Viktor Markovich Zhivov (; February 5, 1945 in

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

– April 17, 2013 in

Berkeley Berkeley most often refers to: *Berkeley, California, a city in the United States **University of California, Berkeley, a public university in Berkeley, California *George Berkeley (1685–1753), Anglo-Irish philosopher Berkeley may also refer to ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

) was a Russian and

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

philologist 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 strong ties to etymology. Philology is also defined as the study of ...

, specializing on the history of

Russian language Russian is an East Slavic languages, East Slavic language belonging to the Balto-Slavic languages, Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family. It is one of the four extant East Slavic languages, and is ...

. Zhivov was a professor at the

Russian Language Institute The V.V. Vinogradov Russian Language Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences () is the language regulator of the Russian language. It is based in Moscow and it is part of the Russian Academy of Sciences. It was founded in 1944 and is named a ...

Russian Academy of Sciences The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS; ''Rossíyskaya akadémiya naúk'') consists of the national academy of Russia; a network of scientific research institutes from across the Russian Federation; and additional scientific and social units such ...

and at the Department of Slavic and Languages and Literatures at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

. Viktor Zhivov was born in 1945 in Moscow in a

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family. His father was Mark Zhivov, an author and a translator. He graduated from

Moscow State University Moscow State University (MSU), officially M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University,. is a public university, public research university in Moscow, Russia. The university includes 15 research institutes, 43 faculties, more than 300 departments, a ...

and in 1977 obtained his

Candidate of Sciences A Candidate of Sciences is a Doctor of Philosophy, PhD-equivalent academic research degree in all the post-Soviet countries with the exception of Ukraine, and until the 1990s it was also awarded in Central and Eastern European countries. It is ...

degree there for his thesis on Russian

phonology Phonology (formerly also phonemics or phonematics: "phonemics ''n.'' 'obsolescent''1. Any procedure for identifying the phonemes of a language from a corpus of data. 2. (formerly also phonematics) A former synonym for phonology, often pre ...

. Zhivov was a professor at Moscow State University and received there the degree of a

Doctor of Science A Doctor of Science (; most commonly abbreviated DSc or ScD) is a science doctorate awarded in a number of countries throughout the world. Africa Algeria and Morocco In Algeria, Morocco, Libya and Tunisia, all universities accredited by the s ...

in 1992. In 2001, he retired from Moscow State University. Zhivov joined faculty of the University of California, Berkeley in 1995 and until his death had a double appointment: He was teaching at Berkeley half a year every year, and he spent the rest of his time in Moscow, where he was a Deputy Director of the Russian Language Institute. In 1982, Zhivov published a paper on the works of

Maximus the Confessor Maximus the Confessor (), also spelled Maximos, otherwise known as Maximus the Theologian and Maximus of Constantinople ( – 13 August 662), was a Christianity, Christian monk, theologian, and scholar. In his early life, Maximus was a civil se ...

, which is still highly cited. In 1994, he published a dictionary of sacred terms in Russian. Until his death, he was working on a monograph on the history of Russian language, which he almost completed.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zhivov, Viktor Russian philologists American philologists University of California, Berkeley faculty 1945 births 2013 deaths Linguists of Russian