Zigmas Zinkevičius (January 4, 1925 in Juodausiai, Ukmergė district – February 20, 2018 in Vilnius) was a leading[1] Lithuanian linguist-historian, professor at Vilnius University, and a full member of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences.[2] He has contributed to studies in the history of languages, onomastics[3] and other areas.[2] Zinkevičius was a recipient of the Herder Prize, which was presented to him in 1994. Zinkevičius is the author of 30 academic books and several hundred scientific publications in various languages.[2] Zinkevičius is considered as the most cited Lithuanian linguist.[4]

Zigmas Zinkevičius
Born	(1925-01-04)January 4, 1925 Juodausiai, Lithuania
Died	February 20, 2018(2018-02-20) (aged 93) Vilnius, Lithuania
Nationality	Lithuanian
Occupation	linguist dialectologist lecturer politician
Known for	baltistics, work regarding historical grammar for the recreation of Proto-Baltic

Biography

After graduating from the gymnasium at Ukmergė in 1945, he enrolled in Vilnius University.[2] He studied linguistics until 1950. In 1955 Zinkevičius defended his thesis Lietuvių kalbos įvardžiuotinių būdvardžių istorijos bruožai (Historical traits of adjective pronouns in Lithuanian language) and received a Doctoral degree. From 1956 to 1962, Zinkevičius was Dean of the Faculty of History and Philology of Vilnius University. Together with his colleagues, he established a new classification of Lithuanian language dialects. For his work Lietuvių dialektologija (Lithuanian dialectology) (1966) Zigmas Zinkevičius received a Habilitated Doctor degree and became a professor two years later. In 1973 Zinkevičius took a new position at Vilnius University as chairman of the Lithuanian language department, and beginning in 1988 served as chairman of the Baltic Philology department.

In 1982 Zinkevičius became a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities; in 1991, of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, and in 1995, of the Latvian Academy of Sciences and the Lithuanian Catholic Academy of Sciences. He was fluent in a number of languages, including English, German, Russian, Polish, Ukrainian, Belarusian, and French.[5]

Political activities

Zinkevičius worked as Minister of Education and Science under Prime Minister Gediminas Vagnorius.[5] He was a member of the Lithuanian Christian Democratic Party and was elected its chairman in 1999.[5] Zinkevičius was a member of the Seimas (Lithuanian Parliament) in 2000–2004. He was also a member of the National Language Committee. He published a book discussing his experience as a Minister of Education Kaip Aš Buvau Ministru (How I was a Minister).

Awards and prizes

Zinkevičius received these awards and prizes:

• National Advancement Prize (Lithuanian: Nacionalinė pažangos premija), 2007
• The Commander's Cross of the Order of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas, 1995
• Kazimieras Būga prize awarded by the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences, 1995
• Herder Prize, 1994

References

External links

• Bibliographical index of works by Zigmas Zinkevičius up to 2003

На других языках

[de] Zigmas Zinkevičius

[ru] Зинкявичюс, Зигмас