Jan Franciszek Miodek (born 7 June 1946 in

Tarnowskie Góry Tarnowskie Góry (; ; ) is a city in Silesia, southern Poland, located in the Silesian Highlands near Katowice and seat city of Tarnowskie Góry County Located in the north of the Metropolis GZM, a megalopolis (city type), megalopolis, the great ...

Silesian Voivodeship Silesian Voivodeship ( ) is an administrative province in southern Poland. With over 4.2 million residents and an area of 12,300 square kilometers, it is the second-most populous, and the most-densely populated and most-urbanized region of Poland ...

), is a Polish

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

, a prescriptive grammarian and a professor of Wrocław University. He is regarded as one of the most prominent educators and promoters of the standard

Polish language Polish (, , or simply , ) is a West Slavic languages, West Slavic language of the Lechitic languages, Lechitic subgroup, within the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family, and is written in the Latin script. It is primarily spo ...

Life and career

He was born on 7 June 1946, in

. His father was Franciszek Miodek and his mother was Janina ( Kowalska). In 1963, he graduated from the

Stanisław Staszic Stanisław Wawrzyniec Staszic (baptised 6 November 1755 – 20 January 1826) was a leading figure in the Polish Enlightenment: a Catholic priest, philosopher, geologist, writer, poet, translator and statesman. A physiocrat, monist, pan-Sla ...

High School No.2 in Tarnowskie Góry. Since 1967, he has been working as a

columnist A columnist is a person who writes for publication in a series, creating an article that usually offers commentary and opinions. Column (periodical), Columns appear in newspapers, magazines and other publications, including blogs. They take the ...

at the ''Gazeta Wrocławska'' newspaper, running the weekly linguistic column. Since 1989 he has held the post of the head (director) of the Institute of Polish Philology at the

University of Wrocław The University of Wrocław (, UWr; ) is a public research university in Wrocław, Poland. It is the largest institution of higher learning in the Lower Silesian Voivodeship, with over 100,000 graduates since 1945, including some 1,900 researcher ...

. Between 1987 and 2007, he hosted a popular weekly

TV program A television show, TV program (), or simply a TV show, is the general reference to any content produced for viewing on a television set that is broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, and cable, or distributed digitally on streaming platf ...

''Ojczyzna polszczyzna'' devoted to the

. He also created such programs as and . Since 2015, he has co-hosted the (Poland with Miodek) program in which he discusses the

etymology Etymology ( ) is the study of the origin and evolution of words—including their constituent units of sound and meaning—across time. In the 21st century a subfield within linguistics, etymology has become a more rigorously scientific study. ...

of various words in the Polish language.

Awards and honours

* Wojciech Korfanty Award *Wiktor Award (1988, 1991, 1998) *Superwiktor Award (1998) *

Honorary degree An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or '' ad hon ...

of the

Lithuanian University of Educational Sciences 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 ...

*Honorary degree of the Opole University *Honorary Citizen of the City of

Wrocław Wrocław is a city in southwestern Poland, and the capital of the Lower Silesian Voivodeship. It is the largest city and historical capital of the region of Silesia. It lies on the banks of the Oder River in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Eu ...

*Honorary Citizen of the City of

*Silver Medal for Merit to Culture – Gloria Artis (2015)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Miodek, Jan 1946 births Living people People from Tarnowskie Góry Linguists from Poland

Life and career

Awards and honours

See also

References