Marko Snoj
Encyclopedia
Marko Snoj is an Indo-Europeanist, Slavist, Albanologist, and etymologist employed at the Fran Ramovš Institute for Slovene Language of the Scientific Research Center of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts
in Ljubljana
, Slovenia
. As of 2008 he is the director of the institute. He has made numerous scholarly contributions to Indo-European
linguistics, particularly in the realms of Slovene and Albanian
, and is noted for his work in advancing Slavic
etymology
in both scholarly and popular domains.
, and studied comparative linguistics at the Department of Comparative Linguistics and Oriental Studies at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Ljubljana
, completing his bachelor's degree
in 1982 with a specialization in comparative linguistics and Hittitology. His 1984 master's thesis treated the problem of i- and u-coloration in the reflexes of Indo-European syllabic sonorants in Balto-Slavic. 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-Aryanist Varja Cvetko Orešnik.
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.
, Germany
, where he concentrated on problems of Balto-Slavic accentology. His articles on Slavic accentology take into account contemporary work on Indo-European laryngeal theory
and the nature of Indo-European paradigms with regard to ablaut and the morphological distribution of word-level prosodic features.
Snoj has lectured and participated in conferences abroad, including Austria
, Belarus
, Canada
, Croatia
, Kosovo
, Montenegro
, Serbia
, and the United States
. In 1994 he established the journal Slovenski jezik / Slovene Linguistic Studies with the American Slavic specialist Marc L. Greenberg.
Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts
The Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts 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....
in Ljubljana
Ljubljana
Ljubljana is the capital of Slovenia and its largest city. It is the centre of the City Municipality of Ljubljana. It is located in the centre of the country in the Ljubljana Basin, and is a mid-sized city of some 270,000 inhabitants...
, Slovenia
Slovenia
Slovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central and Southeastern Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north, and also has a small portion of...
. As of 2008 he is the director of the institute. He has made numerous scholarly contributions to Indo-European
Indo-European
Indo-European may refer to:* Indo-European languages** Aryan race, a 19th century and early 20th century term for those peoples who are the native speakers of Indo-European languages...
linguistics, particularly in the realms of Slovene and Albanian
Albanian language
Albanian is an Indo-European language spoken by approximately 7.6 million people, primarily in Albania and Kosovo but also in other areas of the Balkans in which there is an Albanian population, including western Macedonia, southern Montenegro, southern Serbia and northwestern Greece...
, and is noted for his work in advancing Slavic
Slavic languages
The Slavic languages , a group of closely related languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup of Indo-European languages, have speakers in most of Eastern Europe, in much of the Balkans, in parts of Central Europe, and in the northern part of Asia.-Branches:Scholars traditionally divide Slavic...
etymology
Etymology
Etymology is the study of the history of words, their origins, and how their form and meaning have changed over time.For languages with a long written history, etymologists make use of texts in these languages and texts about the languages to gather knowledge about how words were used during...
in both scholarly and popular domains.
Biography
Marko Snoj attended Šentvid High School in LjubljanaLjubljana
Ljubljana is the capital of Slovenia and its largest city. It is the centre of the City Municipality of Ljubljana. It is located in the centre of the country in the Ljubljana Basin, and is a mid-sized city of some 270,000 inhabitants...
, and studied comparative linguistics at the Department of Comparative Linguistics and Oriental Studies at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Ljubljana
University of Ljubljana
The University of Ljubljana is the oldest and largest university in Slovenia. With 64,000 enrolled graduate and postgraduate students, it is among the largest universities in Europe.-Beginnings:...
, completing his bachelor's degree
Bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...
in 1982 with a specialization in comparative linguistics and Hittitology. His 1984 master's thesis treated the problem of i- and u-coloration in the reflexes of Indo-European syllabic sonorants in Balto-Slavic. 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-Aryanist 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 by attending summer courses at the University of Priština. 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 (Priština 1996). Together with academy member Rexhep Ismajli he prepared an annotated translation into Albanian of studies on Albanian by the renowned Slovene Slavic specialist Franc Miklošič entitled Gjurmime shqiptare / Albanische Forschungen (Albanian Studies; Priština 2007).Contributions to Slavic accentology
During the years 1991–92 under the auspices of a Humboldt Fellowship Snoj studied with the Indo-Europeanist Gert Klingenschmitt at the University of RegensburgUniversity of Regensburg
The University of Regensburg is a public research university located in the medieval city of Regensburg, Bavaria, a city that is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The university was founded on July 18, 1962 by the Landtag of Bavaria as the fourth full-fledged university in Bavaria...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, where he concentrated on problems of Balto-Slavic accentology. His articles on Slavic accentology take into account contemporary work on Indo-European laryngeal theory
Laryngeal theory
The laryngeal theory is a generally accepted theory of historical linguistics which proposes the existence of one, or a set of three , consonant sounds termed "laryngeals" that appear in most current reconstructions of the Proto-Indo-European language...
