Aleksandr Nikolaevich Garkavets (; ; October 19, 1947-) is a Soviet, Ukrainian, and Kazakhstani linguist, philologist, and Turkologist. He is best known for his work on the

Kipchak Kipchak may refer to: * Kipchaks, a medieval Turkic people * Kipchak languages, a Turkic language group * Kipchak language, an extinct Turkic language of the Kipchak group * Kipchak Khanate or Golden Horde * Kipchak Mosque, a mosque in the villa ...

languages, both modern and historical. Much of the focus of his work has been on the Armeno-Kipchak language,

Cuman language Cuman or Kuman (also called Kipchak, Qypchaq or Polovtsian, self referred to as Tatar () in Codex Cumanicus) was a West Kipchak Turkic language spoken by the Cumans (Polovtsy, Folban, Vallany, Kun) and Kipchaks; the language was similar to t ...

Crimean Tatar language Crimean Tatar (), also called Crimean (), is a Turkic languages, Turkic language spoken in Crimea and the Crimean Tatar diasporas of Uzbekistan, Turkey and Bulgaria, as well as small communities in the United States and Canada. It should not ...

, and

Urum language Urum (, ) is a Turkic language spoken by several thousand ethnic Greeks who inhabit a few villages in southeastern Ukraine. Over the past few generations, there has been a deviation from teaching children Urum to the more common languages of th ...

Biography

Garkavets was born on October 19, 1947, in the village of Svitlyi Luch, in the

Starobesheve Raion Starobesheve Raion () was one of the raions of Donetsk Oblast, located in southeastern Ukraine. Its administrative center was the urban-type settlement of Starobesheve.The raion was abolished on 18 July 2020 as part of the administrative reform of ...

, of

Donetsk Oblast Donetsk Oblast, also referred to as Donechchyna (, ), is an Oblasts of Ukraine, oblast in eastern Ukraine. It is Ukraine's most populous province, with around 4.1 million residents. Its capital city, administrative centre is Donetsk, though d ...

in the

Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, abbreviated as the Ukrainian SSR, UkrSSR, and also known as Soviet Ukraine or just Ukraine, was one of the Republics of the Soviet Union, constituent republics of the Soviet Union from 1922 until 1991. ...

. Garkavets studied at the

National University of Kharkiv The V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University (), also known as Kharkiv National University or Karazin University, is a public university in Kharkiv, Ukraine. It was founded in 1804 through the efforts of Vasily Karazin, becoming the second old ...

in the department of

Ukrainian language Ukrainian (, ) is an East Slavic languages, East Slavic language, spoken primarily in Ukraine. It is the first language, first (native) language of a large majority of Ukrainians. Written Ukrainian uses the Ukrainian alphabet, a variant of t ...

and

literature Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, Play (theatre), plays, and poetry, poems. It includes both print and Electroni ...

, graduating in 1970. After graduation, he worked at the newspaper ''Sotsialistychna Kharkivshchyna'' and then at the National University of Kharkiv press. He entered graduate school in 1972 at the

Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences The Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences (), formerly Institute of Oriental Studies of the USSR Academy of Sciences, is a Russian research institution for the study of the countries and cultures of Asia and North Af ...

and the

Institute of Linguistics of the Russian Academy of Sciences The Institute of Linguistics of the Russian Academy of Sciences () is a structural unit in the Language and Literature Section of the History and Philology Department of the Russian Academy of Sciences. This institute is one of the major centers i ...

. In 1975 he defended his PhD dissertation on Kipchak monuments written in the

Armenian script The Armenian alphabet (, or , ) or, more broadly, the Armenian script, is an alphabetic writing system developed for Armenian and occasionally used to write other languages. It is one of the three historical alphabets of the South Caucasu ...

Kamianets-Podilskyi Kamianets-Podilskyi (, ; ) is a city on the Smotrych River in western Ukraine, western Ukraine, to the north-east of Chernivtsi. Formerly the administrative center of Khmelnytskyi Oblast, the city is now the administrative center of Kamianets ...

. In 1987, he received a Doctor of Philology in Turkic languages for his work on Armeno-Kipchak and Urum materials. In 1989, the

Crimean Tatars Crimean Tatars (), or simply Crimeans (), are an Eastern European Turkic peoples, Turkic ethnic group and nation indigenous to Crimea. Their ethnogenesis lasted thousands of years in Crimea and the northern regions along the coast of the Blac ...

were permitted to return their homeland. In preparation for their return, Garkavets prepared a number of manuals on the Crimean Tatar language, as well as a Crimean Tatar-Russian dictionary, at the request of the

Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine The Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine () is the main body in the system of central bodies of the executive power of Ukraine. History On 28 June 1917 Ivan Steshenko was appointed Secretary of Education in the First Vynnychenko gov ...

. From 1988 onward, Garkevets worked primarily in the

Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic The Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic, also known as Soviet Kazakhstan, the Kazakh SSR, KSSR, or simply Kazakhstan, was one of the transcontinental country, transcontinental Republics of the Soviet Union, constituent republics of the Soviet Un ...

, later

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a landlocked country primarily in Central Asia, with a European Kazakhstan, small portion in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the Kazakhstan–Russia border, north and west, China to th ...

. From 1988 to 1992 he served as the chair of the Department of Russian Language and Sociolinguistics at the Institute of Linguistics at the

Kazakhstan Academy of Sciences The Kazakhstan Academy of Sciences (official name National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Kazakhstan) is the highest scientific organization of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The Academy of Sciences was founded on 1 June 1946 on the basis of ...

. In 1989 he founded the Almaty Ukrainian Cultural Center. From 2000 onward, Garkavets has worked as the director of Center of Eurasian Studies "Desht-i Qypchaq", a Kazakhstan-based organization that promotes the study of Kipchak languages with the support of the

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

Almaty Cluster Office.

Awards and honors

* 1988 - Award for Excellence in Education from the Ukrainian SSR * 1989 - * 1997 - Laureate, Kazakh Presidential Prize for Peace and Spiritual Harmony * 2003 - Recipient of the * 2006 - Award for merits in the development of science in Kazakhstan * 2010 - Badge of honor from the

Turkish Language Association The Turkish Language Association (, TDK) is the List of language regulators, regulatory body for the Turkish language, founded on 12 July 1932 by the initiative of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and headquartered in Ankara, Turkey. The Institution acts as ...

* 2017 - Recipient of a scholarship awarded by the

President of Kazakhstan The president of Kazakhstan, officially the president of the Republic of Kazakhstan is the executive head of state of the Kazakhstan and the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Kazakhstan. As the highest-ranking official ...

* 2021 - Recipient of the "Service to the Turkish Language Award" from the

Selected works

* * * * * *

References

External links

*
Center of Eurasian Studies "Desht-i Qypchaq"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Garkavets, Aleksandr 1947 births Ukrainian scholars National University of Kharkiv alumni Turkologists Living people