Zigmas Zinkevičius (January 4, 1925 in Juodausiai, Ukmergė district – February 20, 2018 in

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ; see also other names) is the capital and largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the municipality of Vilnius). The population of Vilnius's functional urba ...

) was a leading

Lithuania Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...

n linguist-historian,

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professo ...

Vilnius University Vilnius University ( lt, Vilniaus universitetas) is a public research university, oldest in the Baltic states and in Northern Europe outside the United Kingdom (or 6th overall following foundations of Oxford, Cambridge, St. Andrews, Glasgow and ...

, and a full member of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences. He has contributed to studies in the history of languages,

onomastics Onomastics (or, in older texts, onomatology) is the study of the etymology, history, and use of proper names. An '' orthonym'' is the proper name of the object in question, the object of onomastic study. Onomastics can be helpful in data mining, ...

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Zigmas Zinkevičius
Retrieved on 2008-08-18 and other areas. Zinkevičius was a recipient of the

Herder Prize The Herder Prize (german: Gottfried-von-Herder-Preis), named after the German philosopher Johann Gottfried Herder (1744–1803), was a prestigious international prize awarded every year from 1964 to 2006 to scholars and artists from Central and So ...

, which was presented to him in 1994. Zinkevičius is the author of 30 academic books and several hundred scientific publications in various languages. Zinkevičius is considered as the most cited Lithuanian linguist.

Biography

After graduating from the gymnasium at

Ukmergė Ukmergė (; previously ''Vilkmergė''; pl, Wiłkomierz) is a city in Vilnius County, Lithuania, located northwest of Vilnius, with a population of about 20,000. Etymology and variant names The city took its original name ''Vilkmergė'' from ...

in 1945, he enrolled in

. 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 Lithuanian ( ) is an Eastern Baltic language belonging to the Baltic branch of the Indo-European language family. It is the official language of Lithuania and one of the official languages of the European Union. There are about 2.8 mill ...

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 Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as ...

department. In 1982 Zinkevičius became a member of the

Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities The Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities also called simply the Royal Academy of Letters or Vitterhetsakademin abbreviated KVHAA ( sv, Kungl. Vitterhetsakademien Historie och Antikvitets Akademien or or ) is the Swedish roy ...

; in 1991, of the

Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters ( no, Det Norske Videnskaps-Akademi, DNVA) is a learned society based in Oslo, Norway. Its purpose is to support the advancement of science and scholarship in Norway. History The Royal Frederick Unive ...

, 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 English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...

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, Russian, Polish,

Ukrainian Ukrainian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Ukraine * Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe * Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine * So ...

, Belarusian, and

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

.Zigmas Zinkevičius
. Central Election Committee. Retrieved on 2008-08-18

Political activities

Zinkevičius worked as Minister of Education and Science under Prime Minister Gediminas Vagnorius. He was a member of the

Lithuanian Christian Democratic Party The Lithuanian Christian Democratic Party ( lt, Lietuvos krikščionių demokratų partija, LKDP) was a Christian-democratic political party in Lithuania. History Russian Empire and Republic of Lithuania A Christian Democratic movement was e ...

and was elected its chairman in 1999. Zinkevičius was a member of the

Seimas The Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublikos Seimas), or simply the Seimas (), is the unicameral parliament of Lithuania. The Seimas constitutes the legislative branch of government in Lithuania, enacting laws and amendm ...

(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 National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, c ...

( lt, 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 *

, 1994

References

External links

Bibliographical index of works by Zigmas Zinkevičius up to 2003
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zinkevicius, Zigmas Balticists 1925 births 2018 deaths People from Ukmergė District Municipality Lithuanian Roman Catholics Lithuanian Christian Democrats politicians Ministers of Education and Science of Lithuania Government ministers of Lithuania Members of the Seimas Historians of Lithuania 20th-century Lithuanian historians Linguists from Lithuania Politicians of Catholic political parties Vilnius University alumni Vilnius University faculty Members of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters Commander's Crosses of the Order of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas Herder Prize recipients