Vuk Karadžić was a Serbian linguist and reformer born in 1787. He is best known for his work in standardizing the Serbian language and for collecting and publishing Serbian folk literature. His efforts helped preserve the cultural heritage of the Serbian people and made the language more accessible to the general public. Karadžić also played a significant role in the development of the Cyrillic alphabet for Serbian. He introduced phonetic spelling, which made reading and writing easier. His contributions laid the foundation for modern Serbian linguistics and education, influencing generations of scholars and writers.