and the nature of Indo-European paradigms with regard to ablaut and the morphological distribution of word-level prosodic features.
International activity
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
, Belarus
Belarus
Belarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
, Kosovo
Kosovo
Kosovo is a region in southeastern Europe. Part of the Ottoman Empire for more than five centuries, later the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija within Serbia...
, Montenegro
Montenegro
Montenegro Montenegrin: Crna Gora Црна Гора , meaning "Black Mountain") is a country located in Southeastern Europe. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea to the south-west and is bordered by Croatia to the west, Bosnia and Herzegovina to the northwest, Serbia to the northeast and Albania to the...
, Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
, and the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. In 1994 he established the journal Slovenski jezik / Slovene Linguistic Studies with the American Slavic specialist Marc L. Greenberg.
Selected bibliography
- 1976—2007. Bezlaj, France; Snoj, Marko; Furlan, Metka; Klemenčič, Simona. Etimološki slovar slovenskega jezika. Ljubljana: Mladinska knjiga. 5 vols. ISBN 86-11-14125-3. ISBN 961-6568-19-1. ISBN 978-961-254-016-6.
- 1991. Kratka albanska slovnica. Ljubljana: Filozofska fakulteta. 128 pp.
- 1994. Rückläufiges Wörterbuch der albanischen Sprache (Lexicographia Orientalis, Bd. 3). Hamburg: Buske. XI, 482 pp. ISBN 3-87548-081-3.
- 2002a. Etimologija imen. In: Rzetelska-Feleszko, Ewa (ed.), Cieślikowa, Aleksandra (ed.). Słowiańska onomastika, Encyklopedia. Warsaw; Cracow: Towarzystwo Naukowe Warszawskie, vol. 1, pp. 152–154.
- 2002b. Tuji vplivi: substrati, adstrati, superstrati. In: Rzetelska-Feleszko, Ewa (ed.), Cieślikowa, Aleksandra (ed.). Słowiańska onomastika, Encyklopedia. Warsaw, Cracow: Towarzystwo Naukowe Warszawskie, t. 1, pp. 210–213.
- 2003. Slovenski etimološki slovar. 2., pregledana in dopolnjena izd. Ljubljana: Modrijan. XXVII, 1022 pp. ISBN 961-6465-37-6.
- 2004. Zur Akzentuierung der urslawischen ter-Stämme. In: Hyllested, Adam (ed.). Per aspera ad asteriscos : studia indogermanica in honorem Jens Elmegård Rasmussen sexagenarii idibus Martiis anno MMIV (Innsbrucker Beiträge zur Sprachwissenschaft, Bd. 112). Innsbruck: Institut für Sprachen und Literaturen der Universität, pp. 537–543.
- 2005a. Etymology. In: Strazny, Philipp (ed.). Encyclopedia of Linguistics. New York: Fitzroy Dearborn, vol. 1: A—L, pp. 304–306.
- 2005b. Zur Bewahrung und weiteren Entwicklung einiger Fälle der urindogermanischen Akzentmobilität im Urslawischen. In: Schweiger, Günter (ed.). Indogermanica : Festschrift Gert Klingenschmitt : indische, iranische und indogermanische Studien dem verehrten Jubilar dargebracht zu seinem fünfundsechzigsten Geburtstag (Studien zur Iranistik und Indogermanistik, Bd. 3). Taimering: Schweiger VWT, pp. 605–609.
- 2006. Slovar jezika Janeza Svetokriškega (Dela, 49/7; 49/8). Ljubljana: Založba ZRC. 2 vols., XVIII + 711; 710 pp. ISBN 961-6568-45-0.