Marko Snoj (born 19 April 1959) is a Slovenian
Indo-Europeanist,
Slavist
Slavic (American English) or Slavonic (British English) studies, also known as Slavistics, is the academic field of area studies concerned with Slavic peoples, languages, literature, history, and culture. Originally, a Slavist or Slavicist was ...
,
Albanologist,
lexicographer
Lexicography is the study of lexicons and the art of compiling dictionaries. It is divided into two separate academic disciplines:
* Practical lexicography is the art or craft of compiling, writing and editing dictionary, dictionaries.
* The ...
, and
etymologist employed at the Fran Ramovš Institute for Slovene Language of the Scientific Research Center of the
Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts
The Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts ( (SAZU)) is the national academy of Slovenia, which encompasses science and the arts and brings together the top Slovene researchers and artists as members of the academy.
Cultural significance
Establis ...
in
Ljubljana
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,
Slovenia
Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia, is a country in Central Europe. It borders Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the south and southeast, and a short (46.6 km) coastline within the Adriati ...
. He served as director of the institute from 2008 to 2018. He has made numerous scholarly contributions to
Indo-European linguistics, particularly in the realms of
Slovene and
Albanian
Albanian may refer to:
*Pertaining to Albania in Southeast Europe; in particular:
**Albanians, an ethnic group native to the Balkans
**Albanian language
**Albanian culture
**Demographics of Albania, includes other ethnic groups within the country ...
, and is noted for his work in advancing
Slavic 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. ...
in both scholarly and popular domains.
He is a full fellow of the
Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts
The Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts ( (SAZU)) is the national academy of Slovenia, which encompasses science and the arts and brings together the top Slovene researchers and artists as members of the academy.
Cultural significance
Establis ...
.
Career
Marko Snoj was born in
Ljubljana
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. He attended
Šentvid High School and studied
comparative linguistics
Comparative linguistics is a branch of historical linguistics that is concerned with comparing languages to establish their historical relatedness.
Genetic relatedness implies a common origin or proto-language and comparative linguistics aim ...
at the Department of Comparative Linguistics and Oriental Studies at the Faculty of Arts of the
University of Ljubljana
The University of Ljubljana (, , ), abbreviated UL, is the oldest and largest university in Slovenia. It has approximately 38,000 enrolled students. The university has 23 faculties and three art academies with approximately 4,000 teaching and re ...
, completing his
bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ...
in 1982 with a specialization in comparative linguistics and
Hittitology
Hittitology is the study of the Hittites, an ancient Anatolian people that established an empire around Hattusa in the 2nd millennium BCE. It combines aspects of the archaeology, history, philology, and art history of the Hittite civilisation.
Ther ...
.
His 1984 master's thesis treated the problem of ''i''- and ''u''-coloration in the reflexes of Indo-European syllabic sonorants in
Balto-Slavic
The Balto-Slavic languages form a branch of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European family of languages, traditionally comprising the Baltic languages, Baltic and Slavic languages. Baltic and Slavic languages share several linguistic traits ...
.
Following his military service in 1985–86 (which he used for learning Albanian from his fellow conscripts), he worked on his doctoral dissertation on ''Proto-Slavic'' z ''from Indo-European'' s ''in Light of the Most Recent Accentological Discoveries'', which he defended in 1989.
His advisor was the Indo-Europeanist and academy member
Bojan Čop; his doctoral committee also included the etymologist and academy member
France Bezlaj and
Indo-Iranian specialist Varja Cvetko Orešnik.
Work on Slovene etymology
In 1981, he was invited by France Bezlaj to work on the project ''Etimološki slovar slovenskega jezika'' (''Slovenian Etymological Dictionary''). He contributed a considerable number of the entries, especially in the third (1995) and fourth volumes (2005), as well as most of the work for the final, fifth volume ''Kazala'' (''Indices'') (2007).
His work for the third volume was awarded the Gold Medal of the Scientific Research Institute of the Academy of Sciences.
In 1997, he published a popular etymological desk reference of Slovene, ''Slovenski etimološki slovar'', which was later revised and expanded in 2003.
In appearances on radio and television, he has popularized etymology in Slovene. Especially noteworthy is his series of twenty-two one-hour programs on the national television station,
TV Slovenija, ''Besede'' (''Words''), which has been rebroadcast several times since its first showing during the February–June 1998 season.
Albanian studies
In the late 1980s, he continued his training in
Albanian
Albanian may refer to:
*Pertaining to Albania in Southeast Europe; in particular:
**Albanians, an ethnic group native to the Balkans
**Albanian language
**Albanian culture
**Demographics of Albania, includes other ethnic groups within the country ...
by attending summer courses at the
University of Pristina. Later, he published ''Kratka albanska slovnica'' (''A Short Grammar of Albanian'') (Ljubljana 1991), ''Rückläufiges Wörterbuch der albanischen Sprache'' (''Reverse Dictionary of Albanian'') (Hamburg 1994), and an article on the history of Albanian studies research in Slovenia in the volume ''Studime II'' (Prishtina 1996).
Together with academy member , he prepared an annotated translation into Albanian of studies on Albanian by the renowned Slovene Slavic specialist
Franz Miklosich
Franz Miklosich (, also known in Slovene as ; 20 November 1813 – 7 March 1891) was a Slovenian philologist and rector of the University of Vienna.
Early life
Miklosich was born in the small village of Radomerščak near the Lower Styrian town ...
entitled ''Gjurmime shqiptare/Albanische Forschungen'' (Albanian Studies; Prishtina 2007).
