Breda Pogorelec (1928-2006), by Slavko Pezdir 
 
Ljubljana - The multifaceted and productive life, research, and teaching 
career of Dr. Breda Pogorelec, a university professor, Slovenian 
specialist, and linguist, came to a close at the Ljubljana Medical Center 
on Thursday, 20 July. She was a prominent researcher and tireless 
explicator of the role and significance of the Slovenian language in the 
independent Slovenian state. 
 
Pogorelec was born in Ljubljana on 1 January 1928. After graduating from 
the classical secondary school, she received a degree in Slovenian language 
and literature and in comparative Slavic grammar in 1952. She taught 
Slovenian language and literature at the Brezice secondary school until 
1955, when she became an assistant instructor at the Department of Slavic 
Language and Literatures at the University of Ljubljana's Faculty of Arts. 
Here she advanced her career in research and teaching, attaining the rank 
of full professor for the Slovenian literary language and literature in 
1985. She was active until her retirement in 1997. From 1956 to 1958 she 
did additional study at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, and she 
completed her doctorate at the University of Ljubljana with a dissertation 
titled "Veznik v slovenscini" (The Conjunction in Slovenian). 
 
Even as an assistant instructor, Pogorelec was instrumental in shaping the 
separate study program in literary Slovenian as the core of Slovenian 
studies at the Faculty of Arts, and this program remains in place today. 
Due to her exceptional sensitivity to sociolinguistic issues and current 
social conditions, she was able to combine broad social engagement with 
topics of current public interest in Slovenian in order to contribute to 
specialized research in syntax, stylistics, text linguistics, and the 
historical periodization of Slovenian. Her efforts were reflected her 
creation and leadership of the Slavic Society and the Socialist Alliance of 
the Working People (SZDL) of Slovenia's project "Slovenian in Public Life", 
participation in working groups of the Council for Slovenian, and 
chairmanship of the task force for linguistic issues in the National 
Assembly of Slovenia. 
 
[Published in "Delo" 22 July 2006, translated by Donald F. Reindl]