Aleksandras Vanagas (August 12, 1934 – April 13, 1995) was a

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, 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, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

n linguist, one of the leading Lithuanian etymologists.

Biography

Aleksandras Vanagas graduated

Vilnius University Vilnius University ( Lithuanian: ''Vilniaus universitetas'') is a public research university, which is the first and largest university in Lithuania, as well as one of the oldest and most prominent higher education institutions in Central and Ea ...

(Lithuanian language and literature studies) in 1959. Since then till the death he worked in the Institute of the Lithuanian Language, was its director between 1990 and 1995. Also, since 1990 he taught in

Vytautas Magnus University Vytautas Magnus University (VMU) (, VDU) is a public university in Kaunas, Lithuania. The university was founded in 1922 during the interwar period as an alternate national university. Initially it was known as the University of Lithuania, but ...

(was the head of the Lithuanian language department) and

Vilnius Pedagogical University Vytautas Magnus University Education Academy () – an academical unit of Vytautas Magnus University, which specialized in preparing school teachers and other educators. Located in Vilnius and Kaunas, Lithuania. Name changes * 1935–1939 Nati ...

. Between 1990 and 1992 he was the head of the

Commission of the Lithuanian Language The State Commission of the Lithuanian Language (, VLKK) is the official language regulating body of the Lithuanian language. The Language Commission was put in operation in 1961 as a non-governmental entity under the auspices of the Lithuania ...

. PhD since 1984, a member of the

Lithuanian Academy of Sciences The Lithuanian Academy of Sciences or LMA (, ) is a state-funded independent organization in Lithuania dedicated for science and research. Its mission is to mobilize prominent scientists and initiate activities that would strengthen the welfare ...

since 1990, a member of the

Latvian Academy of Sciences The Latvian Academy of Sciences (, ) is the official science academy of Latvia and is an association of the country's foremost scientists. The academy was founded as the ''Latvian SSR Academy of Sciences'' (). It is located in Riga. The curren ...

since 1992.

Works

The main research area of Aleksandras Vanagas was Baltic

onomastics Onomastics (or onomatology in older texts) is the study of proper names, including their etymology, history, and use. An ''alethonym'' ('true name') or an ''orthonym'' ('real name') is the proper name of the object in question, the object of onom ...

(

hydronym A hydronym (from , , "water" and , , "name") is a type of toponym that designates a proper name of a body of water. Hydronyms include the proper names of rivers and streams, lakes and ponds, swamps and marshes, seas and oceans. As a subset of top ...

toponyms Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of '' toponyms'' (proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage, and types. ''Toponym'' is the general term for a proper nam ...

anthroponyms Anthroponymy (also anthroponymics or anthroponomastics, from Ancient Greek ἄνθρωπος ''anthrōpos'', 'human', and ὄνομα ''onoma'', 'name') is the study of ''anthroponyms'', the proper names of human beings, both individual and colle ...

) and Baltic

ethnogenesis Ethnogenesis (; ) is the formation and development of an ethnic group. This can originate by group self-identification or by outside identification. The term ''ethnogenesis'' was originally a mid-19th-century neologism that was later introduce ...

. He guided many linguistic expeditions and collected onomastic data. Aleksandras Vanagas with his colleagues published the etymological dictionaries of the Lithuanian hydronyms and the Lithuanian surnames.

Bibliography

*''Lietuviški elementai baltarusių onomastikoje'', , 1968 (with Mikalaj Biryla) *''Lietuvos TSR hidronimų daryba'', 1970 *''Lietuvių hidronimų etimologinis žodynas'', 1981 *''Lietuvių hidronimų semantika'', 1981 *''Lietuvos TSR upių ir ežerų vardynas'', 1963 (co-author *''Lietuvių pavardžių žodynas'', 2 vol. 1985–1989 (with V. Maciejauskienė and M. Razmukaitė) *''Mūsų vardai ir pavardės'', 1982 *''Lietuvių vandenvardžiai'', 1988 *''Lietuvos miestų vardai'', published in 1996 and 2004

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vanagas, Aleksandras 1934 births 1995 deaths Vilnius University alumni Academic staff of the Lithuanian University of Educational Sciences Linguists from Lithuania Etymologists