Contributions to Slavic accentology
From 1991 to 1992, under the auspices of a
Humboldt Fellowship Snoj studied with the Indo-Europeanist
Gert Klingenschmitt at the
University of Regensburg
The University of Regensburg () is a public research university located in the city of Regensburg, Germany. The university was founded on 18 July 1962 by the Landtag of Bavaria as the fourth full-fledged university in Bavaria. Following groundbr ...
,
Germany
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
, where he concentrated on problems of Balto-Slavic accentology. His articles on Slavic
accentology take into account contemporary work on Indo-European
laryngeal theory
The laryngeal theory is a theory in historical linguistics positing that the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) language included a number of laryngeal consonants that are not linguistic reconstruction, reconstructable by direct application of the com ...
and the nature of Indo-European paradigms with regard to
ablaut
In linguistics, the Indo-European ablaut ( , from German ) is a system of apophony (regular vowel variations) in the Proto-Indo-European language (PIE).
An example of ablaut in English is the strong verb ''sing, sang, sung'' and its relate ...
and the morphological distribution of word-level prosodic features.
International activity

Snoj has lectured and participated in conferences abroad, including
Austria
Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...
,
Belarus
Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...
,
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...
,
Croatia
Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...
,
Kosovo
Kosovo, officially the Republic of Kosovo, is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe with International recognition of Kosovo, partial diplomatic recognition. It is bordered by Albania to the southwest, Montenegro to the west, Serbia to the ...
,
Montenegro
, image_flag = Flag of Montenegro.svg
, image_coat = Coat of arms of Montenegro.svg
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,
Serbia
, image_flag = Flag of Serbia.svg
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, and the
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
.
In 1994, he established the journal ''
Slovenski jezik / Slovene Linguistic Studies'' with the American
Slavic specialist :sl:Marc L. Greenberg.
Selected bibliography
* 1976–2007. Bezlaj, France; Snoj, Marko; Furlan, Metka; Klemenčič, Simona. ''Etimološki slovar slovenskega jezika''. Ljubljana: Mladinska knjiga. 5 vols. . . .
* 1991. ''Kratka albanska slovnica''. Ljubljana: Filozofska fakulteta. 128 pp.
* 1994. ''Rückläufiges Wörterbuch der albanischen Sprache'' (''Lexicographia Orientalis'', Bd. 3). Hamburg: Buske. XI, 482 pp. .
* 2002a. “Etimologija imen”, in ''Słowiańska onomastika, Encyklopedia'', vol. 1. Edited by Ewa Rzetelska-Feleszko & Aleksandra Cieślikowa. Warsaw–Krakow: Towarzystwo Naukowe Warszawskie, pp. 152–4.
* 2002b. “Tuji vplivi: substrati, adstrati, superstrati”, in ''Słowiańska onomastika, Encyklopedia'', vol. 1. Edited by Ewa Rzetelska-Feleszko & Aleksandra Cieślikowa. Warsaw–Krakow: Towarzystwo Naukowe Warszawskie, pp. 210–3.
* 2003. ''Slovenski etimološki slovar''. 2., pregledana in dopolnjena izd. Ljubljana: Modrijan. XXVII, 1022 pp. .
* 2004. “Zur Akzentuierung der urslawischen ''ter''-Stämme”, in ''Per aspera ad asteriscos: studia indogermanica in honorem Jens Elmegård Rasmussen sexagenarii idibus Martiis anno MMIV''. Edited by Adam Hyllested. (''Innsbrucker Beiträge zur Sprachwissenschaft'', vol. 112). Innsbruck: Institut für Sprachen und Literaturen der Universität, pp. 537–43.
* 2005a. “Etymology”, in ''Encyclopedia of Linguistics'', vol. 1: ''A–L''. Edited by Philipp Strazny. New York: Fitzroy Dearborn, pp. 304–6.
* 2005b. “Zur Bewahrung und weiteren Entwicklung einiger Fälle der urindogermanischen Akzentmobilität im Urslawischen”, in ''Indogermanica: Festschrift Gert Klingenschmitt: indische, iranische und indogermanische Studien dem verehrten Jubilar dargebracht zu seinem fünfundsechzigsten Geburtstag''. Edited by Günter Schweiger. (''Studien zur Iranistik und Indogermanistik'', vol. 3). Taimering: Schweiger VWT, pp. 605–9.
* 2006. ''Slovar jezika Janeza Svetokriškega'' (''Dela'', 49/7; 49/8). Ljubljana: Založba ZRC. 2 vols., XVIII + 711; 710 pp. .
* 2009. ''Etimološki slovar slovenskih zemljepisnih imen''. Ljubljana : Modrijan : Založba ZRC. 603 pp.
* 2020. ''Slovar Pohlinovega jezika : na osnovi njegovih jezikoslovnih del''. Ljubljana : Založba ZRC. 986 pp.
* 2023. ''Imena slovenskih psov'' Ljubljana : Založba ZRC. 336 pp.
See also
*
Pristina
Pristina or Prishtina ( , ), . is the capital and largest city of Kosovo. It is the administrative center of the eponymous municipality and District of Pristina, district.
In antiquity, the area of Pristina was part of the Dardanian Kingdo ...
References
External links
Web page of the Fran Ramovš Institute of the Slovene LanguageWeb page of the journal ''Slovenski jezik / Slovene Linguistic Studies''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Snoj, Marko
1959 births
Living people
University of Ljubljana alumni
University of Pristina alumni
Academic staff of the University of Ljubljana
Linguists from Slovenia
Hittitologists
Etymologists
Linguists of Indo-European languages
Linguists of Slavic languages
Slovenian albanologists
Members of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts