[3] After studying Slavic languages in Belgrade, Odessa, and Moscow, he received his PhD at Leipzig University in 1900.

[3] Belić is generally considered the leading Serbian linguist of the first half of the twentieth century.

His research dealt with comparative Slavic studies, general linguistics, Serbo-Croatian dialectology, and syntax.

[3] He authored Pravopis srpskohrvatskog književnog jezika (Standard Serbo-Croatian Normative Guide, 1923) which was based on a strictly phonological spelling principle.

Belić introduced the tripartite division of Kajkavian based on the reflexes of Proto-Slavic *tj and *dj, which was first published in Stanojević's Narodna enciklopedija srpsko-hrvatsko-slovenačka (Serbo-Croatian-Slovene National Encyclopedia, 1927), although disproved by later dialectology studies.