their three dialect groups, Kajkavian, Chakavian and Shtokavian, which historically utilized different spelling rules. The alphabet's final form was defined in the late 19th century.