Stanislav Segert (May 4, 1921 – September 30, 2005) was a prominent scholar of

Semitic language The Semitic languages are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. They are spoken by more than 330 million people across much of West Asia, the Horn of Africa, and latterly North Africa, Malta, West Africa, Chad, and in large immigrant and ...

s and one of the foremost authorities on North-West

Semitic languages The Semitic languages are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. They are spoken by more than 330 million people across much of West Asia, the Horn of Africa, and latterly North Africa, Malta, West Africa, Chad, and in large immigrant a ...

Life

Born in

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

, then

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

, Segert began his studies at the Protestant Theological Faculty of

Charles University ) , image_name = Carolinum_Logo.svg , image_size = 200px , established = , type = Public, Ancient , budget = 8.9 billion CZK , rector = Milena Králíčková , faculty = 4,057 , administrative_staff = 4,026 , students = 51,438 , underg ...

in 1939 while also signing up for courses at the Faculty of Arts. When later that year the

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hit ...

occupation authorities closed down all universities, Stanislav Segert completed his studies in various illegal courses and in 1943, he was ordained as a chaplain of the Evangelical church of Czech Brethren. In 1945-1947, Segert pursued his graduate studies at the Faculty of Arts and was awarded a degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Semitic and Classical philology and philosophy. Between 1945 and 1952 he was an assistant lecturer at the Protestant Theological Faculty, mostly teaching courses in

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and

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. In 1951, he started teaching at the Faculty of Arts and in 1952, he became a member of the Oriental Institute of the newly established Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences. In 1969, following the government repressions in the wake of the 1968

Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia The Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia refers to the events of 20–21 August 1968, when the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic was jointly invaded by four Warsaw Pact countries: the Soviet Union, the Polish People's Republic, the People's Rep ...

, he left for the United States where he became a Professor of North-West Semitic languages at the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a Normal school, teachers colle ...

Works

* 1976: ''A Grammar of Phoenician and Punic''. Munich: Beck. * 1985: ''A Basic Grammar of Ugaritic Language''. Berkeley: University of California Press. * 1986: ''Altaramäische Grammatik: mit Bibliographie, Chrestomathie und Glossar'' (4. Auflage). Leipzig:

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. .

References

Festschriften

''Sopher Mahir: Northwest Semitic Studies Presented to Stanislav Segert''. Edited by Edward M. Cook. Winona Lake, Indiana: Eisenbrauns, 1990 ( = ''Maarav: A Journal for the Study of the Northwest Semitic Languages and Literatures'', vols. 5-6, 1990). The volume includes a comprehensive bibliography of Segert's work up to the date of publication.

Sources

A brief overview of his career in Czech

An obituary in Czech
1921 births 2005 deaths 20th-century Czech people 20th-century linguists Linguists from the Czech Republic Czech orientalists Semiticists Ethiopianists Czech Hebraists American Hebraists Christian Hebraists Czech Lutherans Czechoslovak emigrants to the United States Clergy from Prague Academic staff of Charles University {{Africanist-stub